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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [eclipse_tw] An Informal Survey of Open Source Technical Writers
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:51:58 -0000
From: virginiaoconnor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The intent of this survey is to informally query Technical Writers who
write for open source projects to find out more about the kinds of
documentation they deliver, how they manage and deliver the content,
and whether the content is internationalized.
Some of the questions I've included here are currently being discussed
in various forums and lists, but if you can, please isolate your
answers to your current situation and I'll wade through those
discussions later.
I realize that you may see this survey through several channels, so I
apologize in advance for the redundancy and ask that you respond only
once. After I get the responses, I'll compile the conclusions and post
the results.
Thank you very much for your time. I realize these are not necessarily
fun and they are certainly not accounted for in the work you need to
finish today, so I appreciate any help you can provide.
Please respond by February 29th, if you can. Please send your
responses to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Thank you again!
Virginia
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1. First, tell us a little about what your open source project
does and how you got involved with the project.
2. How many writers do you have working on the project?
3. What kinds of documentation do the writers deliver with the
product and in what format (User's Guides in PDF, help systems as
.chm, etc.)?
4. Have you implemented the use of wikis and what kind of
content has been migrated to those wikis?
5. Have you implemented any animated or flash content and for
what purpose (to demonstrate feature usage, etc.)?
6. Do you produce and deliver e-learning?
7. How is the documentation delivered (i.e., pushed to a web
site, included with the product, etc.)?
8. What project documentation is written and delivered to users
by people who are not technical writers?
9. What products do you use to deliver the documentation (i.e.,
FrameMaker to DITA, AuthorIT to HTML help, etc.)? [Briefly please,
I've been following the noisy "Getting Started as cheaply as possible"
discussion on the dita-users Yahoo group too, so I realize this
question is asking you to repeat your effort.]
10. Does your writing team integrate a content management system into
the process and if so, which one do you use?
11. Does the writing team deliver the content source to users but
also allow users to compile or transform it into other formats?
? if so, what value do you believe is added for the user?
12. Is the content internationalized, and if so,
· to how many languages, and
· using what process?
13. How has open source changed your writing practices overall?
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Thank you again!
Virginia
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Janet Swisher, Sr. Technical Writer
Enthought, Inc., http://www.enthought.com
