Survey of technical writers producing open source documents

[opensource -dot- questionnaire -at- gmail -dot- com]

January 21, 2005

Hello,

My name is Loriebeth Quileza and I am a graduating student in the
Technical Communication diploma program at Red River College in Winnipeg,
Canada.

I am posting a questionnaire that I would like as many of you to reply to
as possible.

Why am I posting a questionnaire?
I am creating a capstone project on open source documentation issues faced
by technical communicators. With the information I receive from the
questionnaire feedback, I hope to learn more about technical communication
issues concerning the production of open source documents

How can you participate?
Please copy and paste the questions into an email message and send the
message to opensource -dot- questionnaire -at- gmail -dot- com

When can you respond?
I strongly encourage that all responses be submitted by February 18, 2005
or earlier and no later than March 4, 2005.

All respondents will be anonymous, so you don?t need to include your name.
If you would like to have the results from the questionnaire, please
ensure that your email address is one you plan to use for some time. I
hope to forward results by June 30, 2005.

This questionnaire consists of 18 questions.

Questionnaire

1. Job title: ___________________________

2. Brief job description:
   __________________________________________
   __________________________________________

3. How would you define open source documents?

4. What is your experience with open source documents?

5. Why did you get involved with open source documents?

6. What attracted you to open source documents?

7. What is the difference between regular software documentation and open
source software documentation?

8. What are the characteristics of good open source documentation?

9. What types of open source documents have you created?

10. From your observations and experiences, what were some of the benefits
to the users of open source documents?

11. What were some of the benefits to the company for producing open
source documents?

12. What were some of the issues you faced while producing open source
documents?

13. How did you solve the issues?

14. What techniques did you use to make easy-to-manage and easy-to-update
open source documents?

15. What software tools did you use to produce the open source documents?

16. What were the common file formats the documents were produced in?

17. What were the common file formats the documents were distributed in?

18. How do you feel about volunteer contributions to open source
documents?

Thank you for your participation.

If you have any further questions you can contact me by email at
opensource -dot- questionnaire -at- gmail -dot- com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT - EDIT AND REVIEW, REDEFINED
Accelerate the document lifecycle with full online discussions and unique feedback-management capabilities. Unlimited, efficient reviews for Word
and FrameMaker authors. Live, online demo:
http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Technical Communication Certificate online - Malaspina-University College, Canada. Online training in technical writing, software (FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Dreamweaver, Acrobat), document & web design, writing manuals, job search. www.pr.mala.bc.ca/tech_comm.htm for details.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.