The critical and theoretical research will be weaved around the actual documentations, in order to create a discourse and annotate the development of this practice. ???
The thesis is composed of different texts: some provide context and critical background to situate the research, while others consist in experiments of actual documentation written for software developed within our course. Every piece of documentation will try to reflect on different angles.
The critical and theoretical research will be weaved around the actual documentations, in order to create a discourse and annotate the development of this practice.
0. **Coding Contingencies**
Situate software as cultural object and proposes documentation as a surface to explore it.
- Context around software
- refer to software studies
- Define software documentation
- reference, how-to, guide, tutorial
- here we are not focusing on one specific catch-all format
- rather to a form of care (for users, for software, for context)
- in the context of situated software
- Introduce issues around software and documentation [chapters overview]
- Propose documentation as a way to address these issues [articulated better at the end]
1. **Participation**
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How does development and technical writing interact?
Who gets to write, and who is forced to?
Is the technical writer a subaltern position in the industry of software development?
Involvement of end-users?
- Historical overview of how software documentation format changed
- (from printed technical manual to wiki and discord server)
- from highly centralized manuals to open and collaborative documents
- Actors involved and hierarchies (from developers to end-users, gendered work, subaltern work)
- Is writing documentation subaltern work?
- No one wants to write documentation, or pay someone to do it
- Historical accounts of who writes?? (Outside of time, Ullman) (Into the ground C++, Gabriel)
- The post-meritocracy manifesto (Ehmke, 2018)
"We acknowledge the value of all contributors as equal to the value of contributors who are engineers."
1. **Destination**
How does it produce public?
Who is this documentation for?
How does it relate with a bigger context?
Who can access it?
Who can access it?
Where is the documentation hosted?
Where is the documentation hosted?
- Assuming a certain kind of reader (often male, often white, often with formal education)
@ -106,7 +57,9 @@ The critical and theoretical research will be weaved around the actual documenta
Situate software as cultural object and propose documentation as a surface to explore it.
Situate software as cultural object and propose documentation as a surface to explore it.
1. Context around software, besides technicality _(500)_
1. Context around software, besides technicality _(500)_
- Refer to software studies
2. Introduce issues around software _(1000)_
2. Introduce issues around software _(1000)_
Outline a map of critical issues related to software culture, grouping them in three main flavours:
1. Biased and hostile environments
1. Biased and hostile environments
- Toxic masculinity, encoded chauvinism, western monoculture
- Toxic masculinity, encoded chauvinism, western monoculture
@ -120,23 +73,38 @@ The critical and theoretical research will be weaved around the actual documenta
2. Lowering barriers and create entry points
2. Lowering barriers and create entry points
3. Orientate software in the world
3. Orientate software in the world
-
2. Documentation as an interface _(3000)_
2. Documentation as an interface _(3000)_
Aknowledge documentation as crossroad for different actors, as intersection between code, machines, developers, users. Articulate it as a vantage point from where to reason about software.
Aknowledge documentation as crossroad for different actors, as intersection between code, machines, developers, users. Articulate it as a vantage point from where to reason about software.
0. Define software documentation
0. Define software documentation
- _What is written?_
1. From printed manuals to discord servers _(small historical overview)_
1. From printed manuals to discord servers _(small historical overview)_