[SeasonOfDocs] How should we focus OSGeo training within SeasonOfDocs?

[matteo]

Hi Cameron,


> * Andrew Jeffry has been a newbie QGIS documented and has helped other
> newbies getting started, and has collated his experience here:
> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eWpqmZHFiuoUhcCPcf9VTFrs2ol53A-Ha9in8sbiwlU/edit?usp=sharing
> . Matteo and Harrissou:How do you suggest we go forward with improving
> the getting started experience with Andrew's insights? Should we invite
> Andrew to update existing getting started page with his material?

what Andrew did has been to enrich the material with screenshots.
Actually what we always suggest is "a picture worth a thousand words",
so additional screenshots, if they could help more are more than welcome.

Andrew's doc is a kind of review of a first contribution so your opinion
is very important:

* do you think that screenshots could have helped more?
* did you find some confusing sentences?
* what was your experience with git & github? Do you have any previous
experience with git?

Based on the answers to these questions we can (Andrew can?) enhance the
existing documentation.

I agree on some steps you pointed out here:

 > * The "How to contribute" page explains the mechanics of how to
> contribute, but where I see additional value in the SeasonOfDocs
> initiative is in addressing some of the meta issues. Answering questions
> like:
> 
> ** What content do we want to accept in the QGIS manual? How do we
> decide what is in/out?

I don't remember we rejected any kind of material in QGIS docs. There
are basically 3 main resources:

* QGIS user manual that describes QGIS "buttons"
* pyqgis cookbook (python code)
* QGIS Training Manual with guided exercises.

These 3 resources are in some way linked: it can happen that a section
in the Training Manual redirects to the official manual and viceversa.

> ** How should each page fit within the greater documentation and
> learning vision?

that's one of the main difficulties. Having almost duplicated material
around is bad: what we suggest is to enhance existing documentation (if any)


> ** What types of documentation do we want to create?

again: QGIS user manual (basically clean the issues) and QGIS Training
manual (updating/enhancing existing material or create ad hoc sections)

> ** What is the target persona we wish to write to for each doc type?

I think the audience can go from the basic user to the advanced.

> ** What writing style/tone should be applied?

that's is describe in the website (should we improve this in some way?)

https://docs.qgis.org/testing/en/docs/documentation_guidelines/

> ** I'd be interested to hear Jared's thoughts from the perspective of a
> senior technical writer.

yep me too. As said many times we have a robust framework (and that's
very good) but at the same time complex (and this can scare some new comers)

> * From the various owners of QGIS training material on this list: Why
> are you writing and using material outside of the core QGIS repository?
> What are your barriers to entry in getting back into a central location
> and collaborating on material development and maintenance)?

we suggest to use OSM data as far as possible. Of course if some
exercise needs some specific data (e.g. geologic data) than of course
nobody is stopping this

Cheers

Matteo