Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

FSF offers $20k for Gnome documentation

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ain't-that-cool dept.

Booker sent us a message from [RMS] found on the Gnome mailing list where he says "The FSF would gladly pay someone $20k for the rights to a well-written and comprehensive GNOME programming manual. We would then publish as free documentation--free as in freedom, of course. We would sell copies in bookstores, just as these companies do, just as we do for our existing manuals."

6 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Working for the FSF by Aaron+M.+Renn · · Score: 3

    I'm sure I will regret posting this, but...

    Before accepting a contract to write this book, I suggest contacting other people who have been paid to write documentation for the FSF in order to determine what they thought of their experience. Due to privacy concerns, I cannot go into detail, but I know of at least one person who was very unsatisfied with his experience. (hehe, not me!)

    You should at a minimum make sure there are very well defined criteria for determining when a particular piece of the book is of acceptable quality. I hear that RMS can be extremely nitpicky about documention, requiring many, many revisions before he is satisfied. This can be frustrating and time consuming for everyone involved.

  2. Re:Where does the money come from? by Aaron+M.+Renn · · Score: 3

    The FSF makes no secret of the fact that it uses donations to pay people to work on free software. Normally they pay programmers, but they also hire people to work on documentation. What do you think they did with the money?

  3. the origin from Miguel de Icaza: by gavinhall · · Score: 4

    Posted by tha_skunk:

    Yeah I know it's sorta long and, but I really think this is even more interesting for /.!
    It's a mail on the gnome mailing list about
    Free Documentation ( free as Free Software not beer :-) ).

    Here's the link so check it out. It's really worth it.

    click it


    Free Documentation anyone?????

  4. Re:Other avenues, too... by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 3
    I don't think RMS would use PGP, but I haven't asked him. He doesn't like the idea of having files that other people can't read, like his secret key file.

    Why 20K? Because they are absolutely sure that people will donate that much to sponsor this work. No problem.

    They paid Ian Murdock about $10,000 for work on Debian. This is not a first.

    Bruce

    --
    Bruce Perens.
  5. Other avenues, too... by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 4
    RMS does use a system at the Santa Fe Institute for mail, I have no reason to believe this is fake.

    Every publisher I've been talking with lately says they'd be willing to use an OSD-compliant license on their book as long as the license applies on the day that printed copies get to stores and not before. That sounds fair to me. It gives the publisher lead-time over the other publishers who did not pay for the work, and we get free documentation.

    The down-side is that you might make less royalties on the book. Many of us can live with that, and if the author makes it clear to potential purchasers which publishers pay him a royalty and which do not, he might make a good lot of money anyway.

    Thanks

    Bruce

    --
    Bruce Perens.
  6. Good Project for sourceXchange? by Hop-Frog · · Score: 3

    This might be a good project to try out on sourceXchange (once it is launched). If US$20k isn't enough, then perhaps if many more people put in about US$20 each, it would be plenty.