Contribute to sharing knowledge

Thinking about contributing to the iO tech_hub? Great! We’re always looking for iO colleagues to share their knowledge with the world!

The iO tech blog offers space for relevant and interesting content, centred around our key technologies and expertise. Blogging not only enables you to make your knowledge accessible to others, but it also helps to reinforce your own knowledge. In addition, you can gain credibility as an expert and get recognised for your expertise. It is also important for iO: we want to attract future colleagues and spark their interest as an organisation that matches their vision, technology and working methods.

The iO tech blog has the following target audiences:

  • Developers around the world who are interested in learning about the discussed concepts
  • Students looking for internships and potential employees/job applicants looking for some more insight into what we do at iO
  • Prospects who want to know if iO has knowledge about a particular subject

What can I contribute?

The iO tech_hub is a place for a variety of content. Whether you want to add a blog, video, talk or workshop, the tech_hub is the place to be. We share content through a variety of channels. Did you know we have an iO technology YouTube channel as well? Whether you have content in the above form or a new one, reach out to us and we’ll guide you. Need to write your hours? Find the most relevant project of the Center of Excellence and create a Jira issue to write them. Reach out to Raymond Muilwijk if you need help.

Contributing a blog

One of the most used forms of sharing knowledge on the iO tech_hub is writing blogs. You might already have an idea of what you want to write about. Generally, blogs on the iO tech_hub are not too long. It’s a collection of bite-size content that inspires people. Here are some tips and “rules” when contributing with a blog:

  • We communicate in British English, following the relevant guidelines (e.g. behaviour vs. behavior, centre vs. center, organisation vs. organization, 23 July vs July 23rd)
  • Given the fact that our brand name starts with a lowercase letter and most spelling guidelines require sentences to start with a capital letter, we avoid putting iO at the beginning of a sentence. We do not capitalise the i, nor do we start sentences with a lowercase letter.
  • We talk about our people as "talents", "colleagues" and "experts", rather than "employees".
  • The organisations we work for are not customers, they are clients. A customer buys products, a client buys services.
  • You write the article from your point of view (e.g. “I find that…` instead of “We find that...”)
  • Within iO we work with a lot of technologies, so keep in mind to show respect to other approaches, technologies or tech stacks
  • When making a summary of points, use lists for readability
  • Try to make your article visual, images, screenshots and diagrams of what you are writing about are great to add
  • Make sure you don’t use code examples we created for clients specifically
  • Make your code examples short and to the point and remove parts not relevant to the context
  • Did you include a (cover) image? Make sure it is copyright-free! Pexels, Unsplash and Pixabay offer free stock photos of high-quality.

How can I get my blog on the tech_hub?

The steps for contributing with a blog are pretty minimal. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to contribute to the tech_hub. Excited? Here are the steps to contribute with a blog:

  • Write your blog with the above points in mind
  • Fork the tech_hub repository
    • Create a branch to add your blog
  • Add yourself as an author in data/authors
    • Provide the metadata you want to share
    • Add an image of yourself to public/authors
  • Add your blog in data/blog
    • Are you writing a series of blogs that belong together? You can then create a series under data/series. Then, add a field to your blog with the value of that series (e.g. series: my-series). This will enhance the page with a series overview and more.
    • The filename will be the slug used (e.g. top-front-end-frameworks.md will be mapped to /articles/top-front-end-frameworks
    • Copy the content of one of the other markdown files to ensure you follow the Frontmatter structure
    • Fill in the required metadata of your article
  • Write accessible Markdown (Taken from Improving The Accessibility Of Your Markdown)
    • Use headings to outline your content.
    • Write meaningful alternate descriptions for your images.
    • Use simple and direct language where possible.
  • Add your images to public/articles
    • The folder name should match the slug you created earlier (e.g. top-front-end-frameworks
  • Run the tech_hub locally to see if you are satisfied with how the article looks
  • Open a pull request from your fork branch to the tech_hub develop branch
  • Share your blog on socials and relevant iO Slack channels
  • The blogs will become the property of iO after you contribute, credited with your name
  • Feel free to also post it on your own blog with a canonical url (preferable with message/link saying it was originally posted here)

How is a blog reviewed?

We try to keep contributing as easy as possible but we do like to do a small review. After submitting the PR we will ask you to find a colleague who can review the contents of your blog.

Contributing a talk or workshop

Similar to contributing with a blog, you can also contribute with a talk or workshop. You'll follow the same steps, with the exception of the content being a talk in data/talks or workshop in data/workshops.

Does this mean I need to give the talk or workshop?

No, you're never "forced" to give a talk or workshop. We merely use this as an overview for us to see what we could offer to events. Also, people organising events might find your talk or workshop interesting and reach out to us. We can then always discuss it with you.

Who can I reach out to regarding the tech_hub?

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Dave Bitter or Brecht De Ruyte!