Writing Day

Writing Day

Each year we run an event called the Writing Day during the conference. This event is modeled after the concept of sprints, which are common in open-source conferences. The main premise is to get a bunch of interesting people in a room together and have them work towards shared goals.

To make the most out of the Writing Day, we recommend that you either come with a project, or be ready and willing to contribute to someone else’s project.

Here are some examples of projects that you might want to work on:

  • Open source software documentation
  • General documentation writing
  • Best practices manual (For your company, or the world)
  • Blog posts
  • Tips and tricks
  • Great works of fiction
  • Love letters
  • The Documentarian Manifesto

You get the idea.

All this adds up to a room full of smart people sharing your problems, your passion, and your goals. So be ready to learn some new things and to teach others what you know.

Even if you feel as though you don’t know that much, we know you have a lot to offer. Come surprise yourself with how much you can share.

Documenting a new project?

Check out our beginners guide to writing documentation. This should help you get started, and give you some ideas for how you can contribute to a project that you love.

Logistics

Please bring a computer or some other mechanism with which to create written words. We’ll be creating and editing content, so make sure that you have the tools you need to contribute.

Schedule

  • Date & Time: Sunday, October 3, 10:00-18:00 CEST.
  • Location: Online conference platform.

Your Project Here

Open Web Docs and MDN

Open Web Docs was created to ensure the long-term health of web platform documentation independent of any single vendor or organization. It’s supported by various organizations and individuals, and employs technical writers who create and maintain open documentation for the web platform. At the moment we’re focused on maintaining and improving MDN Web Docs.

We are happy to announce that, on the Writing Day, we will collaborate with writers from Mozilla, who will be joining us to improve MDN Web Docs.

We’d love to collaborate with you on some of our projects. To get started, you’ll need a GitHub account. Here are some of the projects we’ll be working on:

  • Markdown conversion: we’re in the middle of a project to convert the authoring format for MDN - all 11,000 pages of it - from HTML to Markdown. As part of this we need to clean up our content to make it Markdown-compatible.
  • HTTP documentation editorial reviews: we’ve recently started a revamp of the HTTP documentation on MDN, to include newer technologies like HTTP 2 and 3, and generally bring everything up to date. So it’s a great time to get editorial reviews of this area!
  • GitHub issues: we’d love help fixing issues with MDN content that have been filed on GitHub. We’ve labeled issues that we think are especially suitable for new contributors, but we’d encourage you to work on anything that seems suitable. We have issues that are editorial fixes, technical fixes, and requests for new pages, so choose the bugs that suit you best.
  • We will lead a brainstorming session about Documenting how to document (expected time to start at 2pm).

It’s an explicit goal of Open Web Docs to create and support a community around web documentation. So if you do join us for Writing Day, please tell us about it - what worked and what didn’t, what was easy and what wasn’t - so we can improve the experience for contributors.

Write the Docs Meetups

Organizing local Write the Docs meetup communities is a rewarding way to participate. During Writing Day, we’ll have a table where we can share tips and best practices, especially in this time where all of our meetups are virtual.

During the conference

Check out the Writing Day Cheat Sheet for a quick reference that you can use during the conference to make the most out of Writing Day.

Sponsors

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