Why do developers participate in open source projects? Motivation to contribute to Open Source Software projects has been intriguing researchers since the early 2000’s. The literature at that point, although mentioning some motives related to learning and financial motives (e.g., payment), showed that the general participation in Open Source was mostly volunteer, driven by altruistic motives, returning to the community, reputation, and fun. At that moment, most of the Open Source projects were community-based endeavors, conducted by volunteers. A few foundations backed small sets of projects, and many big companies dismissed the importance of open source software.
The Season of Docs is an annual program organised by Google. The main goal of the program is to foster collaboration between open source projects and technical writers.
During the course of the program, technical writers will spend a few months working with their chosen open source project. It brings open source projects and technical writers together with the shared goal of creating great documentation. The writers bring their expertise to the projects, and the project mentors help the technical writers learn more about open source and new technologies.