'Open Web Docs' Created To Save Mozilla Developer Network Web Docs

26/01/2021

While there are lots of web developers out there, new ones are born all the time. There will be no shortage of talents, as long as the demand is high, and the resources to learn the knowledge from are plenty.

One of those resources, is Mozilla Developer Network, or the MDN Web Docs.

The freely available documentation is like the encyclopedia for anyone willing to learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other technologies to build web apps and the like.

MDN has been around for more than a decade. But following the 'COVID-19' coronavirus that plagued the world and made many businesses suffer, Mozilla that started to struggle financially had to lay off many of its employees. And as a result, Mozilla had to also abandon the project due to the lack of human resources.

And this time, tech companies have raised money to help the project running.

Calling it the 'Open Web Docs', the joint effort acts as a fundraising and the organizing arm for the MDN Web Docs.

Open Web Docs

On the announcement, it is said that:

Open Web Docs was created to ensure the long-term health of web platform documentation on de facto standard resources like MDN Web Docs, independently of any single vendor or organization. Through full-time staff, community management, and our network of partner organizations, we enable these resources to better maintain and sustain documentation of core web platform technologies. Rather than create new documentation sites, Open Web Docs is committed to improving existing platforms through our contributions.

Our 2021 priorities include working with Mozilla’s MDN writers and engineers to support the recent infrastructure transition and to prioritize and move forward with key documentation work, developing a community of contributors around core web technology documentation, browser compatibility data, and improving JavaScript documentation.

Initially, the Open Web Docs is supported by its founding members, which include Coil, Google and Microsoft, with additional financial support from Igalia and backers from Open Source Collective. Mozilla, Samsung, and W3C provide additional support and participation.

The collaboration aims to pay for technical writing staff to keep the documentation updated as well as act as a coordinator. The Open Web Docs has also opened itself up to crowdfunding, inviting others in the tech community to join and back MDN for $5 a month, become a sponsor for $100 a month, or make a donation.

For its part, MDN posted:

{..."} we wanted to spread the word about another fantastic event for enabling more collaboration on MDN — the launch of the Open Web Docs organization.

Open Web Docs (OWD) is an open collective, created in collaboration between several key MDN partner organizations to ensure the long-term health of open web platform documentation on de facto standard resources like MDN Web Docs, independently of any single vendor or organization. It will do this by collecting funding to finance writing staff and helping manage the communities and processes that will deliver on present and future documentation needs.

[...] we are proud to join our partners in welcoming OWD into the world.

Open Web Docs which remain available at developer.mozilla.org and continue to provide API documentation, has a goal "to ensure the Internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all."

As a collective project designed to support a community of technical writers around the creation and long-term maintenance of web platforms, MDN is open and inclusive for all.