<div dir="ltr">I've updated the QGIS Season of Docs ideas, based on ideas on this list so far. Thanks for your ideas, especially thanks to Andrew for writing it out so clearly.<div><br></div><div><a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#QGIS">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#QGIS</a><br></div><div><p style="margin:0.5em 0px;line-height:inherit;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px">QGIS, a desktop GIS application, is one of the OSGeo Foundation’s flagship projects with a broad developer and documentation community. QGIS core documentation is comprehensive and there is a diverse ecosystem of organisations and people who have created QGIS workshops and training courses. However, it is challenging for documenters to keep up with QGIS’s rapid innovation, to sustainably keep the breadth of documentation current, consistent, and targetted.</p><p style="margin:0.5em 0px;line-height:inherit;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px">Season of Docs ideas for QGIS include the following:</p><ul style="margin:0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em;padding:0px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px"><li style="margin-bottom:0.1em">Get assistance from writers to create a simple, and clear "quickstart". WHY? Because 11 of the 26 threads started in 2019 on the Australian user group are related to getting started, loading and exporting data. People indicate that they have referred to the documentation but are still lost.</li><li style="margin-bottom:0.1em">Review the structure of current documentation and provide clear separation of tasks. WHY? Because there is a "Getting started" section in the user manual and also a separate documentation section on "Getting started with GIS" - Which route does a new user take? And is the best place for Getting started material to be nested in other material? A writer could assist with by defining the best practice structure.</li><li style="margin-bottom:0.1em">Writers to review the language and readability of the QGIS "Step by Step contribution" (This is documentation for making documentation contributions). - <a rel="nofollow" class="external gmail-free" href="https://docs.qgis.org/3.4/en/docs/documentation_guidelines/first_contribution.html" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(102,51,102);background-color:initial;padding-right:13px">https://docs.qgis.org/3.4/en/docs/documentation_guidelines/first_contribution.html</a> - WHY? This guide walks a user through making a contirbution to the QGIS documentation. I don't believe the method for maintaining documentation will change, so let's reduce the contributor’s barrier to entry by making this section so accurate and clear that anyone can pick it up.</li><li style="margin-bottom:0.1em">Triage and then manage QGIS documentation issue tracker. Audit the status of QGIS documentation. Publicly share status, strategy, and vision which will help volunteers know how to engage, and what impact they can provide.</li><li style="margin-bottom:0.1em">There are a number of geospatial training courses which cover a range of topics. Merging all these courses into a central source is not logical or desirable. However, there would be value in consolidating the geospatial and QGIS basics into a central base. This will be challenging, but valuable, and would require both excellent writing and coordination skills. Some of the content authors are already committed to sharing and supporting such an initiative. Others will likely come on board once momentum grows.</li></ul><p style="margin:0.5em 0px;line-height:inherit;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px">Resources:</p><ul style="margin:0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em;padding:0px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px"><li style="margin-bottom:0.1em"><a rel="nofollow" class="external gmail-text" href="https://www.qgis.org/en/docs/index.html" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(102,51,102);background-color:initial;padding-right:13px">QGIS Documentation</a></li><li style="margin-bottom:0.1em"><a rel="nofollow" class="external gmail-text" href="https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Documentation/issues" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(102,51,102);background-color:initial;padding-right:13px">QGIS Documentation Issues</a></li><li style="margin-bottom:0.1em"><a rel="nofollow" class="external gmail-text" href="http://spatialquerylab.com/foss4g-academy-curriculum/" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(102,51,102);background-color:initial;padding-right:13px">University-level lectures and labs, created by GeoAcademy</a> (based on the older QGIS 2.18)</li><li style="margin-bottom:0.1em"><a rel="nofollow" class="external gmail-text" href="https://www.gaiaresources.com.au/qgis-vids/" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(102,51,102);background-color:initial;padding-right:13px">Environmental QGIS training and videos</a> from Gaia Resources (based on the older QGIS 2.18)</li></ul></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, 21 Apr 2019 at 08:22, Cameron Shorter <<a href="mailto:cameron.shorter@gmail.com">cameron.shorter@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>Hi folks, <br>
</p>
<p>I'm struggling to compile QGIS writing tasks for SeasonOfDocs
which are as compelling as Jo and Maria have put together for
GeoNetwork:</p>
<p><a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#GeoNetwork" target="_blank">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#GeoNetwork</a></p>
<p> I'm hoping that those of you who have used QGIS docs can list
strengths and then be fully transparent about its weaknesses. If
we don't have much of a problem, something requiring senior
technical writer expertise, then why would Google want to help us?
There will be plenty of worthy projects for Google to select from.</p>
<p>We have 3 days (till 23 April) to respond. Could you please help
by brainstorming ideas in this email thread. I'll commit to
compiling them into <a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#QGIS" target="_blank">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#QGIS</a>
. (Although feel free to update it yourself.)<br>
</p>
<p>Ideas I'm considering based on the conversations so far:</p>
<p>* There appears to be a high technical barrier to entry which
makes it hard for new users to engage with improving QGIS docs. Is
this so? What writing tasks could we put in place to address this?<br>
</p>
<p>* OSGeoLive has successfully attracted authors from ~ 50 projects
to write Quickstarts and Project Overviews based on clear
templates and writing guides. Would a template/writing guide be
useful for QGIS? For what doc types? Workshops? Tutorials? (I'm
suspecting these to be in the sweet spot for us, as they could be
rolled out through OSGeoLive to other projects).<br>
</p>
<p>* "<i>Training materials are generally tailored to a customer,
their technical use case, using sample maps from the customer's
location in the world. This makes it difficult to develop
consolidated material that works for everyone". </i>However<i>,
"there's a really big need for standard training materials- and
also if possible the kind of training materials that could be
used for schools, to try to break the monopoly that certain
proprietary companies have on that area."</i> How can we define
this task more clearly?</p>
<p>* The GeoNetwork team have provided an honest statement about the
quality and completeness of their documentation. Does QGIS
documentation have similar limitations? (My initial skim over docs
suggest that the quality might be better, but I could be wrong.)</p>
<p>* QGIS has had a major feature update from 2.18 to 3.4.x. I
suspect we should talk about this? What documentation still needs
to be updated or improved as a consequence?</p>
<p>* With a rapidly innovating product like QGIS, with large
documentation base, we could be running into challenges around
maintenance and sustainability. Do you consider this a problem? If
so, can you provide examples we can reference? Do you have
suggestions on writing tasks to address this?<br>
</p>
<p>* Matteo mentions an issue tracker with over 400 writing tasks in
it. How do we resource the management of these issues? We likely
won't be allocated a <b>senior</b> writer to action such a list
(Google's target for this initiative), but we might get a junior
writer. This might not be supported until future Google writing
initiatives, based on our identified need for such a role.</p>
<p> * I'm aware that there are multiple QGIS training courses on the
web, some which are free and open. Could you identify those that a
tech writer should consider. You can list in the "Resources:" list
in <a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#QGIS" target="_blank">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#QGIS</a>
. I notice that much of the training on the web is still based on
version 2.18. Should we suggest effort be dedicated to updating
them to 3.4?<br>
</p>
<p>----</p>
<p>Please respond to this email with your ideas. I'll really
appreciate the help.</p>
<p>What follows are the emails and ideas I've based the above
thoughts upon.</p>
<p>Warm regards, Cameron</p>
<p>----<br>
</p>
<ul style="list-style-type:disc;margin:0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em;padding:0px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">
<br class="gmail-m_1455548889327654178Apple-interchange-newline">
</ul>
<p>Matteo's suggestions:</p>
<ul style="list-style-type:disc;margin:0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em;padding:0px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">
<li style="margin-bottom:0.1em">Pyqgis cookbook code snipped are
now automatically tested, meaning that every new contribution
will be rock solid and code snippets can be taken "as they are"
and pasted in QGIS</li>
<li style="margin-bottom:0.1em">Change the doc style to the more
readable Read-The-Docs vanilla theme (fully supported by
sphinx). A live example here<span> </span><a rel="nofollow" class="gmail-m_1455548889327654178external gmail-m_1455548889327654178free" href="https://qgis.org/test/en/" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(102,51,102);background-color:initial;padding-right:13px" target="_blank">https://qgis.org/test/en/</a>.</li>
<li style="margin-bottom:0.1em">Besides from contents, writing
documentation isn't easy because of the complex framework
(sphinx, git, github, etc). Improving the WYSIWYG github editor
would be a great enhancement</li>
<li style="margin-bottom:0.1em">Cleaning the issue tracker in
github (> 400 issue now) in many different ways: verifying
issues, closing duplicates, make order in the labels, etc</li>
</ul>
<div class="gmail-m_1455548889327654178moz-cite-prefix">On 12/4/19 2:46 pm, Andrew Jeffrey
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Hi,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I agree with Jo's respone to Camerons question. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Training materials are generally tailored to a type of
customer and I this believe makes it difficult to develop
consolidated material that works for everyone. The
similarities I do see in training material though is the
basics, the kind of basics that are taught to new users like
those in the education space.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>As Jo mentioned there is potential here to break a monolopy
in this space, and get exposure to new users early in their
development. What makes this even better is a solid training
material base owned by the community can be used by anyone
creating training material, providing a consistent training
base whether you learn in your own time online or go to
trainer "A". Effectively consolidating the "QGIS beginner"
training material.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Regards</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Andrew</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Apr 11, 2019 at 2:21
AM Jo Cook <<a href="mailto:jo.k.cook@gmail.com" target="_blank">jo.k.cook@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">HI All,
<div><br>
</div>
<div><snip></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Secondly- Cameron's question about QGIS courses- we
also run QGIS training courses in the UK, and I think
there's a fairly wide market, both geographically, and in
the types of customer. We are focused on integration with
cloud technologies, such as delivering QGIS via AWS
AppStream, and less on teaching people to use all of the
functionality, for example for higher-end processing and
analysis. Having said that, I think there's a really big
need for standard training materials- and also if possible
the kind of training materials that could be used for
schools, to try to break the monopoly that certain
proprietary companies have on that area.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Regards</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Jo</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Apr 10, 2019 at
2:27 PM Cameron Shorter <<a href="mailto:cameron.shorter@gmail.com" target="_blank">cameron.shorter@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>Thanks for the introduction Nick. One thing that
puzzles me is that there appears to be a lot of people
setting up QGIS training courses and I would have
thought it would be beneficial of these separate
initiatives were to become more consolidated.</p>
<p>I'd expect that consolidating workshops would be a
very valuable task, as it would focus the community
together.</p>
<p>It would also be a suitably challenging task to bring
multiple threads together, and something that would be
worthy of a senior technical writer's expertise.</p>
<p>What are people's thoughts on the current state of
available QGIS training courses? Is there potential to
consolidate? Or is everyone tailoring to their unique
user base? <br>
</p>
<p>Warm regards, Cameron<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="gmail-m_1455548889327654178gmail-m_-8879180848396350800gmail-m_-8174159744361345516moz-cite-prefix">On
10/4/19 10:13 pm, Nick Bearman wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><snip>
<div dir="ltr">
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I'm keen to learn how to contribute more
effectively, particularly to QGIS documentation,
and I am also looking to run a workshop on how
to contribute to OS documentation at upcoming
FOSS4G UK event in Edinburgh, UK in Sept.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I am familiar with Git/GitHub and Markdown.
The RST format of the QGIS Documentation site
sometimes eludes me! I look forward to working
with you all. </div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<pre class="gmail-m_1455548889327654178moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
M +61 (0) 419 142 254</pre>
</div>
</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><span style="font-size:12.8px">Cameron Shorter</span><br></div><div>Technology Demystifier</div><div>Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant</div><div><br></div><div>M +61 (0) 419 142 254</div><div><br></div></div><div><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>