index again !! im tired of it

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km0 2 years ago
parent 834886b040
commit a709ff248b

@ -31,63 +31,14 @@ And how can situated software inform the process of technical writing?
![exploratory documentation aspects + 2 frogmouth birds](img/frogmouth_aspects.jpg) ![exploratory documentation aspects + 2 frogmouth birds](img/frogmouth_aspects.jpg)
<!-- 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** <!--
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)
- Read the feminist manual (Karayanni, 2021)
- Programming for the millions (Ullman, 2016)
- situated software require situated documentation [case studies]
- Accessible documentation
- Welcoming documentations
2. **Tone and style** 2. **Tone and style**
How to make documentation more accessible? How to make documentation more accessible?
@ -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)_
2. Dyataxis framework: Reference, How-to, Guide, Tutorial. 2. Dyataxis framework: Reference, How-to, Guide, Tutorial.
- Here 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
1. Welcoming diverse knowledges 1. Welcoming diverse knowledges
- _Who is writing?_ - _Who is writing?_
- Documentation as subaltern work?
- Documentation as a form of care
- _Who will read?_ - How does development and technical writing interact?
- Read the feminist manual (Karayanni, 2021) - Is the technical writer a subaltern position in the industry of software development?
- Programming for the millions (Ullman, 2016) - Who gets to write, and who is forced to?
- No one wants to write documentation, or pay someone to do it
- Documentation as a form of care
- _Who will read?_
_Who is addressed?_
- Assuming a certain kind of reader (often male, often white, often with formal education)
- Read the feminist manual (Karayanni, 2021)
- Programming for the millions (Ullman, 2016)
2. Lowering barriers and create entry points 2. Lowering barriers and create entry points
@ -152,6 +120,8 @@ The critical and theoretical research will be weaved around the actual documenta
- _Who is making the software?_ - _Who is making the software?_
- Post-meritocracy manifesto (Ehmke, 2018) - Post-meritocracy manifesto (Ehmke, 2018)
- "We acknowledge the value of all contributors as equal to the value of contributors who are engineers."
- _How are we making it?_ - _How are we making it?_
- Patterns of Software (Gabriel, 1996) - Patterns of Software (Gabriel, 1996)
- Situated Software (Shirky, 2004) - Situated Software (Shirky, 2004)
@ -160,12 +130,13 @@ The critical and theoretical research will be weaved around the actual documenta
3. Situated software requires situated documentation (3000) 3. Situated software requires situated documentation (3000)
- Documenting situated practices as an ongoing process. A recipe in the making.
- Techno-solutionism reversed: are we the solution to our tools' problems?
- A praise for partial solutions
- Situated software lifecycle. Inner public, outer public. - Situated software lifecycle. Inner public, outer public.
- Inner public is the target audience of a situated software. The community where it has been developed. _Private public._ - Inner public is the target audience of a situated software. The community where it has been developed. _Private public._
- Outer public is others: different communities that approach to it later on or for different purposes. _Public public._ - Outer public is others: different communities that approach to it later on or for different purposes. _Public public._
- What role plays documentation in these two moments? - What role plays documentation in these two moments?
- Documenting situated practices as an ongoing process. A recipe in the making.
- Techno-solutionism reversed: are we the solution to our tools' problems?
- A praise for partial solutions
- Code as common. Documentation as loose interface between different needs. - Code as common. Documentation as loose interface between different needs.
- Situated documentation is tailored on specific needs, and produced from specific perspectives. How can it resonate with different ones? - Situated documentation is tailored on specific needs, and produced from specific perspectives.
- How can it resonate with different ones?

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