Open Source User Assistance: Ensuring That Everybody Wins

Posted by Tux De Luxe at 09:27 01/01/2010
Open Source User Assistance: Ensuring That Everybody Wins: "This article describes the importance of user assistance to the success of open source projects and offers some suggestions on fostering community contributions to open source user assistance. The term 'user assistance' encompasses all the ways that users get help in figuring out how to use a product, spanning the traditional categories of both documentation and support. User assistance provides opportunities for participation by community members who are not software developers. This in turn relieves the burden on developers for filling these roles while broadening the community. Projects should support the differing motivations of members in these roles while providing leadership and direction, removing barriers to contribution, and engaging in concerted efforts. Licensing for open source documentation should likewise be open, to support user freedom and foster community collaboration. Leaders in open source user assistance need to share ideas across projects in order to improve their offerings."