Request for Ubuntu Doc Leadership

[Hannie Dumoleyn]

Hello Lyz,
Thanks for your response and explanation on the structure of the docs-team.

Now let's assume I am a new contributor. I want to contribute as an
author for the Desktop docs. I will start on [1], where I would choose
tab a) "Join the team" or b) "System documentation".
a) takes me to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/Organization.
After reading this I may choose
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-doc-contributors and join this team.
b) takes me to
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation. Here I
can read how I can help with tasks like proof-reading, bug fixing,
translating, editing etc. I can choose the quick start guide which takes
me to
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/SystemDocumentation/UbuntuDesktopGuide.
Here I find a lot of information on important things like necessary
tools to install, create SSH key, work with Launchpad etc.

Since the newcomer has to click on a lot of links to get the necessary
information, I would be in favour of making things much more simple.
That is why I referred to the information on
http://ubuntu-manual.org/getinvolved, where newcomers get all the
necessary information on just one page.
So would it be possible to put all the needed information on one page
without so many links to click on?

Apart from that, I would add to this page that every newcomer can ask
all the questions he wants using the mailing list. From experience with
UMP I know that newcomers much appreciate it when you guide them through
all the complicated stuff.

Referring to Alberto's answer to my email on this subject I would say
that I disagree. If you only rely on the instructions, you will
discourage a lot of people. What they need is a helping hand and guidance.

To find out more about the team structure I clicked on the following links:
[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam (UDT home page)
[2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/Organization
[3] https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-doc-contributors (Moderated team on
LP, member of the Ubuntu Documentation Team umbrella, 66 active members)
[4] from my personal LP page: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-doc (Ubuntu
Documentation Project Team
- Restricted team (97 active members
- Owner: Ubuntu Documentation Committers
- Structure: my page > Ubuntu Documentation Contributors > Ubuntu
Documentation Project Team

Conclusion (this is just my personal opinion): we need a leader for the
docs team and a leader/coordinator for the 3 sub teams: desktop, server,
wiki. Each leader/coordinator can decide how to simplify the (sub) team
information in order to get more contributors.

I hope my thoughts on this will help to revitalize the docs team.
Hannie

Op 13-06-16 om 19:15 schreef Elizabeth K. Joseph:
> On Sat, Jun 11, 2016 at 1:14 AM, Hannie Dumoleyn
> <lafeber-dumoleyn2 at zonnet.nl> wrote:
>> Knowing from experience that the task of a coordinator is time consuming, I
>> do not know if we can find such a person in the docs team. In order to
>> spread the tasks, I also suggested to have 3 separate divisions in the docs
>> team:
>> Ubuntu Desktop (tasks: writing new content, reviewing existing content,
>> translations)
>> Ubuntu Server Guide (tasks: writing new content, reviewing existing content,
>> translations)
>> Ubuntu Wiki
> Thanks Hannie. The team is actually divided like this. One of my big
> tasks when I joined the team a few years ago was to structure our wiki
> page so this was more clear, but I guess I didn't succeed :) If you
> look at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam the first sentence
> explains that we have system documentation, which links to Desktop and
> Server, and we also contribute to the community help wiki. The headers
> on this page are split up similarly, with the goal of having folks dig
> in themselves to find what they want. We have key contributors that
> focus on each area, with wiki admins, and folks who do a lion's share
> of the work on desktop and server.
>
> I fear our wiki is still a bit of a wall of text, even though it's
> accurate. I'd love to see us move in the direction of something better
> than that but again... coordination and time from someone experienced
> with community building would be a huge help here. I like what the
> Manual team has done with their getting involved stuff and it would be
> nice to emulate that somehow: http://ubuntu-manual.org/getinvolved
>