Subject: Re: POW -- start spreading the news
From: sam th (sam@bur-jud-118-039.rh.uchicago.edu)
Date: Thu Feb 10 2000 - 01:19:36 CST
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On Wed, 9 Feb 2000, Paul Rohr wrote:
> Now that everyone's catching up with the backlog of POWs, it's time to get
> some fresh ones out there for folks to sink their teeth into.
>
> If you're one of the many AbiWord fans who's been looking for a non-coding
> way to help out, this week's project may be one to consider.
>
I would like to work on this. However, if there is someone else out
there, who wants to contribute to our wonderful project in a non-coding
way, I would glady defer to them.
> the goal
> --------
> We need someone with a flair for writing to start editing and producing a
> weekly summary of news items related to AbiWord (or AbiSuite, if you feel
> really ambitious.)
So far, it doesn't seem like writing about AbiSuite would take much more
work. :-)
>
> Any Open Source project that gets to a certain size has at least one of
> these publications, some of them quite elaborate. For example:
>
> http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2000/5/
> http://lwn.net/2000/0210/a/gnomesum0202.html
> http://mozilla.org/status/
> http://lwn.net/2000/0210/a/zwn.html
> http://www.winehq.com/News/2000-06.html
>
> As anyone who's tried to keep up with the flood of traffic on abiword-dev
> recently knows, there's a *lot* going on. Anyone who's involved in active
> development gets immersed in this flood, which is fine.
>
> However, there are tens of thousands of people interested in AbiWord, so it
> would be very useful if someone could summarize the high points of what's
> been happening each week for "the rest of us".
>
> scope
> -----
> To be a weekly publication will require a regular, steady time commitment.
> However, how big a job this is depends on how ambitious you are. :-)
>
> For an example of the bare minimum this takes, I've gone ahead and done one
> myself:
>
> http://lwn.net/2000/0210/a/awn.html
>
I like what you've done here. Just as a couple suggestions (in case
someone else ends up writing this), the other summaries focus more heavily
on the development aspect. For example, Havoc (author of the gnome
summary) gives checkin stats. Do we want to talk about development a lot?
Is there anything else to talk about?
> I got this into the rotation at Linux Weekly News, but there may also be
> other places where people would want to see news like this (such as Linux
> Today). Part of the job here is for *you* to figure out who'd be interested
> in reading the news you're covering, and how to get it to them.
>
I submitted this one to LinuxToday. If anyone has any other suggestions,
they would be welcome.
> For example, should the news be sent to any of our existing mailing lists,
> or should it have its own list? Are you interested in hosting your own
> website with archives of each issue, or do you want it published on our
> site?
>
> hints
> -----
> 1. Start small. What's most important to people is the quality of the
> content. Innovative formats and delivery mechanisms can come later. Once
> you've established a readership, they'll let you know what they like and
> don't like. Once they like what you're already doing, they'll love it when
> you start adding more and more.
>
> 2. Be reliable. If you're not publishing just about every week, people
> won't read you. Also, remember that Linux Weekly News needs everything in
> on Wednesday, or else you'll slip a week.
>
> 3. Be selective. Summarize and excerpt. Focus on the stuff that *you*
> think will be interesting. If people want a comprehensive look at what's
> going on, they can subscribe to the lists and drink all they want from the
> firehose.
>
> 4. Be organized. Take a look at what the weekly news editors for other
> projects are doing. You'll notice that they all make use of hyperlinks,
> subheads, and whitespace to help make their content easier to skim and read.
>
> 5. Be interesting. This one's more important than you might think. A
> little personality in your writing goes a long, long way.
>
> extra credit
> ------------
> Just getting weekly summaries published on a regular basis will be quite an
> accomplishment, and might even require a team effort. However, once you get
> well-established, it might be interesting to branch out even further. For
> example, what would the AbiSuite equivalents of the following sites look
> like?
>
> http://news.gnome.org/gnome-news/
> http://www.mozillazine.org/
These might be a good idea, right after we develop something more to write
about. ;-)
>
> First things first, though. :-)
>
> Enjoy!
>
> Paul
>
> PS: For more background on the whole POW / ZAP / SHAZAM concept, see the
> following introduction:
>
> http://www.abisource.com/mailinglists/abiword-dev/99/September/0097.html
>
>
Good to see ol' Abi growing in profile.
sam th
sytobinh@uchicago.edu
PS - one question. This one's been nagging me for a while - where exactly
is AbiWord located? I don't think it's ever been mentioned on the list,
and I'm just curious.
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