[ardour-dev] manual plan change

[Dave Phillips]

Paul Davis wrote:

>After much consideration, I have decided on a change of plan for the
>Ardour manual. As with many things in my life, I have to get
>realistic, and there are 2 aspects of reality that have to be
>acknowledged here:
>
>    1) with the current plan for manual (Paul writes it), there will
>        be no manual.
>    2) likely income from the manual is going to be pretty small,
>        insufficient to make ardour a viable income source to live
>	on, or even be a significant part of it.
>
>I believe that a better strategy is to follow a wiki-based model,
>where ardour.org will host a wiki (probably MediaWiki, as used by
>Wikipedia), and anybody can contribute to the manual.
>
Huzzah !!

Gentlemen, start your engines...

A question: Will this wiki approach allow for posting graphics ?

>There is a proviso: I will still reserve the right to later publish a
>manual (probably via CafePress), and collect any revenues that come
>from it. I feel OK about this, given my own investment in Ardour's
>development. If you don't feel OK this, then please just don't
>contribute to the Wiki. Feel free to write your own documentation
>elsewhere.
>
This doesn't disturb me in the least, and I feel strongly that the 
revenue absolutely should go to Paul. As one who benefits from Ardour 
it's in my interest that the author(s) stay afloat and responsive. I 
already have material in the making that I'll quite happily donate.

>So for the time being, there are a couple of immediate outstanding
>tasks:
>
>   a) install mediawiki on ardour.org. 
>        - taybin has sorta-kinda said he would do this, but he
>	  may have a lot on his plate right now, and there may
>	  be someone here with experience of mediawiki.
>
>   b) move the material from the existing (LaTeX) manual into 
>          the wiki.
>
>Longer term, we will need tools to extract the documentation from the
>manual and render it as HTML or LaTex. These might exist already. I
>would also like someone (or more than one person) to take on the role
>of day-to-day editor for the wiki, checking edits on a regular basis,
>etc. etc. I will remain "executive editor", shaping the manual as I
>see appropriate.
>
Again, a wholly appropriate condition.

>I hope that in making this decision, I am opening up possibilities,
>not closing them down. Let me know what you think.
>  
>
I think it's a wise decision. ++vote...

Best regards,

dp