From Ideas to Production: Open Library's Collaborative Writing Journey

Written by Nick Norman

As the Fellow, Communications Lead at Open Library, my role revolves around community engagement and leading communications projects for our technology-driven digital library. Collaborative writing plays a pivotal role in our communications program.

To be specific, our collaborative content process is two-fold: There's the content production apsect that involves a team of contributors and then there's development of systems and collaborative frameworks that accommodate growth and run the communications program itself. 

However, in this blog post, I won't delve into the frameworks and systems aspect of our work. Instead, I'll briefly share our process for collaboratively crafting and publishing content that directly engages patrons across our four primary departments: design, communications, engineering, and librarians.

The Open Library didn't start out having a communications department. However, Open Library has experienced remarkable growth due to the continuous release of new digital products and catalog features, and increased demand by patrons due to the COVID pandemic. These dynamics led to Open Library's decision to devote time and resources to building a communications program. 
 
As departments within Open Library introduce new products, feature updates, and services, the communications team monitors the progression of these projects. As they near completion, collaboration with project leads and community contributors becomes key to gathering project-related assets and resources, laying the foundation for the content writing process.

Led by a project lead, a dedicated team of contributors is assigned to produce one piece of content at a time. This team comes together in our monthly communications call to ideate and clarify the direction of the content.

Following content ideation, the project lead outlines the initial content framework. This is done by liaising with other departments, especially in areas of project overlap, to gather valuable input and facilitate the smooth transition of content from development to publication.

Here are three commonly asked questions about communications:

What aspect of your role as Communications Lead in the collaborative writing process has posed the greatest challenge? "A key challenge and ongoing learning for me, which extends beyond the content production process, has been understanding the right moments to implement tools and processes that enable us to scale our efforts within an open-source environment. When it comes to project collaboration, we have to consider contributors who casually come and go, and those contribute daily. Finding a scalable balance amid those dynamics has brought about significant learning."

How do you contribute to content creation across multiple departments? 
"Shifting my perspective from solely contributing to content across various departments, I've learned from leadership to establish bi-directional channels. These channels facilitate easier contributions from project leads and departments to our content creation process. Instead of focusing solely on my contributions, the emphasis has transitioned to viewing it as 'our' collective contributions to content."

How does your role support the establishment of new communications departments? "The crucial function of my role is to learn from leadership and provide assistance wherever possible. Each week, I see firsthand how leadership addresses community challenges and obstacles. I leverage these insights to inform our communications program, aiming to ensure projects flow as smoothly as possible."