social web for tech comm, stc march 2013
DESCRIPTION
In a world where readers simply expect websites to offer well-connected experiences, technical documentation teams must consider the possibilities now available to us through collaborative means. Having worked with blogs, wikis, open source software, and social networking techniques, I want to share what I’ve learned about documentation as conversation. Through my work with the OpenStack project, I have further refined my approach to technical content strategy with collaborative, community methods. My presentation shares the methods we use with OpenStack, the ways my thinking has changed, pitfalls to avoid, and measurements that help refine the strategy.TRANSCRIPT
Conversation and Community
Social Media, Social Networking, and Social Relevance in Tech Comm
Anne [email protected]
Society for Technical Communication
HoustonMarch 2013
I believe in community
Flickr: seier+seier
I am… a Content Stacker
OpenStack – Open Source Cloud Computing
Rackspace – Fanatical Support in all we do
Our hero
Not always a technical writer
Wanting to make an impact▪ 72% of companies
use social technologies
▪ Writers are user advocates
▪ Need a plan and execution
Welcome to now
Never before have we had tools for media, networking, and relevance that help us meet our goals
How do we harness the power of the social web for documentation?
Flickr: thegentles
Guess what? I have ideas.
What’s the cloud?
Self-Service, Prorated Supercomputing Fun!http://open.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/self-service-prorated-super-computing-fun/
Your mission: “make all the public domain (New York Times) articles from 1851–1922 available free of charge” but “each article is actually composed of numerous smaller TIFF images”
Your solution: To the cloud! Rented resources: “churned through all 11
million articles in just under 24 hours using 100 EC2 instances, and generated another 1.5TB of data to store in S3”
What’s OpenStack?
Open Source Cloud Computing for all organizations
Community-built with a global collaboration of developers and cloud deployers with open development
Apache2 licensed code Open design process with an
in-person meeting every six months
Goals (Big, Hairy, Audacious) Increase OpenStack adoption by driving usage
and deployments – I was the first point of contact for AT&T’s cloud entry.
Provide OpenStack support with docs and comments. In fact, docs.openstack.org gets about 10,000 unique visitors a week.
Be strategic, collaborative, and open with documentation. (That’s the BHAG!) I’ve bet my career on this approach.
Provide truth and trust. Hard as you might think with fast-moving code.
Achieve business objectives for multiple companies in the OpenStack ecosystem.
OpenStack docs
docs.openstack.org/install for deployers
docs.openstack.org/run for cloud administrators and architects
docs.openstack.org/ops for cloud operators
api.openstack.org for REST API developers
docs.openstack.org/developer for Python developers
Definitions in context
Social media
Social networking
Social relevance
Sharing content, feedback loops, discussions, and destinations
Gather information by interacting with your audience and users
Collaboration, resource sharing, sharing goals
Meeting the challengesFlickr: marc_smith
Social media: lessons learned
Comments and workflows
Close the loop Track doc bugs
that are reported in the comments
Flickr: myklroventine
Commenting tools
Personas Commenters Readers Moderators Administrators
Comments and experience
Why not mobile first or mobile only?
Consider immersive experiences
Consider when and where you search – from your phone?
Responsive web design examples: http://mediaqueri.es/
Comments and translation
Comment in their language
Build communities locally
Think: is English the “source” or another language?
Categories of comments
Many comments at once to gain further understanding
Pointing out typos or small errors in code
Want specific examples and specific help
Request for a particular feature
Flickr: theilr
Social networking: lessons learned
BE HELPFUL, SHARE LISTEN, MONITOR
INFORM RESPOND
Networking and data
Listen where users are; select channels
Mine data gold Daily/weekly blog
searches Career- and job-
related searches Get to know
community content members Anne Gentle
Social relevance: lessons learned
Slogging through the slushpile
Think like an acquisition editor
Everyone’s a writer (but not all of them have a coach)
Files as the basis are key to treading docs like code
Flickr: gruntzooki
Timing and cadence
Originally had three month release cycles
Design Summit in-person meeting April and October
Now six month release cycles with milestone releases
Flickr: plenty
Contributors and newbies
Devs write for devs Admins write for
admins This is a complete
turnaround for me Some people can
only review (and it’s not worthwhile to convince them to write)
Flickr: kholkute
Marathon, results over time
• 66% Site visitors stay instead of leaving
• 100 Doc patches and reviews a month
• 10,000 unique visitors a week
• 6 months before commenters answered each other
Flickr: dno1967b
Sprint, a book in a week
Book Sprint Videohttp://youtu.be/lYfHEy6E2n0
Amazing stories
• Logged doc bug in afternoon, came in to a fix the next day
• Glossary out of “nowhere” from a wiki page starting point
• Translation workflow in six months
Analytics: readers
Bam. Site Launch.
Analytics: contributors
Doh. Release date.
Hey! Release date!
Play a role
Acquisition editor Web stats analyst Writing coach Project manager Bug
tracker/triager Editor Advocate Writer
Summary
Media: Encourage conversation Networking: Listen and learn Relevance: Build a team and
community Iterate repeatedly
We’re Hiring – rackertalent.com
Questions?
Anne [email protected]
@annegentle
www.facebook.com/conversationandcommunity
www.linkedin.com/in/annegentleFlickr: candelabrumelabrumdanse