FLOSS Manuals

When we set up Scavenger Labs in 2018 one of the reasons was to create a legal vehicle for the FLOSS Manuals project to replace the previous one based in the Netherlands. As such the company is called Scavenger Labs FM, the FM being for FLOSS Manuals.

About FLOSS Manuals

FLOSS Manuals was founded in 2006 to provide free, high quality documentation for free and open source software. The project pioneered collaborative authoring, book sprints, and remixable manuals that could be downloaded in many formats. Hundreds of contributors produced manuals in multiple languages covering creative, technical, and educational software. The original site remains online at flossmanuals.net, and many of its ideas continue to influence open documentation projects today.

Update on #iwill / Making Change Project

Due to issues of restricted access to schools in 2020 this project will now run in a similar way in 2021.

About #iwill / Making Change Project

Scavenger Labs are a new social enterprise concerned with environmental and science education. We are running a social action project in partnership with Todmorden High School and Todmorden Learning Centre to raise environmental awareness and promote positive behavioural change as part of the #iwill programme. https://www.iwill.org.uk/

Thanks to a grant from the Community Foundation for Calderdale we will work with young people and families from Todmorden High to create a campaign around waste and creative approaches to behaviour change.

Books produced during the Book Sprints for ICT Research project

From Urban Space to Future Place: The UrbanIxD Summer School 2013

I. Helgason, M. Smyth, N. Wouters, O. Surawska, L. Skrinjar, L. Jensen, S.Rosenbak, A. Streinzer, Amsterdam, 2013

Read the book: issuu | PDF

Adaptive Collective Systems: Herding Black Sheep

S. Anderson, N. Bredeche, A.E. Eiben, G. Kampis, M. van Steen, Amsterdam, 2013

Read the book: issuu | PDF | ePUB

Urban Interaction Design: Towards City Making

M. Brynskov, J.C.C. Bermúdez, M. Fernández, H. Korsgaard, I. Mulder, K. Piskorek, L. Rekow, M. de Waal, Amsterdam, 2014

FLOSS Manuals is working with phpList to help the production of their new manual.

Developing a detailed understanding of the needs of  communities and businesses who wish to work with FlossManuals as entities in their own right, is a fundamental goal of this project. One such need, already established by the team, is a simple way to self-host “stable versions” of the manual, in html, on the website of the Community/Company.

FLOSS Manuals content (Basic Internet Security and Bypassing Internet Censorship) continue to be used in the world-wide movement of CryptoParties. The CryptoParty Handbook was created at a book sprint in Berlin. Cryptoparties provide a great way for anyone to learn how to install and use encryption technology and other tips to keep you anonymous online.

cryptoman.jpg

There has been an increased interest in CryptoParties in the UK following the UK government lack of response over Snowden data. There is also a new initiative called Techno Activism 3rd Mondays with similar aims. Green host who convened the BIS sprint are involved with that.

In December 2013, the video4change network published a new set of guides aimed towards supporting video activists and citizen journalists in producing and distributing their videos more effectively. 

With support from Internews Europe, these guides range from mobile video to hosting independent video sites.

1. Guide to Independent Video Hosting. Are you looking for ways to set up your own video-sharing and aggregating site (å la EngageMedia.org!)? Then you should read this manual. The guide focuses on Free, Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) solutions such as  Wordpress, Drupal and Plumi. This was written by Mick Fuzz from video4change member, FlossManuals.
2. Effective Video on Low Cost Devices. If you’re a video activist or citizen journalist on a tight budget ad can’t quite afford to buy the latest video equipment and smartphone, then you will find this guide useful. It offers tips and tricks to making quality videos on your existing devices. This guide was written by Brian Conley from video4change member, Small World News.
3. Citizen Journalist Guide to Mobile Video. This one has everything you need to know to use your smartphone for video activism and citizen journalism. The topics covered in this guide include the principles of mobile video as well as available applications to distribute video through your mobile device. This was written by Melissa Ulbright.
4. Citizen Journalist Guide to Live Streaming Video. Are you citizen journalist, planning to go cover a demonstration in your town? Or are you at the right place at the right time, and are witnessing events unfold that should be shared with the rest of the online world? Before that happens, it would be great if you can read this guide. This takes the user through different tools and strategies in live-streaming video. Written by video4change member, Becky Hurwitz from the MIT Centre for Civic Media, this guide also has hands-on exercises to installing and using the most popular video streaming services available.

All of these guides are available in Arabic and Burmese.

Good news everyone! You don’t have to use YouTube!

In partnership with the V4C (video for change) network FLOSS Manuals has created a “Guide to Independent Video Hosting”. The guide focuses on approaches and tools to host, showcase and ‘aggregate’ video content. The guide will give different paths to groups that want to reduce their reliance on services like YouTube and Vimeo.

The guide has been produced in many languages and multiple formats.

FLOSS Manuals has been working with Internews Europe as part of their Human Rights programme to create some user focused manuals to help communication. Recent security news has shown us that Free Software solutions are the best solutions for many situations. We have been very happy to draw on our past experience of creating and translating manuals to whip up three new manuals to help make the process of emailing, sharing photos and files more secure.

7 August 2013. The FLOSS Manuals Foundation and Adam Hyde are collaborating on a one year project funded by the European Comission. The project is titled: Book Sprints for ICT Research – Testing the practice of Book Sprints as a new paradigm of collaborative writing for ICT researchers and innovators. A Book Sprint is a collaborative process where a group of six to twelve people get together to produce a book in five days or less. Participants work intensively under the guidance of a facilitator to create high quality materials. This methodology was invented by Adam Hyde as he was seeking an efficient way to remedy a deficit of good free documentation about free software.

Saturday 3 August 2013. The FLOSS Manuals Foundation board members live in different parts of the world. The Observe Hack Make Festival was a good opportunity for those of us in town to meet up. Pictured are three board members in Alkmaar, The Netherlands. From left to right: Janet Swisher (treasurer), Eric Kluitenberg (secretary) and Sacha van Geffen (president).