[ckan-discuss] 3. Documentation! (Seb Bacon)

Mon May 23 11:38:12 BST 2011

Thanks Dan.

It's a vital question to answer: what's the audience(s) we're addressing.

I can think of three important audiences myself, for starters:

* Public bodies who need to procure a data catalog system
* Data wranglers who want to use a data catalog system to find and
arrange datasets
* Software developers who want to collaborate on improving CKAN

Any other thoughts / opinions from anyone?

Thanks!

Seb

On 22 May 2011 17:54, Daniel Smith <opened.to at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Seb.
> Sorry for the delay in responding to this post, been kinda busy lately.
> Hoping that's going to change very soon.
> But about the need for people to help with Documentation etc, I'd be glad to
> offer my help in any way I could. Whether I could actually help that much
> will be up in the air, but I did actually find this offering on ebay:
> http://cgi.ebay.com/FRED-FLINESTONE-GRAND-POOBAH-T-SHIRT-xl-/230623651999?pt=US_Mens_Tshirts&hash=item35b23da89f
>  and am in earnest in my search to find a true Loyal Order of Water
> Buffaloes hat,
> to wear during the online meetups...
>
> I used to work for a long time in graphics, so I could probably help
> with interfaces etc
> once we got the idea down of what was desred for adding to the ckan presence.
>
> Am working on getting a blog going also about the idea of open information,
> haven't gotten it up yet, but soon. Will be called "clearisthenewblack.org"
> I like the name. Kind of like a "Zeldman meets openness" concept.
> (Not that I compare with him in any sense, but J. Zeldman was always
> an inspiration
> to me in his capturing the early web, pushing for it, training of the
> unclean masses, etc.
> A lot of people who knew nothing about web got their start reading his
> blog, uh, back then,
> Web Site.)
>
> But, just my two cents on what should be added or presented to the public etc.
> I think the main thing I've gained about metadata or semantic web over
> the years,
> was stated a long time ago by Stefano Mazzocchi. He used to point out that
> one of the main things to consider about semantic web was the importance of
> creating systems, google or amazon were his examples, where the user's data was
> captured and culled for usage in a social context, so examples
> google's capturing of
> user searches or amazon's of customer purchases, reviews etc. (And thus the
> usefulness of Freebase nowadays).
>
> So to make this short(er), I think  it's an important thing to keep in
> mind early on in the
> audience you're looking at addressing, is perhaps not the total end
> user themself, but
> persons who can figure out ways to have the average joe upload or add
> their own data in
> some format. Blogs and twitter are just two examples of this also.
> So that it's not just the piping of data streams downward to
> individuals, it's both ways.
> The revolution hasn't happened just yet...
>
> Or maybe I'm just not getting the point?
> :)
> Great week, all.
> Dan Smith
> Houston
>
>
> On 17 May 2011 05:39, Seb Bacon <seb.bacon at okfn.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> In an attempt to kickstart the improvement of CKAN documentation,
>> Rufus has (perhaps misguidedly) appointed me "Documentation Czar" (I
>> prefer Grand Poobah of Description).  I think the idea is that I'm
>> hereby given some authority to cajole or annoy people into writing
>> some documentation and putting it in the right place, so watch out all
>> ;)
>>
>> Rufus has suggested it leans towards the more enterprisey / business
>> decision / non technical end of the spectrum, and I think I agree.
>> Our developer-focussed documentation could always be better, but I
>> think it's pretty good.
>>
>> Before I get started, does anyone have any opinions or ideas?  Which
>> audiences should we prioritise?  What kind -- pretty pictures, howtos,
>> topic guides, white papers, manuals?  Are there specific topics that
>> should be tackled first?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Seb
>
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