Writing Day

This year, Write the Docs will have a new Writing Day, modeled after the concept of sprints from the open source world. The idea is simple: to get a bunch of interesting people in a room together and have them work towards shared goals.

To make the most out of the Writing Day, we recommend that you either come with a project, or be ready and willing to contribute to someone else’s project.

Here are some examples of projects that you might want to work on:

  • Open source software documentation
  • General documentation writing
  • Best practices manual (For your company, or the world)
  • Blog posts
  • Tips and tricks
  • Great works of fiction
  • Love letters
  • The Documentarian Manifesto

You get the idea.

All this adds up to a room full of smart people sharing your problems, your passion, and your goals. So be ready to learn some new things and to teach others what you know.

Even if you feel as though you don’t know that much, we know you have a lot to offer. Come surprise yourself with how much you can share.

Logistics

Please bring a computer or some other mechanism with which to create written words.

We’ll be creating and editing content, so make sure that you have the tools you need to contribute.

  • Date & Time: Sunday, May 17th, 9am-6pm, with the conference opening reception in the same space until 9, so feel free to keep working longer!
  • Venue: CENTRL Office - 1355 NW Everett St. Map
  • Sustenance: Mozilla will provide food and drinks throughout the day so that you can focus on Getting Stuff Done.

Schedule

  • 9am Venue opening
  • 9:30 Morning introduction - Introduction to Sprints, project introductions
  • 10:00 Team up and start writing
  • ~12:30 Lunch Break
  • ~1:30 Afternoon introduction - For those arriving late, another introduction to the day
  • 6:00 Official end of the Sprints, but we have the space til 9, so keep on working!
  • 6:00 Official start of the Reception – In the same venue as the sprints
  • 9:00 End of the Reception. Go get some sleep and get ready for Day 1 of the conference!

Documenting a new project?

Check out our beginners guide to writing documentation. This should help you get started, and give you some ideas for how you can contribute to a project that you love.

Projects

We have some suggestions for projects that you can work on during the Writing Day. If you’d like to add your own project to the list, you can email us. Better yet, submit a pull request.

Open News

The Open News team has multiple open source journalism projects whose documentation could use some expert love. Help improve the docs on some amazing code that helps people understand the news everyday.

Check out the full list of Open News projects that will be worked on.

Mozilla Developer Network

Help document the internet. Mozilla always needs more people to create, edit, and translate content, so we can do more to help make the internet more approachable.

WordPress

WordPress powers a large portion of the internet. Help write the docs that help people set it up and use it.

Write the Docs Website

We have a website for our community, but it kinda sucks. Help us make it better by adding content, archiving old talks and notes, or just making it more friendly in general. Remember, you are the community.

Write the Docs Guide

A guide to writing documentation. Help us make this guide great for people who want to write docs, but don’t know where to start.

RAML-based API generator

I’m working on the API Reference for a new web service. I have all of the APIs defined in a RAML file, which also allows me to use the same source to generate the documentation. Ideally, I’d also like to make the API reference interactive. As examples, see http://developer.wordnik.com/docs.html#!/account or http://developer.marvel.com/docs.

Let’s work together to make this happen at the Writing Day!

NodeSchool Workshops/Events Docs

There are around 30 NodeSchool tutorials, and each one is it’s own special snowflake. They are also viewed in the terminal, which isn’t the most user friendly way to read docs. We want to figure some nice ways to write docs that can work in both the CLI as well as on the web. One example of a workshop that has done this is git-it which generates this HTML guide.

Also there is a NodeSchool International Day event coming up with events in 30+ cities and we wanna write a Guide for Organizers and a Guide for Attendees so they can get the most out of their events.

Your Project Here

Yup. We know you need better docs. We do too. Make it happen.

Send us an email or pull request with your project and a short paragraph about what you need help with, and we’ll include it here.