User:Pavithraes/Sandbox/Season of Docs/2019

Timeline

April 2 – April 23	Organization application period
April 23 – April 29	Google reviews and approves organizations
April 30 - July 30	Technical writer exploration and application period
August 6	Technical writing projects announced
August 7 – September 1	Community bonding period
September 2 – December 6 (current)	Doc-development phase
December 10	Results announced

Potential technical writing projects

See also: Project ideas

Technical Documentation

Find examples and create templates for genres of technical writing on Wikimedia projects (Ex. How-tos, Walk-throughs, User-Guides, etc). Use your templates to revise and improve existing documentation and to stand as an example for others in the future. (Document on this page: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_documentation_templates_and_suggestions)
Identify a Wikimedia technical project in need of technical documentation or improvement to technical documentation. Create a proposal that outlines how you would improve this area of technical documentation content.

Evaluate and recommend

Help others understand how to suggest improvements to technical documentation and how to contribute to improving technical documentation.
- Evaluate, iterate, and test this draft process proposal: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_documentation_prioritization
- Document your experience on-boarding as a technical writer on Wikimedia projects. What did you need to know? What tools did you need? How and where are things documented? How do you work with others and test your documentation and processes?
Research and propose a content strategy for a technical documentation content collection for a Wikimedia project.
Suggest a technical documentation project that covers evaluating current knowledge assets and content collections. Provide suggestions for improvements.

Audience research and user experience

Research audiences that use Mediawiki / Wikitech technical documentation. Who is using the technical documentation? How and why do they use it? Create a set of personas for the kinds of technical collaborators who are using our research and users we will want to reach out to. Provide a set of recommendations for creating technical documentation and resources for a variety of users. The report can discuss intersections (ways to reach out to a wider audience). It can also discuss recommendations to reach out to smaller segments.

Create resources for staff and volunteers

Create a set of short video walkthroughs and tutorials to help onboard new technical collaborators. (Ex. How to get started with Phabricator for Wikimedia technical projects. How to XYZ)
Curate and promote technical documentation tasks for hackathons and other developer events. Explore outstanding technical documentation tasks in Phabricator. Create technical documentation tasks that can be completed in a short time frame at hackathons and developer events. Create onboarding/quickstart documentation that new collaborators can use guide them through the process of improving and creating technical documentation.

Notes

Anyone who is interested in submitting a proposal should read Google's guide for technical writers for GSoD'19: https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/tech-writer-guide.
In addition to filling out the application form that is also accessible from the GSoD site, submit a proposal on Wikimedia Phabricator and tag it with Google Season of Docs 2019 if you are looking for some feedback from mentors during the application period. Do not share any private information in the task description such as your email, but answer to all questions asked in the application form relevant to your project.

Contact methods

Please feel free to reach out to us with questions. We like to work in the open and together with our community. Following are the best methods to reach us with questions and for official announcements.

Zulip - https://wikimedia.zulipchat.com/#narrow/stream/195601-gsod19 (PLEASE NOTE: Zulip is the best way to contact Wikimedia's Google Season of code admins.)
Google Group - technical-documentation@wikimedia.org