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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<html lang="en">
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<head>
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<meta charset="UTF-8" />
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<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
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<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
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<title>Software documentation as a form of care???</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>The problem with <br />software documentation</h1>
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<img src="trolley.jpg" alt="" srcset="" />
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<p>
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Software comes from a really specific occidental cultural tradition. Software tends to
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priviledge masculine, binary, exploitative and extractive practices. Software is
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shrouded in technical obscurity. Software comes invisible, transparent, neutral.
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Software models the world in order to control it.
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</p>
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<p>
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To make software means not only to write code, but also to take a stance regarding this
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trends. To make software means not only to write code, but also to create a context and
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community around it.
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</p>
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<p>
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Documentation is a space that interfaces the different actors around software. Software
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documentation is a space with potential to renegotiate and reclaim given margins and
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entry points. It is a chance to overwrite what is normalized, and let different
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knowledges and voices participate in the discourse around software.
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</p>
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<p>
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Documenting software is a complex practice. Documenting software is a process of
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translation. Writing documentation it's more difficult than writing software itself. It
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requires a lot of time and energy, and it involves many different skills: writing,
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coding, knowing how to share and at which intensity. It's a collaborative practice that
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could open to different voices.
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</p>
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<p>As a piece of code would write: I am documented, therefore I am.</p>
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<p>
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Coding is not just production of software, but also production of knowledge. A dialogue
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between human and more-than-human actors. The guestlist of this conference of the bits
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is often compiled by chance: the choice of a particular programming language, the coding
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style, the development environment and ecosystem, the infrastructure that runs the code,
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and so on, are the result of specific contingencies.
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</p>
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<p>
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These contingencies are situated in precise contexts, and these contexts are different
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one from another. Programming is not just sharing code, but sharing context. Programming
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means to provide a point of view and a perspective to look at the world, before
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attempting to get some grip onto it with a script. That's the reason why even if source
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code, even when obfuscated, speaks for itself, it cannot always cast light around its
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surroundings.
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</p>
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<p>
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To make place for code turns to be a necessary act of care in the process of sharing
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knowledge. This does not mean to constrain the usage of some piece of software, or
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provide opinionated solutions or tutorials, but rather letting others know where does
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this code come from, and where it would like to go.
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</p>
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<p>
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Documentation is a way to produce narrations around software. To create a world for a
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software to inhabit, to give it affordances and stretch what is possible to do or to
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think with it. Documentation is a space for the political of software. It's a surface
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that could host ideas in close contact with codes, letting them entangle and shape each
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other.
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</p>
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<div class="pagebreak"></div>
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<h1>The plan</h1>
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<ul>
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<li>
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Focus on software documentation as an interface between code, users, developers,
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communities, and the world.
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</li>
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<li>
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Research how writing software documentation changes depending on the context and
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actors involved.
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</li>
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<li>
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Experiment with software documentation as a generative device to keep thinking
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through code from different perspectives.
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</li>
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<li>
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Explore software documentation as iterative process, as a format that grows and
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shrinks through versioning and embrances branching to adapt to specific
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environments.
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</li>
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<li>
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Develop tools to facilitate rich software documentation. To assist and stimulate the
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writing process with prompts and gently reminders that software documentation is a
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form of care.
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</li>
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<li>
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Question the nature of the documentation: what does it take for granted? For what
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kind of public it is produced, and what kind of public does it produce? How does it
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normalize the context around the software? What are its politics of access? How does
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it create entry points and how does it gatekeep?
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</li>
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<li>
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Try to infiltrate the industry of software development through documentation.
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Attempt to expose their public to these questions in subtle ways. Offer entry points
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and escape routes from the universal solution proposed by big corporates.
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</li>
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</ul>
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</body>
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</html>
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