Understanding Web 2.0: Innovative Video Communicates What Words Alone Cannot

February 6, 2007 Blog No Comments

If you’ve been struggling to understand the hoopla surrounding Web 2.0, check out this innovative and captivating video from Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, at Kansas State University. In just a few minutes, you’ll start to see how the web is changing and why we must learn to adopt new ways of thinking in order to take advantage of the new publish/subscribe model that is at the heart of the Semantic Web. It’s the best example we’ve seen to date (and we’ve seen a lot of them).

Using Wikis as Project Documentation Tools

February 5, 2007 Blog 1 Comment

In I’d Rather Be Writing, Tom Johnson explores Using Wikis as Project Documentation Tools. In this posting Johnson chats with technical writer Charles Arnold who explains why he’s thinking wikis might be a good idea for documentation teams. “The model of one writer or even several writers tackling all of the documentation is a model that will soon be history as Web 2.0 trends take over in technical communication,” Arnold says, “Wouldn’t it be so much cooler if we could have a wiki that I could work off of, and Read the full article…

Tool Tip: PopChar Saves Writers Time; Makes FInding Special Characters Easy

February 4, 2007 Blog No Comments

David Taylor of Columbia, Maryland recommends PopChar (from ergonis software) as a useful timesaver for writers needing to find and insert special characters into any text in any application. “PopChar shows the entire character set of any font, ASCII or Unicode (even HTML symbols), in a pop-up window and inserts the selected character into your document,” says Taylor. “It even gives the keystrokes for entering the character on your own. Available for Mac and Windows. I’ve used it for years.”

On-Demand – CMS and Change: Love it. Hate it. Master it.

February 2, 2007 Blog No Comments

The folks at X-Pubs have made available an on-demand version of our recent interview with Emma Hamer on content management and change (CMS and Change: Love it. Hate it. Master it.). Listen and let us know what you think. Sound quality rating: Fair Listen to the entire show.

In Review: XMLMind (An “Insanely Great” XML Editor?)

February 1, 2007 Blog No Comments

In an article for Writer’s UA, Antonio DaSilva reviews XMLMind, a user-friendly XML editor from Pixware that boasts an impressive list of features. DaSilva says XMLMind is “one of those rare software finds; an “insanely great” application singular in its ingenuity, quality, and usability.” Here’s a snippet from DaSilva’s review: “Few software products offer a similar level of elegance and functionality, regardless of price and pedigree. Once you use it, you’ll appreciate the thoughtful and elegant approach XXE’s developers took in creating a product robust enough for experienced authors, yet Read the full article…