This is great, how do we collaborate?

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JacobSingh's picture

I wanted to leave some comments on the google doc but I don't know how to do that since it is view only.

Comments

GitHub Markdown files

heather's picture

Hedley put it in Google Docs initially to lower the barriers to entry. for collaboration. But it really doesn't scale.

One idea would be to move all the content to GitHub. The markdown documents can be edited directly in the browser, and changes to the .md documents get recorded w regular commit messages.
See example https://github.com/nearlythere/trashme/commits/master

And of course, you could edit the .md files as regular text files too. Seems like a good way!

However, I think one of the questions is output. Hedley would like PDF output for printing and easier reading.

Is there something that easily goes .md > PDF?

Hi Jacob, we've started

hedley's picture

Hi Jacob, we've started working on this in Google Docs and I made it publically viewable but as Heather said this isn't going to scale so didn't want to get too many people getting stuck into it now, I'll add you to be able to edit anything in the folder. And if anyone else would like to be able to edit the files, just let me know!

Yes, finding a more scalable solution is a high priority quickly - markdown & GitHub is one option which seems good. I wonder how many people who would want to contribute are happy using Markdown.

I'm sure we could rig something up for PDF output, we're developers right?!

Sphinx!

heather's picture

For documentation in professional services at Acquia, as well as for some of our course materials we use Sphinx: Python Document Generator

http://sphinx-doc.org/rest.html

Restructured Text syntax is as easy to learn as Markdown. The system allows you to include images, and external files. So you have master indexes and a chapter structure.

Then Sphinx can be used to generate HTML and PDF versions of the content.

You can also edit .rst files right in the Github browser editor. The Git browser gives you a preview of the content. BUT, You can't see "included" files in the preview. That's OK, because you can just generate copies to test.

duplicate

heather's picture

duplicate weirdness oops

I've been thinking about this

hedley's picture

I've been thinking about this and I think ultimately building a custom (probably Drupal) based system, somewhere in-between Wikipedia, Moodle and GitHub would be the dream. This would allow us to do pretty much anything we want.

I think two of the most important things here are:
* Presentation of the materials (and 'UX')
* Very low barrier to entry to contribute

Working backwards from there if we are to start using a markdown, Sphinx or similar we should ensure that it can integrate smoothly into a greater system.

I actually believe we can start building a Drupal system which supports some basic functionality such as revisioning with DIFFs etc and build on top of it, and in the meantime continue to use Google Docs, up to about 20 people working on this.

Excellent effort

farez's picture

This is great, Hedley. Agree that Google Docs would suffice for now until the need to have a more sophisticated system arises. I/OnSavvy would be more than happy to get involved with building the site.

What I could also do is open up a call for participation to the Drupal talents on OnSavvy and invite them to collaborate on the building of the Open Drupal site. If this is desirable, and when the time comes, I an action it.

Farez

http://onsavvy.com - showcase your Drupal professional profile

Thanks Farez! I think the

hedley's picture

Thanks Farez! I think the next step is to gather some user stories / requirements for the site and start throwing up some prototypes. I'm keen to keep the MVP as simple as possible initially to make this achievable.

In the meantime if you have any use for the materials or would like to contribute let me know a Google-apps enabled account and I'll share the folder with you.

Awesome

farez's picture

Agree with a simple MVP to start with.

And when you're ready to start gathering requirements and prototyping, let me know.

Not sure if I'll be using much of the material yet but I'll definitely get to it when I do.

Thanks Hedley!

Farez

http://onsavvy.com - showcase your Drupal professional profile

It's great to see this

greggles's picture

It's great to see this initiative. Training and apprenticeship are two important things in the Drupal community right now (and in the world, really).

How is this different from the ladder initiative and guilds ? The main reasons I bring those up is since they have an established audience interested in working on this topic that is getting notifications of new posts in the group which could help get more collaborators interested in this project.

BTW, I think the title doesn't really help people find what you do - "OpenDrupal" implies that there is some alternate Drupal that is closed (I haven't seen that yet) and I don't get a feeling of learning or apprenticeship from the word Open.

Thanks greggles. (I think)

hedley's picture

Thanks greggles. (I think) Drupal Ladder is about getting drupal.org users contributing to core, guilds is about peer-reviewed certification and OpenDrupal is about helping companies who want to run an apprenticeship scheme and also creating the curriculum to do this, and seeing where it goes from there.

So an apprentice who goes through the OpenDrupal curriculum I would imagine to go on to partake in Drupal Ladder (or it could even be part of the apprenticeship) and potentially get certified via the guilds scheme.

Open to suggestions about another name, I was going on the name 'Open Curriculum & apprenticeship initiative' previously but didn't think it was very catchy.

That's the first I've heard of ClosedDrupal as well :) - the 'Open' refers to the Curriculum being open (as there are many 'closed' source curriculum teaching Drupal) and also refers to 'Open' as in 'Open a door' to learn about Drupal - I feel it has association with learning, maybe that's from the Open University: http://www.open.ac.uk/

Thanks for feedback!

Open Drupal - Training

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