Most free software projects, as well as companies releasing APIs or other software, want to provide good documentation to attract and support developers and users. With reference to a few examples from online Erlang documentation, this talk suggests why it's so hard to create usable documentation and discusses some directions to go in, such as finding users who can write helpful documents, checking quality through A/B testing, and providing pathways through documents.  The focus will be on documentation for programmers, because resources for such documentation are very limited, but anything that aids wider adoption can foster innovation.

1. Get the audience thinking more about the role of documentation and training in their own software projects.

2. Encourage the audience to take steps to improve the documentation for the programmers who use their software.

Target audience: Anyone who participates, as a developer or user, in a software project that delivers libraries or tools to outsiders