[OpenAFS] Improving collaboration

[Ted Anderson]

I wonder if it wouldn't be useful to use one of the open collaborative
tools available on the network for maintaining some of OpenAFS's
documents.  The CVS tree is appropriate for managing the source tree,
but it seems unnecessarily heavy-weight for developing and maintaining
information like the Project list[1], various HOWTOs (such as the
oft-requested one on using Kerberos 5) and the FAQ.  I would suggest
something like Wiki[2], which allows anyone to edit documents, would be
a decent choice.  Another possibility is Faq-O-Matic[3].  Both of these
could be run as CGI applications along with CVS at www.openafs.org.
There are certainly other tools that could be used for this purpose; I'm
not an expert on what's available.

What I have in mind, is a easily writable media in which documents can
be added to and edited by pretty much anyone.  I don't mind some kind of
weak authentication, but it should be very low impact.  In this regard I
like the philosphy of QuickTopic[4]: "preposterously easy".  However,
QuickTopic is for threaded messages.  But, like our OpenAFS mailing
lists, this style of collaboration doesn't collect wisdom very
consicely.  One has to read through a potentially huge history of
commentary to try to abstract the current state of the art on any
particular subject.  Better to allow each contributor to add what they
know to a growing document, and let those with a broad or deep
familiarity with the topic provide integration (often only partial) of
the information into a useful whole.  I think the result will be more
accurate, up to date and consistent information about various aspects of
AFS.

The world writable aspect of such a database might give people reason
for concern.  To alleviate this concern the contents could occasionally
be copied into the CVS documentation tree for safekeeping.

Does this seem like a good idea?  What mechanism(s) are best to use?
What topics/documents are candidates for this type of collaboration?

Ted Anderson

[1] http://www.openafs.org/projects.html
[2] http://c2.com/cgi/wiki
[3] http://faqomatic.sourceforge.net/
[4] http://www.quicktopic.com/