OSE Documenter Job Description

Open Source Software has changed the world by presenting the world with options. We believe that Open Hardware will do the same by giving people access to resources and materials to change their lives through Open Source appropriate technology. Want to change the world with us?

See what we do in the Founder's TED Talk - http://bit.ly/2kyYsvn

The Open Source Economy is the next trillion dollar economy, and we intend to bring it to the world sooner with your help. We’re looking for a professionals with Documentation, Writing, Video Editing, Publishing, and Copywriting skills to play a role in documentation and publishing. As an education organization, our key product is documentation - of the machines, skills, and techniques that we develop.

The Documentation Team works closely with and as part of our core Development Team. Development work focuses on design - and Documenters assist in our open source product development efforts by publishing instructionals on the development process, the tools used, and the technologies under development. We focus on open source appropriate technology and the development of regenerative economies. Documentation plays a key role in replication of our work worldwide, in sharing our story with the rest of the world, and helps to market our message to adopters and new developers. This offer is a generalist position, with promotion track to VP of Documentation.

Typical Documentation Team tasks may include:

• Work with the OSE Developers to document both the development processes and the technologies under development - with a focus on making our designs and processes transparent to the general public
• Producing a wide range of communications assets to support the product/process documentation, such as animations, graphics, copy-writing, and many others.
• Working on big-picture story-telling to support the development work
• Learning Kdenlive - the open source nonlinear video editor - to produce short but information-rich and impactful instructional videos
• Writing scripts for instructional videos, such as build instructionals, big-picture story-telling shorts, and other educational and edu-marketing materials.
• Learning basic proficiency in FreeCAD - the open source video editing package. Most of our workflows - and therefore many of our documentation needs - revolve around FreeCAD. Basic literacy in FreeCAD is indispensable to the Documenter's skill set - such as for: manipulating 3D designs; producing and testing instructionals; for producing other documentation assets
• Working in large teams to produce documentation via Book Sprints
• Downloading and using OSE Linux Live USB - a free operating system featuring critical software packages used throughout OSE's development work. We require this so everyone has access to a suite of preinstalled software, thereby eliminating software + file compatibilty issues for seamless development
• Participation in a weekly Development Team meeting to coordinate with team members on
• Producing compact video instructionals for the Development Team to help on-board new developers and to teach new skills to existing members
• Composing publications, such as Design Guides and Construction Set how-tos - which enable non-specialists to get more involved in the design process of open hardware
• Working with the rest of the development team to create, improve, and test for effective documentation
• Keep an ongoing work log, filling a weekly timesheet, documenting work product openly, and publishing results early and often using publically-accessible and open document formats - so that a larger global collaboration team has ready access to all work that is done via a team effort
• Assisting team members in improving their documentation processes
• Interviewing other team members for the purposes of producing various instructionals and video content
• Coordinate with IT Generalist on filling gaps in IT infrastructure related to the Documentation function, such as updating the OSE Linux with new documentation software.
• Continuous quality improvement of the Documentation process to optimize team morale, effectiveness and efficiency
• Setting specific recruiting velocity milestones on a monthly basis, with a an average goal of 1-2 new developers joining the team per week
• Logging all work product in a Work Log on the OSE wiki, and filling out a weekly Time Sheet
• Participate in continuing learning opportunities related to OSE's open source product development method

Requirements:

• This offer is for a 90 day development cycle duration, at which point the candidate has a chance to renew their commitment
• A minimum of 10 hours of volunteer time is required per week, as we require a serious commitment from our participants and pride ourselves on rapid and visible results
• We are looking for candidates who have an insatiable appetite for learning, who are effective communicators, have good technical competency, and who thrive in a dynamic learning environment of team players.
• Candidates must be willing to learn various open source software packages related to documenting open product design
• Both technical and creative writing skills, as well as copy-writing skills, are useful