10 Open-Source Documentation Projects for Software Technical Writers

It is very essential to have good experience in technical writing in order to secure a job with a handsome salary. 

This experience is built when you have worked as a technical writer for at least 2 years. 

Unfortunately, you are still starting as a fresher and in the current market scenario, nobody is willing to hire a fresher. So there has to be a starting point.

That’s why Internships and contributions to open source are now a good starting point to get into any job profession.

Luckily for the technical writers, there are multiple opportunities to contribute to open source and enhance your resume.

Contributing and finishing any open source projects or completing an internship does not guarantee you a secured job. However, these are always a good option to gain a competitive edge in terms of skills over your fellow colleagues and friends.

Must try for Beginners

Following is the list of projects which can be opted if you have just decided to choose Technical Writing as your profession. These open-source projects give you good insights into the technical writing field.

1. Mozilla Knowledge Base

Mozilla is very well known for its Firefox browser. You can volunteer to write knowledge-based articles that can help thousands of people by answering their questions or queries.

All you need to create an account to get started with the new contributor forum in the Mozilla support home page.

Ubuntu

2.    Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a Linux-based free and open-source operating system. As a technical writer, you get the chance to contribute to their official documentation and wiki-based guide for both Desktop and Server.

Click on Join the Team to find all the details on the pre-requisites and the requirements that you need to have to get started.

 

3.     Fedora Docs Project

Fedora is a Linux distribution developed by the community-supported Fedora Project which is sponsored primarily by Red Hat, a subsidiary of IBM, with additional support from other companies.

With the Fedora Docs Project, you have the opportunity to contribute to their documentation and improve the overall experience of Fedora users.

The product for which you will write the documentation is open-source and thus you do not have to pay any charges for a license.

4. The GNOME Documentation Project

The sole intention of the GNOME Documentation Project is to provide the GNOME community with high-quality documentation. 

Their documentation deliverables include online help, tutorials, application manuals, and programming references. 

Their user documentation is a topic based on how to use applications and GNOME rather than how to perform specific tasks.

The voluntary writers who work on this project also work to convert the legacy documentation from“Docbook” to “Mallard”. (Mallard is a markup language for writing the source files for documentation. Learn more about Mallard.)

5. LibreOffice Documentation

LibreOffice is a very powerful and free open-source office suite that is used by millions of people around the world. 

It can be considered as a Microsoft Office alternative with all the features of Microsoft Office offered for free. LibreOffice includes: 

1. Writer (word processing)

2. Calc (spreadsheets)

3. Impress (presentations)

4. Draw (vector graphics and flowcharts)

5. Base (databases)

6. Math (formula editing).

The doc team is always looking for volunteers who are interested in contributing to the LibreOffice Documentation project. The Documentation team produces the documentation for the LibreOffice suite. 

Must try for the Experienced Technical Writers

Here are some open-source documentation projects for experienced technical writers.

6. Google Season of docs

The Google Season of Docs is an annual initiative coordinated by Google. Its aim is to bring together technical writers and open source organizations to foster collaboration and to improve documentation in the Open Source area.

This effort is especially valuable because the Open Source software documentation offers an incentive for users not only to recognize the software but also to make changes to it.

During the project, approved technical writers spend from 3-5 months either creating a new document collection, enhancing the layout of existing documents, producing a much-needed guide, or enhancing the participation processes and guidelines of the Open Source company.

The stipend paid to the writers is around 2400 to 6600 USD (for India it is around 3000 USD). Do not miss to apply for the next season which is tentatively starting in March 2021.

7. Contribute to Jenkins Documentation

Jenkins has a lot of documentation and they acknowledge any contributions to it: new articles, design and style, copy-editing, reviews, etc. 

You can coordinate and discuss documentation efforts through the Documentation Special Interest Group. You can also reach out through the mailing list.

8. Contribute to GitHub Projects

GitHub is one of the most used web applications for its version control and repository hosting service that allows building better software. It is quite a big and renowned community.

The open-source applications that are being developed provide a good scope for the writers to contribute through documentation.

You need to search for good projects or projects whose requirements match your skills. You can read the contribution.md files for the individual projects to learn about the requirement of the projects and get started.

9. Contribute to Powershell Documentation

PowerShell is a task automation and configuration management framework from Microsoft.

You can contribute to the Conceptual content the conceptual documentation of PowerShell that  includes the following content:

1. Release notes

2. Setup instructions

3. Sample scripts and how-to articles

4. DSC documentation

5. SDK documentation

10. Contribute to the OpenStack Documentation

OpenStack is a free open standard cloud computing platform, mostly deployed as infrastructure-as-a-service in both public and private clouds where virtual servers and other resources are made available to users.

Conclusion

Contributing to open source is a good practice to gain more skills that you can add to your resume. If you are getting started into technical writing, contributing to open source documentation makes you acquainted with the technical writing profession and gives your career a kick start.

Your open-source contribution and participation also allow you to make more contacts with the communities of like-minded professionals. 

Have you ever contributed to any open-source? Comment yes or no in the comment section below.

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