[Consortium] recent updates (resend)

[Ivica Ico Bukvic]

NB: this is a resend of my earlier e-mail which did not go through due to
agnula domain expiring. Now that we've migrated lists to the main
linuxaudio.org server it is my hope that we won't have to deal with any more
downtime.


Greetings all,

Hope everyone's New Year is off to a good start. Here are a couple of
updates regarding recent Linuxaudio.org activities:

In the light of Dave Phillips' recent announcement, the consolidation of
documentation, user support, and developer resources is now the top priority
at Linuxaudio.org. Since last December, a number of volunteers have come
forward in order to tackle this project.

The preliminary consensus is to generate a well integrated and cross-linked
platform for user and developer support consisting of existing mailing
lists, app wiki site based on Dave's work, a wiki/forum user support hybrid,
and paper/document/manuals repository. The challenge is how to make these
well integrated and cross-linked. For instance, having posts on LAU/LAD
lists pre-parsed before they are distributed with relevant links would be
rather helpful (i.e. one could mention JACK in the e-mail and the parser
would immediately attach an URL to it so that the mailing list subscribers
would get a much more user-friendly version without requiring additional
overhead from the posting party), etc.

The current proposed model (subject to change) should consist of three
domains:

app.linuxaudio.org -- app list (dynamic version of Dave's page)
doc.linuxaudio.org -- wiki documentation
forum.linuxaudio.org -- wiki/forum hybrid

I have taken the liberty to appoint Robin Gareus as this project leader due
to his concise idea and solid programming background in this area. Other
current volunteers include:

Nedko Arnaudov
Joseph M. Gaffney
Ashton Snelgrove
Vince Weber

As always, if interested in participating in this project please do not
hesitate to contact me.

We are also planning on presenting our preliminary framework at this year's
LAC in order to solicit feedback as well as recruit additional helpers. Long
term, we are looking towards a rather ambitious goal of developing a
transparent and well-integrated next-generation documentation, support, and
indexing platform.

Given that I may not be able to attend the conference this year due to a
number of reasons, many of which are beyond my control, provided our session
is accepted, Robin Gareus will be holding the talk. However, if any of you
will be there, we could definitely use some recruiters/PR people for
Linuxaudio.org. We could also use at least one board member to assist in
Robin's presentation. If interested please contact me preferably asap.

That should be it for now. Should you happen to have any additional
questions and/or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Many thanks!

Best wishes,

Ivica Ico Bukvic, D.M.A.
Linuxaudio.org Director
Virginia Tech
Department of Music - 0240
Blacksburg, VA 24061
(540) 231-1137
(540) 231-5034 (fax)
ico at linuxaudio.org
http://www.music.vt.edu/people/faculty/bukvic