Markdown (.MD) is a text format that lazy people use to write HTML. Unfortunately once those same lazies are used to the format, their eyes glaze over and they start to believe .MD is the solution for all the world’s problems. They share a lot in common with githubbies who think github is the solution … Continue reading “What’s Wrong with Markdown?”
Book creation is usually managed in multiple environments – the simplest toolchain consists of the writing and editing environment – usually a word processor – and the design environment – usually desktop publishing software such as Scribus or InDesign. The transition is time-consuming and ‘clunky’ and made worse if multiple text sources are to be … Continue reading “Book Design with CSS”
“Collaboration on a book is the ultimate unnatural act.” —Tom Clancy One of the most obvious opportunities open to online book production is collaboration. Of course, collaborative writing actually has a somewhat (unfairly) tainted name. During the first wave of wiki-mania, Penguin books conducted an experiment called A Million Penguins1, a collaborative writing project using a … Continue reading “Collaborative workflows in online book production – some case studies”
FLOSS Manuals فارسی First draft of an article for publication: Free software has enjoyed many years of support from the cultural sector. Artists and activists have often been active in promoting free technologies. Artists also often make a living through teaching and workshops centred on free technologies they use in their practice. Curators of exhibitions, … Continue reading “Why You Should Love Free Documentation”
FLOSS Manuals فارسی This is a brief outline of my experience of Wikimania 2007 in Taiwan (August 3-5). I won’t cover all the talks I went to or the flossmanuals-centric discussions I had, just some of the highlights of the event itself. The event was very focused on all things Wikimedia (the umbrella foundation for … Continue reading “Wikimania 2007 Report”
I’m reworking my site little by little. My blog is still here but moved to https://www.adamhyde.net/what-im-thinking-about-now/ – linked from the top menu. Current projects Coko Foundation (Head of tech, CoFounder with Kristen Ratan) – The Collaborative Knowledge Foundation (Coko) builds modular, open source publishing software using collaborative development to ensure the technology underlying research communication … Continue reading “Projects and Articles”
Knowledge production consists of four basic phases – manage, create, process, and share. When designing knowledge production systems, it pays to keep these four phases in mind and to build platforms that have an eye on this high-level abstraction. These phases can be linear dependencies, overlap and/or be concurrent. ‘Thinking from above’ can help us … Continue reading “The Four Phases of Knowledge Production”
The renderer Note: this is an early version. It has been cleaned up some, but is still needing links and screenshots…. Apologies if the rawness offends you 🙂 This series is skipping around the toolchain, depending on what’s most in my mind at the moment. Today it’s file conversion, otherwise known as ‘rendering’. This is … Continue reading “Building Book Production Platforms p4”