Has the Documentation Workgroup started?

At October’s core sprint, there was discussion of forming a Documentation Workgroup and a larger Documentation Team. Has anything been happening on this front? I don’t want to miss out on participating in meetings, etc.

(See Carol Willing’s presentation at https://speakerdeck.com/willingc/cpython-documentation-the-next-5-years for some notes.)

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I’ve heard nothing.

Not yet. You can check out our notes from the core dev print. I think re have several action items there, we just haven’t gotten around following up on any of it :slightly_frowning_face:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YcMYJFaU8ZfxqUM8-R_iogQXv0nLwksF4ID6vaGpzCw/edit (you can access this if you attended the sprint)

I haven’t seen a post yet.

I remember some talk of this awhile back. I’m still interested.

I’d like to be part of this work group when it gets started.

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I’m summarizing the contents of the doc to the best of my ability. Please do correct me if I got anything wrong here:

Starting a Docs WG charter

Info on how to begin a WG charter: Example PSF Workgroup Page - PSF Wiki

@willingc has a draft of the charter.
Once the charter is ready, bring this to the Steering Council for approval.
We can then kick off a monthly meeting.

Scope of the Docs WG

See details of Carol’s language summit presentation: CPython Documentation: The Next 5 Years - Speaker Deck

The workgroup will cover all documentation related issues and pull requests, but not the infrastructure/tooling, and not internationalization. There is already a translation workgroup coordinated by @julien. Ensure that Julien is included and aware of the work in this WG.

The workgroup will select members to be in the Python documentation editorial board. The editorial board should include broad and diverse members, non core developers, especially those with technical writing skills, documentarians, or experienced book authors.

We also recommend doing documentation sprints.

Monthly docs meeting

Meeting should have alternate schedule to accommodate members in different timezones. Be a community-focused meeting and welcome input from the wider community. Set up an agenda ahead of time. Keep records and meeting minutes, perhaps in GitHub.

What are our next steps?

  • Finish up the WG charter. @willingc where are we on this? Can I share this with @jojablonski so she can help review?

  • Bring forth the WG charter to Steering Council.

  • Set up the kick-off meeting. What video communication service will be used? Perhaps @ewa.jodlowska or The PSF can recommend one for the WG, or help provide access.

  • Set up documentation team Github repo. Perhaps this should wait until after the WG charter is approved.

  • During the sprint, I offered to help organize and schedule meetings and implement some automation whenever possible. I’m still open to help wrangle folks and get us all organized, but automation might be a different matter, now that I no longer have unlimited access to automation tooling (it was a perk from previous job).

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Happy 2021 everyone!

In case it is helpful to getting a kick-off meeting off the ground, here is a when2meet scheduler for the month of January: Python Documentation Work Group Meeting - When2meet to gather availability from everyone.

I can setup a recurring Zoom or give Mariatta/Carol access to do so themselves. We can also use the PSF slack since it has video integrated and would allow for the WG to have async communications.

Let me know what is preferred!

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Hi folks,

I’m new to this group, but I’d like to be more involved. Would it be appropriate for me to join you in your next meeting?

I started contributing to Python’s documentation last month, and I like that this group will help us take a more organized approach to improving the docs.

For my day job, I’m the Executive Editor of Real Python, where we make written tutorials, video courses, and books about Python. I like programming enough that I do it for fun, but my main thing is technical writing. I’ve also worked for several years as a translator.

Anyway, there’s no rush. When the group is ready to get started, I’ll be here.

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I just found this thread!
The first meeting already happened, the second one will be in March.

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