The Ubuntu Manual Project founded at the start of 2010 aims to provide a feature-complete reference guide for new Ubuntu users, available in PDF format for free.
Already successfully releasing versions for Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10 in English and three other languages which totaled over 100,000 unique downloads, the team have now set their sights on tackling the new Unity interface and completing the almost 200-page long book in time for Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot.
It’s a great opportunity for the Ubuntu community to accompany a great release like 11.10 with a qualitative manual for beginners.
After some consideration, they’ve decided that assigning entire chapters to a single individual was too much of an ask for part-time contributors, so they’ve devised a new method for volunteers to help the project by splitting each chapter into sections and assigning smaller chunks to more people.
Ubuntu Manual Project representative John (c7p) had the following to say:
We concluded that a big obstacle to the writing process was the one chapter per 1 or 2 authors. The weight is tremendous for a “spare time job”. So authors are assigned to sections, authors are free to select a section or more.
It’s a great opportunity for the Ubuntu community to accompany a great release like 11.10 with a qualitative manual for beginners, so we have to get this book out in time and for the people who need it.
They’re looking for dedicated folk with good English skills and a great knowledge of Ubuntu to be authors and editors for the new manual, and of course they’re always still after translators, designers and programmers.
If you’re interested, jump on over to ubuntu-manual.org/jobs and see if any of the descriptions match your talents. You can find the Ubuntu Manual team hanging out in IRC in #ubuntu-manual on Freenode if you’ve got any questions.
Lastly, the new Ubuntu Manual website has been residing at test.ubuntu-manual.org for the better part of a year. It’s itching for testers and a web developer to put on the final touches before it can be pushed live. Anyone?
via John (c7p), email
test.ubuntu-manual.org