New "Getting Involved" docs handbook coming!

There has been a lot of work going on in the Docs team lately and we want to share that with the larger community. The biggest news that will impact everyone is that we are in the process of creating a new top-level handbook to be added to drupal.org, called "Getting Involved." It will be listed along with the other handbooks on the main Documentation landing page as well as be the new target for the Contribute tab. We have also been working on other plans and ideas to collaborate on the docs. Here is a run down of the cool stuff we have to shout about.

New "Getting Involved" handbook

In March 2008 a number of folks got together at DrupalCon Boston to have a Doc Sprint. We worked throughout the day to help clean up the issue queue and brainstorm. A big idea was born from that to create a new handbook that consolidates, organizes and expands the existing information we have on the myriad ways that people can get involved with the Drupal community. We think of it as a guided path to ease people through the steps, put things into context, as well as simply organizing the information a little better and trying to cut as much duplication as possible. The new handbook will cover things like how to get an account on drupal.org, what is the issue queue and how to use it, how does the documentation work, along with all of the information about how to contribute projects and use CVS. You can see an outline of the contents on the new handbook page.

The bigger idea behind the handbook is to not only tell people how to contribute, but also to explain why and encourage folks to explore contributing as a great way to actually learn and make their own Drupal lives better. We plan to link a lot of Drupal's support resources to the appropriate places in the Getting Involved handbook.

We are pretty excited about this and it is a huge task. It will mean that things are going to shift around in the handbooks overall as we reorganize but we think it will make for a better experience once everything settles into place. We hope to do most of the major reorganization during DrupalCon Szeged, which is just a few weeks away.

IRC meetings

Another idea that was born from that March Doc Sprint was a documentation IRC channel so that we could continue to work on the big projects in real time. The channel is not used on a day to day basis but is used for scheduled IRC meetings. We set an agenda and schedule a day and time for a meeting on the documentation mail list*, using Doodle for folks to mark availability. Then we gather in #drupal-docs on the Freenode network at the agreed upon time to discuss big projects (like the Getting Involved handbook work), brainstorm and generally get thoughts and questions out. The log for the meeting, along with a summary of the major points, is then sent to the mail list so everyone that couldn't attend can stay up to speed. We certainly welcome everyone to attend meetings, even if you just want to watch and see what is going on. We don't require everyone to speak. ;-) Planning for the next meeting is happening now.

Doc Sprint in Szeged

We are also planning another Doc Sprint coming up in Hungary during DrupalCon Szeged. There is a Doc sprint planning BoF early in the week and then the sprint itself will happen all day, August 31, during the code sprint. We plan to make a "virtual" doc sprint through IRC as well so that everyone can participate and collaborate, even if you aren't in Hungary.

Get involved yourself

The documentation on drupal.org is not "owned" by the Docs team. The documentation is a community asset that is written and maintained by everyone. You do not need to join the Docs team to help out with documentation. Everyone is encouraged to read the mail list, attend meetings, create new handbook pages, or help out in the issue queue. If you do want to join the team though, we'd love the company.

If you would specifically like to help with the new Getting Involved handbook, please read the August 8 meeting summary and the post that initiated that meeting to get a sense of where we are. Then browse though the issues in the queue that need feedback and work.

We love new ideas and ways to improve the documentation. Not all ideas can be implemented for various reasons and you can search through the issue queue and read the mail list to see existing or past discussions on topics that interest you. Often times, the reason things "don't happen" or "get fixed" is because, beyond ideas, we need people to actually help out. :-) There is no "they" to take care of things. So if you do make suggestions please keep in mind that you should phrase it as "I want to ..." or "I will ..." rather than "You or they should ...." We all want better docs, so come on along and make it happen. If you have a suggestion, please search to find an existing discussion you can hop in on or, if you can't find one, post to the issue queue, not on this thread. Thanks!

* The Drupal mailing lists page in the handbook lists all of the various groups if you wish to join or view archives.