Category Archives: Open Source

by Scott Nesbitt

Collaboration and planning  Clip to Evernote

Planning Recently, I ran a FLOSS Manuals book sprint to update a manual for the Thunderbird email application. If you haven’t heard of a book sprint before, the idea is quite simple: spend anywhere from two to five days writing a manual or book from scratch. Yes, it can be done!

In this case, the sprint was to update the manual for Thunderbird. There were a number of changes to the software in the year or so since I was involved in writing the original manual. But due to a number of constraints — both personal and professional — I could only devote one day to the sprint.

Obviously, there was a bit of planning involved. I gathered together a group of participants (mostly in Toronto), found a venue, and working with the folks at Mozilla (who created Thunderbird) came up with a list of changes that needed to be made. That involved pinpointing the relevant changes and making a list.

Afterwards, I was mulling what made the sprint successful. Part of it was the planning. The process that I used was very helpful. And you can apply it to any group writing project.

Let’s take a closer look at what I did and how it worked.

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by Scott Nesbitt

Anatomy of an update  Clip to Evernote

FLOSS Manuals Last week, I ran a one-day FLOSS Manuals book sprint to update the Thunderbird manual that I helped write last year. The usual book sprint lasts anywhere from two to five days — so why did was this one only a single day?

A few reasons. While there were a number of changes to Thunderbird since the team originally wrote the manual, not all of those changes were major. Plus, at the moment, I’m extremely busy. There’s a lot going on in my personal and professional lives right now, aside from the 1,001 things that make them both a joy and a purgatory. One day was all I could spare.

The one-day sprint was interesting. And fun. Here’s a quick look at what went down.

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by Scott Nesbitt

Adventures in modern publishing  Clip to Evernote

letterpress type blocks With apologies to The Buggles …

Last week, I gave a talk at FSOSS 2011 about creating ebooks using Open Source tools. If you’re interested, you can take a peek at the slides and notes for that presentation.

This talk wasn’t all theoretical. While I’m definitely not an expert on creating and publishing ebooks, I do have some knowledge of the subject — I’ve been researching this topic for quite some time, and I’ve been working with various Open Source tools. On top of that, I have some practical experience.

As you may or may not know, I published my first ebook recently. And, yes, it is available in the Amazon Kindle Store.

Writing this book was an interesting exercise for a number of reason. Mainly, what was interesting (at least to me) was the approach I took to writing and publishing it. There were a few fits and starts, but I think for this type of book I came upon a solution that works for me.

Why not join me for a peek at how I wrote and published my first, and definitely not last, ebook.

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by Scott Nesbitt

Want to help update a FLOSS Manual?  Clip to Evernote

FLOSS Manuals As you may or may not know, about a year ago I hosted a FLOSS Manuals book sprint. In the space of two days, the team I worked with put together a very nice manual for the Thunderbird email client. You can read the manual here, and about the sprint here.

But a lot changes in a year. It’s time to update the manual. And I’m looking for some help. I’m going to try to get as many of the band who did the original manual back together for either a book jog or a book sprint sometime in November. But a few more hands would be appreciated.

So, if you’re interested in helping out contact me. Or, if you know someone who might be, put them in touch with me. This is a great opportunity to stretch yourself and help out a very worthy Open Source project. And if you’re an aspiring technical writer, here’s your chance to do some real-world work.

One more thing: you don’t have to be in Toronto to join in. You can do take part virtually.

I’ll be putting together a list of what needs to be updated in the next couple of weeks. That list will be posted here and on the FLOSS Manuals discussion list. From there … well, we can get started!

Hope to hear from you!

by Scott Nesbitt

Looking back at the Open Help Conference  Clip to Evernote

Open Help Conference Last weekend, I was in Cincinnati, Ohio for the Open Help Conference. Organized by Shaun McCance, it was a three-day event bringing together people who work on open source or community-based documentation and support.

The conference lived up to its aim to be a cross between traditional conferences and open discussion and participation sessions. The atmosphere was informal, but the participants were serious about the subject matter and (I think) they had a lot of fun.

While there were just under 30 participants, the diversity of that group was something to behold. You had people involved in professional Open Source (there was a large contingent from Mozilla, for example), contributors to various Open Source projects, and a couple of non-Open Source technical writers.

And they came from all over: the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia. That diversity gave the presentations and discussions quite a bit of depth.

Here’s a quick recap of what happened at the conference.

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by Scott Nesbitt

I love it when a pet project comes together  Clip to Evernote

Especially when I don’t have to do all that much work. Let me explain …

Last year, I got the idea to put together a FLOSS Manual that covers Chromium, the Open Source version of Google’s Chrome Web browser. When I approached Adam Hyde of FLOSS Manuals about writing this manual at the book sprint at Toronto Open Source Week, he was intrigued.

But Adam strongly suggested that the sprint focus on Thunderbird, instead. Having annoyed Adam enough in the past, I complied. Mainly to keep the peace, and partly because I was interested in documenting Thunderbird.

Until earlier this year, the Chromium manual sat on the back burner waiting for me to find the time to start it. That’s when Edward Cheung, a student from Seneca College’s technical communication program, got in touch with me. Edward was wondering if there was a FLOSS Manuals project he could contribute to. In a case of being careful of what you wish for, I had one for him!

Working together, we created a table of contents and Edward put together a project plan. Then I cut him loose. After a lot of work, the manual got written and finalized. The results are better than pretty good — heck, I even learned a thing or two about Chromium!

Edward did a bang up job pulling this manual together. What impressed me most is that Edward took a lot of the initiative after I cut him loose. There was no hand holding. He gathered information, approached subject matter experts, and wrote most of the manual himself.

I wasn’t just someone barking orders. I did some writing — mostly the sections of the manual that cover Linux. But Edward did the bulk of the work. And he did it with minimal supervision. He only approached me when he had some questions or ran into a problem. Which wasn’t too often.

And I have to extend a big thank you to Mark Hancock who helped edit the manual. Mark’s edits really helped tighten up the text and helped keep it consistent.

The final edits and cleanup were completed last week, and overall the manual is looking good. If you’re interested in reading it, you can find it here.