[Tinyos-alliance] TInyOS Documentation Working Group chatter

[Matt Welsh]

David, I remember that. I sent the updated charter on September 22  
but have not heard back about it from the Alliance (apart from a note  
from Adam that he was supportive). I'll include it below again.


The TinyOS Documenation Working Group will develop tools and  
infrastructure for development, dissemination, and maintenance of  
TinyOS-oriented technical documentation online. A major aspect of  
this effort will involve development of a TinyOS documentation  
website. We plan to work with the TinyOS Alliance to integrate this  
new website into the overall tinyos.net site, to migrate appropriate  
content from tinyos.net to the new site, and resolve any overlap  
between the two.

In addition, we will work to foster a community of documentation  
writers and maintainers using online tools such as Wiki sites,  
mailing lists and forums, and an
appropriate policy for contributing documentation. We wish to  
emphasize that the Documentation WG does not intend to write all  
documentation itself. While it will manage a small amount of core  
documentation in order to ensure it stays up to date, such as the  
basic tutorials and installation instructions, its primary goal is to  
seed a community for greater contributions.

Membership will be determined by the chair in consultation with the  
WG members.

Our rough timeline:

Fall 2007: Set up basic website and tools, start planning effort
Late 2007-early 2008: Initial TinyOS "howto" documents written and  
policy for contributing new documents established; public launch of  
documentation website
Spring 2008: Revision of site structure if necessary to accomodate  
influx of community-contributed documentation
Summer 2008 onwards: Maintenance of site and periodic cleanup of  
online materials.

Members:

Matt Welsh, chair <mdw at eecs.harvard.edu>
Phil Levis <pal at cs.stanford.edu>
August Joki <august at cs.ucla.edu>
Michael Schippling <schip at santafe.edu>
Steve McKown <rsmckown at yahoo.com>
Benjamin Madore <bcmadore at cs.pitt.edu>
Ákos Maróy <darkeye at tyrell.hu>
David Culler <dculler at archrock.com>
Kevin Klues <klueska at gmail.com>


On Oct 6, 2007, at 1:19 PM, David E. Culler wrote:

> Matt,
>  The discussion at the last alliance call was completely  
> supportive, but  you were going to update the charter and the  
> participation guidelines.  In particular, we were protecting this  
> group from taking on all the front-page tinyos.net issue.  We  
> talked through dividing that into panes so we can distribute the  
> efforts.
>
> D.
>
> Matt Welsh wrote:
>> Keep in mind I am still waiting for formal approval of the TinyOS  
>> Doc WG.
>>
>> On Oct 5, 2007, at 4:30 PM, Michael Schippling wrote:
>>
>>> All really good suggestions. How do we go about implementing?
>>>
>>> I haven't yet gotten a feeling of there being much Working or Group
>>> in this TosWG yet. I believe we have a Commander in Chief, but I
>>> forget who it is...so I repeat my question:
>>>
>>> Do we have an agenda, proposed agenda, motion to create an agenda?
>>> Is there a process in place, or what?
>>>
>>> MS
>>>
>>>
>>> Ákos Maróy wrote:
>>>> Michael Schippling wrote:
>>>>> I'm all for a wiki, and to my surprise there is one:
>>>>> http://cents.cs.berkeley.edu/tinywiki/index.php/ 
>>>>> TinyOS_Documentation_Wiki
>>>>> however it seems to be very sparsely populated.
>>>> wow, excellent!
>>>> but, is the link available anywhere? :) does it come up when you  
>>>> google for "TinyOS wiki"? or "TinyOS documentation"? Or TinyOS  
>>>> in general?
>>>> (the answer to all the above questions is no)
>>>> the biggest problem is actually that registration is not open on  
>>>> this wiki. on the http://cents.cs.berkeley.edu/tinywiki/ 
>>>> index.php?title=Special:Userlogin page you get:
>>>> Contact smotemanager at millennium.berkeley.edu to request an  
>>>> account.
>>>> people are not going to contribute if it is difficult to do so.
>>>>> The problem is in getting the right people to contribute, and then
>>>>> monitoring the results, much like wikipedia. But at least we don't
>>>>> (yet) have politicians and corporations "fixing" their online  
>>>>> records.
>>>> :) the way to get people to contriube is bigger exposure by far.  
>>>> really.
>>>>> So...what are we actually doing in this Documentation WG? Do we
>>>>> have an agenda, proposed agenda, motion to create an agenda, or  
>>>>> what?
>>>> my suggestion to get the wiki rolling is:
>>>> first and foremost: enable registration on the wiki site!
>>>> then:
>>>> - move the wiki to the domain: http://wiki.tinyos.net/ or http:// 
>>>> docs.tinyos.net/
>>>> - advertise the wiki on the tinyos.net page, big, so people see it
>>>> - list the wiki big on the support page: http://tinyos.net/scoop/ 
>>>> special/support
>>>> - move the FAQ over to the wiki: http://www.tinyos.net/faq.html  
>>>> or at least mention the wiki on the FAQ
>>>> - put a note on the mailing list descriptions for people to  
>>>> check the wiki first before asking questions, here http:// 
>>>> tinyos.net/scoop/special/support#mailing-lists
>>>> - put the wiki link into the signature of the tinyos-help  
>>>> mailing list, also mentioning to extend the wiki with answers  
>>>> they get to their questions on the list
>>>> Akos
>>>> PS: this all takes just too long - actually I was thinking about  
>>>> installing a new MediaWiki myself under http://tinyos- 
>>>> wiki.tyrell.hu/
>>>> like we've been ping-pong-ing around this issue for months now...
>>
>