Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
From: jeffk@cyberspace.org (Jeff Kopmanis)
Subject: LSM (Linux Software Map): Volunteers needed
Message-ID: <1993Apr18.180917.3261@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1993 18:09:17 GMT
Approved: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu (Lars Wirzenius)

Well, I've made remarkable progress in getting an initial list made up.  It
now contains 837 packages and will probably grow soon due to Erik Troan's
recent update of Sunsite.  HOWEVER, what I have now is a reasonable
starting place.  The next step in developing the LSM is getting some of the
more useful description, requirement and version fields filled with
information to make the LSM a resource, not just a file listing.  I need
volunteers to help with the chore.

IF YOU VOLUNTEER, I'm going to give you a list of software to research.  I
will need the blank fields in the list filled in wherever possible.  It may
be that you'll need to email somebody a few times to get everything you
need.  Or, you may end up downloading the package, checking out the docs,
or the help files and filling in what's needed.  Every package will
probably have the information in different places, so there's no method to
finding it out.  Time wise, it will depend on the size and content of the
list I give you.

This all sounds a little dark and murky at this point.  However, its really
not that bad, once you get into it.  And, you end up learning about all
kinds of stuff you'd never even think about looking into.

Once the LSM starts to become more robust (right now, its skeletal, with
only a handful of packages completed), I'll start releasing it
regular-like.  Erik Troan at sunsite has volunteered to get the LSM
indexxed and online to make searching the thing easier than using find
commands in less/more.  This is where we're heading.

But, we need YOUR help to get it started.  I'm thinking of a weekly
expendature in time of about an hour or two of downloading and 2 or 3 hours of
sorting through documentation.  So, for 3 to 5 hours a week, you can become
part of a project that is geniunely important to the Linux community.
Additionally, you'll get my personal thanks and my wife's gratitude for cutting
down my online-time and tying up the phone line.  Not to mention, a warm
feeling inside.

So, will 20 or 30 of you brave souls out there like to help out?

If you're interested, please mail me at jeffk@cyberspace.org.  By the end
of next week, I should have things in shape to start divvying out lists.

Thanks ahead of time for those of you who say YES.  For those of you who
don't plan on it, please reconsider, or at least think on it for a while.

-Jeff.  :)
-- 
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Jeff Kopmanis                                          jeffk@cyberspace.org
(313) 769-6911 (home)                                 (313) 393-4784 (work)
