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How I used guilt as a motivator for good its-surya Fri, 04/28/2023 - 03:00

Recently, I was asked by a friend and colleague if I were interested in speaking together at a conference. I was pleasantly surprised because I hadn't contributed much to the project they were presenting, but I expressed interest. We met to discuss the presentation, and that's when I learned the real reason I was asked to participate: The conference's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives required there to be at least one speaker that does not identify as a man. I was offended; it felt like I was approached only because of my gender, not based on merit.

My friend assured me that wasn't the only reason I'd been asked. They needed new contributors to the project because there was a lot of work to be done, and they were hoping I could help fill that gap.

[ Want to create your own event? Read the 10-step guide for a successful hackathon ]

I gave it some thought and tried to understand why the DEI initiatives were in place.  I also thought about the other side of the coin, where the people who wanted to present couldn't, unless they found someone from a minority group to present alongside them.

As I thought about the bigger picture and the benefits this opportunity would bring to me, I decided to forego my ego being hurt. Once I let go of feeling offended, I realized that I was also feeling very uncomfortable presenting something that I hadn't contributed directly to. My ethics didn't agree with that. How could I possibly step onto a stage and act as the face of something I hadn't worked on?

Resolving to help more

I did some research on the project. The technology was not totally alien to me, and I had a good grasp of the fundamentals it was trying to achieve. In fact, its overall goal made me feel excited to contribute. If done well, it would be super useful to users.

I made a resolution that I would go ahead with this speaking opportunity only if I got the opportunity to give back to the community tenfold and become a key contributor. My friend was more than willing to help me on that journey.

With that resolve, we submitted our talk. My co-presenters were supportive and made me feel welcome. They said that as long as I was interested and had a passion for the project, nothing else mattered.

[ Also read How I returned to open source after facing grief ]

Participating in the conference was a huge opportunity, and it had such a positive impact on me. I met a lot of experienced people across the open source community and I felt inspired! I learned a lot of new things from the people and the various panels, sessions, and discussions at the conference. Our presentation went well, and I consider giving a talk at such a big conference quite an achievement.

However, once the conference was over the guilt started kicking in.

More open source career advice Open source cheat sheets Linux starter kit for developers 7 questions sysadmins should ask a potential employer before taking a job Resources for IT architects Cheat sheet: IT job interviews Register for your free Red Hat account Guilt as a motivator

I felt like I owed the community and the people who had given me this chance. I wanted to focus on the promise I'd made, but it was hard with other higher-priority things getting in the way. Whenever I deviated from my plan, the guilt kept me on track. It reminded me that I had to give back to the community that had given me such a good opportunity. After a few months of struggling and juggling, I can proudly say that I didn't give up. Today, I'm an active contributor to that project.

I love the challenges it presents, and I enjoy solving some of the key issues in the project's area. I also have been able to take the lead in implementing this upstream project in our downstream ecosystem. As icing on the cake, I was again invited to present with the team and give the community updates for the project. This time, it was not because of a DEI initiative, as the ratio was already balanced.

Feeling guilt isn't so bad after all!

I'm glad that I took the opportunity, and I'm glad it turned out to be a win-win situation for everyone involved. If I hadn't been approached about being a co-presenter, I probably would have never gotten involved in this project, and that would have been such a miss! I'm grateful to the people who gave me this chance and supported me.

I'm probably not the only woman who has faced this. I want to tell all the women out there, if such an opportunity presents itself, there's no need to feel guilt, or that you "owe" anyone, or any kind of pressure. If you do feel such pressure, then turn that emotion into a weapon and do good with it!

So that it ties back to the title?... because I am talking about how I turned this guilt as a motivator but also saying don't feel any guilt in the first place,

Also on the other hand, not sure if we should retitle the article to be more of a "DEI opportunities can be uncomfortable at the beginning but have advantages" kind of thing instead? Either ways happy with the article overall!

[ Ready to level up your communication skills? Get advice from IT leaders. Download 10 resources to make you a better communicator. ]

Guilt is usually considered a negative emotion, but by steering it well, you can achieve surprising success.

Image by:

Pixabay. CC0 1.0

Careers Diversity and inclusion What to read next Create a more diverse and equitable open source project with open standards 13 tips for getting your talk accepted at a tech conference This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License. Register or Login to post a comment.

3 reasons to host a docathon for your open source project lmalivert Fri, 04/28/2023 - 03:00

Your open source project's documentation is essential to your customers. Your target audience must understand the purpose of your project and how to use it, and documentation is what bridges that gap. A project is rarely ever truly done, so it's equally important for resources to be maintained and updated with your project's continuous improvement.

But what happens when you have lots of documentation to maintain but lack the resources to keep it current? The answer is pretty simple: Host a docathon!

What is a docathon?

A docathon is like a hackathon. A hackathon is an event where engineers and community leaders gather to improve or add new features to an existing application. In a docathon, the same kind of collaboration focuses on improving documentation.

[ Learn about writing Docs as Code. ]

A docathon can fill gaps within content, restructure large documentation sets, fix broken links, or just correct typos. The intent behind hosting a docathon is to improve a large amount of documentation in a relatively brief timeframe.

Some examples of product documentation include:

• Training manuals
• User manuals
• Installation guides
• Troubleshooting guides
• Quickstart guides
• API documentation
• Tutorials

At my organization, our documentation team hosted a docathon and successfully revamped a 102-page installation guide. The docathon enabled us to focus on the project's scope, which was reorganizing for simplicity, removing duplicate content, and following the customer journey. Hosting a docathon left a lasting impression on my team and improved customer success.

[ Read Write documentation that actually works for your community ]

3 things you can achieve with a docathon

Here are my top three reasons to host a docathon:

1. No more backlog

Most documentation must evolve along with the product it supports. As the product changes or updates, so must the documentation. In some cases, documentation teams release new versions of their documentation alongside the engineering team's release cycle. As priorities within a team change and GA releases continue, documentation teams face the challenge of keeping up with new features, bug fixes, and tasks to complete. The changes that get left behind become part of a backlog—an accumulation of work that needs to be completed at a later time.

Docathon tip: During a docathon, participants can triage backlog items and complete them as they progress through the list. Non-technical participants can work on fixes related to typos, broken links, and other text-related issues.

Our favorite resources about open source Git cheat sheet Advanced Linux commands cheat sheet Open source alternatives Free online course: RHEL technical overview Register for your free Red Hat account Check out more cheat sheets 2. Revamp large-scale guides

By the time your documentation team realizes it's time to revamp a guide, it's probably several chapters in and hundreds of pages deep. Once the content plan has been developed, the complexity of restructuring begins. Restructuring a large amount of documentation is not for the faint of heart.

Docathon tip: Assemble a team to lead the docathon and provide incentives for organization-wide participation from different teams or departments. Depending on the scope of work and time constraints, your team can successfully restructure an entire guide in less time than you probably expect.

3. Collaboration between cross-functional teams

It is common for different groups within an organization to work in isolation. Engineering, product, customer support, marketing, and documentation teams may not collaborate on projects as often as they should.

Imagine hosting an event where each team member can use their expertise to improve product documentation. Docathons foster subject matter expert (SME) diversity, real-time collaboration, and communication. They also allow for an inclusive environment where individuals residing in different geographical locations can participate in person or remotely. Your documentation receives the undivided attention of experts with different viewpoints and specializations, minimizing isolated siloes, unconscious bias, and burnout.

Docathon tip: Enable cross-functional teams to come together for a common cause.

[ Learn what it takes to build a resilient IT culture ]

Documentation marathon

The next time your team has a seemingly insurmountable backlog or is tasked with restructuring a huge documentation project, consider hosting a docathon. It's easy, and its productivity may surprise you. For more information on hosting an event like this, read Tiffany Long's excellent 10-step guide to hosting a hackathon.

A marathon for documentation is a great way to produce or improve the docs for your open source project.

Documentation Conferences and events What to read next Writing project documentation in HTML Improve your documentation with JavaScript Our favorite markup languages for documentation This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License. Register or Login to post a comment.

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