Learning by Example: Highlights from Google Season of Docs
summary
Google Season of Docs gives grants to open source projects to hire technical writers, producing 73 case studies since 2021 and 11 new orgs in 2024. Case studies show concrete wins: daily doc visits almost doubled, a 95% rise in viewers for OpenAPI/CLI docs, a 20% drop in questions for some projects and 95% of chat queries linked to wiki pages. Teams use Google Analytics or Plausible, GitHub PR/issue counts, surveys, pay via OpenCollective, and often retain hired writers long term, while common failures are onboarding, payment hurdles and time zone or legal issues (drones as munitions).
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chapters (17)
- 0:00Google Season of Docs intro
- 1:06Origins vs Summer of Code
- 4:19Why docs matter for open source
- 5:42How Season of Docs works
- 8:12Documentation types and goals
- 10:39Case study highlights
- 13:34Docs energize communities
- 14:38Challenges hiring writers
- 17:47Learning from doc mistakes
- 18:48Project readiness questions
- 22:37Metrics for doc impact
- 24:26Q&A: Metrics tools
- 26:14Q&A: Past apps & device docs
- 27:40Q&A: Hiring writers
- 31:52Q&A: Writer incentives
- 33:21Q&A: AI in docs & trends
- 34:47Closing remarks
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