Book Sprints for Humanitarian Response
Over the past week I’ve been at Google in Mountain View working on a book sprint for OpenStreetMap. I had no idea when the week started that we were going to write a book in a week, nor that it was possible to do that. I also wasn’t familiar with FLOSS Manuals which operates under the premise that not only should software be open and free but the documentation should be as well.
The premise of the week was to bring individuals from open-source projects together as well as others specializing in documentation in as well to help. A combination of an unconference and then intensive documentation writing ensued. The OpenStreetMap group included Ian Dees, Shaun McDonald and myself from the project. We additionally had Anne Goldenberg, Anne Gentle, Tomi Toivio and NóirÃn Plunkett. Having so many people from outside OpenStreetMap was extremely valuable. They were able to help us be far more clear about the materials and see past assumptions we may have made about topics. At the end we had a published book, which can be purchased from Lulu.com. Having a completed work at the end of the sprint was a great feeling. Often after hackathons that is missing for me and it ends up feeling like we just flogged ourselves with some code for a set period of time.
In going through this process I started to think about other topics that could benefit from this type of approach. I started thinking about the topics that we go over repeatedly within the Humanitarian Open-Source, CrisisMappers and Volunteer Technology Communities (for lack of a better name). I really think the community could benefit from a generic guide to issues within the humanitarian technology realm. Topics such as standards, licensing and workflows could be documented. It is impossible to say what exactly the book would cover, because that is determined as part of the book sprint process. What I am proposing though is that it would be greatly beneficial to gather for this process.
Typically a book sprint would happen over roughly a week time with five to ten individuals with different experience on the topic. I’m proposing the same thing. Let’s plan a book sprint and figure out how to make it happen. The idea would be to gather about ten people with different experience, everything from technologists to humanitarian responders to specialists in documentation. This group would get together for an intensive week long book sprint, the goal being to create a manual of the basics of humanitarian technology. Topics that come to mind for me are data licensing, standards, security, privacy and workflows. I’m only one individual and I’m sure topics would change and mold to the importance decided on by the group. The point though would be to create a resource useful within our community.
Does this sound interesting to you? Contact me in the comments or by email and let’s make it happen!
October 22, 2011
Tags: book sprint, floss manuals, humanitarian guide, openstreetmap Posted in: Crisis Mapping, OSM
3 Responses
Suomen FLOSS Manuals » Lisää booksprint-blogauksia - October 25, 2011
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I would love to be part of this! It’s just such a shame I’m so far away from the rest of the world. Let me know if this gathers steam, I’ll try to find someway to pitch in.
Sorry for my super late reply=). We haven’t figured out how to do it yet. In my mind we would get people from all over the world. Of course key to that is cash.
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