This moderated session will feature four experienced documentarians + from different backgrounds sharing their impressions of what''s happening in the + industry today, and how it may shape our future.
+ +This session would work best as the final session of the conference.
' +- title: 'Museums to docs: managing the unmanageable documentation' + slug: museums-to-docs-managing-the-unmanageable-documentation-leisa-taylor + series: Write the Docs Australia + series_slug: australia + year: 2023 + speakers: + - name: Leisa Taylor + slug: leisa-taylor + twitter: + website: + abstract: 'As a museum consultant, I triaged difficult (and sometimes dangerous) + collections. Museums I worked with managed tens of thousands of items. Every item + has a database record containing every scrap of information known. Museum staff + have to care for the physical item and its digital counterpart. Despite this massive + responsibility, museums suffer from a lack of resources, staff, and time. Sound + familiar?
+ +When I start as a technical writer - often in a newly established role - I + try to assess the state of the documentation. While contemplating the mess, I + find myself transported to another time. Where the mess was discovering another + storage space filled to the ceiling with objects of all sizes and shapes. Fragile + lace doilies on engines and delicate glass valves that are probably radioactive. + And the pièce de résistance? A mannequin lying face down in a puddle of water + from the latest roof leak.
+ +My mess has become documentation instead of objects but museums taught me how + to manage the unmanageable. Surprisingly, there are countless overlaps between + museums and docs. Some that I want to share include:
+ +Simplified Technical English (STE) started in the aerospace industry, + where it emerged as a solution to address language, communication, and documentation + challenges. While it initially served the defence sector, STE’s inherent versatility + and adaptability have made it remarkably relevant and applicable to various industries. + This workshop explores the evolution of STE from an aerospace standard to its + potential in revolutionising documentation practices in the software industry. + By embracing STE, participants will gain insights into how this linguistic paradigm + shift can help organisations across diverse sectors enhance clarity, efficiency, + and comprehension in their software-related communication.
+- title: Understanding AI and helping it understand you + slug: understanding-ai-and-helping-it-understand-you-sarah-maddox + series: Write the Docs Australia + series_slug: australia + year: 2023 + speakers: + - name: Sarah Maddox + slug: sarah-maddox + twitter: + website: + abstract: 'Let’s take a practical, current look at AI, including ChatGPT and + Bard. AI technology is fascinating, fast-moving, and slightly scary. This talk + shares what I’ve learned about how AI works and how we can think about it in relation + to technical documentation.
+ +The takeaways are: + + * Practical knowledge that you can apply when thinking about AI and its impact + on our industry + + * Excitement and delight
+ +The talk will cover: + + * A quick introduction to machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) + + * What’s special about Large Language Models (LLMs) in comparison with other ML + models + + * How companies are using LLMs to augment the information experience + + * Prompt engineering as a way of helping an LLM understand what you want from + it + + * Embeddings as a way of helping an LLM use your docs as a trusted source of relevant + information
' +- title: I will survive (weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with "Goodbye"?) + slug: i-will-survive-weren-t-you-the-one-who-tried-to-hurt-me-with-goodbye-lana-brindley-she-her + series: Write the Docs Australia + series_slug: australia + year: 2023 + speakers: + - name: Lana Brindley (she/her) + slug: lana-brindley-she-her + twitter: + website: + abstract:Inspired by the disco-classic by Gloria Gaynor, Steve and Lana discuss + the various job rejections they've experienced over far too many years, with hair-raising + stories from friends and colleagues, and examine the reasons why employers treat + us like we'd crumble, how you can grow strong, and learn to get along.
+- title: What if you went back in time and all you found was pie? + slug: what-if-you-went-back-in-time-and-all-you-found-was-pie-claire-mahoney + series: Write the Docs Australia + series_slug: australia + year: 2023 + speakers: + - name: Claire Mahoney + slug: claire-mahoney + twitter: + website: + abstract: "It seems to be a regular wish of content designers and technical writers + everywhere to go back in time and be there when the big decisions get made. We + want to have a seat at the table and be part of tooling choices, strategy discussions, + product planning, naming and style decisions, designing, etc. Some of us are there + in those moments, but many of us arrive after all that has happened and inherit + conditions and problems that started way before we did.
\nWorking in a startup + might seem like an opportunity to go back and right all those wrongs, to start + with a clean slate, and an open road. But it's not quite that simple. I want to + share my experiences as a solo writer in a hectic startup, writing the docs, the + UI, the comms, the blogs, the everything. \nAnd to get the audience thinking about + what ideal writing conditions look like for them, and why they should stop dwelling + on what cannot be changed or prevented, in order to be a more resilient writer.
" +- title: Improving Documentation at Scale + slug: improving-documentation-at-scale-paul-gustafson + series: Write the Docs Australia + series_slug: australia + year: 2023 + speakers: + - name: Paul Gustafson + slug: paul-gustafson + twitter: + website: + abstract: 'Imagine your job is to help a software project produce high-quality + documentation. The current documentation is incomplete, confusing, out of date, + and poorly organized. While the leaders of the project recognize the current documentation + slows adoption by new users, and impedes potential contributors, it''s not clear + what needs to be done or who can do the work.
+ +Now, multiply that challenge by 170+ software projects.
+ +This talk introduces a new program designed to tackle exactly that challenge. + The session will describe the program, and highlight practices relevant to any + organization struggling with technical documentation, whether open source or not. + It will also explain how writers everywhere can benefit from the lessons learned.
' +- title: Advocating for digital accessibility with empathy + slug: advocating-for-digital-accessibility-with-empathy-rhiannon-hall + series: Write the Docs Australia + series_slug: australia + year: 2023 + speakers: + - name: Rhiannon Hall + slug: rhiannon-hall + twitter: + website: + abstract: 'For projects in any field, accessibility is an essential part of both + development and the end product. Unfortunately accessibility is often an afterthought + in design processes, and a lack of clear and effective documentation can be a + contributing factor.
+ +Our team supports learning and teaching staff at a university with a repository + of resources and blog posts (which are also publicly available), and accessibility + is an area of focus for us. In higher education, inaccessible content can have + profoundly negative effects for students, ranging from poor learning experiences + to increased rates of non-completion for students with disabilities.
+ +Our approach to creating documentation for accessibility brings together learning + and teaching practitioners, content designers and students with lived experience + of disability to encourage empathetic practice of accessibility principles. We + combine clear instructive content, real-life examples and student-created content + to emphasise the benefits of accessible practice for all students and the impacts + of inaccessibility. While our context is in higher education, this approach can + be applied in many different fields and scenarios that require documentation. +
+ +This talk will cover:
+ +In many workplaces, people who do not see themselves as writers are + required to write technical documentation. Engineers are often required to write + the first draft document which may or may not be refined in a subsequent review + by a technical writer. Part of the lack of importance given to writing documentation + by some engineers may be due to them feeling uncomfortable about writing. Some + engineers may have had negative experiences with writing in the past. In some + cases, their negative perception of themselves as a writer can impact their performance + when writing technical documentation.
+ +The workplace can be conceived as a learning environment. This learning environment + needs to help people of all abilities to succeed and needs to recognise that negative + self-perception and negative prior experiences can be a significant impediment + to success. Drawing on research from the adult-education sector and other sources, + I will explore how we can adopt a ‘growth-mindset’ view of ourselves and our co-workers + instead of seeing people as having deficits in abilities. On this foundation, + I will then open a conversation about what practical steps, aside from formal + training, can be implemented in the workplace to help everyone feel that they + can succeed as writers.
' +- title: '#worthit: Refactoring product-centric docs into task-based content' + slug: worthit-refactoring-product-centric-docs-into-task-based-content-janet-revell + series: Write the Docs Australia + series_slug: australia + year: 2023 + speakers: + - name: Janet Revell + slug: janet-revell + twitter: + website: + abstract: '"I''m not here to learn about your product. If your documentation + doesn''t answer my question or solve my problem, I''m not interested." That actual + quote from an actual Site Reliability Engineer neatly summarizes my goal as a + Tech Writer at early-stage start-ups: my job is not to describe your product, + my job is to help users become successful and confident using your software. And + yet, my nearly 20-year career in tech writing and management has focused almost + entirely on requirements that demand product-centric documentation that exhaustively + explains the parts, but fails to prescribe how to use the whole.
+ +After countless doc plans and earnest entreaties to approach new documentation + projects from a user''s task-based perspective, I finally found myself with an + opportunity to write content that answers questions and solves problems. I''d + like to tell the story of how I refactored a complete set of software documentation + from "bland" to "much better" in a docs-as-code environment in which I focused + squarely on what the users need to know, not on what a company wants to say about + their products.
+ +I''ll describe how I managed to coax my product management and engineering + colleagues into reimagining the documentation, how I organized the practical steps + to incrementally implement the changes, and I''ll discuss the early feedback from + users about their experience with a different kind of documentation.
' +- title: 'Find the frequency: metrics for better docs and happier readers' + slug: find-the-frequency-metrics-for-better-docs-and-happier-readers-renee-carignan + series: Write the Docs Australia + series_slug: australia + year: 2023 + speakers: + - name: Renee Carignan + slug: renee-carignan + twitter: + website: + abstract: 'When it comes to quantifying the "success" of documentation, trying + to use metrics to figure out if your docs are actually helping people can be a + daunting and frustrating task. Most analytics tools were built primarily with + marketers and product managers in mind, and sorting through the near-infinite + analytics features has lead many a documentarian to spend too much time tuned + into metrics that don''t result in any tangible docs improvements.
+ +In this talk, I''ll share my insights into which metrics can provide the most + value for you as a docs writer based on my 4+ years leading the docs team at a + product analytics software company. Through lots of trial, error, and writing + meta-docs about analytics while grappling with them myself, I managed to suss + out several metrics which consistently resulted in tangible docs improvements + that made us (and our readers) happier.
+ +By the end of this talk, you''ll have a handy list of metrics which may prove + beneficial for your team, and a strengthened intuition for when a metric is simply + noise to tune out - and what may be worth tuning into.
' diff --git a/docs/_scripts/pretalx2wtd.py b/docs/_scripts/pretalx2wtd.py index ae394c8a4e..b2d1da627b 100755 --- a/docs/_scripts/pretalx2wtd.py +++ b/docs/_scripts/pretalx2wtd.py @@ -111,8 +111,8 @@ def search_answers(speaker_dict, search_string): if __name__ == '__main__': convert_to_yaml( year='2023', - series='Write the Docs Atlantic', - series_slug='atlantic', - yaml_output='../_data/atlantic-2023-sessions.yaml', - pretalx_slug='wtd-atlantic-2023' + series='Write the Docs Australia', + series_slug='australia', + yaml_output='../_data/australia-2023-sessions.yaml', + pretalx_slug='wtd-australia-2023' ) diff --git a/docs/_static/img/speakers/claire-mahoney.png b/docs/_static/img/speakers/claire-mahoney.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..03310273bc Binary files /dev/null and b/docs/_static/img/speakers/claire-mahoney.png differ diff --git a/docs/_static/img/speakers/janet-revell.png b/docs/_static/img/speakers/janet-revell.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..6aeafacbb9 Binary files /dev/null and b/docs/_static/img/speakers/janet-revell.png differ diff --git a/docs/_static/img/speakers/leisa-taylor.jpg b/docs/_static/img/speakers/leisa-taylor.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..920cfa6923 Binary files /dev/null and b/docs/_static/img/speakers/leisa-taylor.jpg differ diff --git a/docs/_static/img/speakers/paul-gustafson.png b/docs/_static/img/speakers/paul-gustafson.png new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..3c7b540e1d Binary files /dev/null and b/docs/_static/img/speakers/paul-gustafson.png differ diff --git a/docs/_static/img/speakers/renee-carignan.jpg b/docs/_static/img/speakers/renee-carignan.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..38f6b95817 Binary files /dev/null and b/docs/_static/img/speakers/renee-carignan.jpg differ diff --git a/docs/_static/img/speakers/sarah-maddox.jpg b/docs/_static/img/speakers/sarah-maddox.jpg index 144d14278c..26d12da7bf 100644 Binary files a/docs/_static/img/speakers/sarah-maddox.jpg and b/docs/_static/img/speakers/sarah-maddox.jpg differ diff --git a/docs/_static/img/speakers/shumin-chen.jpg b/docs/_static/img/speakers/shumin-chen.jpg index ba1a989464..6e06e75843 100644 Binary files a/docs/_static/img/speakers/shumin-chen.jpg and b/docs/_static/img/speakers/shumin-chen.jpg differ diff --git a/docs/_static/img/speakers/yvonne-perkins.jpg b/docs/_static/img/speakers/yvonne-perkins.jpg new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..e36a6537e7 Binary files /dev/null and b/docs/_static/img/speakers/yvonne-perkins.jpg differ diff --git a/docs/conf/australia/2023/news/announcing-speakers.rst b/docs/conf/australia/2023/news/announcing-speakers.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..39e6169ca1 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/conf/australia/2023/news/announcing-speakers.rst @@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ +:template: {{year}}/generic.html + +.. post:: October 5, 2023 + :tags: {{shortcode}}-{{year}}, speakers, tickets, visiting, sponsors + +Announcing conference speakers and talks +========================================= + +G'day, documentarians! Today we're excited to announce that we've finalised our speakers for the next Australia conference. + +Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to send us a proposal – we literally wouldn't have an event without you! + +Our Australian conference is happening in just under 2 months, and we're excited to see everyone again in {{city}}. +Now is a great time to start booking your tickets and travel, and we hope to see you soon. + +Full speaker line-up +-------------------- + +Each year we bring a wide range of voices to the Write the Docs . Because the role of "documentarian" looks so different to each of us, we aim for a line-up that spans a good mix of practical, philosophical, and technical topics – with the odd whimsical one thrown in for good measure. + +We're really excited about the `presentations