Author: Mick Chesterman

Summary: This blog post contains a proposal to create a new FLOSS Manual on publishing websites, online technical manuals with multiple outputs, and, finally, academic papers and reports. It ends with a link to ways of contributing - see this summary of this proposal as a GitLab issue

I’m writing this in the weeks between submitting my PhD on game coding and the viva exam. While working on the thesis, I developed a workflow for writing and publishing using Markdown as a writing format, with Pandoc and static website tools to create multiple outputs.

Libre Graphics Meeting is an annual international gathering focused on Free/Libre and Open Source software for graphics, bringing together developers, designers, artists, and researchers working across tools and practices.

It has past links with FLOSS Manuals and has been a source of several collaborations.

We are preparing a flyer for the 2026 LGM in Nuremberg, Germany, taking place from 22–25 April 2026. This year’s theme, “RE:WIRE”, focuses on reconnecting tools, communities, and workflows in free/libre graphics, and exploring new forms of collaboration beyond proprietary platforms.

Update: The reboot is now sheduled for June 1st 2026.

Original Post

When we set up Scavenger Labs in 2018 one of the reasons was to create a legal vehicle for the FLOSS Manuals project to replace the previous one based in the Netherlands. As such the company is called Scavenger Labs FM, the FM being for FLOSS Manuals.

About FLOSS Manuals

FLOSS Manuals was founded in 2006 to provide free, high quality documentation for free and open source software. The project pioneered collaborative authoring, book sprints, and remixable manuals that could be downloaded in many formats. Hundreds of contributors produced manuals in multiple languages covering creative, technical, and educational software. The original site remains online at flossmanuals.net, and many of its ideas continue to influence open documentation projects today.

A new version of the Csound FLOSS Manual has been developed by Joachim Heintz and collaborators, now hosted externally at https://flossmanual.csound.com/. This version uses a different workflow, combining Markdown, Git version control, and interactive examples that run directly in the browser.

Csound itself is a powerful open source system for sound design and music composition, widely used for synthesis, algorithmic composition, and audio research. One of the strengths of the new manual is that many examples can now be run directly in the browser, making it easier to explore and learn through experimentation.

I was involved in the Duct Tape University project as part of a co-design process that shares a lot with the ethos of FLOSS Manuals. The full report can be found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20191210082631/http://blog.ducttapeuni.org/report-co-design-process-duct-tape-university-project/

Rather than a traditional book sprint model, this was a more distributed and ongoing collaboration, bringing together different contributors to shape both the content and direction of the work. The process combined workshops, iteration, and shared authorship. Participants were not just contributors but co-creators, helping define what the project should be as it developed.

Books produced during the Book Sprints for ICT Research project

From Urban Space to Future Place: The UrbanIxD Summer School 2013

I. Helgason, M. Smyth, N. Wouters, O. Surawska, L. Skrinjar, L. Jensen, S.Rosenbak, A. Streinzer, Amsterdam, 2013

Read the book: PDF

Adaptive Collective Systems: Herding Black Sheep

S. Anderson, N. Bredeche, A.E. Eiben, G. Kampis, M. van Steen, Amsterdam, 2013

Read the book: PDF

Urban Interaction Design: Towards City Making

M. Brynskov, J.C.C. Bermúdez, M. Fernández, H. Korsgaard, I. Mulder, K. Piskorek, L. Rekow, M. de Waal, Amsterdam, 2014

Edit: Some links updated 2026

FLOSS Manuals content (Basic Internet Security and Bypassing Internet Censorship) continue to be used in the world-wide movement of CryptoParties. The CryptoParty Handbook was created at a book sprint in Berlin. Cryptoparties provide a great way for anyone to learn how to install and use encryption technology and other tips to keep you anonymous online.

There has been an increased interest in CryptoParties in the UK following the UK government lack of response over Snowden data. There is also a new initiative called Techno Activism 3rd Mondays with similar aims. Green host who convened the BIS sprint are involved with that.

Edit: Links updated to archived resources April 2026

In December 2013, the video4change network published a new set of guides aimed towards supporting video activists and citizen journalists in producing and distributing their videos more effectively. 

With support from Internews Europe, these guides range from mobile video to hosting independent video sites.

1. Guide to Independent Video Hosting. Are you looking for ways to set up your own video-sharing and aggregating site (å la EngageMedia.org!)? Then you should read this manual. The guide focuses on Free, Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) solutions such as  Wordpress, Drupal and Plumi. This was written by Mick Fuzz from video4change member, FlossManuals.
2. Effective Video on Low Cost Devices. If you’re a video activist or citizen journalist on a tight budget ad can’t quite afford to buy the latest video equipment and smartphone, then you will find this guide useful. It offers tips and tricks to making quality videos on your existing devices. This guide was written by Brian Conley from video4change member, Small World News.
3. Citizen Journalist Guide to Mobile Video. This one has everything you need to know to use your smartphone for video activism and citizen journalism. The topics covered in this guide include the principles of mobile video as well as available applications to distribute video through your mobile device. This was written by Melissa Ulbright.
4. Citizen Journalist Guide to Live Streaming Video. Are you citizen journalist, planning to go cover a demonstration in your town? Or are you at the right place at the right time, and are witnessing events unfold that should be shared with the rest of the online world? Before that happens, it would be great if you can read this guide. This takes the user through different tools and strategies in live-streaming video. Written by video4change member, Becky Hurwitz from the MIT Centre for Civic Media, this guide also has hands-on exercises to installing and using the most popular video streaming services available.

All of these guides are available in Arabic and Burmese.

FLOSS Manuals has been working with Internews Europe as part of their Human Rights programme to create some user focused manuals to help communication. Recent security news has shown us that Free Software solutions are the best solutions for many situations. We have been very happy to draw on our past experience of creating and translating manuals to whip up three new manuals to help make the process of emailing, sharing photos and files more secure.

7 August 2013. The FLOSS Manuals Foundation and Adam Hyde are collaborating on a one year project funded by the European Comission. The project is titled: Book Sprints for ICT Research – Testing the practice of Book Sprints as a new paradigm of collaborative writing for ICT researchers and innovators. A Book Sprint is a collaborative process where a group of six to twelve people get together to produce a book in five days or less. Participants work intensively under the guidance of a facilitator to create high quality materials. This methodology was invented by Adam Hyde as he was seeking an efficient way to remedy a deficit of good free documentation about free software.