If you're collaborating or working on OLPC technical matters, at some point you might be asked to write a spec. Specs, short for specifications, are documents that detail a specific problem (such as choosing a backend format for the OLPC eBook reader) or a piece of software to be written. They try to survey existing work, where applicable, and present a clear, concise, detailed and specific approach to solving the problem.

Use the following resources to acquaint yourself with the spec concept:

• Joel Spolsky's four-part series on writing specs: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

• Actual functional spec for Copilot, a piece of software developed by a group of interns over the summer at Spolsky's company

• A few good Ubuntu specs
  • replacement init,
  • common customizations,
  • partitioning tool,
  • APT ELF debug symbols,
  • automated problem reports,
  • automated testing deployment,
  • boot message logging.

Happy spec-writing.