Though I have a bit more than ten years of experience with Linux, I’ve only been using Ubuntu for less than a week, so I was a bit surprised when I was contacted today by Matthew East of the Ubuntu Documentation Project. He had this to say:

Hi,

I’m writing on behalf of the Ubuntu documentation team. I’ve just seen
your guides at http://ubuntology.com/category/howto/. You clearly
share with us an enthusiasm about Ubuntu and a wish to help others get
up and running with the best possible experience.

But, at the moment, your guide may not be read by the bulk of Ubuntu
users. That’s where we can help. There is a lot of information
similar to yours in the Ubuntu Documentation Website
[http://help.ubuntu.com/]. This information is written and maintained
through the collective effort of the Ubuntu Documentation Team and the
wider Ubuntu community which is comprised of volunteers working, like
you, to help other users. The only difference here is that they work
as a team with the developers of the Ubuntu project, so everyone can
pool their resources, offer constructive feedback and coordinate their
work so that the documentation and help files match the relevant
releases as much as possible. Peer review benefits greatly from the
teamwork we encourage.

I would encourage you to read this page, which sets out the reasons
why working together, rather than separately, will benefit both us,
you, the Ubuntu community and all Ubuntu users.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/IndependentDocEfforts.

However, if you prefer to continue with your own site instead, please
do. Every effort that is in the interests of Ubuntu users is welcomed
by us. But we hope that you’ll consider the benefits of being part of
the team and signing up so we can all make Ubuntu and its
documentation ever better!

You can contact the Documentation Team by mailinglist:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc

Or on IRC, in the #ubuntu-doc channel on the irc.freenode.net server.

Further reading about the Documentation Team is here:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/

We look forward to you hearing from you and discussing your inclusion
as a member of our team.

Best regards,

–
Matthew East
http://www.mdke.org
gnupg pub 1024D/0E6B06FF

What a great idea! We have an opportunity to be a part of something bigger than ourselves.

I’ve used the Ubuntu Forum to ease my transition from Fedora and Red Hat to Ubuntu, but I had no idea that there was an official documentation project.

If you have any expertise whatsoever when it comes to Ubuntu, or just in writing, please join this project and contribute in whatever way you can.

Documentation not only provides end users with instructions and work-arounds, but it also gives developers a way to see the software from a different perspective. It can provide a way to identify potential problems, bugs and usability issues.

So here it is: I challenge all of you Ubuntu bloggers out there to contribute at least one article to the Ubuntu Documentation Project. One article. I promise your adsense revenue won’t be hurt by it, and it will feel good to know that you contributed. I’m already working on some.

If you don’t use Ubuntu, you can still get involved. Find out if your favorite distro has a documentation project, and if so, join and contribute!

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