FW: [dtl_tech_board] OSDL DTL Tech Board: Documentation Framework (Tue, Oct 17)

[Bastian, Waldo]

FYI

Waldo Bastian
Linux Client Architect - Client Linux Foundation Technology
Channel Platform Solutions Group
Intel Corporation - http://www.intel.com/opensource
OSDL DTL Tech Board Chairman

-----Original Message-----
From: Bastian, Waldo [mailto:waldo.bastian at intel.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 1:43 PM
To: dtl_tech_board at groups.osdl.org
Subject: [dtl_tech_board] OSDL DTL Tech Board: Documentation Framework
(Tue, Oct 17)

Where: channel #dtl on the FreeNode IRC network
(See http://freenode.net/irc_servers.shtml )

When: Tue, Oct 17, 8:00am Pacific, 11:00am Eastern, 17:00 Paris, 11:00pm
PRC

Who: People interested in Linux and Open Source documentation for
developers

The OSDL DTL Technical Board is organizing an IRC session on developer
documentation. This is a follow up to discussions that took place on the
first OSDL Desktop Architect Meeting [1] and in preparation of DAM III
[2] where we would like to move this topic forward.

[1]http://groups.osdl.org/workgroups/dtl/desktop_architects/december_200
5_meeting
[2]http://developer.osdl.org/dev/desktop_architects/index.php/Desktop_Ar
chitects_Meeting-3

At the first Desktop Architects meeting (Dec, 2005) it was found that
ISVs have difficulty finding documentation, and choosing between
alternative libraries and tools. ISVs would like a site with complete,
up-to-date, high-quality Linux documentation. They need roadmaps
(perhaps more than one). There's a lot of misleading documentation out
there which discusses deprecated interfaces as if they were preferred;
the site should help people avoid those. 

A key concern raised with respect to any portal is the maintenance
burden. The only viable way to guarantee that information in a
development portal is kept up to date is through a strong relation with
upstream projects that can provide key information with authority. 

Another requirement to take into account is the desire of OSVs to point
their customers to a company site that reflects more closely their
products instead of a third party site. 

The above requirements hint towards a distributed content model that
facilitates multiple distinct content owners with a feedback mechanism
to route feedback back to the authorative content owner. It may be that
the solution to the documentation problem will not be so much a single
documental portal but more so a standardized documentation
infrastructure that the various stakeholders can tap into; as a consumer
of content, as a provider of content, or as a combination of the two.

See
http://developer.osdl.org/dev/desktop_architects/index.php/Key_Topics#De
veloper_Portal for more information.

Preliminary Agenda 
* Introduction, who is who
* Documentation Best Practices
* Improvement Areas
* Documentation Aggregation Framework: worth the effort?
* Next Steps

Waldo Bastian
Linux Client Architect - Client Linux Foundation Technology
Channel Platform Solutions Group
Intel Corporation - http://www.intel.com/opensource
OSDL DTL Tech Board Chairman