Boost your project's trust signals with great docs!
Clarendon Room A | Wed 15 Mar 10:45 a.m.–11:30 a.m.
Presented by
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Felicity Brand
@flicstar_
https://flicstar.com/
Felicity “flicstar” Brand is a technical writer and editor who is passionate about open source. She has more than fourteen years of experience as a technical communicator, and is currently a Communications Consultant at Open Strategy Partners. She creates and edits a variety of technical content and loves to speak about the craft of writing and editing for technical audiences. She is a firm believer in the power of non-code contributions to open source, and especially loves helping non-writers create great written content for their project or community.
Felicity currently contributes to the open source CMS, TYPO3, and in 2019 co-founded The Good Docs Project, an open source initiative to create best practice templates for documenting software.
Felicity works fully remote, distributed, and asynchronous from Melbourne, Australia.
Felicity Brand
@flicstar_
https://flicstar.com/
Abstract
Open source projects provide many cues that signal the health of the project. These are trust signals, and they influence a person's decision to use the product or join the project.
If your project has a vibrant set of signals, a prospective user or contributor is far more likely to engage with your product or community. In this presentation, I will talk about direct and indirect trust signals, and how you can influence them to increase the health of your open source project.
Some of the most powerful signals come from documentation and content. The Good Docs Project helps you create great project docs for your product and community, with templates designed by tech writers.
If you’re an open source project looking to increase your user base or grow your community, consider your trust signals. Put effort into creating good docs, be aware of the language you’re using, and really nurture your community. This work will flow through to impact your direct signals (number of downloads, size of community), and entice new folk to your project.
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVrHO0YaK9g
LA Archive: http://mirror.linux.org.au/pub/everythingopen/2023/clarendon_room_a/Wednesday/Boost_your_projects_trust_signals_with_great_docs.webm
Open source projects provide many cues that signal the health of the project. These are trust signals, and they influence a person's decision to use the product or join the project. If your project has a vibrant set of signals, a prospective user or contributor is far more likely to engage with your product or community. In this presentation, I will talk about direct and indirect trust signals, and how you can influence them to increase the health of your open source project. Some of the most powerful signals come from documentation and content. The Good Docs Project helps you create great project docs for your product and community, with templates designed by tech writers. If you’re an open source project looking to increase your user base or grow your community, consider your trust signals. Put effort into creating good docs, be aware of the language you’re using, and really nurture your community. This work will flow through to impact your direct signals (number of downloads, size of community), and entice new folk to your project. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVrHO0YaK9g LA Archive: http://mirror.linux.org.au/pub/everythingopen/2023/clarendon_room_a/Wednesday/Boost_your_projects_trust_signals_with_great_docs.webm