Note: These discussion notes are from the team reps summit the weekend before WPCS.
Have made a lot of headway with Core Handbook, internal training documentation. Codex mixes dev and user materials – needs work.
Where do we put these materials? Anybody can write to the Codex; issues like voice consistency, information accuracy. Support Handbook in progress: http://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/. Someday it will be Learn WordPress (learn.wordpress).
Next steps: get it right. Get videos. Get screenshots. Get more bodies. Move from overviews to specific items/features.
Core Handbook idea: interview people who committed/contributed their first patch and review what they did or didn’t know or needed to know based on information in the handbook. To discuss more: onboarding core contributors.
Better documentation
What’s changed in a cycle. Development/code comments → commit message → new developer API announcement/tutorial → to-user announcements → support documentation → tutorials. Better changelog tracking – plain (user-facing) English!
Official API documentation site. Special doc style for actions/filters (needs loooots of bodies to write code docs). Developer portal.
Huge part of education is the transition from being a user to getting into development.
Better incorporate high quality content from WordPress.tv. Virtual “WordCamp Ignite” – flash talks.
Beyond Documentation
New user workshops. New developer workshops. Workshops! We’re not bad with 101 (new and non-technical users) and 401 (established developers), but not so much with 201 (power users) or 301 (beginning developers). Workshops would help, perhaps “pre-packed” materials that can be shipped out for use.
Courseware plugin (Stas) as training support on .org is a long-waiting idea. What would curriculum/syllabus be? Who would teach it and where? Libraries, meetups, etc. Example teachers/classes: Austin meetup, Lorelle, Boone. Would need a person to collect/collate/review exemplar syllabi, etc.
Quizzes – how well do you know WordPress? Don’t want to go down the path of certifications, but self-testing, maybe as auxiliary helpful material for vetting Happiness Bar volunteers and WordCamp speakers.
WordCamps
More standardized “Happiness Bar” (in-person at-event help). What are issues – naming (confusion about what it is), nobody goes, misinformation being given as help. Volunteers should be scheduled on skill/specialty + time – a volunteer per area per time. How do you point a user, who might know where their problem lies, to the best fit for help?
Ask speakers to volunteer at the Happiness Bar (opt-out, of course). “I’m interested” on your .org profile – WordCamp speaking, helping at a Happiness Bar, etc. Exit survey for Happiness Bar users.
Hack Days should include more than core or code contribution – also documentation and support, especially for tasks that really need bodies. How about a Happiness Day / WordPress Study Hall?
Action items
- Learn WordPress: Call for curricula and volunteers to review curricula.
- Move materials over from handbooks (“final resting place” –Mika). Need to find Learn.WP structure idea that already exists somewhere, or do it again.
- Exit survey for Happiness Bar users.
- A better default name for the Happiness Bar.