Architecting the Doc Solution

[Sivakatirswami]

Marielle:

I've been lurking on your initiative for some time as I am indeed in  
your boat "non-profit-education user" of rev.

  I fully agree:

1) we should not host the Docs
2) the docs are fine as they are: what are needed are examples!

And thus your shared code library site concept is perfect.  Dan  
Shafer is doing his ebooks but you have to pay for each one... That's  
not going to work for us edu types. I can't be putting in a PO  
requisition for money to buy each new book he puts out (however cheap  
they may be) so, open source is the way to go.

More comments inserted. Just by way of "moral support"

[snip]




> Some parallel discussion has taken place with Alain Farmer, of  
> xcard (<http://pan.uqam.ca/xcards/pmwiki.php>) but nothing tangible  
> has come out of these discussions. This may change in a few months,  
> but for now, there is nothing tangible in terms of a "small or non  
> profit runrev users alliance".

I use PMwiki for a wiki CMS.. it's fantastic, free and the support is  
incredible. The big advantage of PMwiki is: no back end dbase required.


>
> I produced the codes cms on my own webserver, to host a catalogue  
> of codes, as a first step in that direction. This was something  
> missing and this was not something I could expect runrev to take  
> care of.

agreed
> Frankly, I prefer them to work on improving the nice application of  
> theirs than to spend an hour or two every day maintaining such a  
> CMS like the one I propose there.

agreed
> I hope that this cms will reduce the reasons some users have to  
> express dissatisfaction at runrev services but I am aware more  
> could be done.
>
> > Also as Marielle lives in Edinburgh - thinking of doing a
> > presentation to RunRev regarding these options early next year.
>
> on the use-rev list I proposed to have forums created elsewhere as  
> they were recurrent complaints about the traffic on the use-rev  
> list... which  by experience is really a problem for non profit/ 
> education users who have only 3-4 hours a week to spend on the list.

Indeed, these pro live there all day long but I have lots' of other  
work to do! It's a pain to search the archives when all you want is  
an example of some solution you need.  Your trying to find a 10 line  
handler you saw in the archives last year...

>  If they need a hand, I will gladly give it. But I won't host the  
> revdocs on any of my websites nor join a group that does (host  
> revdocs on private websites without runrev endorsement).

Right, they need to be responsible for the docs, others are already  
offering good solutions
>
> What I argue for is the set up some structure by which "small"  
> users (non profit/education) get a chance to  submit requests and  
> suggestions to the rev team without having to directly complain to  
> revolution or write infuriating posts on the list.

Good idea: non-profits may not be a big market for run-rev. But it's  
important for them to have their brand take a high profile in our  
sector. I remember a magazine consultant telling us years ago (with  
respect to marketing our magazine Hinduism Today) that, though there  
was little money in it, it was "mission critical" to get your product  
in front of the students... as these are the people who will buy it  
five years from now. Like kids at the uni today all excited about  
some macromedia product, flash etc. These are the decision makers in  
companies tomorrow. It is so true, I am meeting 25-30 year olds now  
who said "I've been reading Hinduism Today since I was 15 years old"   
so, for the long haul run rev needs us (forward this to Kevin if he  
is interested in this kind of thing...)

Anyway, good luck... I often would like to contribute stuff, but I'm  
not really in a position to put up polished finished stacks. I can't  
deal with any mail traffic that might relate to bugs or questions if  
I did, so I just don't But I could easily offer handlers etc. I think  
this is *really* the other problem: stacks are finished UI's, but  
ultimately these are just code, but the whole model for sharing now  
is stacks, but to share a stack you have to make it usable enough for  
anyone, but non-profit users are spending most of their time  
developing in-house RADS that are very specific to contextual needs  
(" just have to get something that will do this job for us..."  that  
mean nothing to others... meanwhile, there is no model for sharing  
code. So, there's millions of lines of xTalk out there and we have no  
way to re-purpose any of it.

So, go for it!

Sivakatirswami
Himalayan Academy Publications
at Kauai's Hindu Monastery
katir at hindu.org

www.HimalayanAcademy.com,
www.HinduismToday.com
www.Gurudeva.org
www.Hindu.org



>
>
> Marielle