[OPEN-ILS-DOCUMENTATION] Evergreen documentation issues

[Karen Schneider]

On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 6:53 PM, Grant Johnson <fgjohnson at upei.ca> wrote:

> FWIW:
>
> I know nothing about docbook. I could google I guess.
> Drupal I know a little bit...


Well, we have a 3-hour session about documentation next week, hint hint. ;)
(See docbook.org... but I have some slides that are so beautiful they take
my breath away. "Getting to HTML" is the Michelangelo of charts!


> The trick for getting folks to contribute documentation is that they
> need to be comfortable with the tool being proposed, and not
> overwhelmed at yet another thing to learn.


Well, unless a workflow is created that accommodates both the desired "north
star" (contribute in a chosen tool) and the less-desirable but acceptable
pramatic reality (contribute in the tool you're comfortable in), with a tier
of writer/editors whose role is to reformat content the tool of (collective)
choice.

The tool, it's ease of use and "friendliness" will play a a big part
> the quality, quantity and subjects of contributions. That being said
> structure and control are important ...


I'm increasingly convinced that building a "smart project" with a strong
workflow, good tools, and a clear project structure is far more important
than picking a seemingly easy tool. If that's all it took, we'd have great
documentation.

DocBook is nontrivial at the high end of its foodchain, but it is the de
facto standard for many projects for good reason.

-- 
-- 
| Karen G. Schneider
| Community Librarian
| Equinox Software Inc. "The Evergreen Experts"
| Toll-free: 1.877.Open.ILS (1.877.673.6457) x712
| kgs at esilibrary.com
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| Be a part of the Evergreen International Conference, May 20-22, 2009!
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