Maintain a catalog of online Linux documentation

Summary

Maintain a catalog of online Linux documentation

Proposer

Constantine Shulyupin

Description

Rob Landley in his article "Where Linux Kernel Documentation Hides", wrote in 2008:

Google is great at finding things, but it doesn't tell you what to 
search for. Google is not a reference work that allows one to see
available topics and home in on an area of interest, moving from
more general to more specific.
...
Indexing the web's Linux kernel documentation just to provide a
comprehensive reference is a huge undertaking. Even keeping an index
up to date after its creation would be a project on par with any
other major kernel subsystem. But without knowing here the holes are,
writing new documentation to try to fill in those holes tends to
reinvent the wheel.
...
In the absence of an obvious place to go on the web to
find the most up-to-date existing documentation, newly
created documentation tends to be repetitive and overlapping.

I would like to improve Linux Technology Reference: http://www.makelinux.net/reference . It is going to be comprehensive and easily accessible catalog about Linux, GNU, FOSS and embedded Linux for develers. It contains now 900+ links to 100+ sites, ordered in 200+ categories. Four top level categories are: Linux OS - about user space system and applications, Linux kernel, Embedded Linux and Additional topics (design, documentation).

The should be like for Linux like MSDN Library for Windows.

Planed improvements:

• Adding convenient search capabilities.
• Optionally changing catalog engine.
• Promotion on Linux related sites.
• Periodical updates and expanding. (The last big review was performed two years ego).
• Adding feedback and link submit capabilities.

Related work

• Linux Technology Reference - http://www.makelinux.net/reference

Scope

From some weeks to some month, depending on number of changes and budged. Up to some days each month periodically.

Contractor Candidates

Constantine Shulyupin (me, the author of the site)

Comments

• User comments on the site -

http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers&discussionID=3549498&gid=49301

Rob Landley commented:

Another question that got raised during the Q&A and which I didn't manage to competently answer during the talk:

"Why not just use a Wiki"?

Wikis are great ways of accumulating a slush pile, but they suck at indexing content. How do you find anything on wikipedia? Via Google. Wikipedia is cross-linked out the wazoo but it hasn't even got alphabetical topic browsing like a print encyclopedia if you wanted to skim through to see what's there without already knowing what you're looking for.

To give newbies a way into the material you need an obvious place to start. Some kind of overview you can drill down from, which turns out to be hard to do.

---

Rob also commented:

... my immediate question is long-term maintenance. How do you add new things, how do you check old ones haven't bit-rotted, and what happens if you're hit by a bus or sidelined by malaria for six months.

---