Glossary

Current phase:
The 2020 Season of Docs program finished on March 15, 2021. See timeline.

Acceptance date

The date accepted technical writing projects (and thus the technical writers associated with those projects) are announced on the Season of Docs website. See the full timeline.

Community bonding period

The period of time between the date accepted technical writers are announced and the time these technical writers are expected to start coding. This period provides an excellent time to introduce technical writers to the community, get them on the right mailing lists, work with mentors to map out the project timeline, etc.

Evaluation

A review by the mentor of their technical writer's work, or a review by the technical writer of their experience working with the mentor and the open source community.

GSoC

Google Summer of Code (a similar program, but not related to Season of Docs).

Ideas list / project ideas

The list of ideas put up by an open source organization for the projects the organization would like technical writers to work on during Season of Docs. The organization publishes the list of project ideas on its website or in some other type of publicly accessible document.

Mentor

A member of an organization who oversees the progress of a technical writer participant. Mentors are required to be contributors to an open source project before being assigned a technical writer in the Season of Docs program.

Organization

An open source, free software or technology-related project that mentors technical writers for Season of Docs. Also known as a mentor organization.

Organization administrator

An organization administrator oversees the progress of a mentor organization and its technical writers throughout the program. Duties include creating the org application to take part in Season of Docs, inviting mentors, making sure all evaluations have been completed, and dealing with mentor stipends.

Program administrator

One of the Google employees who run the Season of Docs program.

Project

A open source coding project to be worked on by a technical writer as an individual. Once a technical writer’s proposal is accepted it then becomes known as a project for the remainder of the Season of Docs program.

Proposal

The written document that a technical writer submits describing the project they want to work on with a particular organization. Most organizations have templates or specific items they want included on the proposal.

Long-running project

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. The technical writer can specify the option for a long-running project when submitting their Season of Docs application.

UTC

Coordinated Universal Time

Umbrella organization

A larger project/mentor organization that includes some smaller, related open source projects as part of their community. Examples of umbrella organizations include the Apache Foundation and Python Software Foundation.