A New Process to Publish on the CNG Blog
CNG is the place where geospatial data users create the future together. To make the share of knowledge between those data users even smoother, we’ve refined our process for getting blog posts onto cloudnativegeo.org. Whether you want to share a deep-dive technical tutorial, highlight lessons learned from a recent project, or explore ways to strengthen our community, this updated approach makes it simple to propose, write, and publish.
The following information can also be found at CONTRIBUTING.md.
What we’re looking for
Evergreen topics - We are always open to content about new ways of using geospatial data, case studies that show the benefits of using cloud-native approaches, technical tutorials, open-source tools, best practices in geospatial data management, and tools that help data users share, access, and work with geospatial data more effectively.
Current priorities - This year, we are also interested in blog posts that address the following common community challenges that we’ve identified:
- Education and workforce development
- Ways to simplify data licensing to accelerate data usage
- Creating better shared data resources
- Ways to improve government partnerships
- Sustainable funding models for collaborative projects
- Marketing to communicate the value of cloud-native approaches
Tone - Collaborative and community-centric. Always try to include ways that readers can engage and contribute to your topic.
Length - 700-1,500 words, depending on the complexity of the topic.
Visuals - We encourage visuals such as relevant diagrams, screenshots, or code snippets where appropriate to make the content more visually engaging. We avoid decorative or stock imagery and content that pitches products without providing clear value to the community.
Note that CNG Commercial Members are eligible to publish one branded blog post per year, and they should still follow the spirit of these guidelines.
Blog submission process
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Propose blog topic Create an issue in GitHub using the “Blog Post Proposal for Writers” issue template at github.com/cloudnativegeo/cloudnativegeo.org/issues.
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Board discussion / voting Get approval from the Board — at least two CNG Board members must approve the proposal. Board members may vote as follows by commenting on the GitHub issue:
+1
indicates strong support and a willingness to help implement the proposal.+0
indicates mild support, but has no effect.0
indicates no opinion and has no effect.-0
indicates mild disagreement, but has no effect.-1
indicates opposition and acts as a veto; however, the voter must provide clear reasoning and suggest alternate solutions.
Two +1’s will mark the blog proposal as accepted.
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Write blog post
Write your blog post. You can either:
- Directly submit a PR for your blog at github.com/cloudnativegeo/cloudnativegeo.org/pulls.
- Write it in a Google Doc if you anticipate needing a lot of feedback.
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Seeking board review / submit a pull request
- After writing, if you went the Google Doc route, share your Google Doc with the CNG Editorial Board via email: editorial-board@cloudnativegeo.org.
- If you are directly submitting the PR, add the board members who approved your blog post submission as reviewers.
Whether you submit your PR immediately or after receiving feedback on the Google Doc version of your blog post, here is the process for submitting the PR:
- Create a pull request at https://github.com/cloudnativegeo/cloudnativegeo.org/pulls.
- Do this by creating a branch / forking the repository and editing your own fork.
- Markdown content for the blog belongs in the content/blog/ section of the repository.
- The file should be named “YYMMDD-name-of-desired-blog-url.md”
- Any photos for the blog should be located at “assets/images” and use the naming convention “YYMMDD-name-of-photo”
- Final approval and publishing Once the PR is approved, your post will be published on the CNG blog.
CNG depends on the ideas, experiences, and expertise of the community. By contributing to the CNG blog, you’re not just publishing a post, you’re helping shape the conversations and connections that strengthen our community. We look forward to seeing the stories, tutorials, and insights you bring to the table, and to working together to make cloud-native geospatial data and approaches easier to access and use.
Our blog is open source. You can suggest edits on GitHub.