Organization:FLOSS Manuals
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| Formation | July 2006 |
|---|---|
| Type | NGO and Non-profit Foundation |
| Location |
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| Fields | Software Freedom |
Key people | Adam Hyde |
| Website | flossmanuals.net |
The FLOSS Manuals (FM) is a non-profit foundation founded in 2006 by Adam Hyde and based in the Netherlands. The foundation is focused on the creation of quality documentation about how to use free software.
Its web site is a wiki (previously using the TWiki and Booki programs, now using Booktype) focused on the collaborative authoring of manuals. The documentation is licensed under the GPL. Although initially the manuals were covered by the GFDL, the material was relicensed to the GPL due to concerns about the limitations of the GFDL.[1]
Anyone can contribute to the material at FLOSS Manuals. Each manual has a maintainer – very much like the Debian maintainer system. The maintainer keeps an overview of the manual and discusses with those interested the structure, etc. The maintainer is also responsible for gathering new contributors together. Not all edits are 'live' – the edits are published to the manual when ready. This is to ensure the quality of the manuals is as high and as reliable as possible and that no new user encounters 'half finished' content.
Manuals are available as HTML online, or indexed PDF. Additionally manuals can be remixed so anyone can create their own manual and export to indexed PDF, HTML (ZIP/tar) or an 'Ajax' include.
In fall 2007, Floss manuals was awarded a 15,000 Euro prize by the Dutch Digital Pioneer fund.[2] It has also been financially supported by Google[3] and NLnet.[4] FLOSS Manuals also received a Transmediale Award for its work on Booki[5] and has also been featured in the Texas Linux Fest 2010.[6]
List of manuals
FLOSS Manuals has manuals for all of the following.
| Software | Manuals |
|---|---|
| CRM | CiviCRM (mobile access - CiviMobile), CiviCRM Developer Guide |
| Office | Firefox, Chromium, OpenOffice, Thunderbird |
| Digital signal processing | Pure Data |
| File system | FSLint |
| One laptop per child | Reading And Leading With One Laptop Per Child; Make Sugar Activities, XO, Write, Terminal, Chat Activity, Browse Activity, Record Activity, Turtle Art Activity |
| Free culture | Collaborative Futures |
| CMS | Newscoop, Plumi |
| Broadcasting | Airtime |
| Internet freedom | How to Bypass Internet Censorship, An Open Web, Basic Internet Security |
| Translation | Open Translation Tools, Video Subtitling |
| Video | Theora Cookbook, Kino, Avidemux, GTranscode, ffmpeg2theora, HandBrake |
| Free network services | FLOSS Manuals, Book Sprints, Wikimedia Commons, Archive.org, Freedom Fone |
| Free software/open source | Google Summer of Code Mentoring |
| Graphic design | Digital Foundations, Alchemy, Inkscape, Scribus |
| 3D | Blender |
| HTML editing | Nvu, BlueGriffon |
| Blogging | WordPress |
| Media players | MPlayer, VLC, Miro |
| VOIP | Linphone |
| File sharing | Azureus |
| Streaming | MuSE, M3W, Icecast |
| Video subtitling | Video Subtitling, Jubler |
| Linux | Linux Command-line Intro |
| Audio | Audio Production, Ardour, Audacity, Csound |
| Type design | FontForge |
| Human Rights | OpenEvSys |
| Book production | Booktype, Booki User Guide |
| Performance | UpStage |
| Collaborative Mapping | OpenStreetMap |
Popularity
Some manuals have been selected for inclusion on the VALO-CD, a collection of the best software for Windows.
References
- ↑ "License Change". http://fa.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/Blog/LicenseChange#BlogPosts. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
- ↑ "Mimoa, Floss Manuals and Beelden uit ons Verleden win Digital Pioneers Academy". http://www.digitalpioneers.org/nieuws/Mimoa-Floss-Manuals-en-Beelden-uit-ons-Verleden-winnaars-Academie-/21/index.html.
- ↑ "Day 3: Word Count". http://en.flossmanuals.net/about. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
- ↑ "NLNet". http://www.nlnet.nl/project/floss-manuals/.
- ↑ "Transmediale Awards". http://www.transmediale.de/node/16312/.
- ↑ "Texas Linux Fest 2010". http://www.texaslinuxfest.org/talks/2010/documentation-needs-floss-manuals/.
External links
- (Requires JavaScript)
- Interview: Adam Hyde, FLOSS Manuals
- Adam Hyde: Free Manuals for free software. Talk at Wikimania 2007, Taipei. Abstract
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