[OSGeo-Discuss] Fwd: Google Season of Docs (GSoD) Proposal

[Jeff McKenna]

Forwarding an idea for a possible new initiative, that some OSGeo 
projects may be interested in.  It would be good to give them feedback 
either way (through the form).


-------- Forwarded Message --------


At the Mentor Summit we had Sarah Maddox, a tech writer at Google, come 
and talk about her idea to bring more technical writers into open source 
projects. We would like your feedback and ideas about her proposal too! 
If you are intrigued, please keep reading.


Sarah is proposing a Google Season of Docs (GSoD) to give open source 
projects more opportunities to engage with technical writers, and vice 
versa. See deck: https://goo.gl/3Bpris.


GSoD is similar to Google Summer of Code but focuses on docs and 
technical writers, rather than on code and students. The target 
participants are experienced tech writers who can work with you on your 
docs. The writing part of GSoD will run for 3 months, similar to GSoC. 
Another difference is that the technical writers will not be earning 
stipends, they will be doing this to learn more about open source code 
and working on developer focused docs with code and building their 
resume. And the writers will often have other jobs, this would be a side 
project for them (not something they will be focusing on for 30 hours a 
week - in most cases).


We think GSoD will bring benefits for both parties:

   *

     Open source projects gain documentation mentors embedded into their
     community.

   *

     Tech writers gain mentorship in OSS and in developer products.


This deck has more details, including ideas on how the mentors will work 
with the tech writers, timing, and suggestions for projects: 
https://goo.gl/3Bpris


We're inviting you to fill out this form to help us gauge interest in 
the proposal. All feedback is welcome:

https://goo.gl/2tfUQQ


This is a proposal for a program,  it is not a confirmed program, and it 
is not clear which team at Google might manage it. Thanks!


Best,

Stephanie Taylor