<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Hi Bethel and Harrissou,<div>Thank you for sharing your insights into the QGIS community. This is really helpful feedback, and I'll update our Ideas page within the next day or two to incorporate some of your suggestions. The challenges you are facing and suggested solutions are eerily similar to those described within our OSGeoLive and GeoNetwork communities. So I think we are well positioned to focus on cross-project strategies.</div><div><br></div><div>I suggest that you both join our OSGeo SeasonOfDocs email list, where we will be discussing these topics in more depth. (That offer extends to anyone else lurking on this list and interested to monitor progress or take part.) <a href="https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/seasonofdocs">https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/seasonofdocs</a></div><div><br></div><div>If you would like to continue contributing to the initiative, maybe as a writer, or mentor, or domain expert, then please also add your name to our "List of People Keen to be Involved":</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#Key_roles_sought">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#Key_roles_sought</a><br></div></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 24 Apr 2019 at 03:32, Bethel Ugochukwu Ukazu <<a href="mailto:ugobethu21@yahoo.com">ugobethu21@yahoo.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><div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp63aa112yahoo-style-wrap"><div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Dear Colleagues, </div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px">i have tried to provide some thoughts in text of <span>Harrissou's email (i beg your grace and indulgence to do this). </span></div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span><br></span></div><div>if for any reason my contributions are out of place , i mean does not follow the discussion. please pardon me, i may have missed out due to many emails i receive from the group.</div><div><br></div><div>regards </div><div style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></div><div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp63aa112signature" style="font-family:verdana,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><div style="font-size:24px"><div>Bethel </div></div></div></div>
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On Tuesday, April 23, 2019, 2:44:04 p.m. GMT+1, Harrissou <<a href="mailto:delazj@gmail.com" target="_blank">delazj@gmail.com</a>> wrote:
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<div><div id="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679"><div style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,40,42)">Hi Cameron and all,<br clear="none"><br clear="none">I did not actively follow the discussion nor fully understand how the GSOD program will be organized, what actually can a senior technical writer provide as expertise but I'm already glad to see the interest of the wider OSGeo community in improving and learning from QGIS doc. It's nice to read comments from others than the Core QGIS writers or issue reporters. I don't know whether what I will raise below can be handled by the program and did not take the time to structure my thoughts (sorry) but I'd like to share things we do or want to do, and hear from other projects how they do.</div><div style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,40,42)"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">Cameron, I share the points you compiled below, and thanks to all of you for your contributions.<br clear="none">I'd simply have expected that the step by step chapter is now accessible to beginners. We made an in-depth review few months ago, with (I may be wrong) the help of a writer and a "beginner". But still if you don't have enough potential contributors to test the process and tell you where they struggle to step in, it's hard for advanced contributors to find the right level to lower the barrier. That doesn't mean that what we did is perfect; if there's a way to improve and someone can help, it's more than welcome. Nick, for reference, last year Alexandre Neto made a video for first contribution to docs [0]; we should have added to the guidelines but forgot. It may need some cleanup but could maybe help you in your plan.</div><div style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,40,42)"><br></div><div style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,40,42)"><br clear="none"><br clear="none">We, at QGIS, but I guess it's the same for all our projects, are lacking writers. Even call for paid writers failed in the past. I don't know whether a senior writer can help us understand why and find how to fix it but, it could be nice...<br clear="none"><br clear="none">I've been contributing to QGIS doc for years and one thing I miss is a cap, a direction. What are the priorities? So I just adress "what I want, when I can". Or when I catch some requests on the mailing lists. Might not be different for others, I think. Until recently, we had a contributor asking what she should first focus on and no clear answer arose so yes, if someone can help us to get a strategy of writing, I'd be glad. And also define schedules, plan when releases should be better done. We do it greatly IMHO with the application, it could be nice to have the same for docs release. Experience from other projects may help here.</div><div style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,40,42)"><br></div><div><font color="#cd232c"><font face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">yes, i agree with this strategy or long term plan, lets say 2 year plan. i read emails always from the group , often times discussions on what to do are Brownian in nature, many times about what one thinks or feels. i may be wrong in my submission, but sincerely, it gets me to wonder if what the direction is for the group and what needs to be achieved. </font></font></div><div><font color="#cd232c" face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">At the Level which QGIS is now, structure and institutional framework is expedient, urgent and not to be compromised at this time, if limitless boundaries and impossibilities is the goal for this generation Qgisers.</font></div><div><font color="#cd232c" face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#cd232c" face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">i understand the concepts of volunteers and interests around QGIS, but their needs to be a visionary leadership or lets say a kind of structure may be a cohort that gathers all our ideas together and fashion out clearly where we must go, how and when . </font></div><div><br></div><div><span><font color="#cd232c">Richard, <span><span style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif">Cameron, </span></span>Matteo, Harry + some others, could take the lead in this initiative of putting up a SMART strategy </font></span><br></div><div><span><font color="#cd232c"><br></font></span></div><div><font color="#cd232c">An online meetings could be a start point to put these ideas together. But first the 4+ of you may have to put like a first draft where others could build on. </font></div><div><font color="#cd232c"><br></font></div><div><font color="#cd232c">please not that this would be done without compromising the volunteer, individual responsibility nature of Qgisers</font></div><div><br></div><div><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">One of the strengths of QGIS Docs is the tightness we are building with the devs. For example, most of the dialogs (should) have a help button that opens online the feature page in the corresponding language of the user manual if available. In the future, the docs would be available locally. </font></div><div><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font color="#cd232c">i agree with you on this </font></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font color="#cd232c"><br clear="none"></font></font><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Also, Most of our 400 issue reports are automatically generated by commits in QGIS code so we directly have what we should write about in the doc repo. But this becomes a weakness when:</font><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">- there's not enough people to write (increasing number of issues), </font><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">- there's no cleanup for duplicate issues (because of backports) or unrelated issues (eg API matters) --- we try to fix these ones</font><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">- or the commit message is not clear enough for writers (who may not have the same technical knowledge as the developer). If we can get some clues on how to make devs write more detailed description in noob language, big +1</font><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">I think that triaging the issue tracker and setting priorities and deadlines may greatly help in telling where a senior writer can help (in writing, I mean). I'm not sure any of us (at least me, I do not) have the actual big picture of the issue reports and can categorize them. We already have the necessary tags but now we need to use them. So this would be my task 1.</font></div><div><font color="#26282a" face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"> <font color="#cd232c"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif">truly</span><span style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif"> </span> , the big picture is missing and there is need to create one. </font><br clear="none"></font><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">As Richard or Matteo mentioned, we are also reviewing the global formatting/rendering of the docs. Whether we move to readthedocs. In the meantime, we think it could be nice to improve the rendering of the Processing algorithms docs [1], looking for something more compact and easy to read. An initial work is done [2] and if we can get more help to finish the prototype and apply it could be nice.</font><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Another issue we can have is that most of us are not English native speakers. So a review of the docs from an English speaker is more than desired. But I'm not sure if for this, we necessarily need the person to be a senior writer.</font></div><div><font color="#26282a" face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" color="#cd232c">how about having interns to do this work, may be for some of us who are researchers or working in organisations, on topics related to the ones raised here. May be there is a chance. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" color="#cd232c">should we have a structure, it would be easy to appreciate fellows who may support in working on these stuff. For example , a simple thank you letter with signatures of colleagues on this group may go a long way.....hahhahahah..... quite ambitions, i guess <img title="Emoji" alt="Emoji" class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249yahoo-emoji-wrapper" height="16" width="16" style="padding: 0px 2px; vertical-align: middle;"> ....</font></div><div><font color="#26282a" face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br clear="none"></font><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">The training materials (dataset and instructions) are also an important item. We are still working on updating to QGIS 3 and I'm happy if there's a demand (/an offer?) to structure and join efforts on this area. But to be honest, I'm more interested in translatable docs (because I'm not in an English working environment and "my" community wouldn't reuse it otherwise) than building an English only infrastructure. So it could be nice if we keep the translatability (?) in mind. Maybe, another topic.</font><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Sorry for the lengthy message. I hope there are information that clarify what we do, that you can pick and improve our submission. But whatever the result for GSOD, I think there are a lot of ideas in this thread we should try to implement in the long run.</font></div><div><font color="#26282a" face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font color="#cd232c">i am wondering, if there is some form of documentation for ideas that come out of discussions in this group. i think its important to have these transitions and evolutionary processes documented. A few years from now, there may be need to refer back to these, may be for posterity <img title="Emoji" alt="Emoji" class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249yahoo-emoji-wrapper" height="16" width="16" style="padding: 0px 2px; vertical-align: middle;">. </font></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><font color="#cd232c">which goes back to my submission for some form of structure. </font></font></div><div><font color="#cd232c" face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font color="#cd232c" face="Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif"><br clear="none"></font><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">[0] </font><a shape="rect" href="https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/wiki/20th-Developer-Meeting-in-Madeira,-February-2018#making-your-first-pull-request-to-qgis-documentation" rel="nofollow" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,40,42)" target="_blank">https://github.com/qgis/QGIS/wiki/20th-Developer-Meeting-in-Madeira,-February-2018#making-your-first-pull-request-to-qgis-documentation</a><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">[1] eg </font><a shape="rect" href="https://docs.qgis.org/3.4/en/docs/user_manual/processing_algs/qgis/vectorgeometry.html" rel="nofollow" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,40,42)" target="_blank">https://docs.qgis.org/3.4/en/docs/user_manual/processing_algs/qgis/vectorgeometry.html</a><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">[2] </font><a shape="rect" href="https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Documentation/pull/2770" rel="nofollow" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,40,42)" target="_blank">https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Documentation/pull/2770</a><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">PS: Since people were asking, the best way to contact the QGIS Doc team is to use the dedicated list <a href="mailto:qgis-community-team@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">qgis-community-team@lists.osgeo.org</a> as mentioned at </font><a shape="rect" href="https://www.qgis.org/en/site/getinvolved/mailinglists.html#qgis-community-team" rel="nofollow" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,40,42)" target="_blank">https://www.qgis.org/en/site/getinvolved/mailinglists.html#qgis-community-team</a><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Regards,</font><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Harrissou Sant-anna</font><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><br clear="none"><div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679yqt7142148699" id="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679yqtfd76817" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,40,42)"><div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail_quote">Le 22 avril 2019 15:03:35 GMT+02:00, Cameron Shorter <<a href="mailto:cameron.shorter@gmail.com" target="_blank">cameron.shorter@gmail.com</a>> a écrit :<blockquote class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<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 clear="none"></div><div><a shape="rect" href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#QGIS" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#QGIS</a><br clear="none"></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 shape="rect" class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679external gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail-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" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">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 shape="rect" class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679external gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail-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" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">QGIS Documentation</a></li><li style="margin-bottom:0.1em"><a shape="rect" class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679external gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail-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" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">QGIS Documentation Issues</a></li><li style="margin-bottom:0.1em"><a shape="rect" class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679external gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail-text" href="http://spatialquerylab.com/foss4g-academy-curriculum/" style="text-decoration-line:none;color:rgb(102,51,102);background-color:initial;padding-right:13px" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University-level lectures and labs, created by GeoAcademy</a> (based on the older QGIS 2.18)</li><li style="margin-bottom:0.1em"><a shape="rect" class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679external gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail-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" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Environmental QGIS training and videos</a> from Gaia Resources (based on the older QGIS 2.18)</li></ul></div></div><br clear="none"><div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail_quote"><div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Sun, 21 Apr 2019 at 08:22, Cameron Shorter <<a shape="rect" href="mailto:cameron.shorter@gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">cameron.shorter@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none"></div><blockquote class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>Hi folks, <br clear="none">
</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 shape="rect" href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#GeoNetwork" rel="nofollow" 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 shape="rect" href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#QGIS" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#QGIS</a>
. (Although feel free to update it yourself.)<br clear="none">
</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 clear="none">
</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 clear="none">
</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 clear="none">
</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 shape="rect" href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#QGIS" rel="nofollow" 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 clear="none">
</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 clear="none">
</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-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-color:initial"></ul><br clear="none" class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail-m_1455548889327654178Apple-interchange-newline">
<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-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);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 shape="rect" class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail-m_1455548889327654178external gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail-m_1455548889327654178free" href="https://qgis.org/test/en/" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(102,51,102);background-color:initial;padding-right:13px" rel="nofollow" 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_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail-m_1455548889327654178moz-cite-prefix">On 12/4/19 2:46 pm, Andrew Jeffrey
wrote:<br clear="none">
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">Hi,
<div><br clear="none">
</div>
<div>I agree with Jo's respone to Camerons question. </div>
<div><br clear="none">
</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 clear="none">
</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 clear="none">
</div>
<div>Regards</div>
<div><br clear="none">
</div>
<div>Andrew</div>
</div>
<br clear="none">
<div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail_quote">
<div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Thu, Apr 11, 2019 at 2:21
AM Jo Cook <<a shape="rect" href="mailto:jo.k.cook@gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">jo.k.cook@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none">
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail_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 clear="none">
</div>
<div><snip></div>
<div><br clear="none">
</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 clear="none">
</div>
<div>Regards</div>
<div><br clear="none">
</div>
<div>Jo</div>
</div>
<br clear="none">
<div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail_quote">
<div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Wed, Apr 10, 2019 at
2:27 PM Cameron Shorter <<a shape="rect" href="mailto:cameron.shorter@gmail.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">cameron.shorter@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br clear="none">
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<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 clear="none">
</p>
<p>Warm regards, Cameron<br clear="none">
</p>
<p><br clear="none">
</p>
<div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail-m_1455548889327654178gmail-m_-8879180848396350800gmail-m_-8174159744361345516moz-cite-prefix">On
10/4/19 10:13 pm, Nick Bearman wrote:<br clear="none">
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><snip>
<div dir="ltr">
<div><br clear="none">
</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 clear="none">
</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 clear="none">
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</blockquote>
<pre class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail-m_1455548889327654178moz-signature">--
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
M +61 (0) 419 142 254</pre>
</div>
</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br clear="none"></div>-- <br clear="none"><div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yiv0556219679gmail_signature" dir="ltr"><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 clear="none"></div><div>Technology Demystifier</div><div>Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant</div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>M +61 (0) 419 142 254</div><div><br clear="none"></div></div><div><br clear="none"><br clear="none"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
</blockquote></div></div><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">-- </font><br clear="none"><font color="#26282a" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Envoyé de mon appareil Android avec Courriel K-9 Mail. Veuillez excuser ma brièveté.</font></div></div><div class="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yqt7142148699" id="gmail-m_2745022833324480249ydp55966657yqtfd41031" style="font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(38,40,42)">_______________________________________________<br clear="none">Qgis-community-team mailing list for organizing community resources such as documentation, translation etc..<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="mailto:Qgis-community-team@lists.osgeo.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Qgis-community-team@lists.osgeo.org</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-community-team" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-community-team</a></div></div>
</div>
</div></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>