OLPC Book Ready for G1G1!

Tomorrow, Monday, November 17 is the launch of the new Give One Get One campaign for 2008 - meaning, once again you can buy your very own XO laptop. The tagline for this year is Give a Laptop. Get a Laptop. Change the World.

You can buy yours at amazon.com/xo.

All our community author’s work has culminated into a book that’s now for sale on Lulu, and as soon as we can get it listed on Amazon, the book will be available there as well.

The back cover of all FLOSS Manuals books say “Please copy!” We fully intend for the OLPC Laptop Guide to available to anyone who wants one. You can purchase a printed copy at Lulu for a modest markup (that funds future booksprints and the like), or download the PDF, or remix the content at FLOSSManuals.net.

The neat thing is, once you’re done with a real book, you can pass it on to the next person who wants to learn about their XO. My hope is that XO users around the world will get a book and pass it on.

Shows front and back covers of the Laptop Guide for OLPC

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FLOSS Manuals book store now open!

I went out for a run this morning and realized it has been a year this very week since I started my volunteer work with OLPC. This project was my first foray into the open source world from a contributor standpoint, and I can’t believe how it has paid back at least tenfold in the people I’ve met, the lessons I’ve learned, and the technology I’m now acquainted with.

What did it take? For me, time and faith and trust in others.

This is an amazing day and it has been an amazing journey. And what is significant about today? We now have a FLOSS Manuals bookstore and we now have a real, hold-it-in-your-hands, put-it-on-your-bookshelf, book. With a cover designed by someone who works at MOMA no less. (Wow!) With content carefully authored by people who learned and knew enough about the technology while also considering who would read the chapters and what they want to do with the technology.

I’m happily and proudly displaying the distributable FLOSS Manuals bookstore on my blog - see the sidebar on the left? That’s a bit of HTML code that anyone can display and host a portable virtual book store on any web site. Here’s the code.

<style>
@import url("http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.css");
</style>
<img src="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.gif"
style="margin-bottom:5px;">
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://stores.lulu.com/feed.php?fStore=flossmanuals&fFormat=js"></script>

You can always download the PDF for free, but by buying a book you support the FLOSS Manuals project and help support the uptake and usefulness of free software by providing free documentation. Your money is well spent as these paperbacks are high quality and can take wear and tear. My hope is that people will read it and that the book will be passed on to the next learner.

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Upcoming presentations in Austin and Houston

I’ll be presenting Documentation as Conversation at the Austin STC meeting Tuesday October 7th.

Austin When

Tuesday October 7th
6:00 - 6:30 PM: Networking
6:30 - 7:30 PM: Program
7:45 - 9:00 PM: Networking dinner

Austin Where

UT Commons Center - Room 1.138 [Map]

Then in November I’m going to make the trip to the Houston STC Meeting Tuesday November 11th.

Documentation as Conversation: Working conversation and community into documentation using social technologies

Even if your documentation system does not converse with your users, your documentation can help customers talk to each other and make the connections that help them do their jobs well, play with technology at home, or learn something new in a classroom setting.

Instead of concentrating on single sourcing or the tools of the trade, this talk describes how you can think about documentation and user assistance in a conversational way, perhaps with the help of some social networking applications. I’ll also discuss the in-person FLOSS Manuals BookSprint as a use of a wiki paired with a community event to gather together writers to accomplish documentation goals for free, open source software projects.

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