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'Write the Docs' is a Conference for People Who Write Software Docs (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the documentation-makes-software-more-usable dept.

There is this guy, Eric Holscher, who has been doing FOSS development for quite a while. He's been on GitHub since 2008, and got involved in Gittip not long after it started in 2012. Not long after that, Eric started thinking about how open source software developers have all kinds of conferences and have many communities they can join and learn from each other, while those who write documentation, especially for FOSS, typically work all alone in a vacuum.

So why not have a conference for documentation writers (and developers who want to hook up with writers who can help them make high-quality docs)? Don't limit it to FOSS, but make sure that's the emphasis. Call the conference 'Write the Docs' and have the first conference in Portland, Oregon, in 2013. Which is exactly what Eric did. A year later, a second 'Write the Docs' conference is scheduled in Budapest (Hungary) at the end of March, and the next Portland conference is set for May 5.

8 of 24 comments (clear)

  1. Re:More docs by Hsien-Ko · · Score: 2

    oh man

  2. Not gonna read this by us7892 · · Score: 2

    I'm not going to read anything past the headline. Just like I don't read the documentation for anything...

    1. Re:Not gonna read this by msauve · · Score: 2
      Well, this phrase...

      and developers who want to hook up with writers who can help them make high-quality docs

      kind of brings new meaning to RTFM.

      I'm an old fart, but even I know that "hook up" doesn't nowadays mean what the author thinks it means.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  3. Irony by Megahard · · Score: 2

    Is a conference for writing documentation advertised with a video.

    --
    I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
    1. Re: Irony by grep+-v+'.*'+* · · Score: 2

      Video is a form of documentation, you know.

      Yes! Yes! That's exactly why I watch so much pr0n, just for the documentation. And I sometimes have to study for hours just to understand all of the nuances of the control functions.

      Oh, wait .....

      --
      If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
  4. how to get there? by meeotch · · Score: 2

    I was going to go, but there were no directions, so I posted to a couple of forums. I got two conflicting answers, and one guy who called me a dumbass for not knowing and suggested I start my own conference if I didn't like the one they were having.

  5. Wrong date, wrong YEAR! by Omega+Hacker · · Score: 2

    The link for the Portland conference is very clearly for *last years* conference (see the pesky '2013' in the URL??). The correct link is:

    http://conf.writethedocs.org/na/2014/index.html

    It is being held on May 5th and 6th, of *2014*.

    --
    GStreamer - The only way to stream!
    1. Re:Wrong date, wrong YEAR! by Roblimo · · Score: 2

      Somehow an edit went awry. Thanks for noticing. Fixed.