by homeworld.cygnus.com with SMTP; 24 Sep 1998 21:00:48 -0000
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To: Todd Whitesel <toddpw@best.com>
cc: netbsd-advocacy@NetBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: empirical method for generation of netbsd book. 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 24 Sep 1998 01:54:00 PDT."
             <199809240854.BAA01354@shell17.ba.best.com> 
Reply-To: perry@piermont.com
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Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1998 17:00:36 -0400
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>


Todd Whitesel writes:
> It is simply to gather lots of empirical data about what newbie users
> run into while installing and configuring their systems -- what kinds
> of questions they ask, what common problems they encounter, and so on.
> 
> In short, you simply hold a well-stocked installation party and videotape it
> extensively. Make rough transcripts of the various installation efforts and
> use the topics they cover as the raw material for an installation handbook.
> 
> Then, repeat until diminishing returns starts to take over. Assuming your
> newbie sample and target hardware sample are both representative enough,
> the final data set is guaranteed to be of high quality.
> 
> However, I think it makes a lot of sense to wait until 1.4-BETA is mostly
> converged before we marshal the resources to actually do this.

This is a cool idea!

I wonder if there is a good way to get it done. Anyone want to
volunteer to coordinate this?

Perry