We’re applying to Season of Docs

What is it?

The goal of Season of Docs is to provide a framework for technical writers and open source projects to work together towards the common goal of improving an open source project’s documentation.

This is a Google Initiative

What does it mean for us?

During the program, technical writers spend a few months working closely with an open source community. They bring their technical writing expertise to the project’s documentation, and at the same time learn about the open source project and new technologies.

We’ll likely get professional documentation people who can help us put WordPress documentation into shape!

Who’s involved?

  • Chloé Bringmann, @cbringmann (Primary Administrator)
  • Andrea Middleton, @andreamiddleton (Backup Administrator)
  • Jon Ang, @kenshino (Docs Team)
  • Adam Silverstein, @adamsilverstein (Support from Google)
  • Mentors (from the Docs Team)
  • Tech Writers (people that apply to help us!)

What do we need now?

The program requires two key things to get started

  • Mentors
  • Projects

For now, we’re looking to get a group of mentors together who’s well acquainted or want to be well acquainted with WordPress’ Documentation needs and projects.

If you’re interested to be a mentor, please comment below. We’ll leave this open for a week so that we can get a team together to suggest projects and work through the application.

The initiative is a lot more than I’m describing so feel free to read more at the Season of Docs site!

Summary for Documentation Team Meeting 27 April 2020

Attendance

@chaion07 @kenshino @milana_cap @estelaris @netpassprodsr @joyously @sukafia @makewebbetter @cbringmann @rabbirshad199621 @iamshubhamnigam @atachibana @themiked @softservenet

Agenda

source

  1. Attendance
  2. Note-taker & Facilitator selection for Next Meeting
  3. Categorization Project, Alterations Workflow, User Stories (discussion)
  4. Handbook Revamp
    • Homepage Update
    • Deadline for next 2 to 3 pages
  5. Project Updates
  6. Season of Docs
  7. New Member Mentor Training
  8. Tracking Slack Comments
  9. Monthly Coffee Breaks/Zoom sessions
  10. WCEU Online Contributors Day
  11. Open Floor

Notetaker: @makewebbetter
Notes Reviewed by: @chaion07
Facilitator: @chaion07
Facilitator for Next Meeting: @milana_cap
Follow the meeting on the Slack channel

Categorization Project, Alterations Workflow, User Stories

@estelaris completed 63 stories so far.(ref).

Instead of a zoom meeting, write-up is recommended by @kenshino ref and @estelaris agreed to complete that by this week. @chaion07 also ready for assisting as a supporting hand.

Handbook Revamp

@milana_cap provided a Handbook document – here, this document is not finished as she doesn’t have workflows for some projects, she’ll list once the draft is finished.For the missing ones she recommended “Report in Slack” as the default option.

Project Updates

@atachibana reported on thee-routing of the Codex page to Code Reference for Functions as 583 out of 1069 (54.5%) had been completed. He also felt that it was a considerate jump from 46.6% from last week by reaching 50% and more.!He also expressed his thanks to @stevenlinx, @collinsmbaka, and @immeet94 Ref

Season of Docs

After discussion and to considering a point that we need time to select the project ideas the deadline for project ideas submission was decided as 30th of April UTC 11:59

Recommended format for posting project ideas

Project name: Choose a concise but descriptive title.
Description: A longer description of the documentation work required. Describe your initial idea in detail. Offer opportunities for any interested technical writers to expand or refine the idea.
Related material: if any

All mentors are required to post at least one idea, and we need to choose 6 projects from 12 and 2 mentors per project.
And submit your ideas here before the deadline- 30th UTC 11:59

New members Mentor training

@sukafia shared the link to the working document – here 

Including the tracking sheet for new members  – here 

He addressed that the team is welcoming new members alongside @softservenet @netpassprodsr and @milana_cap to make this happen. (ref)

Slack Comment Tracking

@kenshino suggested this to be proposed by one of the mentors as a project in the Season of Docs.

Monthly Coffee Breaks/Zoom sessions

@sukafia suggested if we can play around with features like Zoom breakout rooms and a few other features that’ll allow us to get to know each other in a fun way. But he wasn’t sure on the scheduling of the coffee break.

He will create a  Doodle Poll for the schedule selection to the Coffee Break and update us regarding this. 

WCEU Online Contributors Day

@milana_cap is going to write a post on WCEU Online Contributor Day on behalf of the Docs Team.

Open Floor

@joyously pointed out that there have been several questions here about the look of the Roles and Capabilities page, and towards the recent ticket that was posted. Was it that the table styles were lost? Did this get fixed? @milana_cap replied that she was on it as it hadn’t been fixed yet.

@netpassprodsr wanted to ask what was needed to move the doc’s page reformat initiative forward referring to the forums page wordpress.org/support/forum?

Season of Docs: A Call For Projects!

Thank you to all who responded to @kenshino initial call for mentors as we prepare to participate in this year’s Season of Docs. As this season’s primary administrator, I am looking forward to working with you all!

Mentors

For those listed below, please be sure to familiarize yourself with the responsibilities of being a mentor and apply before the deadline of May 4th 20:00 UTC. If you have any questions, @kenshino will be acting as a support throughout the mentoring process.

Next Step: Project Ideas List

Our next step is to create a project ideas list. This list should include documentation projects that would benefit from the work of a technical writer. Each of these projects will need the guidance of two mentors. Please add your project ideas as a comment below by Thursday, April 30th UTC 11:59.

X-post: WCEU Online 2020 Contributor Day update: times, registration, platforms and team video introductions

X-post from +make.wordpress.org/updates: WCEU Online 2020 Contributor Day update: times, registration, platforms and team video introductions

Agenda for Docs Team Meeting 27th April 2020

Our next Team meeting is scheduled with the following details:

When: Monday, April 27, 2020, 15:00 UTC

Where: #docs channel on Slack.

Meeting Agenda

  1. Attendance
  2. Note-taker & Facilitator selection for Next Meeting
  3. Categorization Project, Alterations Workflow, User Stories (discussion)
  4. Handbook Revamp
    • Homepage Update
    • Deadline for next 2 to 3 pages
  5. Project Updates
  6. Season of Docs
  7. New Member Mentor Training
  8. Tracking Slack Comments
  9. Monthly Coffee Breaks/Zoom sessions
  10. WCEU Online Contributors Day
  11. Open Floor

“History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.”

Julian Barnes

#agenda, #meetings

Summary for Documentation Team Meeting 20 April 2020

Attendance

@passoniate @atachibana @chaion07 @milana_cap @bph @crstauf @mukesh27 @kafleg @FahimMurshed @Ataurr @johnbillion @cristianozanca @nobnob @immeet94 @deadpool76 @estelaris @kenshino @marcio-zebedeu @audrasjb @kulsumsiddique @softservenet @kevinhill83

Agenda

Source

  1. Attendance
  2. Notetaker & Facilitator selection for Next Meeting
  3. Project Updates
  4. Handbook Revamp
    • Homepage Update
    • Deadline for next 2 or 3 pages
  5. Categorization Project, Alterations Workflow, User Stories (discussion)
  6. Open Floor

Project Updates

@milana_cap No updates (ref).

@themiked 20% of the plugin handhook is done, convering to individual blocks and review (ref).

@atachibana redirecting Codex pages to Code Reference pages is 46.6% completed (498 of 1069). Big thanks to @collinsmbaka and @stevenlinx (ref).

Handbook Revamp

@milana_cap Handbook is waiting for workflow pages (ref). Hopes to finish “Reporting an issue” by next week (ref).

Categorization Project, Alterations Workflow, User Stories

@chaion07 Tried to write a few user stories (ref).

@estelaris Completed 32 stories (ref). There was a Zoom call last week: recommendation to track and analyze search results (@jonoaldersonwp is looking into it) (ref).

@estelaris Will schedule a Zoom meeting for Thursday at 15:00 UTC to discuss further (ref).

Discussion on how to get more people involved:

Open Floor

Four items to discuss from last week (ref):

New members Mentor training

  • @sukafia was not available with an update (ref)
  • @milana_cap in a Zoom call:
    • agreed next step is for @sukafia to define the structure of the project (ex: introducing tools, checking skills) (ref)
    • agreed onboarding process between one week and one month, based on member’s adoption speed (ref)
    • new members have separate meetings as well as regular Docs meetings (ref)
    • new members are announced once onboarding is completed (ref)

Slack Comment Tracking

@estelaris proposed adding to next week’s agenda. (ref)

@kenshino requested to discuss next week (ref), prefers use of Docs Trac (https://docs.trac.wordpress.org/), to prevent multiple points of entry. (ref)

Monthly Coffee Breaks/Zoom Sessions

@estelaris Proposed adding to next week’s agenda (idea from @sukafia, not available to propose idea) (ref).

WCEU Online Contributors Day

Few things needed (according to @estelaris) (ref):

  1. Getting Started with Contributor day pay in handbook updated
  2. office hours for new contributors between May 25 and June 3
  3. a short video from an experienced contributor to introduce the team
  4. a call for ideas/projects to work on
  5. plans for the day

@estelaris Called for volunteers on the above items (ref).

@milana_cap Volunteered to write P2 on contributor day (ref, ref).

X-post: Next steps for Dashicons

X-comment from +make.wordpress.org/design: Comment on Next steps for Dashicons

Agenda for Docs Team Meeting 20th April 2020

Our next Team meeting is scheduled with the following details:

When: Monday, April 20, 2020, 15:00 UTC

Where: #docs channel on Slack.

Meeting Agenda

  1. Attendance
  2. Notetaker & Facilitator selection for Next Meeting
  3. Project Updates
  4. Handbook Revamp
    • Homepage Update
    • Deadline for next 2 or 3 pages
  5. Categorization Project, Alterations Workflow, User Stories (discussion)
  6. Open Floor

“Documentation is not understanding, process is not discipline, formality is not skill.”

~ Jim Highsmith

#agenda, #meetings

Summary for Documentation Team Meeting 13 April 2020

Attendance

@sukafia @chaion07 @bph @atachibana @kenshino @softservenet @netpassprodsr @marcio-zebedeu @cristianozanca @nobnob @kartiks16 @mukesh27 @sasiddiqui @nullbyte @audrasjb @themiked @estelaris.

  1. Notetaker & Facilitator selection
  2. Project Updates
  3. Handbook revamp
    • Homepage update
    • Deadline for next 2 or 3 pages
  4. Categorization Project; Creating User Stories, Alterations Workflow.
  5. Proposal for Beginners’ Mentors
  6. Open Floor

Project Updates

@atachibana reported that the re-routing of Codex page to Code Reference for Functions is 461 of 1069 (43.1%) completed. Refer to the guide if you would like to join the project.

@themiked is making progress on updating and reviewing the handbook. He is getting assistance from several team members.

@bph ran into the problem that reusable blocks don’t work in the migration of HelpHub articles to rosetta sites. The CPT post ids do not transfer. There is a meta ticket for the issue. @audrasjb reported that reusable blocks are a post type and are identified by their ID in post_content, so when they are imported, IDs do not match any longer, as was updated on the meta ticket.

@milana_cap let us know that the Facilitating Weekly Meetings page is published in the handbook. And that she continues translating HelpHub articles into Serbian.

Categorization Project

@estelaris reported that not many people replied to her request for adding stories about the user needs in building a site, making it difficult to create classifications for the HelpHub articles. The team requested another week to work on this and a Zoom call has been scheduled for Wednesday 15 April at 3:00 pm UTC for anyone who wants to join and help write stories.

Proposal for a Beginner’s Mentor Role

@sukafia proposed on his P2 to add a new role as a beginner’s mentor because new members are having a hard time incorporating themselves on the team. @softservenet and @netpassprodsr volunteer to help to become mentors for new members together with @sukafia.

Open Floor

Four items were brought to the floor but we ran out of time to discuss them and will be added for next week’s agenda.

Summary for Docs Team Meeting: April 6, 2020

Attendance

@milana_cap, @chaion07, @sasiddiqui, @atachibana, @christiano.zanca, @kafleg, @softservenet, @ataurr, @marcio-zebedeu, @bph, @yui, @sukafia, @aion11, @estelaris, @nobnob, @stefanocassone, @kenshino, @themiked, @joyously

Notetaker & Facilitator Selection

Note @chaion07

Notes Reviewed by: @milana_cap

Facilitator for the next meeting: @sukafia

Next Meeting will be held on: April 13, 2020

Categorization Project, Alterations Workflow (discussion)

@estelaris shared the link of the spreadsheet for the project. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_Ea2yeF5Rfy_YDk7pBRJ4rdljhMjygXFqBq8gWwhbaE/edit#gid=1431454973 She suggested that the entire team should start adding stories to that page, so we can conclude on the main categories and the subcategories the idea is that we can think as a user, following the workflow to build a site. The names in brackets were meant more like the article, not the category.

@milana_cap advised that the text in brackets should be of raw categorization and if it can be moved to a separate column and there was no mention of User.

@softservenet asked if any decisions were made to use themes on those 3 labels.

@themiked added saying that he wants to pay better attention at his local WP beginner meetups (whenever that takes place the next time) and see if there are questions asked which would be a good fit here.

@softservenet pointed that we had 3 main categories decided from the previous meeting.

@milana_cap emphasized moving it to a separate column as it can possibly be a mess after over 10 stories has been written.

@themiked warned as soon as we start to try and funnel towards predefined categories, those categories will start to define the questions. Categorization should be the last step, if it’s even needed at all.

@milana_cap invited everyone to add more user stories and use existing ones as an example.

@estelaris further added categorization is needed to improve search but yes, that is the goal for this exercise. She also encouraged everyone to bring a predefined categorization for the next meeting so that we can discuss it.

@milana_cap asked @estelaris about the deadline for ‘User Stories’ to which @milana_cap suggested to have 7 days to add as many stories as possible.

Project Updates

@atachibana provided updates on Re-routing of the Codex page to Code Reference for Functions, where 443 out of 1069 that is 41.4% is complete Thanks to @stevenlinx (as always). He also mentioned that @collinsmbaka and @sukafia had also contributed to the cause.

@estelaris reminded everyone to add their respective WordPress Usernames to the working document so that it can be added to the contributors list at the end of the project.

@chaion07 reported that he had applied for the HelpHub for BN_BD to be added to the site https://bn.wordpress.org/ with a support ticket.

@christiano.zanca informed that the Italy HelpHub Team is using the italian Polyglots way of translating: using Google docs and some sorts of per-translation methods. Thus it is taking longer than usual. @milana_cap asked if it would be moved to Rosetta later and if so then it should be alright. This is a huge project and every team should find their own way to be most productive. @christiano.zanca shared the link of the tool they are using: ttps://wp-info.org/tools/helphubchanges.php to which @milana_cap suggested of another one that she had developed which compares locale with original including the last modified dates so you can see if your version is outdated or not. Link: https://developerka.org/helphub-updates/

@themiked provided updates on the plugin handbook that he is 20% through reviewing content and converting from classic blocks into actual blocks. He discussed having 2 items specifically. The first one is the external linking, which is also being discussed in the blog. While visiting the cpt section it seemed natural to link to generatewp, but we need a decision beforehand. So this is more of a reminder. The second one is that the plugin related content in the codex seems to be much more feature complete, so if it should be rolled into the plugin handbook, or we should be referring to it. Either way, having the same or similar content in two places may seem confusing and wasteful. @milana_cap shared the associated link: https://make.wordpress.org/docs/2020/03/16/external-linking-in-docs-policy/ She further added that it is wasteful and a nightmare for maintenance. She further suggested that the next step should be to create the list of exact content and then we can decide if it should be moved to developer handbooks or somewhere else or just leave it as is.

@joyously questioned on the perspectives of the write up should be either on using a plugin or writing  for a plugin. To which @themiked replied with both revolve around writing and suggested a link: https://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_a_Plugin and more generally https://codex.wordpress.org/

@atachibana added that our big goal is the retirement of Codex. So the required portion should be moved to the Plugin Handbook or appropriately handbook, developer hub or so.

@themiked summarized with a suggestion that he’ll get through the existing content and then slurp it in and eventually get through the existing handbook content, then slurp in the Write a Plugin content.

Handbook Revamp

  1. Facilitating weekly meetings
  1. Reporting an issue workflow
  • @milana_cap shared the link to Trello board: https://trello.com/c/GNXYppYS/44-workflows further added, the second one is not really a draft and requested others to add their items and steps. The idea is to help people report issues for every docs project by following simple step-by-step instructions.
  • @softservenet shared the idea of creating a card for each discussion issue (with the minimum summary information) and posting it in Slack, same for new issues. Eventually we’ll work on transferring the information to the actual document. That way, for new issues, we can always direct to the card for required information and we’ll have a better understanding of it hopefully.
  • @bph didn’t report any progress. Except discussing with @jdy68 about reusable blocks in English pages, that don’t show up for translators. Link: https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RP4WU5/p1586119655314100

Open Floor

  • Google Season of the Docs

@kenshino reported that he reached out to @chanthaboune to talk about the Season of Docs and is currently waiting to hear back. He is assuming to maybe get some updates in the coming week. @milana_cap agreed and also added that we wanted to do it last year as well but now it’s a good time for us to get professional help on writing technical docs. Link: https://opensource.googleblog.com/2020/03/announcing-season-of-docs-2020.html @softservenet inquired on what would our suitable position be in this? @milana_cap shared the idea as a reply that the Docs Team to be working with professional technical writers. We will explain to them what WordPress is and how it works and they will help us write better technical docs. @kenshino shared the details with the organization terms. Link:  https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/terms/organization-terms

  • Categorization

@estelaris was interested to join in the discussion of categorization as she thinks that she has lots of info to provide and we will need help to finish up that part of the project. @softservenet replied, If @milana_cap takes the lead, I’d be willing to accept some type of position in this structure.

  • Mentoring Program Proposal

@sukafia felt the need to have someone who would focus on helping with the on-boarding of new members. That’s instead of everyone focusing on contributing to docs, helping new members settle in and this role should be recognized as a contribution to the Docs team. Updates should be given for new members and they should be followed up until they find a footing. He further added that it was difficult to settle in and had recently discussed with new members who feel the same way. @milana_cap agreed, that we are aware of it and we have been thinking about that problem for years. One solution could be to have mentoring program as suggested. She further added saying, every team rep should be mentor for their project but we don’t have enough people to mentor and do the work and if we have one mentor for all, it wouldn’t work. She even requested @sukafia to write a p2 post about that and we can all discuss it there. @kenshino suggested that the person doesn’t have to know everything about all projects – just where they can get started and a general high level understanding would be good enough. @sukafia expressed his interest in volunteering for this role if we decide it’s necessary. @softservenet A newer person would be better in tune with the challenges of getting started. Many of us have the history from meetings and the continual process, so they would better understand that challenge

  • Handbook

@estelaris asked if there is a page in the handbook that discusses the projects that the team is working on? The design team has a FOCUS page only for that. I assume it’s often updated. Here is the page and yes, it is often updated https://make.wordpress.org/design/handbook/focuses/ @milana_cap said that she’ll add this to ‘the to do list’ for Handbook.

Transcript of the meeting can be found here on slack

Thank you all & please stay safe!

#meetings, #notes