[Twisted-Python] Evangelism notes...

[Darran Edmundson]

Glyph Lefkowitz wrote:

> That said, as it is I think the Twisted team is doing a great job at 
> making Twisted, and we don't have any more resources or people to spend 
> on other stuff.  That's not to say we can't spot-fix the biggest 
> problems with our website (like the API documentation problem) but ... 
> where do these helpful people come from for other projects?  I would 
> estimate that Twisted has tens of thousands of users by now, but the 
> community is still oddly silent.

Lacking community volunteers with the necessary writing and twisted
skillsets, the best option would be to have the documentation done
professionally by *good* technical writers.

How does one fund this?  As you say, there are tens of thousands of twisted
users by now,  many writing code inside corporations/universities which 
regularly
pay for software.  So start a fund:

- get an accurate estimate of the amount of money needed (ie., have 
*good* writers
   lined up and ready to start work under contract)
- prominently display the fund status (thermometer?) on the twisted home 
page
- solicit support from twisted users urging them to get their employers 
to contribute
- recognize contributions

I think you'd be pleasantly surprised by the response.  $150k shouldn't 
be too hard
to raise and, spent wisely, will go a long way towards solving the 
documentation/tutorial
problems.  Our group put $12.5k back into a specific open source project 
last year.
Money that was earned thanks to that same project.

Cheers,
Darran.

P.S.  Of course a paper book would also do wonders ...


-- 
Darran Edmundson (darran.edmundson at anu.edu.au)
ANU Supercomputer Facility Vizlab
Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2600
tel: +61 2 6125-0517  fax: +61 2 6125-5088