src/content/community/articles/interviews/comm-docs-branam.html - netbeans-website-cleanup - Git at Google

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   <title>NetBeans Interview - James Branam, NetBeans Community Docs Program Manager</title>
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 <h1>The NetBeans Community Docs Program Wants You!<br>
 </h1>
 <span style="font-style: italic;">November 2007</span><br>
 <br>
 <br>
 <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Are you brimming with ideas for
 tutorials that other NetBeans users might find helpful? Do you often
 blog about best practices for working in NetBeans or about shortcuts
 in the IDE? When browsing mailing lists, do you readily give tips and
 advice to other users? If you answered yes to any of these
 questions, then the <a
  href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CommunityDocs">NetBeans
 Community Docs Program</a> just might be the
 thing for you. <br>
 </p>
 <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Launched in March, the Community Docs
 Program encourages NetBeans users to take an active
 role in growing the community's knowledge base. It calls on community
 members to contribute tutorials and screencasts, to answer user FAQs,
 translate existing documentation into other languages, and more. In
 this interview, program manager James Branam discusses the program's
 current state, how it works and what community members need to know
 about submitting a good tutorial.</p>
 <br>
 <h4><img alt="James Branam"
  src="../../../images_www/articles/interviews/james-branam.jpg"
  style="width: 176px; height: 196px;" align="left" hspace="5" vspace="5">The
 Community Docs program started about eight months ago, what's
 the
 status of the program now?
 </h4>
 We expected some contributions from the community, with the number of
 contributions growing steadily. However, support was strong from the
 start, and the present number (60) has exceeded all expectations. As a
 matter of fact, we've reached the point where additional help is needed
 to handle contributions. <a
  href="http://blogs.sun.com/branajam/entry/amit_kumar_saha_nb_community">Amit
 Kumar Saha</a>, the newly-appointed Community
 Docs Contribution Coordinator, has really stepped up to help in this
 important effort.<br>
 <br>
 <h4>How do you find contributors?</h4>
 Most are found by going though blog entries about NetBeans, contacting
 the blogger, and encouraging participation. The author then puts the
 blog entry into wiki format and links to it from the main <a
  href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CommunityDocs">Community
 Docs wiki</a>. If any help is needed to complete this process, Amit or
 I
 step in to provide assistance. In almost all cases, the blogger is
 excited about being able to contribute. In the future, we would like to
 see more unsolicited material. Interested contributors can email me: <a
  href="mailto:James.Branam@sun.com">James.Branam@sun.com</a>, or Amit: <a
  href="mailto:amitsaha.in@gmail.com">amitsaha.in@gmail.com</a>.<br>
 <br>
 <div
  style="padding: 10pt 10pt 10px 10px; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 255); width: 190px; float: right; font-size: 100%;">
 <div style="font-weight: bold;">Submitting Tutorials to the Community
 Docs Program<br>
 </div>
 <br>
 <div style="font-size: 90%;">1) Visit the <a
  href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CommunityDocs">Community Docs
 Wiki</a> to make sure a similar tutorial does not exist.<br>
 <br>
 2) Let <a href="mailto:James.Branam@sun.com">James</a> or <a
  href="mailto:amitsaha.in@gmail.com">Amit</a> know you intend to
 contribute.<br>
 <br>
 3) List the tutorial in the <a
  href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CommunityDocs#section-CommunityDocs-CommunityDocsInProgress">Community
 Docs in Progress</a> box.<br>
 <br>
 4) Write the tutorial!<br>
 </div>
 </div>
 <h4>What makes a good tutorial?</h4>
 Usefulness more than anything. How can the submission help someone
 else? Can it answer a question, provide steps for performing certain
 tasks? Is it written so that others can follow its steps easily? Would
 you yourself find it useful? The ideal Community Docs submission is one
 that fills a
 gap, a knowledge hole, if you will. Whether or not a contribution
 is solicited, unsolicited, requested, or simply offered out of the blue
 has no bearing on its overall value to the community. Community
 members will decide how useful a submission is if it meets their needs.<br>
 <h4>Any recent examples? </h4>
 Two tutorials that immediately come to mind are <a
  href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CreatingABasicGameTemplate">Creating
 a Basic
 MIDP2.0 Game Template</a> by <a href="http://devlinslab.blogspot.com/">Glenn
 John Geronimo</a> and <a
  href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/RubyonNetBeans6">Ruby
 Development on
 NetBeans 6</a> by Amit, our coordinator. Both tutorials are clear,
 employ a lot of well-sized screenshots, and show the user how to
 perform interesting tasks. <br>
 <br>
 <h4>Do you reject submissions?</h4>
 We have turned down submissions due to redundancy. It doesn't make
 sense to have two contributors submit tutorials that are almost
 identical in topic. Of course this happens very rarely; it's a good
 idea for potential contributors to browse the wiki to make sure similar
 tutorials don't already exist. In general, community members are very
 good about determining what should be submitted.<br>
 <br>
 <h4>Which is preferred: pitched tutorials or topics selected from the
 <a
  href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CommunityDocs#section-CommunityDocs-CommunityDocsWishList">Wish
 List</a>?</h4>
 Tricky question. I have two things to say about this: If a tutorial is
 on the Wish List, it was put there because a community member needed
 help with a certain task that the tutorial would address. So the Wish
 List matters. On the other hand, pitched tutorials are just as
 important in that they bring new ideas to the Community Docs program.
 It's like a community member saying: Hey, look what you can do with
 NetBeans!<br>
 <br>
 <div
  style="padding: 10pt 10pt 10px 10px; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 255); width: 190px; float: right; font-size: 100%;">
 <div style="font-weight: bold;">Need Ideas About What to&nbsp;
 Contribute? Check Out These Topics from the <a
  href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CommunityDocs#section-CommunityDocs-CommunityDocsWishList">Wish
 List</a>:</div>
 <br>
 <div style="font-size: 90%;">Creating Modules: How
 to Add Support for Refactoring<br>
 <br>
 Importing a JBuilder Project into NetBeans<br>
 <br>
 Using the Tapestry Framework with NetBeans<br>
 <br>
 Integrating JDIC Components with NetBeans<br>
 </div>
 </div>
 <h4>Can contributors expect to see their work featured on NetBeans.org?</h4>
 There's a possibility. NetBeans.org has a content team that maintains
 the site; depending on their needs, they can select tutorials from the
 Community Docs' collection. Tutorials are also sometimes featured in
 the <a
  href="https://netbeans.org/community/news/newsletter/latest.html">NetBeans
 Weekly Newsletter</a>. I have no say in both of these
 processes, but I welcome the publicity for the Docs program and its
 contributors!<br>
 <br>
 <h4>Being Community Docs Manager is not your only role here at
 NetBeans.
 What else keeps you busy? </h4>
 I'm also responsible for Web online Help and tutorials, Release Notes,
 and representing the Docs team at several meetings. I also <a
  href="http://blogs.sun.com/branajam/">blog</a> about
 NetBeans.<br>
 <br>
 <h4>Is there a particular tutorial that you would really like to have? </h4>
 Anything on importing Eclipse projects to NetBeans is a top priority.
 Amit Kumar Saha, the Community Docs Coordinator, is
 busy working on this.<br>
 <br>
 <h4><img alt="Amit Saha"
  src="../../../images_www/articles/interviews/amit-saha.jpg"
  style="width: 97px; height: 121px;" align="left" hspace="5" vspace="5">Tell
 us a bit more about Amit.</h4>
 Amit is a developer and <a href="http://amitksaha.blogspot.com/">blogger</a>
 from Kolkata, India. After his second
 contribution, he asked how he could do more and I came up
 with the idea of the Contribution Coordinator, someone in the community
 who could help out, and eventually take over the program. I've really
 enjoyed working with Amit. His enthusiasm for NetBeans is a huge asset
 for the community, not to mention the hard work he has put in.<br>
 <br>
 <h4>What's the next phase for the program?</h4>
 Naturally, getting more quality submissions. It's important for
 community members to see and fill the needs themselves. It's their
 community, and it can only be as good and as self-sufficient as they
 want
 it
 to be.<br>
 <br>
 </body>
 </html>
	<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
	<html>
	<head>
	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../../netbeans.css" media="screen">
	<meta name="author" content="Tinuola Awopetu">
	<meta name="keywords" content="NetBeans IDE, Community Docs Program, Tutorials">
	<title>NetBeans Interview - James Branam, NetBeans Community Docs Program Manager</title>
	</head>
	<body>
	<h1>The NetBeans Community Docs Program Wants You!<br>
	</h1>
	<span style="font-style: italic;">November 2007</span><br>
	<br>
	<br>
	<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Are you brimming with ideas for
	tutorials that other NetBeans users might find helpful? Do you often
	blog about best practices for working in NetBeans or about shortcuts
	in the IDE? When browsing mailing lists, do you readily give tips and
	advice to other users? If you answered yes to any of these
	questions, then the <a
	href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CommunityDocs">NetBeans
	Community Docs Program</a> just might be the
	thing for you. <br>
	</p>
	<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Launched in March, the Community Docs
	Program encourages NetBeans users to take an active
	role in growing the community's knowledge base. It calls on community
	members to contribute tutorials and screencasts, to answer user FAQs,
	translate existing documentation into other languages, and more. In
	this interview, program manager James Branam discusses the program's
	current state, how it works and what community members need to know
	about submitting a good tutorial.</p>
	<br>
	<h4><img alt="James Branam"
	src="../../../images_www/articles/interviews/james-branam.jpg"
	style="width: 176px; height: 196px;" align="left" hspace="5" vspace="5">The
	Community Docs program started about eight months ago, what's
	the
	status of the program now?
	</h4>
	We expected some contributions from the community, with the number of
	contributions growing steadily. However, support was strong from the
	start, and the present number (60) has exceeded all expectations. As a
	matter of fact, we've reached the point where additional help is needed
	to handle contributions. <a
	href="http://blogs.sun.com/branajam/entry/amit_kumar_saha_nb_community">Amit
	Kumar Saha</a>, the newly-appointed Community
	Docs Contribution Coordinator, has really stepped up to help in this
	important effort.<br>
	<br>
	<h4>How do you find contributors?</h4>
	Most are found by going though blog entries about NetBeans, contacting
	the blogger, and encouraging participation. The author then puts the
	blog entry into wiki format and links to it from the main <a
	href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CommunityDocs">Community
	Docs wiki</a>. If any help is needed to complete this process, Amit or
	I
	step in to provide assistance. In almost all cases, the blogger is
	excited about being able to contribute. In the future, we would like to
	see more unsolicited material. Interested contributors can email me: <a
	href="mailto:James.Branam@sun.com">James.Branam@sun.com</a>, or Amit: <a
	href="mailto:amitsaha.in@gmail.com">amitsaha.in@gmail.com</a>.<br>
	<br>
	<div
	style="padding: 10pt 10pt 10px 10px; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 255); width: 190px; float: right; font-size: 100%;">
	<div style="font-weight: bold;">Submitting Tutorials to the Community
	Docs Program<br>
	</div>
	<br>
	<div style="font-size: 90%;">1) Visit the <a
	href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CommunityDocs">Community Docs
	Wiki</a> to make sure a similar tutorial does not exist.<br>
	<br>
	2) Let <a href="mailto:James.Branam@sun.com">James</a> or <a
	href="mailto:amitsaha.in@gmail.com">Amit</a> know you intend to
	contribute.<br>
	<br>
	3) List the tutorial in the <a
	href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CommunityDocs#section-CommunityDocs-CommunityDocsInProgress">Community
	Docs in Progress</a> box.<br>
	<br>
	4) Write the tutorial!<br>
	</div>
	</div>
	<h4>What makes a good tutorial?</h4>
	Usefulness more than anything. How can the submission help someone
	else? Can it answer a question, provide steps for performing certain
	tasks? Is it written so that others can follow its steps easily? Would
	you yourself find it useful? The ideal Community Docs submission is one
	that fills a
	gap, a knowledge hole, if you will. Whether or not a contribution
	is solicited, unsolicited, requested, or simply offered out of the blue
	has no bearing on its overall value to the community. Community
	members will decide how useful a submission is if it meets their needs.<br>
	<h4>Any recent examples? </h4>
	Two tutorials that immediately come to mind are <a
	href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CreatingABasicGameTemplate">Creating
	a Basic
	MIDP2.0 Game Template</a> by <a href="http://devlinslab.blogspot.com/">Glenn
	John Geronimo</a> and <a
	href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/RubyonNetBeans6">Ruby
	Development on
	NetBeans 6</a> by Amit, our coordinator. Both tutorials are clear,
	employ a lot of well-sized screenshots, and show the user how to
	perform interesting tasks. <br>
	<br>
	<h4>Do you reject submissions?</h4>
	We have turned down submissions due to redundancy. It doesn't make
	sense to have two contributors submit tutorials that are almost
	identical in topic. Of course this happens very rarely; it's a good
	idea for potential contributors to browse the wiki to make sure similar
	tutorials don't already exist. In general, community members are very
	good about determining what should be submitted.<br>
	<br>
	<h4>Which is preferred: pitched tutorials or topics selected from the
	<a
	href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CommunityDocs#section-CommunityDocs-CommunityDocsWishList">Wish
	List</a>?</h4>
	Tricky question. I have two things to say about this: If a tutorial is
	on the Wish List, it was put there because a community member needed
	help with a certain task that the tutorial would address. So the Wish
	List matters. On the other hand, pitched tutorials are just as
	important in that they bring new ideas to the Community Docs program.
	It's like a community member saying: Hey, look what you can do with
	NetBeans!<br>
	<br>
	<div
	style="padding: 10pt 10pt 10px 10px; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 255); width: 190px; float: right; font-size: 100%;">
	<div style="font-weight: bold;">Need Ideas About What to
	Contribute? Check Out These Topics from the <a
	href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/CommunityDocs#section-CommunityDocs-CommunityDocsWishList">Wish
	List</a>:</div>
	<br>
	<div style="font-size: 90%;">Creating Modules: How
	to Add Support for Refactoring<br>
	<br>
	Importing a JBuilder Project into NetBeans<br>
	<br>
	Using the Tapestry Framework with NetBeans<br>
	<br>
	Integrating JDIC Components with NetBeans<br>
	</div>
	</div>
	<h4>Can contributors expect to see their work featured on NetBeans.org?</h4>
	There's a possibility. NetBeans.org has a content team that maintains
	the site; depending on their needs, they can select tutorials from the
	Community Docs' collection. Tutorials are also sometimes featured in
	the <a
	href="https://netbeans.org/community/news/newsletter/latest.html">NetBeans
	Weekly Newsletter</a>. I have no say in both of these
	processes, but I welcome the publicity for the Docs program and its
	contributors!<br>
	<br>
	<h4>Being Community Docs Manager is not your only role here at
	NetBeans.
	What else keeps you busy? </h4>
	I'm also responsible for Web online Help and tutorials, Release Notes,
	and representing the Docs team at several meetings. I also <a
	href="http://blogs.sun.com/branajam/">blog</a> about
	NetBeans.<br>
	<br>
	<h4>Is there a particular tutorial that you would really like to have? </h4>
	Anything on importing Eclipse projects to NetBeans is a top priority.
	Amit Kumar Saha, the Community Docs Coordinator, is
	busy working on this.<br>
	<br>
	<h4><img alt="Amit Saha"
	src="../../../images_www/articles/interviews/amit-saha.jpg"
	style="width: 97px; height: 121px;" align="left" hspace="5" vspace="5">Tell
	us a bit more about Amit.</h4>
	Amit is a developer and <a href="http://amitksaha.blogspot.com/">blogger</a>
	from Kolkata, India. After his second
	contribution, he asked how he could do more and I came up
	with the idea of the Contribution Coordinator, someone in the community
	who could help out, and eventually take over the program. I've really
	enjoyed working with Amit. His enthusiasm for NetBeans is a huge asset
	for the community, not to mention the hard work he has put in.<br>
	<br>
	<h4>What's the next phase for the program?</h4>
	Naturally, getting more quality submissions. It's important for
	community members to see and fill the needs themselves. It's their
	community, and it can only be as good and as self-sufficient as they
	want
	it
	to be.<br>
	<br>
	</body>
	</html>