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<p>OSGeo Season of Docs folks, (BCCed to a few potential
collaborators),<br>
</p>
<p>As you know, the OSGeo Foundation will be allocated 1 paid
technical writer, for equivalent of ~ 3 months (probably spread
over 6), as part of Google's commitment to Season of Docs [0].</p>
<p>But more valuable are the 18+ serious volunteers (on this list)
wanting to be involved, and 5+ QGIS training material baselines
that we can potentially build upon. [1] I'm hoping to discuss
these baselines within this email thread and build a collaborative
vision which focuses our Season of Docs direction.<br>
</p>
<p>(Chris, Ori, Scott from Uni of NSW), Charlie from Uni of
Massachusetts, Piers from Gaia Resources, Jo from Austun
Technology, Matteo from QGIS docs, Nick from Uni College of
London, Phil from <span style="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; orphans: 2;
text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255,
255); text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color:
initial; display: inline !important; float: none;">GeoAcademy</span>:
You all have mentioned training material that you might be able to
access. I'm hoping you might restate your ideas here. (Cut and
paste from before is fine).<br>
</p>
<p>My observations so far (based on input so far):<br>
</p>
<p>* We have multiple offers of material to start from, but less
interest in building from someone else's material.</p>
<p>* We all find it hard to sustain the maintenance of material,
acknowledging the rapid innovation of QGIS (and other OSGeo
projects). We'd all love external help updating our material.</p>
<p>* We are all concerned about the free-rider problem. We are
mindful that collaborators in material development are potential
competitors for students (and hence funding). Our organisation's
reputation is an important part of this story.<br>
</p>
<p>* We need to balance generic content that is easy to maintain
versus use case specific training for targeted customers.
(Especially important around local maps and datums used).</p>
<p>* It seems like there is core functionality that we can probably
all agree to use as a starting point for collaboration. What is
it? This might be our best pilot focus area.</p>
<p>* We could also define a best practices formula for building
training material that we all adopt, addressing structure, writing
style, etc. This is something a senior technical writer could
define, (and could be extended to other OSGeo projects and to the
greater Open Source community). This would help students who are
progressing through multiple training courses as they'd become
familiar with writing styles. Would you be prepared to adopt such
a guide (assuming it is better than what you already have)?<br>
</p>
<p>* We'll need to agree on a license that everyone can use,
probably Creative Commons by Attribution.</p>
<p>So for those of you wanting to collaborate around training
material - how can we help you do that? How can you help others?<br>
</p>
<p>[0] <a
href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#Leveraging_Google.E2.80.99s_Season-of-Docs">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#Leveraging_Google.E2.80.99s_Season-of-Docs</a></p>
<p>[1] <a
href="https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#Interested.3F">https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs_Ideas_2019#Interested.3F</a></p>
<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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