Fwd: [Tinyos-alliance] TInyOS Documentation Working Group chatter

[Matt Welsh]

I guess there was never any action on this; David says he never saw  
it. So one more try...

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Matt Welsh <mdw at eecs.harvard.edu>
> Date: October 6, 2007 1:22:41 PM EDT
> To: "David E. Culler" <culler at eecs.berkeley.edu>
> Cc: Michael Schippling <schip at santafe.edu>, Ákos Maróy <darkeye at tyrell.hu 
> >, tinyos-alliance <tinyos-alliance at millennium.berkeley.edu>, bcmadore at cs.pitt.edu 
> , august at cs.ucla.edu, rsmckown at yahoo.com
> Subject: Re: [Tinyos-alliance] TInyOS Documentation Working Group  
> chatter
>
> 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...
>>>
>>
>