Document Road Map

Someday real soon, I will get my Frontier server back up (static IPs have been ordered). Then, I can run this in survey form too. The question on the table is, "what are the highest priority areas for documenting Radio, especially (though not exclusivley) for end users"?

Email and other forms of human contact welcome. Help feed my addiction.

Meanwhile, I will compile - and periodically revise - my own list. This is in rough priority order as I see it.

The Big Picture Items

1. Complete a Quick Start Radio Install-To-First-Post Guide. This is mostly done on my weblog but some docs need revisions and the entire package needs organization and smoothing.

2. Complete an overflight of the entire Radio user interface with emphasis on simple how-to explanations backed up by what-is definitions. I estimate I am about a third of the way there.

3. While some of this can be done in parallel with 1 and 2 above, they are foundation stones for a deeper focus on the major operational concepts: upstreaming, categories, template editing, theme design et al. I find myself linking back to the simplest basics so that fellow end-users can sustain the confidence (orientation?) required to experiment with the deeper stuff.

4. Focus on task-oriented, knowledge-management skills - showing how Radio features can be leveraged to become more productive personally and communally and have a ton of fun along the way. Again, 1, 2 and 3 above are mainly prerequisites.

5. Start unpacking the Radio desktop application much as I describe above for the browser-centric piece (do keep in mind that the underlying Radio application is the engine that generates and manages the friendly user-interface). More specifically, initiate end users into the coolness of using the very accessible outliner as a thinking tool. Can Instant Outlines be far behind?

6. Delve into the database and scripting engine that makes it go. The primary goal will be to encourage tool-making and sharing. While this is understandably the province of software developers, Userland's history demonstrates that a surprising number of end-users amaze themselves with their own ability to reach this stage.

Nothing to it. Did anyone say 2005?

An Inch At a Time

Back to reality. I am currently working on or considering ...

1. What is RSS (for the rest of us)? and its relation to the News Aggregator features.

2. How to implement a search engine within your weblog.

3. Completion of the documentation of the Radio Command Menu at the top of each weblog page.

4. How to create and manage categories - including the use of categories to manage news feeds.

5. How to publish to one or more FTP sites.

6. ???? You tell me.

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