Updating/improving the docs

[Bernhard Reiter]

Hi Dashamir,

Am Montag 22 Februar 2021 17:03:40 schrieb Dashamir Hoxha via Gnupg-devel:
> If you think that the GnuPG docs need to be updated or improved,
> either in form or in content, consider participating to Google Season
> of Docs

thanks for the suggestion!

We do believe that docs should be better, but it is very unlikely
that we participate this particular funding program.

To explain: The GnuPG development team has a long standing tradition to not 
advertise for Google by participating in their programs or by using their 
services. They use some of their "programs" to also gain mindshare and place 
themselfes in a good light.

Aren't there some useful things done by Google for Free Software and 
cryptography? Yes, there are. This is a very large organisation and there are 
nice groups and individuals inside it, with some friendly and interesting 
technical projects. My scepticism is more about the course of the whole 
company and how its long term business interests and accumulated powers are 
contrary to a decentral, cooperating vision of information technology in the 
world. (However this is just stating it superficially, here on this 
mailinglist is not the right place to discuss in more detail, we'd be getting 
off-topic. I'm just mentioning it to aid your understanding.) 

Another difficulty with a project-based approach (that means goals and end and 
limited resources) is that it is not what the GnuPG ecosystem needs most in 
terms of improving the user experience. If we can avoid to write 
documentation, we should. The approach of a minimal documenation (like
in the tradition of John M. Caroll) and the concept of self-explorability
and don't-make-me-think usability are (in my view) more suited to a modern set 
of crypto based applications for end to end security.
Approaching this would mean long term engagement and funding if it is done by 
professionals.

Best Regards,
Bernhard

-- 
www.intevation.de/~bernhard   +49 541 33 508 3-3
Intevation GmbH, Osnabrück, DE; Amtsgericht Osnabrück, HRB 18998
Geschäftsführer Frank Koormann, Bernhard Reiter, Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner
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