Setting up the Documentation Team

The Xaraya Project Management Committee (PMC) is looking for 4 to 5 
individuals who would like to be part of our documentation team. In our 
view, documentation is a very important part of the whole Xaraya suite, 
so we want to have an enthusiastic team to take responsibility of the 
effort to create world-class documentation.

The goal of the Xaraya Documentation Team is to provide the best 
possible documentation for Xaraya users and system administrators to 
enable them to make the installation, configuration, extension, 
utilization, and maintenance of Xaraya sites as easy as possible. Xaraya 
challenges existing conceptions of what a Content Management System 
(CMS) can be by providing ground-breaking new concepts, ideas, and 
opportunities.

What do we expect from members of the Xaraya Documentation Team?

Because Xaraya is radically different from existing CMS products, it is
imperative that it is extremely well-documented. In order to maintain 
the high quality of the Xaraya Documentation, the following guidelines 
are in place for those interested in becoming documentation team members:

* You should bring strong writing skills and the ability to explain 
complex technical processes in clear, easy-to-follow language. If you 
are not a writer with a passion for explaining complex processes in 
detail, this may not be the team for you.

* The Xaraya Documentation Team is one of several teams in the Xaraya
project. We work separately but equally with the other Xaraya teams in a
spirit of cooperation and information sharing, striving toward a common 
goal of making Xaraya the best product in the market. Members of the 
Xaraya Documentation Team may be asked to interact with members of the 
Xaraya Development Team to receive 'skeleton' documentation from the 
developers -- basic functionality that the Documentation Team will 
explain and expand for end-users. Communication is generally done 
through IRC, email, or instant messaging.

* Members of the documentation team will be divided first by Xaraya 
interest area. Secondary division will be task-specific (peer reviewer, 
editor, writer, etc.). What this means is that members will be assigned 
tasks by Drew Vogel primarily on the member's interest area within 
Xaraya. If there are areas within Xaraya that are not adequately 
staffed, Drew Vogel may assign these areas to team members.

* The first priority for the Xaraya Documentation Team is to complete 
the Official Xaraya Installation & Getting Started Guide, which is the 
site administrator's guide to Xaraya. Secondary (possibly concurrent) 
priorities include the Xaraya Module Development Guide, the Xaraya API 
Guide, the Xaraya Contributor's Guide, and other documentation for those 
interested in developing for Xaraya.

* When submissions are made, they will be reviewed by Drew Vogel, 
members of the documentation team, and then sent to other Xaraya team 
members (which may include Xaraya team members outside of the 
documentation team).

* Many of the members of the Xaraya Development Team have been involved 
with the project for years. We are looking for a similar level of 
commitment from Documentation Team members.

* Names of persons submitting items for the Xaraya Documentation will be
included in a CREDITS section in the documentation. If you do not wish 
to be credited, please inform Drew Vogel.

* The primary forum for conducting documentation team meetings will be
through IRC. Secondary methods will be email, the Xaraya documentation 
list, forums, and instant messaging.

* There will be regular IRC meetings scheduled for documentation team
members.

* The Xaraya Documentation is licensed and distributed under the GNU 
Free Documentation License. Any contributions that are made to Xaraya's
Documentation must be done under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation
License.

* To ensure a unified voice in the Xaraya Documentation, submissions may 
be edited by Drew Vogel.

* If you are submitting items that benefit from a screenshot, include 
the screenshot with your submission.

* The Xaraya Documentation is written in English. Submissions must be in 
English. The language in screenshots must be English. Screenshots must 
use the Xaraya_Classic theme.

* Document submissions may be made in any common editable format: ASCII,
.doc files, RTF, etc.

* Document submissions can be made via email to [email protected] 
Compress (ZIP, tar.gz, etc) submissions that have multiple files.

* Using XMLmind XML Editor Standard Edition 2.5 (or later), Drew Vogel 
will convert submissions into the 'destination' format of the Xaraya
Documentation, which is DocBook. Submissions in DocBook format, unless
specifically requested by Drew Vogel, will not be accepted.

If you are interested in exploring membership on the Xaraya 
Documentation Team, please contact Drew Vogel at [email protected] or the 
Xaraya PMC through [email protected]

Please provide a brief biographical overview of yourself and your
qualifications. A description of your qualifications can help us to 
evaluate your ability to deliver the work we need.

If we have not worked with you before, we must see a sample of your writing.
Preferably, this will be a type of writing similar to documentation for
computer software. The writing sample should be your writing -- not the
partial work of an editor. If we aren't satisfied with the writing 
sample you provide, we may ask you to write a few paragraphs explaining 
a technical concept or illustrating a procedure. We are not necessarily 
looking for prize-winning authors. Probably the single most important 
requirements are for you to have a thorough understanding of what you 
are writing about and to be able to explain it clearly.


-andrew vogel
Manager of Professional Programs
University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy

- marcel van der boom
Xaraya PMC