how to recruit writers

[Duncan Lithgow]

Hi, this sounds like something for me to pipe up on. I've recently
joined this list because I'm very keen to see improvements in docs for
linux generally. Here are some of my thoughts.

- it's wrong to think that newbies can't write docs, they can best write
docs for other newbies about things they've just come to grips with.
this means that docs need to be (at least) as easy to edit as wikipedia.
Another good example that springs to mind is the php manual.
http://www.php.net/manual/en/configuration.php

- the absence of docs written for non-nerd windows users on how to get
started in linux is horrendous. All the things I've seen either
oversimplify or are written for command line types.

- the fact that so many distros have their own completely seperate docs
for the *very same programs* is absurd. ubuntu springs to mind - great
project, but a lot of reinventing the wheel as far as much of their docs
go.

In the course of writing this it strikes me that there are three main
levels of doc-writers. It *must not* be a locked and/or techhead
oriented issue.

* Top level: Full editorial power - responsible for maintaining a
logical structure for the docs.
* Middle level: 'Node editors' - edit any given page of the docs, but
not the logical structure.
* Bottom level: Joe public - able to add comments to a page. Comments
may or may not be included in 'official doc releases' but always give
ideas for those editing the docs.

If anyone thinks any of this is worth saying/ hearing/ advocating -
let's talk about it... :-)

Duncan