Documentation related DrupalCon proposals?

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heather's picture

Deadlines for submissions to DC Copenhagen are approaching...

In addition to BoFs, I wondered if other people might have ideas for submitting sessions at DrupalCon Copenhagen to get people interested in Documentation, or make contributions to documentation, in addition to the sprint model?

I proposed a session which will first talk about how to communicate ideas visually, then we'll look at some tough Drupal concepts new users struggle with, and we'll actually make stuff. That 'stuff' can be contributed as documentation or used by others to help teach/evangelize Drupal.

http://cph2010.drupal.org/sessions/communicating-drupal-visually-lets-ma...

So rather than a sprint, it's a little more focused and organized. And people walk away with an understand of using visuals to express abstract ideas and processes.

Maybe other Docs team people have ideas? Off the top of my head:

  • Module documentation: Creating good README.txt files
  • Best practices for Documenting your module on Drupal.org
  • Using Advanced Help with your module
  • End-user documentation: how to prep docs for your clients

We can teach some good practices of technical writing or documentation - and then in return also improve document on d.o.

Any other ideas?

Comments

Hey Heather - I didn't

arianek's picture

Hey Heather - I didn't propose anything because:

1) I hadn't committed to going in time, and...
2) I HATE HATE HATE public speaking (one day I'll conquer this, but not on my first trip overseas, one hurdle at a time!)

That said, assuming I am not a total jetlag disasterfest, I might be into helping run some kind of how to get started and best practices for docs BOFs or something like that - something outside a sprint where the focus is teaching how to do docs rather than actually writing them.

I guess it's too late for a

joachim's picture

I guess it's too late for a session, but maybe we should start planning a BoF?

Could do some kind of

arianek's picture

Could do some kind of contributing to docs BOF workshop, but will definitely plan to be around for the codesprint on the 27th, as there's usually a big docs sprint then.

Heya Arianek & Joachim I'd

heather's picture

Heya Arianek & Joachim

I'd love to do a BoF on documentation- to help prepare for the documentation sprint.

I remember the docs sprint we did in Szeged. It was so easy, as a noob, to get involved because a to-do list was clearly outlined.

If you have time, I'd love to get your feedback on areas of documentation that you feel need visuals, beyond screen shots.

  • Difficult to grok concepts
  • Fundamental concepts people mis understand
  • Workflows, process diagrams which are needed.

etc!

I'd like to seed conversations for the "visual Drupal" session.

-h

Local installations of Drupal

arianek's picture

Having coached a fair number of folks on Drupal docs work at this point, I can say for sure the biggest hurdle is walking people through getting a local Drupal install running. So even though it's not directly a docs thing, that's what I'd suggest if there's any way you that process can be easier!

Does it have to be local?

kvantomme's picture

Does it have to be local? Maybe we could just generate a couple of sites on a server for those that don't get around installing their own. Of course they would learn less as a result...

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Check out more of my writing on our blog and my Twitter account.

gusaus's picture

If it's something like a sandbox that you'll provide for people working on documentation, Webenabled may serve that purpose. If that's not what you're talking about.... just ignore this comment...haha.

Gus Austin

Webenabled is fine, but...

jhodgdon's picture

Webenabled is great. But you can't use it on the plane or on the beach, and if you have spotty/bad internet connectivity, you'd be much better served having a self-contained test/sandbox environment.

Acquia DAMP is another option...

That's a great tip Gus! Thx,

kvantomme's picture

That's a great tip Gus! Thx, there is Drupal 7 available and it seems like it's even free http://www.webenabled.com/application/drupal-0

let's see if we need it.

--

Check out more of my writing on our blog and my Twitter account.

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