[Bsod-mentors] Ideas and comments.

[Tim Wakeham]

Hey guys,

We need to get some discussion happening regarding a few things, so we can
resolve the structure of the program and get the ball rolling with
proposals.

Ok topics we need some thought and discussion about -

a) Proposals - structure of proposals, what we expect to be contained in the
proposal, level of detail, how to present them (wiki, bsod board on b.org,
email to list, etc etc.)

I've discussed things a little with spiderworm and come up with some ideas
for sections that should be present in the proposals.  The structure we came
up with is as follows -

-Intro/Synopsis - General introduction to the proposal in a paragraph, or
two.
-Justification - How is it to benefit the user base?
-Scope/Detailed breakdown - Tell us exactly what will be detailed in the
docs produced
-Deliverables - Tell us what you plan to give as end result, in terms of
quantity, type, etc
-Outline/Timeline - (unsure if this is necessary) speaks for itself
-History/Biography - tell us what experience you have, what have contributed
in the past, prove you can do what you say.

We also came up with the notion of having a small writing challenge, maybe
asking for a couple of small writing tasks, maybe say 200 words each, a
technical example, maybe something creative or research based, and an
editing task where we give them a bad text and ask them to edit it
accordingly.

b) Qualifying for the project - what should we ask for in regards to past
experience if any? what should we ask to be demonstrated? should we ask for
image proof that the person is competent with the area of Blender they want
to document?

Obviously if we set a writing task as part of entry conditions then that
would demonstrate the writing ability of the candidate, though this has an
inherent problem, language.  We would need to find a way of providing a fair
test there, and since their text will be translated anyway, it seems we
should really be testing the translator.

I don't like the idea of requesting past experience documenting since it
limits people who could provide a great contribution, that said, I think we
need to be especially critical of their ability in the designated area, and
in their writing ability if they don't have experience already.

c) Theme - As we mentioned in the original b.org post, we'd like to involve
a theme for the overall scheme of the project.  That way we get a unified
end result.  The choices that we have got so far, are-

  i) Blender Basics Bootcamp - a detailed introduction to the major areas of
Blender, maybe leading into some more advanced topics, for example docs on
lighting could include radiosity for example.

  ii) Blender Since 2.3 Manual - detailed guides to the major feature
releases since 2.3, things like new animation, fluids, softbodies,
compositor etc etc

What are the general thoughts about these themes, and has anyone got any
ideas for other themes?

d) Mentor role - should there be a 1:1 ratio participant to mentors? do we
need to provide each participant with a particular mentor, I think that as
much as possible we shold try to organise a meeting between the participant
and the person responsible for the project, and of course, non-English
participants will have to have a buddy for translating etc.

e) Format - I think the best option is for directly working onto the wiki
here, to allow us to see what is going on and to involve individual mentors
if we decide to take that path.

Anyway that is all i've got for now, lets get some comments happening and
set the ball rolling.

-Tim
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://projects.blender.org/pipermail/bsod-mentors/attachments/20060518/7b271871/attachment.htm