This presentation for the Free Software and Open Source Symposium at Seneca College in 2012 shows how good documentation benefits all open source projects.
Axa Assurance Maroc - Insurer Innovation Award 2024
FSOSS 2011 Beyond MAN Pages
1. Beyond MAN Pages
3 Things to Make your Open
Source Project a User Favourite
Beth Agnew
FSOSS 2011
2. Overview
My brief bio
Involve users throughout life cycle
– Documentation
– Usability
– Publicity
Technical communication help
Delivering a superb user experience
3. Bio
Seneca Tech Comm – Co-ordinator
Veteran Techwriter
Blogger, Vlogger
Gamer
www.senecatechcomm.com
4. A Reminder…
Project Life Cycle
1. Planning
2. Design
3. Development
4. Implementation
5. Maintenance
Involve user community (or a representative user) at every stage
5. Requirements &
Planning
Specifications & Design
Construction / Code / Development
Testing
Implementation
Maintenance
Project Life Cycle
Design and Plan Develop (Write) Review & Edit
Publish and
Maintain
8. Why documentation?
Users enjoy using the software
– Therefore more users
Developers can access the code
– Therefore better collaborative
development
Support liabilities are reduced
– Therefore lower support needs/costs
= More successful projects!
9. Open Source Approach
Traditionally, MAN pages, PDFs and
printed docs
Now, fluid, collaborative
documentation: FAQs, wikis, EPUBs.
Community meshes interests and
expertise, covers all the bases
Allows browsing and searching
Allows publishing in multiple media
11. User Focus
Who is the audience?
–End users
–Other developers
–Multiple audiences
–Combination audiences
–5W1H (who, what, when, where, why, how)
12. Task Focus
Task based vs. Feature based
Users want to accomplish tasks
Developers are enamoured of
features
What makes sense in your context?
– End user docs or API?
14. Social Media
Provide ways to interact with your
community
Provide ways for your community to share
info
Provide a place for your community to
gather
Provide a conversation for the community
to participate in
16. Techwriters
Core competencies
– Communication, Localization, Internationalization
– Collaboration
– Technical affinity
• Self-taught, get quickly up to speed
– User affinity
• Put themselves in the user’s place
–Single-sourcing (DITA, DocBook, XML)
–Project management
17. Techwriters
Core competencies cont.
– Writing in plain language
– Simplifying complex concepts
– Organizing and structuring information
– Researching users and software
products
– Interviewing SMEs
18. Techwriters
Join project early
Advocate for users
Work closely with developers
Create documentation
– XML, PDFs, online help, FAQs, etc.
Perform user testing
Assist with QA, Customer Support &
Marketing
Paul Frields
19. Unforgettable Projects
Work really well, transparently
Provide excellent user support
Have a thriving community
Engage users and developers
Leverage comments and feedback
Continue to improve and prosper
20. Recap
Develop project to audience NEEDS
Clear, concise documentation
Good usability (achieve goals)
Get the word out – social media
Get documentation help if needed
Make the project unforgettable
22. Open Source
A community coming together
Many people creating a dialogue
about issues
A collective search for solutions
Inclusive rather than exclusive
Adjusts as necessary on the fly
Doesn’t harm established companies,
except where they are too greedy
23. #Occupy
A community coming together
Many people creating a dialogue about issues
A collective search for solutions
Inclusive rather than exclusive
Adjusts as necessary on the fly
Doesn’t harm established companies, except where they are too greedy
http://occupyto.org/
Used with permission
Dialogue: an exchange of ideas or opinions on a particular issue, especially a political or religious issue, with a view to reaching an amicable agreement or settlement. Conversation: informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc. in a social context
Paul Frields started off getting involved with Linux because he wanted to contribute to documentation (unpaid). A few years later, he was such an expert on Linux that he was invited to be the Fedora project leader (well paid). Writing documentation for an open source project can be your entrée into nice paid positions in the software industry.