For "open documentation", a contributor is anybody who modifies your docs and is not paid to be on your team. This presentation describes strategies and tactics that Mozilla Developer Network has used to help contributors get started and keep going, by telling them know what we need help with, and how to help.

1. Entry points & guide posts:
Helping contributors find
their way
Janet Swisher
Community Manager, Mozilla Developer Network
@jmswisher

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3. What the heck am I talking about?
open documentation
Docs, internal or external, that people outside your team can modify
contributor
Anyone who modifies your docs who doesn't have "Technical writer for
{your_team_name}" in their job description
Background: http://www.slideshare.net/janetswisher
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5. How to drive people away
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6. Ways to encourage contribution
Strategy Tactic
Streamline the path from
interest to success
More-focused Getting Started page
Create invitations, not
roadblocks
Show non-English readers what's
not translated
Expose what areas need help, in
what ways
Doc status pages for topics and
locales
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7. Streamline the
path from
interest to
success

12. Create
invitations, not
roadblocks

17. Expose what
areas need help,
in what ways

21. Results over time
Data are noisy; direct cause and effect is hard to prove. But we seem to
be doing something right. 21

22. Do it yourself
• Streamline the path from interest to success
• Create invitations, not roadblocks
• Expose opportunities
• What needs to be done
• How to do it
Improve the CX (Contributor Experience)
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23. Plain old UX work is good too
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24. Continue the conversation on Twitter: @jmswisher
Thanks! Discuss!