Google Season of Docs 2021

[Aaron Meurer]

Google has announced Google Season of Docs (GSoD) again for 2021. GSoD is a program that pairs technical writers with open source projects. We have participated in the past two years.

The GSoD program has changed quite a bit this year. In the past, it was run like Google Summer of Code, where technical writers applied to work with organizations. This year, instead organizations submit a proposal to Google and if accepted, Google gives them a grant to hire a technical writer. 

What this means is that we need to pick a project ourselves and apply for it. Technical writers will then apply to work on that one project. If you are a technical writer or know of one who may be interested in applying, see https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/tech-writer-guide. 

Here is the list of ideas that we used last year https://github.com/sympy/sympy/wiki/GSoD-2020-Ideas. Which idea do people think is the most important one? If you are a technical writer who is interested in working with us, we would like to hear your feedback too.

The rules for organizations are at https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/admin-guide.

Aaron Meurer

[Mohit Shah]

Hii Aaron. I was contributing for 1 month to apply in google season of docs last year before its start, but in the end, I get to know that the guys who already have experience in technical writing can only apply.

Is this rule still there, or are there some modifications in it?
Thank you.

[Aaron Meurer]

This is what the Google page for technical writers says https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/tech-writer-guide

> Do you have technical writing skills and experience? Season of Docs is not intended to teach basic technical writing skills. Are you self-motivated and organized?

And also speaking personally, I would prefer to have someone who has technical writing experience already for GSoD, as the whole point of the program is to bring that expertise to the open source projects. 

Note, if you are a college student, you can apply for Google Summer of Code (see https://github.com/sympy/sympy/wiki/GSoC-Student-Instructions).

Aaron Meurer

On Tue, Feb 9, 2021 at 12:38 PM Mohit Shah <mohitsha...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hii Aaron. I was contributing for 1 month to apply in google season of docs, but in the end, I get to know that the guys who already have experience in technical writing can only use it. Is this rule still there, or are there some modifications in it?
Thank you.

On Wednesday, February 10, 2021 at 1:02:22 AM UTC+5:30 asme...@gmail.com wrote:

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[Oscar Benjamin]

Hi Aaron,

I would go with "Organization of Documentation" as the most important.
We need to get it organised so that there is a clear distinction
between user functions vs internals and so that there are good
cross-references to explanatory guides etc. We definitely need
high-level docs but at the moment there's nowhere to put them.

Oscar

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[Aaron Meurer]

On Tue, Feb 9, 2021 at 12:51 PM Oscar Benjamin <oscar.j....@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Aaron,

I would go with "Organization of Documentation" as the most important.
We need to get it organised so that there is a clear distinction
between user functions vs internals and so that there are good
cross-references to explanatory guides etc. We definitely need
high-level docs but at the moment there's nowhere to put them.

I'm inclined to agree with this. Either this or continued work on improving the style of docstrings. 

In general, I think GSoD and technical writer work in general is better spent improving the style and organization of existing documentation rather than writing new documentation. New documentation requires domain knowledge of SymPy itself, which most technical writers won't have. It's better for existing developers to write those. A technical writer could then improve that documentation, but the content itself for new documentation has to come from someone who has expert knowledge on the thing being documented.

Aaron Meurer

 

Oscar

On Tue, 9 Feb 2021 at 19:32, Aaron Meurer <asme...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Google has announced Google Season of Docs (GSoD) again for 2021. GSoD is a program that pairs technical writers with open source projects. We have participated in the past two years.
>
> The GSoD program has changed quite a bit this year. In the past, it was run like Google Summer of Code, where technical writers applied to work with organizations. This year, instead organizations submit a proposal to Google and if accepted, Google gives them a grant to hire a technical writer.
>
> What this means is that we need to pick a project ourselves and apply for it. Technical writers will then apply to work on that one project. If you are a technical writer or know of one who may be interested in applying, see https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/tech-writer-guide.
>
> Here is the list of ideas that we used last year https://github.com/sympy/sympy/wiki/GSoD-2020-Ideas. Which idea do people think is the most important one? If you are a technical writer who is interested in working with us, we would like to hear your feedback too.
>
> The rules for organizations are at https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/admin-guide.
>
> Aaron Meurer
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sympy" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sympy+un...@googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CAKgW%3D6%2Bxx0htU2w5cYmoSxtpy82LthcmnskfGxNwUXA5YL5HSQ%40mail.gmail.com.

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[C.S.R. Tejasvi]

Hi Aaron and Oscar,

I am Tejasvi Chebrolu, a computer science sophomore at International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. I have recently been trying to improve my technical writing skills and would like to work with SymPy as a part of GSoD-2021. After going through the ideas on https://github.com/sympy/sympy/wiki/GSoD-2020-Ideas and on this thread I agree that the most important task that we should pursue is the "Organization of Documentation". However, I would like to work on improving consistency across docstrings(as mentioned by Aaron). To start contributing(to improving docstrings) I was planning on working through the issues here https://github.com/sympy/sympy/milestone/54. I wanted to know what you guys think about pursuing consistent docstrings over an overall organization of the documentation. I also wanted to know what else could be a good starting point for working on the improvement of the docstrings.

Also, if you feel that an overall Organization is more important, it would be great if you could link me to some issues that I could start working on.

Thanks!

Regards,

Tejasvi Chebrolu

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/CAKgW%3D6JRNnwxnWS3Fr8bKrvQijeFa3o_g%2B54SeqDjBtB31E_CA%40mail.gmail.com.

--

Regards,
Tejasvi Chebrolu

[Soumi7]

Hi Tejasvi,

This issue (https://github.com/sympy/sympy/issues/19591)  has links to all modules that have been updated. You can start by updating other modules to follow the documentation style guide mentioned here : https://docs.sympy.org/latest/documentation-style-guide.html.

Thanks,

Soumi.

[Aaron Meurer]

Google is going to have a webinar to answer questions about the season
of docs organization applications
https://groups.google.com/g/season-of-docs-announce/c/gFLURLNK1VM/m/LA4NzuN6AgAJ.
I am going to try to attend one of the times. If someone has a
question they want me to ask, let me know.

Aaron Meurer

[Aaron Meurer]

I have written up the organization application for Google Season of
Docs here https://github.com/sympy/sympy/wiki/GSoD-2021-Organization-Application.
I have based it on the idea for improving the organization of
documentation. The application template is here
https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/org-proposal-template.
If anyone has any suggestions for it, let me know. Also if you are a
technical writer interested in working with us on this project, please
feel free to reach out.

If you are interested in helping to mentor Google Season of Docs,
please let me know.

Reminder that Google Season of Docs works a little differently this
year. In previous works, it worked a lot like Google Summer of Code,
but this year, it is more like a grant program. We apply to Google for
the project we want to do (in this case, documentation organization),
and if Google accepts the project, they give us the money, which we
then use to hire a technical writer. See
https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/admin-guide.

One thing I am still a little unsure about is the budget. I don't
think we need to budget anything other than the technical writer. As
far as the amount to budget for the technical writer, the Google
administrators have recommended using the Write the Docs salary survey
as a guide (https://www.writethedocs.org/surveys/salary-survey/2019/).
The budget should be between $5,000 and $10,000.

The deadline to submit is March 26.

Aaron Meurer

On Tue, Feb 9, 2021 at 12:32 PM Aaron Meurer <asme...@gmail.com> wrote:
>