[Day 1] Docubricks

Convenor: @Tobey
Documentation: @julianstirling

Intro
Tobey is introducing what docubricks is. It is an initiative to make an open standard for documentation. As an open hardware project without documentation is very hard to use.
It cannot be edited by on the website, it is edited in a java program.
This session will look at the editor, and talk about future requirements

People and why they are here

Justin - interested in open access academic resources
Harold - Engineer used to internal documentation but not open source
Aga - Interested in decentralisation beyond google docs
Marc - Interested in open culture. Part of hackteria which was initially a documentation platform. Why they don’t work?
Anna  - Local manufacturing, open hardware is important, but people cannot find designs.
Julian  - Used docubricks before, interested in discussion issues
Dorcas - Interested in opening a maker space and need access to maker space.

Tobey is explaining what docubricks is and showing the website. The idea is that it is modular in “bricks”. As everyone has a standard form for their documentation this makes everything consistent but also means that some users try to “fight the system”.

Tobey is then showing us the java editor for docubricks. It is a functional but not pretty.
Discussion

Marc: It is very much just a form, does everyone like forms
Julian: has used docubricks and had some issues with geting the older viewer/server, and that it is not a WYSIWYG editor. This is an issue as it doesn’t work offline and which means I have to trust somone to hold the data which is all in a hard to transfer form.
Anna: Not all places have all tools (i.e. laser cutters). Each brick and project should also tell you tools needed
Marc: This is definitely more focused to science hardware. Maybe better to focus on one thing as nothing is one size fits all
Anna: The terminology is slightly confusing
General discussion: who would use it and ethos of how it should things should be saved, how people document and who would use it.
Aga: It is to create finalised documentation. Not for documenting what you did as you designed it
Summary

Summary from Tobey: It is designed to give you a good structure and not have to start with a blank page, but it wont do everything for you.

I would suggest:

Docubricks is an initiative to make an open standard for documentation. As an open hardware project without documentation is very hard to use. It is designed to give you a good structure and not have to start with a blank page, but it wont do everything for you. It cannot be edited by on the website or in a text editor, but requires a specialised program.
Some worried about its flexibility and the ease of filling out what is essentially a form. Others were concerned about if the project gets abandoned, how easy is it to transfer their documentation to another program. Others felt that a one-size fits all solution to open hardware decumentation may be too hard and perhaps it is worth concentrating on science hardware.
In general everyone agreed for the need of a documentation standard, some worried that the current state of docubricks doesn’t meet their needs.

@Tobey are you fine with this?