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<p>Hi Deepti,</p>
<p>Great to hear that you are interested in helping with
documentation. You have some really good questions, which I'm
looping into our OSGeoLive email list as there are others writers
who I think will be interested in the answer, and others on our
email list who may have more suggestions.<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 27/2/19 7:24 am, Deepti Korwar
wrote:<br>
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<div>Now coming to the open source project, I have some
questions as I have never contributed to open source
projects:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>1. Typically, how many hours per week do other writers
spend on your project?</div>
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<p>I think most volunteer Open Source developers and writers
typically work in bursts, working around other life events,
typically working intensely for a few weeks or months, then
backing off for a while, then getting more intense again.</p>
<p>While active, as a bare minimum I'd suggest you'd be involved 1
hour a week at our weekly chat meeting (using an IRC chat
program).</p>
<p>To work on a specific initiative, I'd suggest you probably would
be looking at 2 to 8 hours per week for weeks to months. <br>
</p>
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<div>2. How do they interact with SMEs? Is it during
Australian business hours? Telephone or email?</div>
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<p>Different projects use different forums. Our OSGeoLive project
mostly uses email, and IRC chat. But video conferences like skype
is sometimes used to connect with other OSGeo projects. I haven't
seen much use of the phone.</p>
<p>We have a private list of contact people for each of our 50+
projects, and we can and do reach out to them (via email) to ask
for help with doc updates.<br>
</p>
<p>To date, our OSGeoLive team is very multi-national, finding a
timeslot we can all meet at is tricky. However, in tech writing
there is often one-on-one discussions which can be set up to work
between different time zones. Slotting in with an Australian
business hours will work sometimes, but not always. But being a
volunteer, you can decide what you decide to volunteer for and set
boundaries on when you are available. <br>
</p>
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<div>3. What is the documentation workflow? How do writers
access the docs, get them reviewed, published?<br>
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<p>Our workflow is currently moving between two processes. This page
provides links between the two:</p>
<p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeoLive#Documentation">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/OSGeoLive#Documentation</a></p>
<p>(Of great value would be if a tech writer could review and clean
up these docs.)<br>
</p>
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4. Can I share my writing contributions, as work samples,
with prospective employers?<br>
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Yes, everything we write is stored and published publicly. <br>
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<div>I would definitley like to contribute, but just need to
understand the sort of commitment required. I have been
planning to work 4 days a week and spend 1 day on the
things I like (like these other projects); I still need to
get this sorted out at my current workplace.</div>
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</blockquote>
I hope these answers help. We are in the process of starting our new
build cycle, and one of our goals for this release is to attract a
number of new projects. This will require Project Overviews and
Quickstarts for the projects which you might want to help write? <br>
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<div>Thanks,</div>
<div>Deepti</div>
<div><br>
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<div class="gmail-m_-1647809973795302807moz-cite-prefix">On
22/2/19 9:50 pm, Cameron Shorter wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<p>Hi Deepti,</p>
<p>Thanks, I liked your talk too. I liked the way you were
explaining how to jump the gap from being a writer to
being a technically savvy writer. (And I understand how
much time you must have put into this).</p>
<p>You are indeed the sort of person who would be great at
helping to bridge the writer to techie gap I was talking
about. Hence, I'm so glad that you have reached out.
Would you be interested in joining our documentation
initiative in the OSGeoLive project I work with: <a
class="gmail-m_-1647809973795302807moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://live.osgeo.org" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://live.osgeo.org</a> ? (We
are a meta project for packaging and high level
documentation of ~ 50 geospatial open source projects).<br>
</p>
<p>The growth of our documentation has stumbled in the
last few releases - due to lack of tech writing
capacity, and our next hurdle would be to tackle one of
the harder documentation types - like standardising
tutorials and/or workshops. However I've noticed a
recent renewed interest from a few users and documenters
which makes me think we are getting very close to being
ready to start breaking a new glass ceiling. It will be
challenging, but will be very impactful if we can get
the critical mass moving.</p>
<p>Oh, and we have access to willing and helpful
developers.<br>
</p>
<p>Does this sound of interest?<br>
</p>
<p>PS: My presentation is here: <a
class="gmail-m_-1647809973795302807moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://cameronshorter.blogspot.com/2019/02/inspiring-techies-to-become-great.html"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">http://cameronshorter.blogspot.com/2019/02/inspiring-techies-to-become-great.html</a><br>
</p>
<p>Warm regards, Cameron</p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
M +61 (0) 419 142 254</pre>
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