Pre-DrupalCon update

Hi Docs Teamsters!

Just wanted to drop a quick update here as we ramp up to DrupalCon Chicago, which is now in a couple short weeks!

Things already on the schedule

• Tuesday, Mar. 8, 3:15pm: "Help Needs Help!" http://chicago2011.drupal.org/coreconv/help-needs-help This is a 15 min core conversation with 15 mins of discussion time afterwards. Jennifer and I will do a quick review the current challenges with Drupal's Help system, and what options there are to improve how we provide end-user and developer "help" documentation. Would be great to have both Docs Team members and core developers there to brainstorm! This will likely set the direction for Help system work for Drupal 8.

• Wednesday, Mar. 9, 11am: "New Directions for Drupal Documentation" http://chicago2011.drupal.org/sessions/new-directions-drupal-documentation This is the main docs session that Jennifer and I will be presenting. We'll review where we're at and talk about what we're working towards, including specific challenges and goals we've been discussing. We'd love a chance to talk with as many members (and potential members) of the Docs Team and get your feedback, ideas, and input!

• Friday, Mar. 11, all day: Documentation Sprint! Jennifer will be back in Seattle and will be leading the API/code side of the Docs Sprint on IRC, while I work with you lovely people in person on the online documentation. Please come out if you'll still be in town; it's a lot of fun, a chance to get a ton of docs work done, and a great learning opportunity!

• Okay... this one's not on the schedule yet: Docs BOFs There will probably be some Docs BOFs, keep an eye here or on the BOFs forum.

Regarding the Docs Sprint

It's hard to predict how many people we might have, as it's gone up and down the last few years, but I can foresee a pretty large number of people coming to the Docs Sprint this year. This is awesome! But also means that we could really use some help from anyone who's a more experienced contributor (ie. know their way around the online or API docs and issue queues) to help mentor new contributors and lead smaller work groups on sprint day.

I'm hoping to get the time to write up a bit of a Sprint-day guide to help get everyone on track, but it's really important to have some people who are able to help out day of so I can mostly be available for questions and to do admin tasks. If anyone is available to help out with the Docs Sprint, please post here! It'll help us plan accordingly for what sorts of work we can do and how to organize groups so we don't spend too much time getting set up day of. You don't have to be a total expert, just have a general idea of how to work on docs, as there will be many people there who have never done any docs work before and need guidance.

In the meantime...

As we ramp up to DrupalCon, Jennifer and I will probably be spending more of our time on conference prep and less on the issue queues than usual. That doesn't mean that you can't keep working away! Lots of issues marked "needs review" and the working groups starting to come together on: http://groups.drupal.org/node/125669 Don't be afraid to keep knocking down those issues! Particularly if anyone with Docs Admin role can keep an eye on the issues tagged docs admins it would really help us not get too behind on the queue while prepping for the conference.

We'll post some more information about the Docs Sprint soon, so keep an eye out here and on the @drupaldocs Twitter account.

Last but not least, a huge thanks to everyone who's been working on the docs over the last several months! There have been lots of new people showing up and helping out in the issue queues, filing bug reports, and contributing to making sure we have great docs for the community. It's been awesome working with you all, and I'm so excited to see the momentum and the team growing stronger!

See you in Chicago!!!