Hey, Book Publishers! Evolve or Get Out of the Way

May 15, 2012 Blog, Featured No Comments

Book publishers are an endangered species. That’s right. The producers of textbooks, romance novels, and cookbooks aren’t long for this world. Their likely extinction is both predictable and preventable. Even if they put up a good fight, it’s unlikely they’ll survive in their current form for one reason: They are slow to evolve. Case in point: Just over two years ago, while book publishers were busy conducting business as usual, an outsider invaded the industry and reshaped it in the publishers’ image. The invading force was Apple, a fierce predator Read the full article…

Detecting Expensive Inefficiencies: The Case For Optimizing Content Production Processes

May 8, 2012 Blog, Featured 4 Comments

businessman drawing an organization chart on a white board

I’ve got a challenge for you. Take a look at the way you create, manage and deliver content. No, really. Take a close look. Conduct a systematic, fair, scientific survey of your content production lifecycle. Get professional help if you need to. Look at each and every step in your process and ask yourself, “Is this the best we can do, or is it just the way we’ve been doing it for so long that we believe it is the correct — and only — way to work?” What I’m Read the full article…

Are You A Failed Writer If You Haven’t Spent 10,000 Hours Writing?

May 7, 2012 Blog No Comments

Yuvi Zalkow is a self-described “writer, storyteller, novelist, shame-ridden schmo, and maker of online presentations about [his] failures (and occasional successes) as a writer”. This video is one such presentation. In it, Zalkow discusses an idea from Malcolm Gladwell, author of the book “Outliers” (a book that Zalkow admits he has never read), about success. Gladwell says that in order to master your art, you have to spend 10,000 hours practicing it. I’m not sure 10,000 hours is the definitive number, but there is, generally speaking, something to be said Read the full article…

Re-Thinking In-Line Linking: DITA Devotees Take Note!

May 3, 2012 Blog, Featured 19 Comments

by Mark Baker The question of whether links on a web page should be inline in the text or relegated to one of the margins is not a new one. It deserves re-examination because the increasing popularity of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) introduces a technical bias into the question. Managing inline linking in reusable content in DITA is complex, which makes it expensive, which makes it rare. It is commonly considered a DITA best practice to avoid inline links in favor of links created by external reltables, which Read the full article…

[Infographic] Changes In Technical Communication Staffing And Budget

April 27, 2012 Blog No Comments

Money, it’s a hot topic these days, given the economic situation in which we find ourselves. This infographic takes a look at the state of technical communication budgets and staffing levels today. How does your situation compare?

Training: SharePoint Information Architecture – How to Optimize Findability in SharePoint

April 26, 2012 Blog No Comments

I’ve been contacted several times this month from content professionals charged with making SharePoint work. While each project is different, they all seem to share a common problem — a lack of understanding in the SharePoint department. Specifically, how to optimize content for findability when SharePoint is in the mix. Unfortunately, I have little knowledge (and even less experience) in the SharePoint arena. But, as luck would have it, I know some folks over at Earley & Associates who are well-versed in SharePoint who have tons of real-world experience. Not Read the full article…

[Chief and Chuck] The Rise Of Tablet Computing

April 25, 2012 Blog, Featured No Comments

Dave Blazek, a self-proclaimed “CIA experiment gone awry”, likes to make people laugh. A stand-up comic, award-winning producer of commercials, and a writer for comedy programs like Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, Blazek is not only smart and funny, he’s also an excellent cartoonist. His most recent effort, Chief and Chuck is one of our favorites. 100% chuckle-worthy. Spread the laughs around your office. CHIEF & CHUCK is underwritten by CA Technologies and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://www.ca.com/cdit.

Berkeley in May 2012: Where Content Strategy and Content Marketing Meet

April 17, 2012 Blog No Comments

Content marketing. It’s a hot topic. It seems that everywhere you look, marketers are chatting up a storm about it. Content marketing this, content marketing strategy that. But, repeating the words over and over doesn’t make one a content marketing master. In this interview with Bill Flitter, CEO of dlvr.it, we chat about content marketing, content strategy, and the upcoming Content Marketing Strategies Conference. TCW: Tell us a little about yourself and what you do for a living. BF: Thanks, Scott. I’m Bill Flitter, CEO and Co-founder of dlvr.it. dlvr.it Read the full article…

[Marketoon] PowerPoint It To Death

April 16, 2012 Blog No Comments

“Rapid prototyping is a key principle of successful innovation,” self-declared ‘marketoonist’ Tom Fishburne, Marketoon Studios says. “The sooner we make prototypes, the sooner we figure out what works, what doesn’t, and what to make in the next prototype.” “Yet,” Fishburne writes in his popular blog filled with comical ‘marketoons’, “marketers are quicker to PowerPoint than to prototype. We spend more time on two-by-two matrixes and venn diagrams talking about ideas than actually making ideas happen.” Read the entire post and then check out Fishburne’s Marketoon Studios. You might find marketoons Read the full article…

Content Strategy Falls Short Of Addressing The Real Problems: An Interview With Barbara Saunders

April 9, 2012 Blog 7 Comments

In our latest installment of The Content Wrangler Interviews we chat with freelance writer Barbara Saunders about content strategy, content “screen shots”, and why she has some problems with the idea that content assets can be improved by better management. As usual, we’d love to know what you think. Give it a quick read, then share your views in the comments section. TCW: Hey, Barbara. Thanks for spending some time with us today. Tell us a little about yourself and what you do for a living. BS: I’m a creative Read the full article…

Using Facebook To Scrutinize Employment Candidates? You May Not Want To Do That

April 5, 2012 Blog, Featured 1 Comment

The following post originally appeared on Raganwald’s Posterous blog. We present it here because we think the content is something every business professional who has ever thought about using social media tools to scrutinize employment candidates, or for that matter, existing employees, should seriously consider before doing so. The ideas introduced by the author in this fictional account are partially based in reality — there are actually people in positions of power at organizations around the United States who are stupid enough to ask (even demand) access to Facebook login Read the full article…

Not Just Another Pretty Face!

April 3, 2012 Blog No Comments

[Editors Note: This article was written 12 years ago, but still holds relevance for many today. Please share your views in the comments section below.] by Judy Wogoman I’ve noticed a disturbing trend lately. More and more websites are featuring photos of young, attractive, impeccably-dressed ‘Net- marketers. You may wonder why that bothers me. Study after study has shown that, in the “offline” world, “image” is THE most important factor in business. More important than common sense. More important than honesty. More important than ability–or experience. So important that entire Read the full article…

Surprise! American Workers Are Big Time-Wasters — Facebook, Video Games, Email Biggest Time-Suckers

April 3, 2012 Blog, Featured 3 Comments

Wasting time concept: alarm clocks in the trash bin

Americans pride themselves at being good at many things. Now, we can add to the list thee ability to waste 2 out of every eight hours we spend at work. This news comes to us via the results of a recent survey from American Online and Survey.com. The results, encapsulated in this attractive infographic from onlinecourses.com, show that American workers spend most of the time they are wasting on social networks, playing video games (seriously), emailing and instant messaging. Workers in Missouri, Indiana (go Hoosiers!), Kentucky, Wisconsin and Nevada appear Read the full article…