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Join the team! |
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We are urgently in need of volunteers with the following competences:
People need not be locked into any one position, nor is there any requirement that there can be only one of each.
Do you want to join our Freedom Project? Yes? Good! Please read on.
Are there any specific requirements? No. Basically, all we want is that people who join us be able to work in teams. That means a lot in terms of character, cultural tolerance, respect for others, politeness, ability to share your knowledge with others, and the ability to listen and learn from others.
We have a few "organizational rules" that guarantee the freedom to create and the freedom to express yourself:
The Freedom Project is about complexity. To master this complexity, we had to standardize on some tools, lest we would fall prey to the "Babel effect". To really integrate your work with the main body of the Freedom Project informational content, you'll need access to some hardware and you'll have to learn to use some software tools.
First and foremost, you need access to a microcomputer connected to the Web. You'll also need an email address. Our recommended configuration is a GNU/Linux machine with X, although users of other operating systems are welcome - especially other open OSes which could be ported to the Freedom architecture.
Then you need to learn some basic CVS principles. This is really very, very easy. There are some tutorials on the Web, so learning the basic CVS operations takes just 15 minutes. Having learned the basic principles of CVS, you can use a GUI client to access our CVS trees; this avoids having to learn and memorize the usual assortment of cryptic commands.
Our documentation is entirely maintained in SGML DocBook DTD format. This sounds complicated, doesn't it? Well, it's not. You'll need to learn to use some very simple translation tools, but once you have the translation steps ready, you can even use an HTML editor to work on any part of our documentation.
Or you can use a plain and simple text editor. Or, you can use our recommended tools for documentation work: LyX (or its KDE cousin, Klyx). LyX can be described as a document processor, which is a word processor with a twist, really. It takes about one hour to get used to the basic operations, and after you get to write a few pages with it you'll feel it's a great tool.
Note that SGML is the documentation format of the future. It's also an International Standard.
Finally, if you are going to work on the F1 implementation, you'll have to learn VHDL. VHDL is not too tough, either. There are many tutorials on the Web, and excellent books and Web sites dedicated entirely to VHDL. More on VHDL tools as the Project progresses.
What do you get back from the Project? A lot!
First you get the opportunity to meet and discuss ideas with a lot of very intelligent people all over the world, people that you would never meet otherwise.
You also get to work in a free environment, which is designed to stimulate your creativity. You can set the amount of pressure that fits your working habits better. :-)
You'll also learn a lot, in two ways:
Finally, Project members get early access to our first batch(es) of Freedom F1 CPUs. Imagine plugging one of these jewels in your trusty Socket 7 motherboard and launching Linux on it! Especially if you have contributed to the Project's success. :-)
If you join the team, you'll want to join our mailing list so we can communicate! See the feedback page for more information on the lists.
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