I listen to shows and lurk in forums, telegram, etc. but my schedule doesn’t really line up with interacting with the community much.
I’ve experienced the generosity from members in the community in terms of troubleshoot issues and recently thought, “WHY DIDN’T I DOCUMENT ANYTHING?!?!”. I want to solve personal technology problems AND help the community at the same time so this is where this crazy idea came from.
What if there was an “open channel” that people could submit to and document/share their projects? Instead of scrolling through Google and forum posts to find solutions to problems, what if there was an audio file with accompanying concise documentation that provided answers and solutions to your problem! This is my idea of an open podcast.
A request is made following an agreed upon template. If someone from the community chooses to pick up the request, it is marked as “pending”. By agreeing to pick up a request, both parties are committing to solving the problem and publishing the results in a format that benefits the community at large.
The end result is a guaranteed submission to an audio stream (podcast) where a host sums up what the issue was and how it was solved and where additional resources can be accessed.
I’m I crazy or is this a cool idea? I don’t know the best way to share documents other than google, so I made a quick post on my blog and added downloads in otd and pdf formats of the template and an example I created.
To be clear, I don’t want this to benefit me as an individual. The thought is that individuals in the community benefit, we have a concise way to share that with everyone!
If that includes a standardised guide on how to record a guide this would really lower the barrier for people willing to make these because not everyone wants to make their own channel let alone learn the recording process.
If you really wanted to kick ass you’d give people the option of a webpage with a client-side WebRTC app that records their desktop along with a few basic clipping tools so they can create and upload the guide in just a few clicks, no installations necessary.
I don’t see how this’d speed up search time though because videos aren’t search index friendly so where someone might otherwise find the guide using a keyword in it’s instructions that doesn’t really work with a video.
I suppose the only impediment here is making sure the bandwidth doesn’t get abused but I really like the idea.
I love that idea of a web rtc client.
it’s really about the commitment of community members to solve problems synchroniously and share the result in a good format. If people are interested in content creation like through videos then they have s chance to experiment.
Well it doesn’t have to be a video. I agree that forums are helpful but this is more about forming connections that aren’t asynchronous. Iim also tired of seeing a closed post (not necessarily here) that ends with OP saying, “nvm I figured it out” but not sharing the true resolution.
This provides an opportunity for people to connect, interact and experiment in content creation. Maybe someone is great at making videos and has a passion for it but has low content knowledge. They can team up with an expert and share something that the whole community benefits from.
I’d recommend looking at @RiderExMachina’s bestdistrofor.me project, he makes it really easy to commit to and everyone knows what’s needed incrementally so whomever has time can just jump in and no one’s afraid of potentially large or nebulous commitments.
If you break it down into parts and where necessary those parts into more parts you will get help and the more evidence that the project will probably succeed whether anyone likes it or not the more of that help will come.
@rastacalavera
I believe I’ve said it before but one of the next additions I want added to the site is a “next steps” guide + customized install script based on how the users answer. This shouldn’t be difficult, just a little time consuming and I’ve got a few other things that I’ve been working on.
I think its a great idea overall. I’d suggest maybe the written documentation should be fleshed out first and reviewed from several sources first before producing video/audio. Not only would it improve the final product where the documentation is able to stand on its own. But could also reveal important things to point out while producing the video/podcast using the documentation as a guide.
This way there’s a greater benefit for the community. The low bandwidth master guide that can solve the problem ( with screenshots and/or code snippets) , or the video/ podcasts to explain the problem and show how it’s solved for the visually inclined or reinforce the knowledge after reading the guide.