Akademy/2013/DocumentationBoF

Documentation BoF

Some things we might discuss. Other topics are welcome!

Creation of documentation on UserBase

Pros:

Everyone can contribute
Collaborative process
Many eyes (editors, translators) spot problems
Nice interface for translation

Cons:

Docbook formatting doesn't completely match with UserBase formatting
Wiki translators are not always properly part of the translation team, and this needs fixing. It seems that there are technical fixes needed, and some social problems to be solved as well. Common phrases are one issue for ALL translators; identical translations for all identical strings should always be used. Should all translations be done off-line?

Tools:

automated Wiki -> DocBook program in Python (still requires some manual intervention)
automated DocBook -> Wiki program TBA?
Better support for interface strings, versionsnumbers ...?
Better integration with existing tools: Lokalize, pology.

Building teams of document writers

Documentation is a task that regular users can contribute to. It is an excellent gateway into the community. How can we improve this? How can we improve outreach, and processes to move writers into the community?