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Registration Now Open For Writing Open Source Conference

Documentation is a vital part of any open source project but it's often overlooked because it's not very glamorous. It's difficult to find the time to keep up with a project's constant changes and find people to come up with skillfully-written material. While bigger projects like OpenOffice and Eclipse can afford to hire documentation specialists, in most cases it's a job that's left to the FOSS community at large.

Documentation is a topic that's touched on often at large open source conferences but now it's getting a turn in the spotlight. Registration is now open for the Writing Open Source Conference slated for June 12-14, 2009 in Owen Sound, Canada.

According to the conference Web site, "The story begins somewhere in the middle... Belinda Lopez was hired by Canonical, and Addison Berry was promoted to Documentation Team Lead for Drupal, and EmmaJane Hogbin realized that it was time for all documentation teams to come together to share and learn. Although some open source conferences do have a documentation stream; and there are (proprietary) documentation conferences, none were really meeting the needs of our documentation community."

The first day will include sessions on licensing, community management, revenue models, and more. Day two give project teams a chance to share their documentation experiences, and experts will be on hand the final day to help projects with specific documentation issues.

The cost to attend the Writing Open Source Conference is $250CAD and includes food and airport shuttle.

• conference
• documentation

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