Documentation and Training Conference Brings The User Experience To Vancouver

December 30, 2006 Blog 1 Comment

TheContentWrangler.com and PubsNet present the first west coast Documentation and Training Conference this April 18-21, 2007 in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. The theme of the event is The User Experience and will feature 30 presentations and workshops in four topic-focused tracks including: Tools and Technologies, Content Design and Access, Content Development, and Content Management. Five free workshops – NO extra charges! Documentation and Training offers extra value to attendees. The cost of registration includes free access to two of our five half-day workshops, each delivered by experienced industry experts and Read the full article…

TechComm 2006: The Year In Review

December 29, 2006 Blog No Comments

This year was an active one for the field of technical communication. New tools and technologies made their mark on our profession, while new pressures and business goals began to impact the way we see ourselves, our role in the organization, and our place in the communication spectrum. In this end-of-the-year report for TechCom Manager magazine, we take a look at some of the year’s most important developments in the field of technical communication and make a few predictions of importance to documentation managers for 2007. © Chris Harvey – Read the full article…

Finally, You’re A Winner! User-Generated Content Tops The Time List

December 26, 2006 Blog 1 Comment

We nearly jumped out of our seats when we heard that you had won! The crew at Time Magazine noticed how hard you—our readers—worked this year making the world wide web a more useful place to find information. That’s why they decided to give “You” a proper thank you in the form of their coveted “Person of the Year” award. For outstanding netizenship and, more specifically, for rating DVDs on NetFlix, reviewing books and creating lists on Amazon.com, uploading PowerPoint presentations on SlideShare, leaving feedback on eBay, contributing your subject Read the full article…

Microsoft Late To Online Help Space; Lacks Basic Survey Design Skills

December 25, 2006 Blog No Comments

Microsoft may have lots of money, but they’re not going to give any of it to you—not even if you provide them with feedback that helps them develop what the company says will be the “next-generation Help platform”. A survey being spread across technical communication listservs asks participants to take the Microsoft survey “Understanding your requirements for User Assistance”. We quote: “We are interested in the user assistance technologies you’re using now (whether or not they are Microsoft technologies), what features are important, and what you would like to see Read the full article…

Plain Language Helps Washington State Increase Revenue By $800,000

December 21, 2006 Blog No Comments

The Center for Plain Language is on a quest to rid the world of ambiguous and confusing language, one organization at a time. The Center’s mission is to increase the usefulness and efficiency of government, legal, and business documents, so that the people who use those documents can quickly and easily find what they need, understand what they find, and act on that understanding. ”Plain Language supports communication by focusing on the audience and its needs,” says the Center’s Executive Director, Thom Haller. “It helps people find and use information Read the full article…

TechComm: Give Them Five Minutes, They’ll Waste Them For You

December 20, 2006 Blog No Comments

If you’re a technical communicator with a sense of humor (and really thick skin), you might find the TechComm community listserv a refreshing alternative to the stuffy, over-policed, and rule-laden tech writing email discussion lists. There are no “list ayatollahs” to protect you from commercial posts nor to stifle you from starting—or finishing—a heated debate with other list members over a little Friday Fun. Nothing is off-topic. In fact, the list rules promote the development of a friendly, albeit sometimes silly, anything goes online community, complete with a Britney Spears Read the full article…

What Is Customer-Centric Content Management?

December 20, 2006 Blog No Comments

Ann Rockley answers the question, What is Customer-Centric Content Management?, in this December 2006 article in The Rockley Report. Other articles in the issue include: Who Wants What Your CM Puts Out?, by Bob Boiko Six (Sigma) Reasons to Embrace Enterprise Content Management, by Emma Hamer

Shopping For Content Management Systems: Avoiding The Top 10 Mistakes

December 19, 2006 Blog No Comments

James Robertson provides much needed assistance for those shopping for content management systems. In Top 10 Mistakes When Selecting A CMS, Robertson shares valuable advice designed to prevent you from making the most common content management system procurement snafus. According to Roberston, managing director of Step Two Designs, an intranet and content management consultancy based in Sydney, Australia, “It is easy to get caught up in the detail of the requirements and the CMS project, losing sight of the overall objectives and process. The starting point is therefore to step Read the full article…

Adobe Acrobat 8 SDK Download Now Available; Support For Mars and Barcodes Included

December 18, 2006 Blog No Comments

Adobe has announced the release of the Acrobat 8 Solutions Development Kit (SDK), a free, download that includes new features and enhancements such as Single Document Interface (SDI), Visual Studio 2005 and Unicode file system support for Windows, Xcode 2.3 support for the Macintosh OS, XML support for JavaScript, and much more. Other Adobe Acrobat Solutions Learn how to use Acrobat to capture user-supplied data from printed forms in Acrobat 8 using Adobe 2D barcode technology. Learn about the Mars Project and how it may impact the way you use Read the full article…

Customer Support Horrors: Verizon Reps Don’t Do Math

December 18, 2006 Blog 1 Comment

There’s been a lot of focus lately on improving customer-facing content. Managing the processes that govern such information is the purview of those who preach the customer-centric content management gospel. These professionals are busy. Very busy. Why? Because customer support needs fixed. In most organizations today, support is an island to itself—an inefficient and expensive silo where useful information is often difficult to find, retrieve and use. Providing an easy and efficient way for support representatives to add content to the knowledge base is one challenge. Alerting technical writing and Read the full article…

Semantic Wikis: Finding Answers Quickly During Disasters

December 15, 2006 Blog No Comments

In this XML.com article, Soenke Ziesche proposes using wikis to “share information faster and more easily during emergencies” by enhancing them semantically. Ziesche recommends the use of the Semantic MediaWiki a WikiProject designed to develop a single solution for semantic annotation that allows for simple, machine-based processing of Wiki content without compromising usability and performance. “Access to timely information is critical for relief operations in emergency situations,” Ziesche writes. “Over the last years social-networking web systems, such as wikis, have become more and more sophisticated and can also be applied Read the full article…

Technical Publications and Content Management

December 15, 2006 Blog No Comments

In this Astoria Software blog post, content management and technical communication maven Joan Lasselle chats with Chip Gettinger about content development and the expanding role content management is playing in the creation of content in the semiconductor industry. Lasselle says, “In the past, companies have focused their efforts on the manufacturing side of the business to drive down costs. Now they are looking at other, previously unrealized areas for cost reduction—primarily efficiencies made possible through standardization, structure, process improvements, and the elimination of manual tasks.” Lasselle continues by adding, “Looking Read the full article…

Going Up? Enhancing the User Experience: The Undo Button

December 14, 2006 Blog No Comments

Too often, developers of software—and hardware, for that matter—fail to connect with the needs of real users. This disconnect is the result of one important fact: most developers are not experience designers. Correction, that’s not a fact. Most developers are experience designers—they’re just bad ones. What they design is often horribly inconvenient, not very practical, and sometimes, dangerous, life-threatening solutions. Software design guru David Platt explores this issue (and more) in his new book, Why Software Sucks and What You Can Do About It. “Computers make users feel dumb,” Platt Read the full article…

Hosted XML Content Management: Is it Right for You?

December 13, 2006 Blog No Comments

By Dan Dube, Managing Director, US Operations, DocZone.com Publishing organizations have long recognized the value of migrating content to XML to attain the benefits of content reuse, reduced localization costs, and single-source publishing. But, many of these organizations have never been able to justify the high cost and long implementation cycles required to install an in-house XML content management system (CMS). Recently, a new alternative has emerged – the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, which offers a hosted XML content management environment on a subscription basis. According to leading Read the full article…