New volunteer and some ideas regarding volunteering
Hello, my name is Camilla and I'm really excited about volunteering for the documentation project! I'm graduating from college in a few weeks and have large time slots in the coming months to dedicate to editing, writing and translating (English to Finnish). I have been following your conversation on recruiting, instructing and maintaining volunteers, and I hope I could add my two cents to the great ideas that have already been proposed. I definitely agree that being a new volunteer is baffling. It would be helpful if a volunteer coordinator existed. S/he could do all of the initial hand-holding and guiding for newcomers. I don't know if the Documentation Project already has a person responsible for volunteers, but perhaps such a position could be created (I would volunteer for this position since I have time and nothing to do with it, but I'm a newbie myself, so unless someone is willing to hold my hand for a few months while I learn the ropes, I don't think I can be helpful to other newcomers). Looking forward to working with everyone! Camilla
Re: New Doc Volunteer
Hello, please read the initial documentation that we have on our site. http://openoffice.apache.org/orientation/intro-doc.html This will guide you throught he initial steps into the way the project is builted and where you can contribute best. On 5/9/13, Caroline O'Brien wrote: > Hey there! > > I'm eager to learn more about working on the Doc Team for Open Office. > > Can you tell me a bit more about where I should start, outside of signing > up for the two wikis and putting my name on the volunteer sites? > > Thank you! > > Caroline > -- Alexandro Colorado Apache OpenOffice Contributor http://es.openoffice.org - To unsubscribe, e-mail: doc-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: doc-h...@openoffice.apache.org
New Doc Volunteer
Hey there! I'm eager to learn more about working on the Doc Team for Open Office. Can you tell me a bit more about where I should start, outside of signing up for the two wikis and putting my name on the volunteer sites? Thank you! Caroline
RE: Response to follow-up e-mails Was Re: Use of Ricardo's Status page.
+1 I think gentle mentoring will be very useful for newcomers, since there is considerable tacit lore that needs to be grasped before taking bigger steps. This seems to apply for documentation as well as for working on the code, since there are toolcraft requirements as well as practices to become fluent with. - Dennis -Original Message- From: Rob Weir [mailto:robw...@apache.org] Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2013 08:11 To: doc@openoffice.apache.org Subject: Re: Response to follow-up e-mails Was Re: Use of Ricardo's Status page. On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 9:48 PM, Keith N. McKenna [ ... ] > We definitely need more hand holding, but where are the people with the > time, inclination and knowledge to do it? > I think even a little would help. For example, with QA we found it valuable to give new volunteers "assignments" when they started, until they were more familiar with the tools and process, and then they were able to select their own items to work on. We could do something similar. For example, a new volunteer joins the list and we say, "We're working on AOO 4.0 documentation on the wiki now. We have plenty of editing and review work available. Would you be able to do a or or ? I know this seems a little odd, and I resisted it at first. We're talking about a corporate way of working, where someone assigns you items. But that is how almost every charity works. If I show up at a homeless shelter and offer to volunteer, they don't just let me roam the building, trying to find stuff that needs to be done. They have a "volunteer coordinator" who talks to me initially, figures out what skills I have, and then assigns me some items to work on. I don't mind, because my goal is help. I'm looking for a meaningful way to contribute. The volunteer coordinator does not impose by giving me an assignment. She helps me achieve my goals of contributing. So it is great that we have the wiki to track the work that needs to be done. I wonder if we just need to take the next step, and suggest specific items for new volunteers from that list? Regards, -Rob [ ... ] - To unsubscribe, e-mail: doc-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: doc-h...@openoffice.apache.org
Re: Response to follow-up e-mails Was Re: Use of Ricardo's Status page.
On Thu, May 9, 2013, at 18:11, Rob Weir wrote: > We're talking about a corporate way of working, where someone assigns you > items. There is no other way. A corporate has financial resources and abundance, we don't. We can not afford two people doing the same task at the same time. We can not afford an inexperienced volunteer wasting precious time on a task a more experienced volunteer will complete in no time. We can not afford an important task ignored because it seems dull to the volunteers. We must be as efficient as possible. > I wonder if we just need to take the next step, and suggest > specific items for new volunteers from that list? > > Regards, > > -Rob Yes please. Some people feel uncomfortable doing things unannounced. I know I do. Guidance and Feedback. That's what volunteers need. - To unsubscribe, e-mail: doc-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: doc-h...@openoffice.apache.org
Re: Response to follow-up e-mails Was Re: Use of Ricardo's Status page.
On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 9:48 PM, Keith N. McKenna wrote: > > >>> On 2013-04-09 I sent the following reminder to all individuals that had >>> expressed interest in working on documentation but had not yet signed up >>> for >>> the mailing list: >>> You recently expressed interest in working on documentation for ApacheOpenOffice. To date you have not signed up for our mailing list which is >>> >>> >>> where we discuss everything having to do with documentation for the >>> project. Currently we are concentrating on user guides for Version 4.0 and we >>> >>> >>> need help of all sorts for these.If you are still interested please >>> subscribe to the mailing list by sending a blank e-mail to >>> mailto:doc-subscr...@openoffice.apache.org and follow the instructions >>> in the return email or for those that prefer using nntp instead set your >>> news reader to news.gmane.org and subscribe to >>> gmane.comp.apache.openoffice.doc and join us. Regards Keith McKenna >>> >>> >>> >>> To date I have had no replies. If one of our moderators could check and >>> see >>> if we have had an increase from the 63 registered users that were on the >>> list that Dave Barton sent me on 2013-03-26 it would be greatly >>> appreciated. >>> >>> It is to say the least disheartening to look at the status page and see >>> the >>> same few names as doing all the work both writing (Ricardo) and editing. >>> >>> As a group we need to work towards finding ways to motivate others to >>> become >>> more active and to recruit new members, especially those with knowledge >>> of >>> Calc, Impress and Base who can start writing the Guides for those >>> applications. >>> >> >> Some thoughts on this. >> >> We were successful in getting many offers of help. We did that by >> putting a message on the www.openoffice.org home page, linking to a >> blog post, etc. I don't know if anyone counted, but it seemed like we >> had 15 or more people volunteer to help. But of the offers of help, >> not many ultimately contributed. >> >> Why is this so? >> >> Did we call for volunteers too early, before we had enough structure >> in the documentation tasks? >> > This is very possible. I do not believe that we have near enough structure > now. > > >> Do few people actually know OpenOffice well-enough to author new >> documentation topics? >> > I think this is a part of it. Another part is that some of those that have > the expertise do not like the wiki format where anyone can edit the page and > take it in a completely different direction. > > >> Do we need more hand-holding and feedback for new volunteers as they >> get started? >> > > We definitely need more hand holding, but where are the people with the > time, inclination and knowledge to do it? > I think even a little would help. For example, with QA we found it valuable to give new volunteers "assignments" when they started, until they were more familiar with the tools and process, and then they were able to select their own items to work on. We could do something similar. For example, a new volunteer joins the list and we say, "We're working on AOO 4.0 documentation on the wiki now. We have plenty of editing and review work available. Would you be able to do a or or ? I know this seems a little odd, and I resisted it at first. We're talking about a corporate way of working, where someone assigns you items. But that is how almost every charity works. If I show up at a homeless shelter and offer to volunteer, they don't just let me roam the building, trying to find stuff that needs to be done. They have a "volunteer coordinator" who talks to me initially, figures out what skills I have, and then assigns me some items to work on. I don't mind, because my goal is help. I'm looking for a meaningful way to contribute. The volunteer coordinator does not impose by giving me an assignment. She helps me achieve my goals of contributing. So it is great that we have the wiki to track the work that needs to be done. I wonder if we just need to take the next step, and suggest specific items for new volunteers from that list? Regards, -Rob > >> It is very easy for us to renew the call for volunteers. I'm sure we >> could get another 15-20 offers of help. But before we do that it >> would be good to understand what we could do differently. Otherwise >> we'll get similar results, right? >> > > I am afraid all that renewing the call for volunteers will accomplish at > this point is to add to the frustration level. > > >> Idea: In the commercial world the people who write the documentation >> do not start with product expertise. They need to learn that. So new >> writers start by taking training classes, reading existing >> documentation, etc. Their training is often similar or identical to >> what technical support representatives go through. Then for new >> features they learn about these by interviewing the developers, asking >>
Re: Response to follow-up e-mails Was Re: Use of Ricardo's Status page.
Hi Keith, Hi all, 2013/5/9 Keith N. McKenna > Edwin Sharp wrote: > >> Volunteers need personal guidance from more experienced volunteers. >> >> It is easy to give up trying to figure out what to do on your own. >> >> Endless nested emails don't help. >> >> Volunteers should be given levels according to their time in the >> project. >> >> So a level three is guiding level two, level two is guiding level >> one etc. >> >> When a fresh volunteer joins, the head of the project is assigning >> him a personal tutor. >> >> With a close guidance, learning, confidence and motivation are much >> better. >> >> > Edwin; > > The ideas are very good. The question is one of manpower and knowledge. > At the momnt we do not have active volunteers with knowledge in tech > writing and publishing processes to do the tutoring and hand holding. If > you have any ideas on how we can recruit people at that level we would > love to hear them. > Amha, some people with the required skills are already present in the list. But they are perhaps always active in their professional life and don't have the available time to do the job. So, these people could perhaps be more available for punctual tasks. Why not try to find directly retired people who have been worked in this area, retired journalists, etc. They could perhaps accept to coach and organize le project on a more global manner, if they have more available time. Only a thought A+ -- gw > >
