Getting involved in the docs team

Tue Mar 26 01:30:16 UTC 2013

Hello all,

Long time lurker here who finally got time to start helping out with
documentation in the past month (yay new job!).  Upon spending some time
reading through the same pages linked above during that period, I have to
admit that it has not been easy to figure out how to start contributing.
 If I may lay out a couple places where, as a newbie, I have been having
trouble, perhaps I can help with newbie documentation.

First, I still have yet to figure out which markup I need to brush up on:
 Mallard or DocBook.  They are both mentioned on the Doc Team pages (i.e.,
Mallard on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation,
but DocBook on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam).  I have
experience with both, but it has been a while. Considering I prefer to know
a bit more about what I am getting into when I start a new project, knowing
what markup to become familiar with before I start to dive in would be a
great help.  So are they both used?  When is one used and not the other, if
both are used?

Second, where exactly *do* I start?  I started by heading to "Join the
Team" (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/Organization), and, after
joining the contributors on Launchpad, I clicked on the DocumentationTeam
link, which took me to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam.  That
page does not have much for me to start with as I am not ready to be part
of the Committers or the Wiki Admins.  There's a short bit on the Beginners
Team, but I have no reference as to who they are or who to get in contact
with.

When I head to the system documentation page (
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation) to see if
there's some direction there, I see a list for proofreading, but the pages
linked only look at 12.10. As I am looking to see if I can help with the
next release cycle, I head to the Technical Review link (
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/TechReview), thinking perhaps
that this is where I can start helping with 13.04. Here, though, if I am
not using bzr, I get directed to http://doc.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/index.html,
which takes me to 10.10 documentation.  Hence, I am immediately confused.

So I started poking around, trying to figure out where the information I
need to really get started lies.  I found a link on the Checking page (
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/Checking) to
a projects page.  However, it does not exist:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/Checking.
 Further poking around did not get me anywhere, either.  Did I miss a page?

So, onto Launchpad.  I am not intimately familiar with it, but I am lucky
to have someone in the house who is.  However, there really are not any
bugs listed for beginners--tagged as "documentor"--as described at (
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/Tasks). One
link seems to not connect to the correct tag (?) at
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-docs/+bugs?field.tag=documentors.  I have
no idea what the error message "Ubuntu Documentation must be configured in
order for Launchpad to forward bugs to the project's developers" means, by
the way.  The other link (
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-docs/+bugs?field.tag=documentors)
brings up one task, but it is a wishlist task that seems to have had a fix
committed (though I may very well be reading it wrong) and has been
outstanding since 2007 (!).

So, what is a newbie to do?  I have written documentation for my job, I am
a professional editor, and I really, really love Ubuntu. I want to help.
 But how?

Now, if the intention is to get interested parties to contact the list so
that newbies can be closely watched--an intention I can understand from
some projects I have worked on--then perhaps it needs to be clearly stated
somewhere.  I personally have not contacted the list as of yet due to (a)
stubbornness as I like to believe I can figure things out for myself and
(b) an awareness that perhaps a month before the next release is not the
best time to be bugging busy people with new questions unless I am the only
one writing documentation for said release.

Does that help?

Oh, and how do I start? :)

Cheers,
Laura

P.S. - I did get the server guide email, and I am currently trying to get a
VM up so I might get familiar with Ubuntu Server before volunteering.
 However, I did notice that the server guide page linked in that email does
not seem to be easily reached from the standard pages.  Was that
intentional?

On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 2:05 PM, Benjamin Kerensa <bkerensa at ubuntu.com>wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 10:23 AM, Daniel Holbach
> <daniel.holbach at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> > On 25.03.2013 17:51, Daniel Holbach wrote:
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> On 22.03.2013 14:40, Daniel Holbach wrote:
> >>> In the next update of ubuntu.com/community we want to bring the
> >>> information of all kinds of teams into a form like over here:
> >>> http://pad.ubuntu.com/communitywebsite-contribute-documentation
> >>
> >> I just went ahead and put together
> >> http://pad.ubuntu.com/communitywebsite-contribute-documentation
> >>
> >> If somebody could please go and review it and add missing pieces, that'd
> >> be wonderful.
> >
> > I just had a brief chat with Liz and she noted that the following bits
> > and pieces were missing: "so the core stuff of what's missing from docs
> > team stuff is launchpad (what branch to use?), mallard (but you mention
> > docbook..?) and in general how this is all handled".
> >
> > What I probably should have mentioned in my first mail was that
> >  - on the wiki we'd like to have a bit more detail, like how to
> >    specifically get started, which branches, etc.
>
> This is covered on our /Repository page
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/Repository
>
> >  - on the pad page we'd like to have a bit more general
> >    information, be more introductory, so people get more
> >    interest in joining the team and excited about helping out
>
> Which pad page? We do have some info here which should be quite
> helpful in getting people started
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/Tasks
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/Editing
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/Checking
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/Submitting
>
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/BuildingDocumentation
>
> I do think improvements are possible but in a nutshell contributing to
> documentation from A to Z is there.... I think the biggest thing is
> keeping tasks updated and just overall getting folks interested in
> writing documentation.
>
>
>
> >
> > I hope that helps.
> >
> > Oh and please CC me on replies. :)
> >
> > Have a great day,
> >  Daniel
> >
> > --
> > Get involved in Ubuntu development! developer.ubuntu.com/packaging
> > Follow @ubuntudev on identi.ca/twitter.com/facebook.com/G+
> >
> > --
> > ubuntu-doc mailing list
> > ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com
> > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc
>
>
>
> --
> Benjamin Kerensa
> http://benjaminkerensa.com
> "I am what I am because of who we all are" - Ubuntu
>
> --
> ubuntu-doc mailing list
> ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc
>
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