An Interview with Jean Hollis Weber We Talk with Jean Hollis Weber, a Volunteer with Odfauthors, the Libreoffice

Community Notebook Interview: OpenDocument Documenting the OpenDocument Format An Interview with Jean Hollis Weber We talk with Jean Hollis Weber, a volunteer with ODFAuthors, the LibreOffice Documentation team, and the Friends of OpenDocument Inc. By Bruce Byfield n many ways, ODFAuthors [1] is an group set up a separate website, which exception among free software proj- they called OOoAuthors [OpenOffice.org ects. Its purpose is not to produce Authors].” CC BY-SA 3.0 I code but documentation – chiefly At the time, OpenOffice.org was user guides – for office programs that use owned by Sun Microsystems, which kept the OpenDocument Format (ODF), such tight control of development. According as LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice. to Weber, OOoAuthors was condemned Moreover, instead of using version con- almost immediately as “an outside proj- trol, contributors mainly operate by the ect.” In particular, its founder, Daniel old-fashioned means of exchanging Carrera Yanes “was vilified by some peo- drafts. Yet, under the leadership of Jean ple for having had the audacity to do Hollis Weber, a retired technical editor this.” and consultant, ODFAuthors has become Weber received something of the same one of the few ongoing documentation treatment when she and her partner projects in a community that has a his- founded Friends of OpenDocument [3], tory of neglecting help and user support. an Australian non-profit that published Weber discovered OpenOffice.org, the user guides. The Friends of OpenDocu- first ODF office suite, in 2003. “At the ment group was pressured to donate its time, I wasn’t really part of the OpenOf- profits to OpenOffice.org but refused be- fice.org project,” she says. “I was just cause there was no public accounting of fiddling around learning how to use the how the project used donations. software. But there weren’t any books, “If it was there, it was well-hidden,” and the help was kind of hopeless.” Weber says. “That was the reason why She started taking notes, and “one day we didn’t want to give them any money, INFO I looked at the pile of papers on my desk, because we didn’t know how it would and I said to myself, ‘You know what, be used.” The result was that, “We con- [1] ODFAuthors: I’ve written a book’.” With some rewrit- sidered ourselves part of the OpenOf- http://www.odfauthors.org/ ing, the book became Taming OpenOf- fice.org community, but some people [2] Weber, Jean Hollis. Taming OpenOf- fice.org Writer [2], the first book specifi- didn’t.” fice.org Writer. 2003 [out of print]: cally about the office suite’s word pro- The animosity continued for several http://www.taming-openoffice-org. cessor. Its success launched Weber’s ca- years, until Frank Peters and Clayton com/writer/wpayme.htm reer as an expert, which continues today. Cornell became the documentation leads [3] Friends of OpenDocument: While Weber’s own career was evolv- at OpenOffice.org. Because they focused http://www. friendsofopendocument. ing, she was also “taking part in the fo- chiefly on developer documentation, com/newsite/ rums and so forth. I started looking at they were able to view OOoAuthors and [4] Weber, Jean Hollis. Self-Publishing the documentation project, and there Friends of OpenDocument as something Using LibreOffice Writer. Self-pub- was a group of us who completely inde- other than rivals. When Weber replaced lished ebook, 2012: http://www.lulu. pendently had come along and decided Peters at the end of 2008, “we consid- com/shop/search.ep?type=& that the project tracking tool, which was ered ourselves vindicated,” Weber says. keyWords=Jean+Hollis+Weber& Bugzilla, was really too hard for the vol- Further potential problems arose when x=0&y=0&sitesearch=lulu.com&q= unteer writer to use. So in June 2004, a OpenOffice.org was acquired by Oracle 90 MAY 2013 ISSUE 150 LINUX-MAGAZINE.COM | LINUXPROMAGAZINE.COM Community Notebook Interview: OpenDocument and later donated to The Apache Foun- bates over the years about what to use. available. Consequently, ODFAuthors dation. For about a year, “Very little was Some people say, ‘Oh, we should use frequently has trouble keeping up with being done with documentation because DocBook’. But I say, ‘No, no, you’ve got the software releases. Weber is consider- very little was being done with the proj- to eat your own dog food’. You are docu- ing skipping releases in order to stay rel- ect. So a lot of people left, and those who menting something that can go all the atively current, although “it all depends were still around went over to LibreOf- way to PDF and be printed as real books, on the people we have working and how fice when it turned up, because at least so you use it as a demonstration. Any good they are.” something was happening there.” flaw that comes out is not due to the All the same, ODFAuthors has man- Considering the animosity among de- software, but the volunteer’s ability to aged to establish itself as the main velopers at LibreOffice and Apache Ope- use it.” In other words, the documenta- source of documentation within its cho- nOffice, the project might easily have tion itself becomes proof of the useful- sen fields, with its manuals being carried faced similar divisions – particularly ness of its subject matter. in places such as the software project Weber herself, who switched from Docu- Still another reason appears to be We- sites and the Ubuntu Software Centre. mentation Lead in OpenOffice to the ber’s own combination of experience Besides free downloads, the project sells same position at LibreOffice; instead, the and leadership style. “It’s more leader- an average of about 40 hard-copy edi- project changed its name to ODFAuthors, ship than management in my terminol- tions of its manuals a month. “I try to which now hosts projects for both Libre- ogy,” she says, “although my unofficial price them to make a little profit,” Weber Office and Apache OpenOffice in several title is ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed’ – a says, “but not a lot, because the point languages. reference to both John Mortimer’s Rum- isn’t to make money – the point is to get So far, the site hosts nothing about pole series and H. Rider Haggard’s novel the information out there.” Calligra Suite, the other major ODF office She. By that, she means that “everyone application, but Weber stresses that, “if is a volunteer. So you can persuade Future Specializations people from Calligra would like to use them, but you can’t tell them what to Traditionally, ODFAuthors is more a de- our site for storage, we’d be delighted.” do. You can’t say, ‘Well, here’s the dead- velopment site for working volunteers She notes that some people still don’t line and we’re going to make it if you than a site for distributing manuals. understand the relation of ODFAuthors to have to work overtime’, because it However, Weber is open to the idea of LibreOffice and Apache OpenOffice, but doesn’t work that way. And I prefer that, the site becoming a general repository immediately adds, “I guess the take- myself.” for videos and tutorials on ODF applica- away from that is that it doesn’t really In general, Weber says, policies just tions. matter. What we’re doing seems to be “sort of evolved. We just sort of muddle However, noting that most of ODFAu- working.” along. One thing I should do as team thors’ material is aimed at new users, leader is spend some more organiza- Weber says that “what I really want to Formulas for Success tional time, helping people get started, do is write more stuff targeted to special Why has ODFAuthors thrived when so and writing the contributors’ guide and audiences, such as academics or busi- many development projects continue to keeping it up to date. But I don’t enjoy ness people, or tech-writers for that mat- struggle to provide even rudimentary that nearly as much, so I tend to not do ter – people who will be using features documentation? Weber suggests that one it. Everyone talks about community- beyond the basics.” reason is because ODFAuthors is about building, but I decided that it isn’t really Her latest book, Self-Publishing Using programs that “ordinary people use. The my thing. I just want to sit at my com- LibreOffice Writer [4], can be seen as a audience is quite different from a lot of puter and write books.” first step toward producing this ad- other open source projects, particularly Somewhat to Weber’s surprise, this at- vanced material. “I wrote it,” Weber when it started; they all seemed to be re- titude seems to work. “Because I don’t says, “because I have a lot of friends ally geeky stuff. I know that I got into it get around to it, competent people actu- who are science fiction and fantasy writ- simply because I used the program and ally step forth and do things. And the ers. Of course, many of them are self- needed better documentation. I suspect first few times it happened, I was abso- publishing in addition to or in place of that others did, too. So we had to do it lutely delighted and surprised. Now, I being published by others, and they all ourselves.” think that’s fabulous. I mean, as a group, say, ‘Ohhh, I can’t afford Adobe InDe- Another reason may be that the project we’re all supposed to be equal.” sign’. And I tell them, ‘You don’t need has always kept its goals well-focused.

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