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Technical Writing as a Career and Form of Open Source Contribution

Idris Olubisi - @olanetsoft

Software Engineer & Technical Writer

@olanetsoft

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Meet Idris Olubisi

  • Founder of Web3 Afrika
  • Technical writer @ Freecodecamp, Section Engineering, MediaJam(Cloudinary), AppSmith, ImageKit, Aviyel, Hackmamba
  • Web3 technical content writer @ Hashnode, LogRocket, Moralis
  • A Mentor & Backend lead @ SheCodeAfrica
  • AngelHack country ambassador & Developer DAO member

@olanetsoft

Idris Olubisi

Software Engineer & Technical Writer

@olanetsoft

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What is Technical Writing ?

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Technical writing is creating and managing written content about technology, software, and systems to simplify esoteric jargon or assist readers with specialized activities.

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Why should you start writing?

  • Active and passive income sources
  • Improve your writing and communication abilities
  • Increase brand recognition and expand your network
  • Super-charge research abilities
  • Facilitate a learning process

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Forms of Technical Writing

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  • Software Documentation
  • How-To Guides and Tutorials
  • Project Requirement Documents
  • Technical marketing and promotional pieces
  • Research and Medical papers
  • Professional Reports and Reviews
  • White Papers and Case Studies

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Forms of Technical Writing

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Technical Writing Tools

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Contributing to Open Source

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  • Create your own open source project
  • Create open source alternatives to commercial software
  • Contribute to existing open source projects

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Contributing to Open Source

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Why should you contribute to Open source?

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  • To improve the software you rely on daily.
  • To find a mentor if you need one.
  • To learn new skills or improve on existing ones.
  • To share your skills.
  • To gain a much deeper knowledge about the software you're using.
  • To build up your reputation and help grow your career.
  • Plus, it's fun and gives you personal satisfaction and hey, you never know who is watching, maybe it's your next employer or partner

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@olanetsoft

Why should you contribute to Open source?

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Common Open Source Contribution

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  • Giving guidance on a specific project and how to use it.
  • Writing in-depth tutorials for the project.
  • Adding translation for a project - A good place to start with this might be with the freeCodeCamp's translation program.
  • Answering questions about a project (like on Stack Overflow or Reddit)
  • You can fix typos and arrange the project's work folder correctly.
  • Adding a description to a project's documentation (ReadMe)

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Common Open Source Contribution

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Finding your First Open source Project

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@olanetsoft

Finding your First Open source Project

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Benefits of Contributing to Open Source

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  • People that contribute to an open-source project get to know the technology at a much deeper level.
  • It builds your morale and reputation.
  • People who contribute to open source projects have access to other community members' insights and experience.
  • Contributing to open source provides a clear view into the future of a project
  • Building Networks
  • Recommendations when looking for opportunities

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@olanetsoft

Benefits of Contributing to Open Source

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OSS Technical writing Programs

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  • Google Season of Docs

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Getting Paid Technical Writing Gigs

  • Own a blog, e.g - Dev.to, Medium, Hashnode
  • Knowing how to write
  • Technical skills
  • Understanding your target audience
  • Ability to research intensively about a topic
  • Use social media to your advantage
  • Consistency

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Sites that Pays Technical Writers

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Photo with title

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Thank You 😊

Twitter - @olanetsoft

GitHub - @Olanetsoft

LinkedIn - Olubisi Idris

Articles - linktr.ee/olanetsoft

@olanetsoft

Idris Olubisi

Software Engineer & Technical Writer

@olanetsoft

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Q&A Session

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