Re: Writing for the Open Source Community

[Paul DuBois <paul -at- kitebird -dot- com>]

On Thu, Feb 20, 2003 at 12:56:10PM -0500, eric -dot- dunn -at- ca -dot- transport -dot- bombardier -dot- com wrote:
> ...
> 
> Bruce, I respect you opinions and enjoy your participation on the list. This may
> just be the straw that broke the camel's back, I'm getting really sick and tired
> of being told I've missed the point by people who have completely missed or
> ignored what my original question was.
> 
> ...
> 
> I think you all had better stop trying to judge me without knowing me. I've
> spent many years in various volunteer organisations. I resent the fact that
> simply asking whether there's money to be made writing for the open source
> community has me tagged as only out to make a buck.
> 
> The original question was quite simple. Besides portfolio pieces  and the
> altruistic side is are there real money making opportunities? As whenever
> someone says they are out of work someone almost always says look at the open
> source community I thought that there may be a little more hope than just
> altruism for those that are desperate to make a living.

As someone who makes my living writing about Open Source software, I've
been watching this thread with some interest.  My impression too is that
most of the postings have been beside the point.

Here are my thoughts:

- Open Source projects by and large are run by people who are donating
  their time and not getting paid to work on the project.  Therefore,
  they are certainly not going to pay you to write documentation.  No
  money there.
- Some magazines will pay for articles.  Some money there.
- You can write books (this is what I do).  But you'll have to pick
  software that's popular enough to have some following, or you'll be
  documenting something with no market.  And even if you do pick something
  a lot of people use, likely there will be several books about it already.
  For example, Perl is Open Source, and lots of people use it.  But there
  are also many books about it already.  You'd have to ask yourself, were
  you considering a Perl book, what do you have to say about it that's
  both valuable and not available in other books? Anyway, there is some
  money in this area.  Note that although I make my living this way, I
  won't claim it's easy or that you'll necessarily make a *good* living.

My website is kitebird.com, if you want to see what I write about.


I will not comment here on the politics of Open Source proejcts, except
to say that:

- Yes, of course there are politics in such projects, just as there are
  in any human endeavor.
- Nevertheless, I think many the comments made on this list are much too
  negative; a couple of messages in particular make the Open Source community
  sound like a collective den of vipers.  It depends on the project.  There
  are good ones, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
Buy or upgrade to RoboHelp X3 today and receive the WebHelp
Merge Module for FREE ($299 value). RoboHelp X3's all-new
features include conditional text, completely re-engineered
printed documentation output, Context-sensitive Help Toolkit,
single-source layouts, and more!
Order online today at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l


---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.