Open-Source LDAP training material
2019-11-06, 13:30–13:45, Main Conference Room

Click HERE to view the presentation slide deck.

I am planning to open-source some of my LDAP training material. This is not quite as easy as it sounds, as the bulk of the value is in the books and slide-decks which are generated in LibreOffice. It's easy enough to publish ODT files, but not so easy to accept patches, run multiple release streams, and all the other things that open-source projects like to do. I will report on what I have learned, and hope to share notes with others using office software in open projects.

A typical set of training material consists of:

  1. An ODP file that generates the slide deck and also the main printed book given to students
  2. An ODT file with the exercise instructions - usually printed as a separate book
  3. A collection of setup, config, and example files for practical work
  4. One or two SLA (Scribus) files to generate the book covers

Of these, only item 3 fits properly into a conventional source code control system. The SLA files are small and largely cosmetic so accepting patches is less important, but items (1) and (2) are a problem. How best to re-structure these to make it easier to accept contributed content and to re-purpose bits of the material for other courses?
If there is time, I might also talk about using Lulu and other Print-On-Demand services to deliver books around the world.