annegentle at justwriteclick dot com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annegentle/

Profile

An enthusiastic and technical innovator who engages developers through outreach, tools, and communication. An industry-recognized author whose books promote collaboration among developers, writers, and other stakeholders within open-source and enterprise communities.

Leadership Positions

Director, Developer Experience, Cisco DevNet, Austin, TX 2023-present

Define and grow DevNet, the strategic developer relations program for Cisco. Manage API Experience program at Cisco. Direct central developer documentation team working on API quality assessments and API documentation with OpenAPI specifications, interactive REST API documentation, and developer tutorials. Define key performance indicators and goals for inclusive language in product code and content across Cisco.

Developer Experience Manager, Cisco DevNet, Austin, TX 2018-2023

Manage a team of content producers working alongside developer advocates plus a team of developer support engineers. Manage projects for content development and developer education including testing code examples. Grow and mentor other managers and teammates both in technology and cooperative skills.

Technical Writing Manager, Cisco, Austin, TX, 2016-2018

Empower customer success on the Cisco cloud. Provide support, documentation, tools, and outreach for building applications on Metacloud, an infrastructure service curated from open-source projects within OpenStack. Managed three contract technical writers using Agile development methods for the documentation and support sites at docs.metacloud.com and support.metacloud.com. Write bash scripts and use Docker for continuous integration and deployment of documentation website. Provide support and education to team members as needed for using GitHub for documentation. Collaborate with Cisco Developer Network evangelists by testing and providing input and content for developer.cisco.com and learninglabs.cisco.com, using GitHub, GitLab, and BitBucket for version control.

Principal Engineer, Rackspace, Austin, TX, 2014-2016

Provide developer processes for open-source documentation. Innovate on both the content and the development-based processes for authoring, reviewing, and publishing through continuous integration and deployment. Work with container technologies to provide repeatable development and production environments for content display and interaction on developer.rackspace.com.

OpenStack Documentation Program Technical Lead (PTL), Rackspace, Austin, TX, 2010-2015

Led the community documentation effort for OpenStack, consisting of 130 git repositories governed by more than twenty related programs. Written in Python, OpenStack projects enable any organization to provide cloud computing capabilities on standard hardware using open-source software.

Wrote documentation for system administration and cloud administration audiences as well as REST API consumers at docs.openstack.org.

Test API requests and responses with curl, a CLI, or a Python SDK for api.openstack.org/api-ref.html and api.rackspace.com.

Review and test Python code used to automate doc builds through continuous integration to keep up with fast-moving code. Use automation to document descriptions from the code for over 6,000 configuration options.

Gather competent documentarians to write about OpenStack. Grew numbers from 79 docs contributors to 130 docs contributors in six months from April 2013 to November 2013. Now working with 195 contributions between November 2013 and March 2014.

Provided three book sprints in collaborating with the community resulting in three 200+ page books including the O’Reilly OpenStack Operations Guide.

Manage doc bug tracking and triaging, closing nearly 2,000 doc bugs with the team in a year.

Coordinate the creation of an API reference listing with a design from the community and a tools team providing the coding and backend.

Raise support for and mentor developer interns in the Outreach Program for Women for OpenStack. Provide guidance to the Google Summer of Code internship coordinators.

Elected to the OpenStack Technical Committee in September 2012 to guide technical decisions for projects.

Consultant, JustWriteClick, Austin, TX, 2007-present

Present technical talks at conferences and meet-ups to various audiences about cloud computing, application workloads, automation, and open source technology. (Presentation list and videos available on justwriteclick.com/speaker-profile.)

Write, publish, and promote a book titled Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation about harnessing the power of blogs, wikis, and social media, interviewing those writers with experience and analyzing case studies.

Write blog entries regularly about web writing, social media, wikis, DITA, and information architecture topics at justwriteclick.com. By building my online brand I have doubled my subscribers in 18 months’ time. Market information products for sale such as presentations about social media and white paper about Agile development, wikis, and DITA.

Community Documentation Coordinator, One Laptop per Child and FLOSS Manuals, 2007

Develop wiki-based documentation for the XO laptop as part of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) volunteer staff, using the FLOSS Manuals toolkit at flossmanuals.net.

In August 2008, helped FLOSS Manuals define and run a Book Sprint in which we gathered writers together for a week-long documentation session that resulted in over 7 manuals containing 300 pages and a single remixed book for sale on Lulu.com.

Co-authoring a book about how to coordinate a Book Sprint with FLOSS Manuals founder Adam Hyde.

Endorsements and Recommendations

Anne is one impressive individual. I had the privilege of working with her in Cisco DevNet. I saw her in the last several years RISE to the occasion of leading teams and people, when the need appeared. She didn’t flinch. Her drive motivated her to “I can do THIS” – and she did. Well.

She impressed me by her ability to manage diverse teams. Her impact in documentation is notable. She’s been my go-to person as it related to docs. At a more personal level, her drive in inclusive language touched me. I have the same desire, but I come from a different affinity group. She was open to hearing how I would propose more inclusive language in docs for people of faith. And she encouraged me to push that envelope.

There is much admiration for Anne – I am thankful for her. Reach out – she’ll impress!

Jason Davis

Principal Engineer, Cisco

Anne Gentle is one of those rare information professionals who sees the “big picture” and communicates clearly the potential that technology has to improve the way we work. Her blog, justwriteclick.com, is a popular resource for many in the technical communication industry and one of my favorites!

Scott Abel
President, The Content Wrangler

Anne is a bundle of energy. She is a rare individual who combines the vision needed to be creative on a grand scale with the drive and practicality to make things happen. She is both a thinker and a doer on a variety of fronts. Anne knows information architecture (DITA), project management (Agile), developmental learning (One Laptop per Child) and consistently contributes her knowledge, experience and efforts to help others. She’s a tireless, dependable worker and an emerging leader in the field of technical communication.

Bill Gearhart
Management Consultant and Instructor, Information Development

Anne is am absolute shining star at BMC. She is dedicated, hard-working, and innovative. When something “can’t be done,” give it to Anne. She excels at making the impossible possible. Whether it’s new technology or just looking at a problem with fresh eyes, she’s an Ace.

Michael Wethington
Information Development Manager

Anne’s intuitive approach to problems makes her an exceptional writer. Our past collaborations were made much better by her quick grasp of the technical issues at hand. Her wit and charm has made our work together very enjoyable.

Ken Zotigh
Senior Product Developer

Writing Positions

Information Developer, BMC Software, Austin, TX, 2000-2007

As information architect for the distributed systems business unit, assisted in content analysis and DITA implementation. As technical lead, designed, tested, and debugged a browser-based cross-platform HTML help system. Perform first-line troubleshooting and support for both writers and developers implementing the system. Write printed manuals and online help for software tools for configuration management, asset management, and database management. Work effectively with Agile development and team members distributed across the globe, resulting in working software at the end of each three-week iteration.

Technical Writer, Entek IRD International, Milford, OH, 1996-2000

Created printed manuals and online help for software and hardware products that collect and store machinery data. Single-sourced online help from FrameMaker using Word macros. Managed all aspects of technical writing projects for a small team, including supervising contract workers, recruiting and interviewing new candidates, scheduling projects, and meeting deadlines.

Documentation Specialist, Center for Chemical Education, Middletown, OH, 1994-1996

Edited teacher education materials for teaching chemistry and physics using everyday objects such as toys. Assisted with teacher workshops.

Student Interaction Roles

Board member, Gethsemane Lutheran Children’s Ministry, Austin, TX, 2008-present

Audited staff and classroom computer needs, implemented computer maintenance request ticket system by coordinating parent volunteers, and redesigned website.

Volunteer, GirlStart, Austin, TX 2008

Led discussion at weekly lunches with a group of eighth grade girls interested in science and technology.

Professional Practice Coordinator, Entek IRD International, Milford, OH 1998-2000

Worked with four local universities to recruit, hire, and review the performance of university co-operative education students.

Student Advisor, student STC chapter, Miami University, Oxford, OH, 1999-2000

Helped graduate students find technical writing professionals to present at meetings, coordinated and attended monthly meetings, offered advice and mentored students graduating to the workforce.