Episode 8 — Google Season of Docs  ## Metadata - Author: [[Let's Talk Docs]] - Full Title: Episode 8 — Google Season of Docs - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/e1b14fd0-0837-42b5-8f50-331d04ddd831 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - Is There a Need for Documentation? Summary: Documentation in open source projects is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, it serves as a force multiplier, enhancing the effectiveness of the project. Additionally, documentation plays a critical role in building inclusion within the community. It allows newcomers to contribute without the need for extensive social connections or feeling like they are burdening others with questions. This is particularly significant for marginalized individuals who may already face higher barriers to engagement. Good documentation not only aids in the production of open source projects but also strengthens the community as a whole. Transcript: Speaker 4 Obvious need for documentation. Can you talk more about that obvious need? Speaker 1 Well, the hard thing about talking about obvious things is that they seem obvious to you. Speaker 2 Funny how that works. Yeah. Speaker 1 So I think everybody who works in documentation understands that documentation is a huge force multiplier. And one of the things that ran in the math and math and math and another crew got talked about, I think at right, docs in particular is that documentation is also a way to build an inclusion. So if you want to contribute to an open source project and it doesn't have great docs, then you have to find somebody. You have to talk to a human. And if you're new to the community and you don't know any of the humans in the community, it can be hard to find an in where if there's good documentation and it tells you what you need to Know, you could start contributing without having to be socially connected, without having to use social capital, without having to feel like, Oh, I'm annoying somebody if I ask this Question. And oftentimes people who are marginalized have a much higher barrier to am my annoying, like they feel annoying more than they actually are. And so having a good documentation helps not just the kind of production of open source, but also the community of open source, if that makes sense. Speaker 2 Yeah, I ([Time 0:05:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fed2dfe3-20e8-4a00-ab72-13aa511ad382))