[kde-doc-english] Re: Volunteering

[Philip Rodrigues]

Hi Jerry,

>  I have been playing with PC's since they were invented and would like to
> volunteer to help with the documentation part of this project, as that is
> probably all that I am capable of at this time.

That's great! Welcome aboard. There are plenty of opportunities to help with 
documentation in KDE, and we're always happy to take on new volunteers. I'll 
recommend some general resources that you may find useful, and then suggest 
some specific areas of the KDE documentation that you might like.

First off, the main places to come for help and discussion are this mailing 
list, kde-doc-english at kde.org, and the #kde-docs IRC channel on the Freenode 
network. The mailing list is the main point-of-contact, so I'd recommend that 
you subscribe at https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-doc-english . It's 
quite low traffic, and you can receive mail in a daily digest if you prefer.

Our main written resource is the Doc Primer, online at 
http://i18n.kde.org/doc/doc-primer . For a start, I'd suggest the first two 
or three chapters - the rest will be more relevant when you've decided what 
to write, and so on.

And now for something important: although all KDE documentation is finally 
formatted in the DocBook XML markup scheme, there's no need for you to learn 
it at this stage. The important thing for now is to get a start with writing, 
and we have experienced DocBook users who can add the markup later.
(I'm mentioning this because DocBook can be a little tricky to learn, and it 
often turns off new contributors who think they have to learn DocBook before 
they start writing)

>  I understand PC's down to how motherboards, processors and all other
> hardware works, as I have been trainer to technicians for Dell, Gateway,
> and HP.

And onto specifics: With a general knowledge of how systems work, you might be 
interested in writing for the new KDE User Guide, which aims to be a general 
guide for using KDE. It contains basic information about using the main 
applications, and step-by-step guides to set up and so on. You can find a 
copy online at http://people.fruitsalad.org/phil/kde/userguide-tng , or in 
khelpcenter if you're running a beta of KDE 3.4

There are also some KDE apps which deal more closely with hardware. The laptop 
and wifi tools come to mind. I'll check with Lauri Watts, our documentation 
co-ordinator, about the status of documentation for these apps.

If either of those pique your interest, tell us and we'll look into it 
together. If not, there's plenty of other things to work on, so, again, tell 
us and we'll suggest other things.

>  I learned to write long before computers were invented and therefore may
> be good at this, since younger people IM, email, and chat without regard to
> proper English.

We also have an English proofreading team, who ensure that the KDE GUI and 
documentation contain correct, clear English. If you'd be interested in 
working with them, get back to me and I'll introduce you to some of the 
members who can help you to get started.

Once again, welcome aboard - I look forward to working with you,
Regards,
Philip
-- 
KDE Documentation Team: http://i18n.kde.org/doc
KDE Documentation Online: http://docs.kde.org
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