Blog

The OpenTelemetry blog communicates new features, community reports, and any news that might be relevant to the OpenTelemetry community. This includes end users and developers. Anyone can write a blog post, read below what the requirements are.

Documentation or blog post?

Before writing a blog post, ask yourself if your content also might be a good addition to the documentation. If the answer is “yes”, create a new issue or pull request (PR) with your content to get it added to the docs.

Note, that the focus of maintainers and approvers of the OpenTelemetry Website is to improve the documentation of the project, so your blog post will have a lower priority for review.

Before submitting a blog post

Blog posts should not be commercial in nature and should consist of original content that applies broadly to the OpenTelemetry community. Blog posts should follow the policies outlined in the Social Media Guide.

Verify that your intended content broadly applies to the OpenTelemetry Community . Appropriate content includes:

• New OpenTelemetry capabilities
• OpenTelemetry projects updates
• Updates from Special Interest Groups
• Tutorials and walkthroughs
• OpenTelemetry Integrations

Unsuitable content includes:

• Vendor product pitches

If your blog post fits into the list of appropriate content, raise an issue with the following details:

• Title of the blog post
• Short description and outline of your blog post
• If applicable, list the technologies used in your blog post. Make sure that all of them are open source, and prefer CNCF projects over non-CNCF projects (e.g. use Jaeger for trace visualization, and Prometheus for metric visualization)
• Name of a SIG, which is related to this blog post
• Name of a sponsor (maintainer or approver) from this SIG, who will help to review that PR. That sponsor should ideally be from a different company.

Maintainers of SIG Communication will verify, that your blog post satisfies all the requirements for being accepted. If you cannot name a SIG/sponsor in your initial issue details, they will also point you to an appropriate SIG, you can reach out to for sponsorship. Having a sponsor is optional, but having one increases the chance of having your blog post reviewed and approved more quickly.

If your issue has everything needed, a maintainer will verify that you can go ahead and submit your blog post.

Submit a blog post

You can submit a blog post either by forking this repository and writing it locally or by using the GitHub UI. In both cases we ask you to follow the instructions provided by the blog post template.

Fork and write locally

After you’ve set up the local fork you can create a blog post using a template. Follow these steps to create a post from the template:

1. Run the following command from the repository root:

   npx hugo new content/en/blog/2024/short-name-for-post.md
   

   If your post has images or other assets, run the following command:

   npx hugo new content/en/blog/2024/short-name-for-post/index.md
   

2. Edit the Markdown file at the path you provided in the previous command. The file is initialized from the blog-post starter under archetypes.

3. Put assets, like images or other files, into the folder you’ve created.

4. When your post is ready, submit it through a pull request.

Use the GitHub UI

If you prefer not to create a local fork, you can use the GitHub UI to create a new post. Follow these steps to add a post using the UI:

1. Go to the blog post template and click on Copy raw content at the top right of the menu.

2. Select Create a new file.

3. Paste the content from the template you copied in the first step.

4. Name your file, for example content/en/blog/2022/short-name-for-your-blog-post/index.md.

5. Edit the Markdown file in GitHub.

6. When your post is ready, select Propose changes and follow the instructions.

Publication timelines

The OpenTelemetry blog doesn’t follow a strict publication timeline, this means:

• Your blog post will be published when it has all the approvals required.
• Publication can be postponed if needed, but maintainers can’t guarantee publication at or before a certain date.
• Certain blog posts (major announcements) take precedence and may be published before your blog post.

Cross-posting blog content

If you’d like to share your OpenTelemetry blog post on another platform, you’re welcome to do so. Just keep the following in mind:

• Decide which version will be the canonical post (typically the original OpenTelemetry blog post).
• Other versions of the post should:
  • Clearly mention that the original post appeared on the OpenTelemetry blog.
  • Include a link back to the original at the top or bottom of the page.
  • Set a canonical URL tag pointing to the OpenTelemetry blog post, if the platform supports it.

This helps ensure proper attribution, supports SEO best practices, and avoids content duplication.