[ Thanks to Marc Perkel
for this article. ]
Here’s an idea that I think would work out well. Why don’t we
get colleges who are training tech writers together with the open
source community and have them work together?
“The problem, as you know, is that a lot of open source software
is great–but the documentation and user interfaces suck. That’s
because people are doing this work for free and the documentation
and program polishing isn’t as much fun as adding new features.
These writers-in-training can be assigned open source projects
and work with the developers to create good documentation. It would
be part of their training requirements to take the project to
documentation perfection. This would not only involve writing the
docs, but also working with the developers to request better screen
prompts and features that make sense. Often the developers don’t
understand what the end user needs. And the developer never had to
actually learn the software.
Additionally the student(s) could conduct software usability
tests where they round up a bunch of new users and sit them down in
front of computers and watch them learn the software, encouraging
them to verbalize their struggles and frustrations as they work.
This feedback could then be used to correct the documentation and
polish the software until it gets to the point that new users say,
“This is great–it just works!”
After a student takes a project to the “It just works!” stage,
they are ready for the job market with the open source project as
part of their resumé and a reputation already developed.
These people would be mucyh more employable having real world
experiences and accomplishments to show. And, they would be
developing a broader skill set than just a writing class would
teach. They would learn how to interact with developers and end
users on a personal level and develop the real world skills needed
for getting real work done in the real world.
The developers get a big boost too, in that someone else–a
professional writer–will do the documentation and assist the
developers in ways that they might otherwise miss. This will free
the developers to develop and to be creative knowing that the grunt
work is taken care of. Their software will be more accepted and
more widely used because it just works, which will attract
donations, other developers, and a community around their project.
And good free open source software saves many hours of time that
benefits everyone in the long run.
Even proprietary software vendors get a boost because they can
hire these writers right out of school and they are ready to be
productive from day one. This makes them more profitable because
good writers who can work with developers to get the product
perfected allows support staff to be cut. If the software “Just
Works,” then you don’t need a lot of people to support it.
This is an idea where everyone wins and it makes me wonder what
someone has to do to make it happen.