Season of Docs is now ready for tech writer exploration

Technical writers around the world can now explore the open source organizations taking part in Google’s Season of Docs program. It’s time to start preparing your project proposal!

Season of Docs provides a framework for open source projects and technical writers to work together on the projects’ documentation. It’s a program run by Google in collaboration with participating open source organizations.

The program kicked off in March 2019 by inviting open source organizations to apply to take part.

The list of participating open source organizations is now available on the website.

The next step is for technical writers to apply to take part in the program.

Explore the tech writing project ideas and contact the organizations

It’s exciting to see the variety of open source organizations taking part, and the technical writing project ideas that each organization has on on offer!

If you’re interested in working on open source docs as part of the Season of Docs program, now’s the time to start planning your project proposal. You can contact the organization(s) that you’re interested in right away, and discuss your proposal with them. Talking up front is a great way to ensure you submit the best project proposal that you can. Then you’ll be ready when the technical writer application phase opens on May 29.

Some hints from me

Each open source organization has published a list of ideas for technical writing projects they’d like to complete within the Season of Docs program. (Follow the links from the page of participating open source organizations to see each organization’s project ideas.)

• Remember that you’re the one with technical writing expertise. Write your proposal based on your experience of other projects. Include your plan for design and execution of the project, and scope the project so that it’s achievable within the Season of Docs time frame.
• You can split an organization’s idea into smaller chunks and write a proposal for one or more of those chunks.
• You can also propose an entirely new project idea of your own, based on your exploration of the organization’s open source product and existing docs.
• Read the Season of Docs FAQ and technical writer guide for information on how much time you can expect to spend on a project, and about long-running versus standard-length projects.
• Do get in touch with one or more organizations to talk about the projects they have on offer. They’ll be able to help you design a proposal that you can then submit to Season of Docs. It’s the organizations who’ll eventually choose the technical writers to work on their docs during the program.
• You can talk to as many organizations as you like, and you can submit more than one application to Season of Docs, though only one application will be accepted.
• Your project proposal forms part of your application to Season of Docs. Read the technical writer guide and application hints for help with creating your application.
• Make your project proposal count. There may quite possibly be other technical writers proposing to the same organization.

Questions and discussions

Here are a few places where you can learn more and ask questions:

• Join us on the Season of Docs Slack workspace or discussion mailing list, anytime. For information on how to join, check out the page about discussion channels on the Season of Docs website.
• Will you be at STC Summit in Denver on May 6-8 (next week)? I’ll be speaking on Tuesday, May 7, at 2pm about open source, documentation, and Season of Docs. See the session description in the summit app (you need to be logged in). You can also grab me for a chat in the conference hallways.
• Join the Write the Docs online meetup in mid May. Write the Docs Australia and Write the Docs India are hosting a joint online meetup (webinar) on May 15 (APAC time zone). Join us for an overview of Season of Docs! The webinar is free of charge and is open to anyone interested.

Hope to see you in one of those places. 🙂