Google Season of Docs announces participating organizations for 2024

Google Season of Docs provides support for open source projects to improve their documentation and gives professional technical writers an opportunity to gain experience in open source. Together we improve developer experience through better documentation, increase our understanding of best practices in open source documentation, and raise the profile of technical writers in open source.

For 2024, Google Season of Docs is pleased to announce that eleven organizations will be participating in the program! The list of participating organizations can be viewed on the website.

The project development phase now begins. Organizations and the technical writers they hire will work on their documentation projects from now until November 22nd. For organizations still looking to hire a technical writer, the hiring deadline is May 22nd.

How do I take part in Google Season of Docs as a technical writer?

Start by reading the technical writer guide and FAQs which give information about eligibility and choosing a project. Next, technical writers interested in working with accepted open source organizations can share their contact information via the Season of Docs GitHub repository; or they may submit a statement of interest directly to the organizations. We recommend technical writers reach out to organizations before submitting a statement of interest to discuss the project they’ll be working on and gain a better understanding of the organization. Technical writers do not need to submit a formal application through Google Season of Docs, so reach out to the organizations as soon as possible!

Will technical writers be paid while working with organizations accepted into Google Season of Docs?

Yes. Participating organizations will transfer funds directly to the technical writer via OpenCollective. Technical writers should review the organization's proposed project budgets and discuss their compensation and payment schedule with the organization before hiring. Check out our technical writer payment process guide for more details.

General Timeline

May 22, 2024	Technical writer hiring deadline
June 5, 2024	Organization administrators start reporting on their project status via monthly evaluations
December 10, 2024	Final date for Organization administrators submit their case study and final project evaluation
December 13, 2024	Google publishes the 2024 Season of Docs case studies and aggregate project data
May 1, 2025	Organizations begin to participate in post-program followup surveys

See the full timeline for details.

Care to join us?

Explore the Google Season of Docs website at g.co/seasonofdocs to learn more about the program. Use our logo and other promotional resources to spread the word. Review the timeline, check out the FAQ, and reach out to organizations now!

If you have any questions about the program, please email us at [email protected].

By Erin McKean, Google Open Source Programs Office

Announcing Google Season of Docs 2024

Google Season of Docs provides direct grants to open source projects to improve their documentation and gives professional technical writers an opportunity to gain experience in open source. Together we raise awareness of open source, of docs, and of technical writing.

How does GSoD work?

Google Season of Docs allows open source organizations to apply for a grant based on their documentation needs. If selected, the open source organizations use their grant to directly hire a technical writer to complete their documentation project. Organizations have up to six months to complete their documentation project. At the end of the program, organizations complete their final case study which outlines the problem the documentation project was intended to solve, what metrics were used to judge the effectiveness of the documentation, and what the organization learned for the future. All project case studies are published on the Season of Docs site at the end of the program.

Organizations: apply to be part of GSoD

The applications for Google Season of Docs open February 22 for the 2024 cycle. We strongly suggest that organizations take the time to complete the steps in the exploration phase before the application process begins, including:

• Creating a project page to gauge community and technical writer participant interest (see our project ideas page for examples).
• Publicizing your interest in participating in GSoD through your project channels and adding your project to our list of interested projects on GitHub.
• Lining up community members who are interested in mentoring or helping onboard technical writers to your project.
• Brainstorming requirements for technical writers to work on your project. Will they need to be able to test code, work with video, or have prior experience with your project or related technologies? Will you allow the use of generative AI tools in creating documentation for your project?
• Reading through the case studies from previous Season of Docs participants.

Organizations: create your project page

Every Google Season of Docs project begins with a project page, which is a publicly visible page that serves as an overview of your documentation project. A good project page includes:

• A statement of the problem your project needs to solve: “users on Windows don’t have clear guidance of how to install our project”.
• The documentation that might solve this problem: “We want to create a quickstart doc and installation guide for Windows users”.
• How you’ll measure the success of your documentation: “With a good quickstart, we expect to see 50% fewer issues opened about Windows installation problems.”
• What skills your technical writer would need (break down into “must have” and “nice to have” categories): “Must have: access Windows machine to test instructions”.
• What volunteer help is needed from community members: “need help onboarding technical writers to our discussion groups”. Include a way for the community to discuss the proposal.
• Most importantly, include a way for interested technical writers to reach you and ask questions!

Technical writers: reach out to organizations early

Technical writers do not submit a formal application through Google Season of Docs, but instead apply to accepted organizations directly. Technical writers can share their contact information now via the Google Season of Docs GitHub repository. They can also submit proposals directly to organizations using the contact information shared on the organization’s project page. Check out our technical writer guide for more information. We suggest that interested technical writers read through the case studies from the previous Google Season of Docs participants to get an idea of the kinds of projects that have been accepted and what organizations have learned from working with technical writers.

General Timeline

February 22 - April 2, 2024	Open source organizations apply to take part in Google Season of Docs
April 10	Google publishes the list of accepted organizations, along with their project proposals and doc development can begin
May 22	Technical writer hiring deadline
June 5	Organization administrators begin to submit monthly evaluations to report on the status of their project
November 22 - December 10	Organization administrators submit their case study and final project evaluation.
December 13	Google publishes the 2024 case studies and aggregate project data.
May 1, 2025	Organizations begin to participate in post-program followup surveys.

See the full program timeline for more details.

Join us

Explore the Google Season of Docs website at g.co/seasonofdocs to learn more about participating in the program. Use our logo and other promotional resources to spread the word. Check out the timeline and FAQ, and get ready to apply!

By Erin McKean – Google Open Source Programs Office

Google Season of Docs announces results of 2023 program

Google Season of Docs is happy to announce the 2023 program results, including the project case studies.

Google Season of Docs is a grant-based program where open source organizations apply for US$5-15,000 to hire technical writers to complete documentation projects. At the end of the six-month documentation development phase, organizations submit a case study to outline the problems their documentation project was intended to solve, how they are measuring the success of their documentation project, and what they learned during the project. The case studies are publicly available and are intended to help other open source organizations learn best practices in open source documentation.

The 2023 Google Season of Docs documentation development phase began on March 31 and ended November 21, 2023 for all projects. Participants in the 2023 program will also answer three followup surveys in 2024, in order to better track the impact of these documentation projects over time.

Feedback from the 2023 participating projects was extremely positive:

“I would strongly recommend engaging with a technical writer who is genuinely passionate about open-source initiatives. A writer who asks probing questions, encourages leaders to think innovatively, and is eager to learn in unfamiliar domains can be incredibly beneficial."

– Digital Biomarker Discovery Project

“Having a dedicated resource under the banner of GSoD helped as it allowed the team to focus on core activities while leaving out the worries related to the stacking documentation challenges behind, to be taken care of by the writer."

– Flux

“We made significant improvements to nearly half of the p5.js reference and laid the groundwork for a team of writers currently working on documentation. Along the way, we engaged a broad cross-section of the community and strengthened bonds among core contributors. "

– p5.js

Take a look at the participant list to see the initial project plans and case studies!

What’s next?

Stay tuned for information about Google Season of Docs 2024—watch for posts on this blog and sign up for the announcements email list. We’ll also be publishing the 2023 case study summary report in early 2024.

If you were excited about participating in the 2023 Google Season of Docs program, please do write social media posts. See the promotion and press page for images and other promotional materials you can include, and be sure to use the tag #SeasonOfDocs when promoting your project on social media. To include the tech writing and open source communities, add #WriteTheDocs, #techcomm, #TechnicalWriting, and #OpenSource to your posts.

By Erin McKean, Google Open Source Programs Office

Google Season of Docs announces participating organizations for 2023

Google Season of Docs provides support for open source projects to improve their documentation and gives professional technical writers an opportunity to gain experience in open source. Together we improve developer experience through better documentation and raise the profile of technical writers in open source.

For 2023, Season of Docs is pleased to announce that 13 organizations will be participating in the program! The list of participating organizations can be viewed on the website.

The project development phase now begins. Organizations and the technical writers they hire will work on their documentation projects from now until November 6th. For organizations still looking to hire a technical writer, the hiring deadline is May 10th.

How do I take part in Season of Docs as a technical writer?

Start by reading the technical writer guide and FAQs which give information about eligibility and choosing a project. Next, technical writers interested in working with accepted open source organizations can share their contact information via the Season of Docs GitHub repository; or they may submit a statement of interest directly to the organizations. We recommend technical writers reach out to organizations before submitting a statement of interest to discuss the project they’ll be working on and gain a better understanding of the organization. Technical writers do not need to submit a formal application through Season of Docs, so reach out to the organizations as soon as possible!

Will technical writers be paid while working with organizations accepted into Season of Docs?

Yes. Participating organizations will transfer funds directly to the technical writer via OpenCollective. Technical writers should review the organization's proposed project budgets and discuss their compensation and payment schedule with the organization before hiring. Check out our technical writer payment process guide for more details.

General Timeline

May 10	Technical writer hiring deadline
June 14	Organization administrators start reporting on their project status via monthly evaluations
November 21	Organization administrators submit their case study and final project evaluation
December 5	Google publishes the 2023 Season of Docs case studies and aggregate project data
May 1, 2024	Organizations begin to participate in post-program followup surveys

See the full timeline for details.

Care to join us?

Explore the Season of Docs website at g.co/seasonofdocs to learn more about the program. Use our logo and other promotional resources to spread the word. Review the timeline, check out the FAQ, and reach out to organizations now!

If you have any questions about the program, please email us at [email protected].

By Erin McKean, Google Open Source Programs Office

Kickstarting your tech writing career with open source

After graduating from University in the midst of a pandemic, I knew that I wanted to be a tech writer, but I wasn’t sure how to start. Google Season of Docs was the perfect way to launch my career; it let me work on my own terms and led to me starting my own business and to subsequent tech writing jobs in open source. I am currently working as a tech writer at Google and volunteering for documentation-related open source projects.

Should you join an open source project?

The charm (and challenge) of open source is that the line between creators and users becomes blurred. Do you wish that your beloved tool had that one feature you really need? You can add it yourself! Other users might support your feature request and may even help you build it. Before you know it, you’re part of a wonderful community bound together by passion.

People join open source projects for many reasons:

• They believe in the vision of a project and want to help build it
• They want to build professional and technical skills
• They are motivated by the possibility of hundreds—or even thousands—of people using their work

Life in open source as a tech writer

Many contributors in open source come from a software engineering background. They are great at building software, but they sometimes struggle with documentation. Through Google Season of Docs, open source projects can hire technical writers to help them create much-needed content. These technical writers are likely the first person in the project working exclusively on educational content—which comes with ups and downs.

The fun parts

As an open source technical writer, you will often be in close contact with your users. Through researching user needs, technical writers develop more empathy for the struggles of the users. Many tech writers (myself included) find that this closeness helps them write better.

Contributing to open source also allows you to create documentation in different contexts. For example, you might have authored content in a CMS in the past—diving into an open source project gives you the opportunity to explore a docs-as-code workflow. Another circumstance could be that you wrote documentation in a different industry and you want to see what it’s like to document software. Changing up your writing routine helps you find more creative ways to tackle problems for the next project you work on.

The hard parts

Documentation quality can be quite variable in open source. While some pages might be really useful, others might be outdated, don’t follow the user workflow, or cover way too much information on one page. Making sense of the existing documentation landscape can feel like a daunting task.

Most open source projects suffer from gaps in the documentation. Since open source developers are so enmeshed with their code and the project, they have a lot of context, and suffer from the “curse of knowledge”. It’s hard for contributors, or anyone who has held a position for a while, to remember what it was like to be a beginner or new to a project. When developers write documentation, their brain auto-completes what is missing on the page.

Because many people work on open source for personal satisfaction, you might experience pushback from people who are protective of their documentation. I find it helpful to view pushback as an act of caring about documentation. Take a closer look at why you are receiving pushback:

• Do the developers have concerns about your technical understanding?
• Are they not ready to let go of their document?
• Do you have different ideas of who the user is and what their goals are?

Understanding developer concerns can help you reach the shared goal of improved documentation.

Succeeding in Google Season of Docs and beyond

These tips helped me make the most of my Google Season of Docs experience.

Gain clarity

Take time in the beginning of the project to really understand the software, the user’s needs, and your docs landscape. (I allocated one third of my entire project timeline to gaining clarity.) Talk to your project mentors, do user research, and perform a content audit—this will help you understand the current structure and identify weaknesses and gaps in the content.

Keep your community in the loop

Open source communities attract contributors from all over the world—which means communication is usually asynchronous and in writing. Transparent communication is a must to keep your users (and potential co-creators) engaged. When they know what’s going on, it’s easier for them to chip in.

Deal with pushbacks

Transparent communications and a solid documentation plan go a long way towards addressing concerns. It’s easier to receive support if your team knows what you’re doing.

Build a professional support network

Find other tech writers to geek out with, especially if you’re the only technical writer in your project. Groups like Write the Docs and The Good Docs project are good places to find like-minded people to brainstorm and learn with.

I hope you find a project that interests you and the bandwidth to participate in Google Season of Docs. It was a worthwhile experience for me, helped me advance in my career, and I hope the same for you.

P.S. You can find a detailed write up of my work for Season of Docs ‘21 on my website.

By Tina Luedtke, Technical Writer – Google

Announcing Google Season of Docs 2023!

Google Season of Docs provides support for open source projects to improve their documentation and gives professional technical writers an opportunity to gain experience in open source. Together we raise awareness of open source, of docs, and of technical writing.

How does GSoD work?

Google Season of Docs allows open source organizations to apply for a grant based on their documentation needs. If selected, the open source organizations use their grant to directly hire a technical writer to complete their documentation project. Organizations have up to six months to complete their documentation project. At the end of the program, organizations complete their final case study which outlines the problem the documentation project was intended to solve, what metrics were used to judge the effectiveness of the documentation, and what the organization learned for the future. All project case studies are published on the Season of Docs site at the end of the program.

Organizations: apply to be part of GSoD!

The applications for Google Season of Docs open February 15 for the 2023 cycle. We strongly suggest that organizations take the time to complete the steps in the exploration phase before the application process begins, including:

• Creating a project page to gauge community and technical writer participant interest (see our project ideas page for examples).
• Publicizing your interest in participating in GSoD through your project channels and adding your project to our list of interested projects on GitHub.
• Lining up community members who are interested in mentoring or helping onboard technical writers to your project.
• Brainstorming requirements for technical writers to work on your project (Will they need to be able to test code, work with video, or have prior experience with your project or related technologies?).
• Reading through the case studies from previous Season of Docs participants.

Organizations: create your project page

Every Google Season of Docs project begins with a project page, which is a publicly visible page that serves as an overview of your documentation project. A good project page includes:

• A statement of the problem your project needs to solve (“users on Windows don’t have clear guidance of how to install our project”).
• The documentation that might solve this problem (“We want to create a quickstart doc and installation guide for Windows users”).
• How you’ll measure the success of your documentation (“With a good quickstart, we expect to see 50% fewer issues opened about Windows installation problems.”).
• What skills your technical writer would need (break down into “must have” and “nice to have” categories. “Must have: access Windows machine to test instructions”).
• What volunteer help is needed from community members (“need help onboarding technical writers to our discussion groups”) and links to where the community can discuss the proposal.
• Most importantly, include a way for interested technical writers to reach you and ask questions!

Technical writers: reach out to organizations early!

Technical writers do not submit a formal application through Google Season of Docs but those interested in working with accepted open source organizations can share their contact information now via the Google Season of Docs GitHub repository; or they may submit proposals directly to the organizations using the contact information shared on the organization project page. Check out our technical writer guide for more information. We suggest that interested technical writers read through the case studies from the previous Season of Docs participants to get an idea of the kinds of projects that have been accepted and what organizations have learned from working with technical writers.

General timeline

February 15 - March 24	Open source organizations apply to take part in Google Season of Docs
March 31	Google publishes the list of accepted organizations, along with their project proposals and doc development can begin.
May 10	Technical writer hiring deadline
June 14	Organization administrators begin to submit monthly evaluations to report on the status of their project.
November 6 - 21	Organization administrators submit their case study and final project evaluation.
December 5	Google publishes the 2023 case studies and aggregate project data.
May 1, 2024	Organizations begin to participate in post-program followup surveys.

See the full program timeline for more details.

Join us

Explore the Google Season of Docs website at g.co/seasonofdocs to learn more about participating in the program. Use our logo and other promotional resources to spread the word. Check out the timeline and FAQ, and get ready to apply!

By Romina Vicente and Erin McKean – Google Open Source Programs Office

Season of Docs 2022 program results

Season of Docs is a Google program that provides support for open source projects to improve their documentation and gives professional technical writers an opportunity to gain experience in open source. We’re delighted to announce the 2022 program results!

From April 14 to November 14, 2022 selected open source organizations worked with their chosen technical writer to complete their documentation project.

• 30 open source organizations finished their projects
• 93% of organizations had a positive experience
• 90% of organizations felt their documentation project was successful

Take a look at the list of completed projects to see the wide range of subjects covered!

We’d also like to share that the 2021 case study report has been published on the website. The results are based on the three post-program followup surveys sent to the organizations to determine whether or not their initial metrics had been met. A few highlights from the report include:

• A diverse range of open source projects participated in the 2021 program: languages, Python ecosystem projects, education, climate, machine learning, fintech, robotics, developer tools, documentation tools.
• Most projects focused on creating documentation to reduce maintainer burden through reducing issues and questions, and/ or increasing project participation either by project users or contributors.
• 18 projects reported they were still working with their technical writer (four technical writers are participating in a paid role).

Looking forward to Season of Docs 2023? Stay tuned and watch for posts on the Google Open Source blog and sign up for the announcements email list. For organizations and technical writers interested in applying for next year’s program, check out the guides, the FAQ, and the accepted project proposals from 2022 and previous seasons.

If you were excited about participating, please do write social media posts. See the promotion and press page for images and other promotional materials you can include, and be sure to use the tag #SeasonOfDocs when promoting your project on social media. To include the tech writing and open source communities, add #WriteTheDocs, #techcomm, #TechnicalWriting, and #OpenSource to your posts.

By Romina Vicente and Erin McKean – Google Open Source Programs Office

Season of Docs announces results of 2021 program

Season of Docs has announced the 2021 program results for all projects. You can view a list of successfully completed projects on the website along with their case studies.

In 2021, the Season of Docs program allowed open source organizations to apply for a grant based on their documentation needs. Selected open source organizations then used their grant to hire a technical writer directly to complete their desired documentation project. Organizations then had six months to complete their documentation project. (In previous years, Google matched technical writers to projects and paid the technical writers directly.)

The 2021 Season of Docs documentation development phase began on April 16 and ended November 16, 2021 for all projects:

• 30 open source organizations finished their projects (100% completion)
• 93% of organizations had a positive experience
• 96% of the technical writers had a positive experience

Take a look at the list of completed projects to see the wide range of subjects covered!

What is next?

Stay tuned for information about Season of Docs 2022—watch for posts on this blog and sign up for the announcements email list. We’ll also be sharing information about best practices in open source technical writing derived from the Season of Docs case studies.

If you were excited about participating, please do write social media posts. See the promotion and press page for images and other promotional materials you can include, and be sure to use the tag #SeasonOfDocs when promoting your project on social media. To include the tech writing and open source communities, add #WriteTheDocs, #techcomm, #TechnicalWriting, and #OpenSource to your posts.

By Kassandra Dhillon and Erin McKean, Google Open Source Programs Office

Season of Docs announces results of 2020 program

Season of Docs has announced the 2020 program results for standard-length projects. You can view a list of successfully completed technical writing projects on the website along with their final project reports.

During the program, technical writers spend a few months working closely with an open source community. They bring their technical writing expertise to improve the project's documentation while the open source projects provided mentors to introduce the technical writers to open source tools, workflows, and the project's technology.

For standard-length technical writing projects in Season of Docs, the doc development phase is September 14, 2020 – November 30, 2020. However, some technical writers may apply for a long-running project. The technical writer makes this decision under consultation with the open source organization, based on the expectations for their project. For a long-running project, the doc development phase is September 14, 2020 – March 1, 2021.

64 technical writers successfully completed their standard-length technical writing projects. There are 18 long-running projects in progress that are expected to finish in March.

• 85% of the mentors had a positive experience and want to mentor again in future Season of Docs cycles
• 96% of the technical writers had a positive experience
• 96% plan to continue contributing to open source projects
• 94% of the technical writers said that Season of Docs helped improved their knowledge of code and/or open source

Take a look at the list of successful projects to see the wide range of subjects covered!

What is next?

The long-running projects are still in progress and finish in March 2021. Technical writers participating in these long-running projects submit their project reports before March 8th, and the writer and mentor evaluations are due by March 12th. Successfully completed long-running technical writing projects will be published on the results page on March 15, 2021.

If you were excited about participating, please do write social media posts. See the promotion and press page for images and other promotional materials you can include, and be sure to use the tag #SeasonOfDocs when promoting your project on social media. To include the tech writing and open source communities, add #WriteTheDocs, #techcomm, #TechnicalWriting, and #OpenSource to your posts.

Stay tuned for information about Season of Docs 2021—watch for posts in this blog and sign up for the announcements email list.

By Kassandra Dhillon and Erin McKean, Google Open Source Programs Office