Season of Docs announces participating organizations for 2021

Season of Docs has announced the participating open source organizations for 2021! You can view the list of participating organizations on the website.

During the documentation development phase, which runs from now until November 16, 2021, each accepted organization will work with the technical writer they hire to complete their documentation project.

For more information about the documentation development phase, visit the organization administrator guide on the website.

What is Season of Docs?

Season of Docs supports documentation in open source by:

• Providing funds to open source organizations to use for documentation projects
• Providing guides and support for open source organizations to help them understand their documentation needs
• Collecting data from open source organizations to better understand documentation impact
• Publishing case studies from open source organizations to share best practices

Season of Docs seeks to empower open source organizations to understand their documentation needs, to create documentation to fill those needs, to measure the effect and impact of their documentation, and, in the spirit of open source, share what they've learned to help guide other projects. Season of Docs also seeks to bring more technical writers into open source through funding their work with open source projects and organizations.

How do I take part in Season of Docs as a technical writer?

Technical writers interested in working with accepted open source organizations can share their contact information via the Season of Docs GitHub repository; or they may submit a statement of interest directly to the organizations. Technical writers do not need to submit a formal application through Season of Docs. We recommend technical writers reach out to organizations before submitting a statement of interest to discuss the project they’ll be working on and gain a better understanding of the organization.

Organizations must hire technical writers by May 17, 2021 at 18:00 UTC, so technical writers should begin reaching out as soon as possible.

Will technical writers be paid while working with organizations accepted into Season of Docs?

Yes. Participating organizations will transfer funds directly to the technical writer. Technical writers should review the organization's proposed project budgets and discuss their compensation and payment schedule with the organization prior to hiring. Check out our technical writer payment process guide for more details.

If you have any questions about the program, please email us at season-of-docs@google.com.

General timeline

May 17	Technical writer hiring deadline
June 16	Organization administrators begin reporting on their project status via monthly evaluations.
November 30	Organization administrators submit their case study and final project evaluation.
December 14	Google publishes the 2021 case studies and aggregate project data.
May 2, 2022	Organizations begin to participate in post-program followup surveys.

See the full timeline for details.

Care to join us?

Explore the Season of Docs website at g.co/seasonofdocs to learn more about the program. Use our logo and other promotional resources to spread the word. Examine the timeline, check out the FAQ, and reach out to organizations now!

By Kassandra Dhillon and Erin McKean, Google Open Source Programs Office