release notes beats

[Karsten Wade]

We have an important job in producing the release notes for Fedora Core.
My idea for doing this is to breakdown the relnotes into journalistic
beats.

In journalism, a beat is a certain area that a writer is in charge of
writing about.  For example, the local City Council would be a beat.
The writer in charge of that beat would attend the Council meetings,
meet with the members of the Council, research the issues, and write
about the Council with all the background necessary.  This writer
becomes associated with the City Council beat.

Doing this with the release notes makes it possible for a volunteer
group to manage a complex task.  If we think of the relnotes like a
newspaper, then each beat reporter is only responsible for writing one
or two columns to get the issue out the door.  That is a much easier
task than writing the entire newspaper yourself.

Here are the categories that I have come up with so far.  

* Kernel
* Desktop
* Printing
* Server Configuration Tools
* File Systems
* File Servers
* Web Servers
* GCC/Development Tools
* Security
* Java
* System Daemons (cron, etc.)
* Sound and Video
* X Window System (xorg)
* Status of all Packages

What is missing or should be changed about these?  Are these attractive
beats that will give you the chance to write about what you are
interested in? Is there a developer team you want to be closely involved
with?  Is there a beat that connects with the work that you currently do
or want to do?  Should some of these be handled by a beat team?

This is idea is fairly simple, which is the key to its success.  If you
are interested in covering one or more beats, please choose your
favorites and let's get this started.

For more of an overview of the process, including ideas for engaging and
interacting with developers, this Wiki page is the current work-in-
progress:

http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/ReleaseNotes/Process

- Karsten
-- 
Karsten Wade, RHCE * Sr. Tech Writer * http://people.redhat.com/kwade/
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