[Live-demo] Getting OSGeo-Live Quickstart writing guidelines right

[Simon Cropper]

Cameron,

1) I tried over an extended period to become involved with creation of 
tutorials for OSGeo and gvSIG community by found the peculiar/particular 
ways of constructing documents were both time consuming and frustrating. 
I imagine this is in part the cause for so few new and on-going volunteers.

2) Rather than have developers create the documents, try and have users 
create the documents as they have different perspectives.

3) Tutorials augmented with detailed and pertinent images make it easy 
for the reader to follow what is going on. Extra time spent on an image 
pays off big in comprehension (you need more than just a course screen 
dump). Lines, numbering, highlights, boxes and annotations all help 
direct a user's focus to those areas which are important.

4) Once off documents are OK but maintenance of a document library is 
the key to any good repository -- I don't think anyone has really 
mastered this issue yet. You need to simplify the process for 
contributors and people who create derivatives. No real idea how you do 
this. No software is available that makes this easy.

In regards to use of data...

1) Tutorials / Static documents should use the 1-2 standard datasets you 
discussed.

2) Live demonstrations at the conference should endeavour to use local 
datasets if suitable information is available. If possible these 
'workshops' or 'demos' should be captured as videos.

-- 
Cheers Simon

    Simon Cropper
    Principal Consultant
    Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd
    PO Box 160, Sunshine, VIC
    W: www.botanicusaustralia.com.au