Re: Writing doc for open source software (was Help Needed -- Build Your Portfolio)
I'm interesting in having a discussion of writing documentation for open
source software (OSS). Why does it seem that there are so few tech writers
participating in OSS?
<snip>
I'd like to hear from those of you who actually have spent significant time
working on OSS projects... What got you into it?
Curiosity led me to OpenOffice.org soon after version 1 was released. I immediately tried to use normal techwriter things like templates, cross-references, other fields, conditional text, and so on. The online help at the time was fairly hopeless (and frequently wrong, having been ported almost unchanged from StarOffice, which wasn't an identical program), and no books were available from any source. By the time I'd worked out how to do what I wanted in Writer (word processor component), I had an impressive collection of notes, so I decided I might as well compile and expand them into a book. Turns out my book on OOoWriter was the first on the market, by about a week!
While I was working things out for myself, I became active in the OOo users group, and more recently I've been making some of my writing (material I've made public on my OOo website) available to the group writing a users guide for OOo. When I first got involved with OOo, I found it extremely difficult and frustrating to try to be involved in the documentation group, but that situation has changed dramatically in recent months.
How do you make time for it?
Like Bruce Byfield, I don't watch TV and I make time for stuff that particularly interests me.
What suggestions do you have for tech writers who are interested in getting
involved in OSS?
Find a project that really grabs you -- something you want to learn or do -- as that should provide the incentive to continue if/when you might otherwise let the project drop to the bottom of your priority list.
If one of your major motivations is portfolio development and thus career enhancement, consider getting involved in a medium to large project, not a very small one. Get involved in the users group for the product, and (as you learn about the product) answer questions as well as ask them. You'll get more help in setting up and using the product yourself, but you can also soon become known as one of the gurus on the user side, so if any paid work comes along (for example, training or writing books for sale), you are more likely to be asked to participate. Or you could pitch a book proposal at a publisher yourself!
Lest all that sound too mercenary, and contrary to the "sharing freely" ethos of open source, I suggest that by sharing your knowledge on the users group and in any documents or help systems you make available to the community, you've done your part for sharing. Volunteer and for-profit work, even on the same product, are not mutually exclusive.
Regards, Jean
Jean Hollis Weber
jean -at- jeanweber -dot- com
The Technical Editors' Eyrie, http://www.jeanweber.com/
Taming OpenOffice.org, http://www.taming-openoffice-org.com/
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