[OSGeo-Discuss] Your open source career

Mon May 5 08:28:48 PDT 2008

I shouldn't have painted with such a broad brush. We actually have a great bunch of translators for OpenJUMP, and one user that does nothing but work on documentation. (English is actually a second language for this user.)

I meant to speak in a more general sense. I agree with the earlier poster, who mentioned that documentation for FOSS GIS is not always as pervasive as it is for the ESRI stuff. I think this was an accurate observation.

Landon

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Jacolin Yves
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 8:25 AM
To: discuss at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Your open source career

Hi,

Don't forget that some people are not developers but are ready to write 
documentation (in my native langage for me ;) ).

Open Source is not only for developers, but for everyone who want to share his 
works (software, documentation, ideas, etc.).

[my life]That's why I am working on OSGeo-fr, translating news about soft 
release, translating documentation (GDAL-Og, ImageMagick) into French, 
writing documentation about OpenLayers or OGC standards, etc. [/my life]

And I am not alone :) They/we just don't talk so much on mailing list (it's 
bad I know :D ).

Best regards,

Y.
Le Monday 05 May 2008 17:13:01 Landon Blake, vous avez écrit :
> Bruno,
>
> You are the exception!
>
> I am familiar with your book, as I bought a copy about 4 months back.
> iText is a great open source library! Please accept my commendation of
> your work.
>
> Having said that, I don't know that there are many of us that would have
> time to write a book on our favorite FOSS program. This is a great task
> that you have accomplished!
>
> Landon
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
> [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Bruno Lowagie
> Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 8:04 AM
> To: OSGeo Discussions
> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Your open source career
>
> Landon Blake wrote:
> > The lack of good user documentation is a weakness of many open source
> > projects. The problem is that most of us like to code, but few of us
> > like to write!
>
> Speak for yourself! ;-) Am I the exception to the rule? *LOL*
>
> Please don't regard the following as shameless promo. I just want
> to share a very interesting experience with future F/OSS writers.
>
> I'm an Open Source developer ( http://www.lowagie.com/iText/ )
> but I also like to write. In 2004, I took some time off from
> my day job to write a free online tutorial for iText because
> the lack of proper documentation was a problem that had to be
> addressed (you're right about that, Landon).
>
> Once the first pages of the free tutorial were online, I immediately
> received an offer to write a book about iText, first from O'Reilly,
> later on also from Manning. After long consideration, I decided to
> try writing a book for Manning Publications Co. because they have
> the reputation that they are very demanding.
>
> You may think I'm a masochist, but I thought that would be the
> best guarantee to write a good book. And it was! I talked with
> some authors who claimed that writing their first book for
> Manning was a good choice. In hindsight, I agree, although I
> might choose for O'Reilly next time ;-)
>
> I spent 3 months writing the book proposal (full TOC included).
> 6 months writing the manuscript. After these 9 months of hard
> labor, another 9 months were needed to get the book ready for
> production (copy editing, proof reading, making the index,...).
>
> The result is: http://www.1t3xt.com/docs/book.php
>
> Want to know how much I earned? No problem! Have a look at
> my Quarterly overviews here:
> http://www.lowagie.com/maand.php?year=2008&month=4#806
> The revenue listed is limited to the Royalties. You don't
> get rich from writing a book, but I also have indirect revenue
> from sales (when people buy the book after clicking a link on
> my site). I get 10% Royalties and if you study the Quarterly
> Overviews, you'll see that the sum I get for each book varies
> depending on many factors (time, location,...).
> I get between 5% (Amazon) and 15% (Manning) for selling the
> book using a link on my site.
>
> But it's not only about the money: the product has gotten
> much more attention and it has really boomed! Having a book
> is (almost) a guarantee for success for every F/OSS project.
>
> If you are planning to write a book, and you want an introduction
> at Manning Publications; or if you just want to talk about starting
> such a venture, let me know, and we'll chat.
>
> I know plenty of people who dream of writing a book, how I would
> like to persuade them that they should just start writing.
> I like to quote Henry David Thoreau: "If you have built castles in
> the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.
> Now put the foundations under them."
>
> best regards (and please pardon my enthousiasm),
> Bruno Lowagie
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-- 
Yves Jacolin
---
http://softlibre.gloobe.org
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