Handbook Working Group – Let’s do this, take two!

Despite a banging start, with a lot of talented people showing interest and willingness to make the Community documentation better, I failed at keeping the group going, due to biting on more than I can chew.
It happens.

What is so great about having things published in the blog and in TrelloTrello Project management system using the concepts of boards and cards to organize tasks in a sane way. This is what the make.wordpress.com/marketing team uses for example: https://trello.com/b/8UGHVBu8/wp-marketing. is that other people can adopt the project, so here we go again!

Rocìo @_dorsvenabili has kindly offered to continue with the project and enrich it with another layer that will make it even more impactful for our global community.

I won’t spoil anything, but I ask you please to re-commit to the group if you can or join it anew if this is the first time you heard about it! Leave your SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. name in the comments, thank you!

If you want to read more before raising your hand:

Thanks!

#community-handbook, #handbook

Call for volunteers: Handbook Working Group

Our handbooks are a well of great information, and they’ve grown immensely over the years without a lot of editing.

It would be great if we could audit and rework part of the content/information architecture to make them more useful than ever, and plan for future growth.

I propose we form a working group with multiple talents to help our ever-growing group of Community Organisers. We probably will need the help from other teams; it would be a great way to collaborate with different people!

What problem we try to solve

The handbooks have a lot of good content, but it’s hard to find and sometimes confusing for non-native speakers or untrained organizers.

Draft of the roadmap

  1. Audit the existing content
    • We will start with the MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. Handbook: it gets a lot of views and it’s shorter than the WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. one.
  2. Review past blog posts to see what should be added to the handbooks
  3. Identify unclear language or passages in the handbooks and edit them for clarity
  4. Restructure the menus/flow of the handbooks
  5. Identify design elements where they might be useful (and recruit designers to help with them, and add those designs).
  6. List the missing content
  7. Draft it
  8. Work on a “tone of voice” guide: this will help us unify the style and create a guide for future text
  9. Publish it
  10. Maintain the handbooks

Challenges

  • No version control >> Work with MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. to find solution
  • Handbooks are not the easiest to browse, especially on mobile > Work with Design
  • Are our handbooks accessible? Let’s find out >> Audit by the AccessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) Team
  • Are the handbooks easily understandable from people whose first language is not American English? >> Let’s work with people with different language backgrounds

Prerequisites

You gotta love to read and write documentation 🙂

  • A group of people with basic English knowledge, to test if the material is understandable from everyone
  • At a later stage, a group of English native speakers to check the texts.

No prior knowledge of the Community Team procedures is necessary: the point is checking if the material is clear enough so everyone can apply to start more events in their hometown

Time commitment and frame

Between 1 and 2 hours a week, more if you want to!

Ideally the whole process will be done between August and October, with a release date before WordCamp US (goal, last week of October 2019).

Communication and project management

As always with a global team is difficult to find a time that suits everyone: I propose we hold the first meeting at 16:00 UTC on Thursday, August 8th and we go from there.

Who is in?

Please leave you name in the comments before August 7th.

Thank you!

#handbook

Proposal: existing documentation to be merged into the handbooks

We some seriously amazing content in the blog that could be merged or at least linked into the handbooks.

Here is the list with the actions that I propose we take:

Proposed WordCamp Editorial Calendar

Create a new page in the WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. Organiser Handbook > Publicity > Website Content ✅

Promoting Your Local WordPress Meetup

Create a new page in the MeetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. Organiser Handbook > Promoting your Meetup ✅

What makes a WordPress Meetup Great?

Create a new page in the Meetup Organiser Handbook > Building and growing a meetup > A collection of videos to inspire you ✅

do_action Zurich 2018

Link in the Meetup Organiser Handbook > do_action: Charity Hackaton ✅

WordCamp Design Kit Producing assets and finding a…

Merge in the WordCamp Organiser Handbook > Publicity ✅

Collecting ideas & methods for Meetups promotion / growth

Merge in Meetup Organiser Handbook > Summarise together with the “Promoting your local WordPress Meetup” post above ✅

Handbook Page: WordCamp Marketing/Ticket Sales Tips

Merge in the WordCamp Organiser Handbook > Publicity ✅

Contributor Day Room Signage

Merge in the Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. Organiser Handbook ✅

Contributor Night – An experiment in Torino, Italy

Add a page in the Contributor Day Organiser Handbook > Other Contributor Events ✅

Also: change the name of the handbook from Contributor Day to Contributor Events ✅

Deadline: July 22nd. If no one objects or points out different possible places to have this content, I will go on and do it 🙂

Thanks!

#documentation, #handbook

New Documentation: Presenter Best Practices

It seems odd that in our ever expanding documentation we don’t really have much content on the best practices for presenters in our program. Given that presenters are one of the cornerstones on which we build WordCamps and MeetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. that’s something we’d like to change but we need everyone’s help.

We’re looking for a good general set of best practices for each of the following specific presenters/ presentations so please let us know what has worked best for you both at events at which you’ve presented and which you’ve organized.

  • Opening Remarks
  • Emcees
  • Speakers

Example questions we’re looking to answer: What should be covered during opening remarks? How much content should an emcee share? How do you deal with attendees who interrupt your presentation?

But please don’t let that limit your response. Anything that can be of help to organizers, presenters, and emcees at WordCamps and Meetups could be relevant. We’re looking to curate some truly helpful advice and best practices for the handbook so let us know what you know, or what you’d like to see.

#wordcamps #meetups-2 #handbook

The Handbook and the Future

Plan is Dead, Long live the Handbook. At least that is my thought. I think the handbook is the future and we should kill Plan once and for all.

I know we have a notice on the home page of plan, but many people find the old outdated (and sometimes incorrect) info there. We redirect them to the handbook when we find out, but it would (in my opinion) be so much better if we could simply kill plan and redirect to the handbook. We’d only need 1 redirect – more would be unmanageable.

What do others think? @_dorsvenabili @andreamiddleton @camikaos @chanthaboune @brandondove @miss_jwo @iandunn @kovshenin

#handbook

Outreachy week 12: Going live on handbook quizzes

Last week we have finally added the quizzes to the handbook pages which was agreed on earlier. So feel free to check it out! This is how it works:

  • We have the rules explained on Quizzes page for WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. organizer handbook and Quizzes section of the welcome page for WordPress meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. organizer handbook.
  • Links to quizzes were added to the end of the pages which we have quizzes on, 34 quizzes for WordCamp organizer handbook and 5 for meetupsMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook..
  • Note that the visual design of the way incorrect answers are being treated by the system is yet to change. We plan on just highlighting the incorrect answer with red so that the learner will have a chance to choose an answer again.

I really encourage everyone who has a bit of spare time this week to try to register, click a little bit around the quizzes and see what you like about it and what should be improved. Really, any kind of feedback would be helpful.

Additionally, I’ve written a couple of lesson plans last week (Building a Sitemap and Customizer: Taglines) and an instruction of how to write a lesson plan which summarizes the principles and ideas I follow myself when doing it. It can be also used for any kind of tutorial or even an e-learning course.

This week is going to be my last Outreachy week! It’s hard to believe how fast time goes by. And I plan to wrap up working on the Teacher Resources page I mentioned in my last post, finalize everything else and write some final thoughts on this experience.

#handbook, #outreachy

Outreachy week 11: Teacher resources page and adding quizzes to community handbooks

Last week I completed Widget AreasWhat is contact form 7, What is Google XML Sitemap and Improving Site performance lesson plans. Additionally, I’ve been working on the outline for the Teacher Resources page. The idea of this page is to provide trainers with the information that will enable them to work with lesson plans in a more efficient way, i.e:

  • how to use the lessons and what to do to prepare for your in-person sessions
  • how to provide feedback, how to ask questions of the training team and how to participate in lesson plans creation
  • a lessons order/methodology one could use to build a learning path for the students

Besides, after a short hiatus we’re continue working or the WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. organizer/WordPress meetupMeetup Meetup groups are locally-organized groups that get together for face-to-face events on a regular basis (commonly once a month). Learn more about Meetups in our Meetup Organizer Handbook. organizer trainings. As we have discussed earlier, because of the sync problem between the handbooks and the training pages we have to add the quizzes created for the trainings to the end of a related handbook page (and also create a page describing why we added quizzes and instructions on how to register at the website hosting quizzes). ‎

The screenshot below shows how a link to a quiz might look like and I’ve also composed a draft of the Quizzes page.

sample_page

Please add your reactions to any of these ideas, suggestions or changes, and any other thoughts about the lesson plans/community trainings in the comments or google documents!

#handbook, #outreachy

Outreachy week 6: The Big Question

The last week was not very eventful – I fixed minor issues with the assembled courses, but there is a big question regarding further materials organization we wanted to open discussion on.

At the moment, both WordCamp organizer training and WordPress meetup organizer training are composed out of:

  • Web pages, copied from respective handbooks, slightly reorganized in order
  • Quizzes based on those pages’ content, which are appended to those pages

Which raises a sync problem between the handbooks and the training pages. After copying the handbook page content changes were made to the handbook, which is a continuing process. Requiring people to change the training pages every time a change is made to the handbook is not very efficient. So let’s look at the alternatives:

A. Description: We use only the quizzes created from the trainings. A link to a particular quiz is inserted in the end of a related handbook page and a learner is advised to pass it. As they have to log in when passing a quiz, we will have an idea whether they have passed all of the quizzes.

How this will work: Learners have to read the handbook and pass the quizzes hosted at the separate website. When changes are required, handbook will be edited.

B. Description: As the training site is live and 100% complete, we could replace the handbook with this site. Essentially, it contains the same information which can be handled in the same way as handbook pages, and the quizzes can be optional.

How this will work: Learners have to read the training materials and pass the quizzes hosted at the same website. When changes are required, training materials will be edited. Training materials will also play the handbook role.

C. Maybe there are other options? Like, it would be awesome to have some kind of automatic sync between two pages, but I’m not sure whether it’s technically feasible (probably not?). Please, feel free to suggest any ideas you have!
With those options defined, I hope it will help us generate some traction on how to proceed. So please, don’t hesitate to let us know what you think! 🙂

#handbook, #outreachy

Do you want to turn Email Post Changes back on?

Hey deputiesProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook., we have finished porting over nearly all of the contents of plan.wordcamp.org to a handbook on this site, so it’s safe to turn your Email Post Changes setting back to “on” if you want to track changes to community team documentation.

Here’s where you can do that: https://make.wordpress.org/community/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=email_post_changes

If you find you don’t have the right permissions, just leave your request to have me change your “email post changes” settings for you. 🙂

#community-management, #handbook

Email Post Changes

DeputiesProgram Supporter Community Program Supporters (formerly Deputies) are a team of people worldwide who review WordCamp and Meetup applications, interview lead organizers, and keep things moving at WordCamp Central. Find more about program supporters in our Program Supporter Handbook. might have noticed a flood of notification emails about changes to the handbooks on this site. 🙂 (We’ve wanted to copy over the documentation on plan.wordcamp.org so that we’d have all the community-related handbooks in one place, and we have a couple of volunteers who are available to help right now, so that’s finally in progress, yay!)

I turned on Handbook Post Change emails for all deputies based on our last team chat, but since we’ve been making lots of changes to the handbooks, a lot of folks’ inboxes have been, cough, filling up. So I turned off Handbook Post Change emails for all deputies except Jen and me, and made one more important change — all deputies are now Admins on this blog, so you can change your own status on the Email Post Change pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. 😉

It would be awesome for deputies who have to time to review the changes being made to the handbooks — either now or after the bulk of the work is complete — and suggest edits or updates if you see the need for any. Once this big push is over, we’ll ask all deputies to turn on notifications again so that you can stay up to date on any changes we make to the program.

#deputies, #community-management, #handbook