Mautic applies for Google Season of Docs

An image showing the Google Season of Docs and Mautic logos

About the Google Season of Docs

You may have heard of the Google Summer of Code before - this is a similar program but applies specifically to documentation. The goal of the Google Season of Docs is

To provide a framework for technical writers and Open Source projects to work together towards the common goal of improving an Open Source project's documentation.

For technical writers who are new to Open Source, this presents an opportunity to make your first contributions and get started with supporting an Open Source project. For technical writers who might already be contributing in Open Source, the program could be a new way of working together, or an opportunity to explore new projects.

The program brings together technical writers with an Open Source community for a period of a few months, bringing their writing expertise to the project's documentation while learning about the project, community and technology behind it.

Together, we raise public awareness of Open Source documentation, of technical writing, and of how we can work together to the benefit of the global Open Source community.

The Education Team are excited to be proposing three projects for consideration by the Google Season of Docs team. All three projects are key to helping our users - whether developers, end-users or marketers - better understand how to work with Mautic. Read more about the project proposals below, and if you're interested in learning more do join the Education Team channel on Slack!

Project proposals

Developer documentation

Project name

Create a Developers Portal for the Mautic Community

Project description

Refactor the existing Developer Documentation at https://developer.mautic.org to provide an improved user experience and create a more user-friendly portal for developers.

Background

Mautic is the world’s first Open Source Marketing Automation platform. Launched in 2014, it has grown from strength to strength and has a thriving community of contributors from around the world. Learn more about Mautic and Marketing Automation. Spin up a sandbox or check out the Github repo.

The Mautic Community Developer Documentation has typically existed in isolation from the end-user documentation and has focused largely on the REST API. It is currently using Slate and can be found on Github.

The Product Team would like to implement a more user-friendly approach by creating a developers portal which will signpost people to the relevant resources, whether they need help creating a theme, using the API, or writing their first plugin.

This project will refactor the Developer Documentation to implement these ideas in collaboration with the project mentor and wider Product Team.

Depending on available skills and time, the project could also involve refactoring the API to facilitate OpenAPI/Swagger based documentation and deploying a new platform for the API documentation.

You can read more about the proposal on the Trello card here.

Related material

Background on Mautic: https://www.mautic.org
Mautic on Github: https://github.com/mautic/mautic
Developer Documentation: https://developer.mautic.org
Developer Documentation on Github: https://github.com/mautic/developer-documentation
Project proposal on Product Team’s Trello board: https://trello.com/c/1EjNIhBn/27-write-concept-for-developer-docs-revamp
OpenAPI Initiative: https://www.openapis.org/
Swagger: https://swagger.io/
Technical writing styleguide: https://contribute.mautic.org/education-team/technical-writing-styleguide

Project Mentors:

Dennis Ameling - Email Slack Forums Github
Norman Pracht - Email Slack Forums Github

End-user documentation

Project name

Review and update the End-User documentation for Mautic

Project description

Review and update existing documentation, including updated instructions and rich media (video tutorials, screen captures etc).

Background

The Mautic Community recently re-platformed the end-user documentation which can be found at https://docs.mautic.org.

The documentation has been somewhat neglected over the past two years, and some resources are out of date, need revising, and could be greatly improved with more effective use of rich media.

The Education Team would like to conduct a thorough review of the documentation and systematically work through a programme of updating and improving the resources available.

When this is complete, there will also be a translation project kicked off to empower community members for whom English is not their first language to translate the documentation into other languages.

You can read more about the proposal on the Trello card here.

Related material

Background on Mautic: https://www.mautic.org
Mautic on Github: https://github.com/mautic/mautic
Mautic Documentation: https://docs.mautic.org
Docs or KB?: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HfrTCUE0vsbzYYDQoYmvMcWEAyMVc_tWDbPH-NIAq3s/edit?usp=sharing
Technical writing style guide: https://contribute.mautic.org/education-team/technical-writing-styleguide
Documentation style guide: https://docs.mautic.org/en/home/contributing

Project mentors:

Norman Pracht - Email Slack Forums Github
Ruth Cheesley - Email Slack Forums Github

Knowledgebase

Project name

Create resources for the newly created Mautic Community Knowledgebase

Project description

Write a series of how-to tutorials and guides which will help Mautic users be more effective with setting up, configuring and using the application.

Background

The Mautic Community is in the process of launching a knowledgebase which will live at https://kb.mautic.org. The purpose of the knowledgebase is to be a central repository for tutorials, how-to guides and best practices on topics related to Mautic - whether directly (e.g. how to do things in Mautic) or indirectly (e.g. more general marketing strategies).

See this Trello card for an explanation of what sits in the documentation, and what sits in the knowledgebase.

We have identified a number of tutorials and resources that should be included in the knowledgebase. This project will focus on writing those tutorials and creating supporting content - e.g. videos, images etc - in collaboration with the Education Team.