Journal

All draft thoughts thrown up by Tyler - ready for discussion/debate

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OSGeo News is the working title for the official OSGeo Newsletter. This is the summary page for the project and for developing future editions.

Background

OSGeo News builds on top of the successful history of the GRASS-News production. Volume 4 of that production was a joint GRASS/OSGeo effort. The next edition is broader and branded as OSGeo News.

Editions

• GRASS/OSGeo-News Volume 4
• OSGeo News Volume 1 (Newsletter_Volume_1 - in development)

Content Outline

This is the typical outline for an edition:

1. Editorials
2. News
3. Event Reports (2-3 articles)
4. Project Spotlight (Introductions) (1-2 articles)
5. Case Studies (2-3 articles)
6. Integration Studies (2-3 articles)
7. Topical Studies (1-2 articles)
8. Interview
9. Developer Announcements

Short description of content

• Editorials: written by Edt. in Chief or/and well-known person
• News: past 6 months and next 3 months, just keywords/URL/date
• Event Reports: Brief article about meetings/conferences etc.
• Project Introductions: General introduction to one software project or particular new features of a project
• Case Studies: Highlighting specific application of technologies to a certain problem, user community or developer needs
• Integration Studies: Articles showing how many projects can work together in an intergrated fashion, e.g. the power of GRASS, QGIS and GDAL all working together
• Programming Tutorials: Tutorials showing how to use a library or application at a programmatic level
• Interviews: Introducing open source community members or organisations
• Developer Announcements: Announcements about recent changes/improvements to projects

Positions

Typical needs include volunteers to (write,) collect, edit, format articles and design/proof layout. Because layout is done using LaTeX, volunteers familiar with it are always appreciated.

each editor is in charge of:

• looking through submitted articles
• doing a brief review and perhaps fwd. them to another more experienced user/developer
• asking certain projects to submit articles (for volumes covering one subject)
• check for layout errors, so that the final files can easily be merged with all other sections

Open Positions

• Newsletter head: announcing new vol./call for articles; announce release dates (Tyler?)
• Edt. in Chief: merging all sections, check for final version, asking all Edt. so submit final version etc.
• News Editor: to compile general new items from past 6 months for 1-2 pages in the newsletter.
• Event Editor: to compile information about OSGeo-related events and to find summary reports that could be included as part of the newsletter
• Project Spotlight editor(s): some contributors will have something already completely written. The editor would just help them get it into good form or would help ask more questions and gather more info.
• Editor for Case Studies: same as above..
• Editor for Code Studies (Integration Studies?): same as above..
• Layout Designer - familiar with graphic design and/or LaTeX
• Formatting/Conversion - moving non-LaTeX content into LaTeX forms
• ?Sponsor - perhaps we could get a paying sponsor/advertiser and find some useful way to spend that money?
• spell-checker: native-speaker to check all articles
• ?Translators - should we try to line up translators too?

Newsletter Software

Based on GRASS-News Latex is recommended, but other publishing packages might be considered:

• Latex
• Scribus
• ...

Contributors ought to submit articles in Latex and images as pdf (high res jpg is fine as well, in kim in kde can convert them easily to pdf):

• template for article
  • template for inserting images
  • template for inserting tables

Process

1. Confirm editors/volunteers (in process)
2. Set deadlines
3. Solicit articles
4. Collect/edit/review articles
5. Format to LaTeX
6. Produce draft
7. Set deadline for review
8. Revisions
9. Final production
10. Press Release and promotion