Documenting your activities
// Real time
Your documentation starts from day one of your project. You need to document your activity to help you build and engage your community, and you need to document the process of thinking and developing your project. As far as activities are concerned here are some helpful tips:
- Take pictures of your event (but check if your attendees are OK with it);
- Keep your pics of low resolution (unless you need high resolution) so that you save time converting them for online usage afterwards;
- Videos are great if possible. You can also make a video of your pics if video editing is a hassle;
- Keep things short, but continuous. You don't have to write the most elaborate blog, but it is great to blog something after every event and in planning.
Documenting your actual project depends on the nature of the project. Do you have a hardware prototype? It is a social initiate? A platform? In any case, make sure you have the following:
- Language. Make a clear and early decision of your language. If you are running a local initiative, there is no need to document in English unless it is your first language.
- If your project is opensource, it is helpful to document your early trials, and even things that didn't go wrong. Use diagrams to help explain your decisions.
- Keep things visual, when possible, add diagrams and drawings to your tutorials
- Talk to newbies don't assume every reader knows about hacking. Make things super simple, introduce every concept and technology and add references to read more about it.