The docs-as-ecosystem model starts with community feedback, captured through various channels such as public GitHub discussions, public surveys, forums, social media, and support requests. This feedback is then incorporated into the documentation codebase, managed through version control to ensure that all changes are tracked and reviewed.

The documentation codebase is then integrated continuously through a continuous integration process, which helps catch errors and ensure that documentation updates are consistent with the rest of the codebase. The codebase is then used to generate static site documentation, the basis for the final generated documentation.

The generated documentation is then published in a production environment, accessible to the community. Finally, the community can review the results and provide updated feedback on the published documentation, which starts the cycle anew.

Incorporating community feedback ensures documentation remains up-to-date and accurate, reflecting the needs and concerns of the community. Building stronger relationships between community and documentation creation processes lead to engaged and thriving communities.

This diagram shows the diverse stakeholders and collaborators involved in providing community feedback and review, captured through various channels such as events, social media, email, Slack, Discord, public GitHub discussions, public surveys, forums, support requests, etc.

Developer Relations play a key role in collecting and analyzing this feedback, helping to identify trends and insights that can be used to improve the documentation.

Technical Writers are responsible for incorporating community feedback into the documentation codebase, using feedback from various sources, including public GitHub discussions, social media, and feedback from engineers, product managers, OSS community members, etc.

In the enterprise world, Product Managers help guide the direction of the documentation, ensuring that it meets the target audience's needs and reflects the product roadmap.

In the OSS world, OSS Community Members are a critical part of the documentation process, providing feedback, suggestions, and contributions to the documentation codebase.

Engineers are responsible for building and maintaining the product itself and play an important role in ensuring that the documentation accurately reflects the functionality and capabilities of the product.

Customer Support and Account Managers can provide unique feedback and insights from customer interactions, even Sales.

Students may also be involved in the documentation process, contributing ideas and insights from their unique perspectives.

Showing the diverse stakeholders involved in community feedback and review highlights the importance of collaboration and communication across different roles and functions to create effective and community-friendly documentation.

Why community is more representative than “users”

In the traditional software development model, we're used to writing technical documentation with a specific user in mind. However, this approach can be limiting because it assumes a single "ideal" user represents your entire user base. 

The docs-as-ecosystem model proposes a different way of thinking about technical documentation; it recognizes technical documentation is not just a product but an ongoing conversation between diverse documentation creators (contributors) and the community.

Thinking in terms of community has several advantages over focusing only on users:

1. More inclusive: Focusing on the community is more inclusive than focusing only on users because it recognizes that many different types of stakeholders contribute to and read the documentation. 

2. More diverse: Focusing on the community encourages diversity and inclusion because it recognizes many different backgrounds and experiences. 

3. More collaborative: Focusing on the community also fosters a more collaborative approach to documentation because it encourages anyone from any background to participate.

By focusing on community, the docs-as-ecosystem approach offers a more flexible, adaptable, and sustainable way to approach technical documentation. Rather than assuming that there is a single "ideal" user, we recognize that technical documentation is a dynamic and ongoing conversation between documentation creators and the community.