Authors
Deeksha M Arya, Jin LC Guo, Martin P Robillard
Publication date
2024/4/14
Book
Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE/ACM 17th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering
Pages
91-96
Description
Software technologies are used by a large population of programmers with diverse backgrounds. To fulfill their need for information, enthusiasts contribute numerous learning resources that vary in style and content, and act as documentation for the corresponding technology. We interviewed 26 volunteer contributors to understand why they create such documentation. We surface five motivations our informants had for contributing documentation, including to overcome issues they had faced with documentation and to capture their own learning. Among other findings, our observations suggest that the unique experience and background of documentation contributors provides the opportunity to create documentation that caters to users who have information needs and preferences similar to that of the contributor.
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Scholar articles
DM Arya, JLC Guo, MP Robillard - Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE/ACM 17th International …, 2024