[Marketing] Marketing artefacts, subversion directories, and source formats

Committees Marketing
1

I've written our OSGeo's marketing requirements, and defined what I believe to be a list of marketing artefacts that each project should produce.

What I wish to do now is to write down very clear guidelines on what authors should include in the artefacts so that:
1. We see a level of consistency between projects
2. To make it easy for authors to write. (It is much easier to write to a template and with an example than to write free hand).

What I'd like to resolve now is:
a. What subversion directory we store artefacts in.
b. What format we store artefacts in.

svn directory location:

To date, apart from the LiveDVD, there has not been a periodic updating of artefacts, fixed around a specific milestone. I'd like to see that change, so that we can know that at least once a year (at foss4g) all core marketing artefacts are brought up to date. I suggest that all marketing artefacts are updated at the same time as the LiveDVD, twice/year.
So I suggest that our marketing artefacts use the same release numbers as the LiveDVD and potentially are incorporated into the LiveDVD svn directory structure.
I understand that projects may wish to keep their docs with their projects, and I'm ok with that.
What I propose is that we initially set up
marketing/artefacts/{trunk,r4_0}/overview/{project}.doc
We will start by putting all overview docs into the above directory structure.
Projects may then move their documentation back into their own svn, and our scripts can be smart enough to look for them there. (We would need a google docs lookup spreadsheet or similar to point to the location of project documentation.

source doc format

For the 1 page project overview, our target media is both HTML and a 1 page PDF, with an embedded image. Hence, layout is important, and therefore I believe the source format of this material needs to be in Word/OpenOffice/GoogleDocs or similar which provides this layout.

Similarly, Quick Starts and Tutorials need to be printed on PDF as well as HTML, and contain images.
I acknowledge Hamish's concern regarding inability to bulk change word docs, and I admit that is painful. One work around which may work is that we can export to HTML, bulk apply changes, then import back into word format. (I have done this once and while not ideal, it will probably work if we need to change templates or similar).

--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Director
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com

2

If layout matters, in my mind that is the opposite of Office formats.
Scribus+text file+image file might work or latex+image files

Just some ideas,
Alex

Cameron Shorter wrote:

I've written our OSGeo's marketing requirements, and defined what I
believe to be a list of marketing artefacts that each project should
produce.

What I wish to do now is to write down very clear guidelines on what
authors should include in the artefacts so that:
1. We see a level of consistency between projects
2. To make it easy for authors to write. (It is much easier to write to
a template and with an example than to write free hand).

What I'd like to resolve now is:
a. What subversion directory we store artefacts in.
b. What format we store artefacts in.

svn directory location:

To date, apart from the LiveDVD, there has not been a periodic updating
of artefacts, fixed around a specific milestone. I'd like to see that
change, so that we can know that at least once a year (at foss4g) all
core marketing artefacts are brought up to date. I suggest that all
marketing artefacts are updated at the same time as the LiveDVD,
twice/year.
So I suggest that our marketing artefacts use the same release numbers
as the LiveDVD and potentially are incorporated into the LiveDVD svn
directory structure.
I understand that projects may wish to keep their docs with their
projects, and I'm ok with that.
What I propose is that we initially set up
marketing/artefacts/{trunk,r4_0}/overview/{project}.doc
We will start by putting all overview docs into the above directory
structure.
Projects may then move their documentation back into their own svn, and
our scripts can be smart enough to look for them there. (We would need a
google docs lookup spreadsheet or similar to point to the location of
project documentation.

source doc format

For the 1 page project overview, our target media is both HTML and a 1
page PDF, with an embedded image. Hence, layout is important, and
therefore I believe the source format of this material needs to be in
Word/OpenOffice/GoogleDocs or similar which provides this layout.

Similarly, Quick Starts and Tutorials need to be printed on PDF as well
as HTML, and contain images.
I acknowledge Hamish's concern regarding inability to bulk change word
docs, and I admit that is painful. One work around which may work is
that we can export to HTML, bulk apply changes, then import back into
word format. (I have done this once and while not ideal, it will
probably work if we need to change templates or similar).

3

Alex,
I'll also throw in the requirement that whatever template we decide upon, we need to make the docs as easy as possible to maintain. Ie users should not have to learn how to use a new application in order to update the docs. They should be able to use applications which are already installed on their computer. I think I'm a usual in that I don't have an application installed which supports Scribus or Latex, and I'd need to do research if I were to update these docs.

We want to avoid the situation where it takes 1 hour to install and then learn an application before making a 5 minute tweak to docs.

(Of note: Wikis do well under the above criteria, but wiki->pdf doesn't do well)

Alex Mandel wrote:

If layout matters, in my mind that is the opposite of Office formats.
Scribus+text file+image file might work or latex+image files

Just some ideas,
Alex

Cameron Shorter wrote:
  

I've written our OSGeo's marketing requirements, and defined what I
believe to be a list of marketing artefacts that each project should
produce.

What I wish to do now is to write down very clear guidelines on what
authors should include in the artefacts so that:
1. We see a level of consistency between projects
2. To make it easy for authors to write. (It is much easier to write to
a template and with an example than to write free hand).

What I'd like to resolve now is:
a. What subversion directory we store artefacts in.
b. What format we store artefacts in.

svn directory location:

To date, apart from the LiveDVD, there has not been a periodic updating
of artefacts, fixed around a specific milestone. I'd like to see that
change, so that we can know that at least once a year (at foss4g) all
core marketing artefacts are brought up to date. I suggest that all
marketing artefacts are updated at the same time as the LiveDVD,
twice/year.
So I suggest that our marketing artefacts use the same release numbers
as the LiveDVD and potentially are incorporated into the LiveDVD svn
directory structure.
I understand that projects may wish to keep their docs with their
projects, and I'm ok with that.
What I propose is that we initially set up
marketing/artefacts/{trunk,r4_0}/overview/{project}.doc
We will start by putting all overview docs into the above directory
structure.
Projects may then move their documentation back into their own svn, and
our scripts can be smart enough to look for them there. (We would need a
google docs lookup spreadsheet or similar to point to the location of
project documentation.

source doc format

For the 1 page project overview, our target media is both HTML and a 1
page PDF, with an embedded image. Hence, layout is important, and
therefore I believe the source format of this material needs to be in
Word/OpenOffice/GoogleDocs or similar which provides this layout.

Similarly, Quick Starts and Tutorials need to be printed on PDF as well
as HTML, and contain images.
I acknowledge Hamish's concern regarding inability to bulk change word
docs, and I admit that is painful. One work around which may work is
that we can export to HTML, bulk apply changes, then import back into
word format. (I have done this once and while not ideal, it will
probably work if we need to change templates or similar).

--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Director
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com

4

Cameron Shorter ha scritto:

source doc format

For the 1 page project overview, our target media is both HTML and a 1
page PDF, with an embedded image. Hence, layout is important, and
therefore I believe the source format of this material needs to be in
Word/OpenOffice/GoogleDocs or similar which provides this layout.

I think there are a number of very good reasons not to use proprietary formats, even
if this would imply some additional effort (but I think this is not a necessary
consequence).
All the best.
--
Paolo Cavallini: http://www.faunalia.it/pc

5

Paolo Cavallini wrote:

Cameron Shorter ha scritto:
  

source doc format

For the 1 page project overview, our target media is both HTML and a 1
page PDF, with an embedded image. Hence, layout is important, and
therefore I believe the source format of this material needs to be in
Word/OpenOffice/GoogleDocs or similar which provides this layout.
    
I think there are a number of very good reasons not to use proprietary formats, even
if this would imply some additional effort (but I think this is not a necessary
consequence).
All the best.
  

Yes Paolo, good point.
If we do go down the Word/OpenOffice/GoogleDocs format, we should ensure that the source format probably should be OpenOffice or GoogleDocs, which can then be converted to the other formats if required.

--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Director
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com