Technical writers, participate in Open Source - OpenWrt Linux routers - no experience required

I'd like to recruit people with spare time to participate in Open Source projects. In particular, writers - technical writers - technical editors. This is a great opportunity to sharpen your skills, resume build, and gain some new experience.

For a lack of creative names, how about "Open Source Writers" group?

PROPOSAL
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In particular, the OpenWrt Linux project is one that I have been involved with for the past year that I think could benefit from several Austin writers working together.

OpenWrt is an "open group" based on my personal experience. They encourage and desire newcomers on the forums, Wiki, and to provide training and assistance. From my observations, the OpenWrt project is a collaboration of users and does not retail products or favor any particular vendor. They seem to be driven by the love for the wireless and tiny hardware technology, desire for better WiFi options, etc.

From their home page: "OpenWrt [is now] under the SPI umbrella as an associated project. OpenWrt has hereby become a non-profit organization with the benefits this entails. OpenWrt joins such esteemed free and open source projects as Debian, PostgreSQL, OpenOffice.org, and madwifi.org. SPI makes a complete list of its associated projects available on its website."

EXPERIENCE NOT REQUIRED
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Your time and writing skills are what's important. If you have zero experience with Linux or routers, then you can learn/read - or help identify what is missing for newcomers. To a degree, a lack of experience could be a great way to capture your own expectations, trails and issues - to inspire the instruction manuals and information portals that are created!

EASY ENTRY
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Do you have a laptop or a computer? You will need a computer. It can be Apple, Windows, whatever - but you do need to have WiFi on it. If you don't have WiFi, a USB adapter can be purchased for around $25.

Ideally you have regular Internet access - like you are using to get to door64.com now. That way you will have access to research materials, etc.

ROUTER PROVIDED
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I will personally lend you router hardware capable of running OpenWrt if you do not have one. Normally these can be purchased in the $20 to $200 range, with some decent average ones coming in around $70. Only a specific set of routers are capable of running OpenWrt - and what most people have is not likely supported. However, with the recent standardization of 802.11n wireless, there is a renewed interest in Linux-based routers.

4 HOURS A WEEK or 40 HOURS?
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Much of the task is to identify and organize existing information off forums, wiki, IRC. It could be dozen hours invested in a FAQ for developers, it could be weeks of work on building and maintaining a proper end-user manual.

I hope we can get at least 3 people to work at least 4 hours a week so that the group can be self-sustaining. Ideally we structure it so that people can come and go. Further, I'm sure there are other Open Source projects this writer group can tackle later on.

FIRST ORIENTATION MEETING
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Thursday, January 28, 2009 6:45pm at the AustinLUG meeting location in downtown Austin. City of Austin Waller Creek Complex: 625 East 10th Street. I will be there starting at 6:30pm. You will need to sign in at the security desk, tell them you are there for the ALG (Austin Linux Group) meeting. I suggest a 90 minute to 2 hour meeting where I (Stephen Gutknecht) will do orientation on the OpenWrt project - have routers available.

If you are interested, please reply here or otherwise contact me. THE MEETING SPACE IS NOW CONFIRMED.

I'll edit this post and add more information as we go. Hopefully this is a useful introduction to the idea. Please pass the world around.