Hi,
I've been watching the feedback, including Jean's of course. Although
some months ago my own feelings were that the LibO English docs team
didn't really need a specific team leader, my opinion has somewhat
evolved since then.
This is partly because of the small number (or even practical
non-existence) of regularly active team members. New people have
turned up, done some work and then become inactive again. People
previously involved in OOo and ODFAuthors have sometime put in some
work and then gone silent again - sometimes leaving their work in a
half-finished state.
There are only a couple or so people with any accurate idea of the
state of play of docs work and who's doing what, and Jean is one of
them. Also, I have noticed how there is more general activity from
other people when Jean herself is in an active period, and how things
go largely dead when she's busy with other stuff in life.
So I do think it would be worth properly naming her team lead, because
she does seem to carry a lot of weight with people and since it could
give her a better position to be an ambassador for LibO documentation
(for recruiting new members, for possibly finding alternative ways of
getting documentation written for the project, etc.).
I'd see her as having more of an organizational/coordinating/project
management role, and as being more of a "librarian" than anything
else.
"Possibly finding alternative ways of getting documentation written
for the project"?
Well, how about the possibility of getting commercial technical
documentation and translation agencies involved in
sponsoring/undertaking projects, in exchange for some form of
publicity/creditation for their contribs? That would, of course,
require some serious liaison and organization, and Jean would be a
well-qualified candidate for the job (if she felt able to take on the
role).
This is just one idea that comes to mind, but I'm starting to think
that it's time to do some lateral thinking. The LibreOffice
documentation effort has currently ground almost to a halt in terms of
real productive work.