In the press

[Crane, Matthew]

I think it's fair to say most open source projects evolve this way.  The
wiki isn't that bad, and if you want to develop starting from any sort
of open and active code base you have to expect a learning curve and
documentation that's not going to be exactly up to date. 

Keep in mind too that following the sort of massive changes prior to a
release it takes a while for the documentation to catch up.



-----Original Message-----
From: community-bounces at lists.openmoko.org
[mailto:community-bounces at lists.openmoko.org] On Behalf Of Scott Derrick
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 9:15 AM
To: sean at openmoko.com; List for Openmoko community discussion
Subject: Re: In the press


Man I have to agree.  I'm just jumping on to the OM bandwagon with the 
purchase of two freerunners but have reservations about it now.

Looking through the Wiki is a pain and a chore to find useful data. Yes 
there are gems in there but they are buried under tons of old and 
inaccurate data.

Some people having very basic problems, like making a phone call, or 
playing music, charging the phone, right out of the box is really 
inexcusable.  And for many this list is the only source of "possible" 
solutions! 

If the OM is going to survive and grow into a viable platform something 
has to change.  Somebody is going to have to take the reins on 
documentation. Information is the key to its success and right now its 
in shambles. I'm not trying to point a finger or blame anybody.  I think

the scope has grown beyond the ad-hoc means used up to now, especially 
since we have a new phone added to the mix. There has to be some 
distinction between the 1973 and the FR because it appears they are not 
completely compatible.

I think OM is going to have to step up to the plate and dedicate some 
resources to at least organizing/overseeing and enforcing a standard to

the documentation  of  the project so there is coherence, timeliness 
and  to reduce the  outdated and  inaccurate information.

Scott

Sean Moss-Pultz wrote:
> Jay Vaughan wrote:
>   
>>> This stood out for me "The tangled pile of mostly outdated and  
>>> incomplete documentation at the OpenMoko wiki..."
>>> Is this an accurate evaluation of the wiki ?
>>> If so, what can we do to fix it up, how do we identify old content  
>>> and schedule it for updating?
>>>       
>> I think, personally, its time for a 3rd-party site not related to  
>> OpenMoko to pick up the slack here. So much stuff happens too quickly

>> for people who /should/ be updating the wiki to feel like its  
>> productive to do so ..
>>
>> What I would like to see is something like an "mokofanboix.org"  
>> website come up that has the following:
>>
>> - Daily blog news akin to the good ol' slashdot, of news from the  
>> openmoko scene, gleaned from careful inspection of the mailing lists,

>> of IRC, of the codebase, of code delta's, etc.
>>
>> - Public free Repository of all the latest and greatest 'cool apps'  
>> found for OpenMoko
>>
>> - Public forum for discussion of the news.
>>
>> This is, of course, sorta what we've got with things like  
>> planet.openmoko.org (which I check daily), combined with the  
>> Scaredycat repo's and other such things, but ..  for newcomers .. I  
>> don't think any of this is as easily approachable as it would be if
it  
>> were all put under a single umbrella that is a bit more of an  
>> 'openmoko pop culture' site than what we've got right now ..
>>     
>
> Jay
>
> These are all great ideas and would be very helpful for us. We are a 
> small company. And really try to focus all we can on our products. 
> Community help to make these more approachable is something that would

> make us all very grateful.
>
> Let me know if there is anything specific you think we (Openmoko)
could 
> do to help get this all started.
>
>    -Sean
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Openmoko community mailing list
> community at lists.openmoko.org
> http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
>
>   

-- 

-
    "Just because I sound like an idiot doesn't mean I agree with the
president."....from an ad on Air America Radio


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