One Writer’s Revelation: Major Health Complications Result From Lack of Work/Exercise Balance

March 30, 2007 Blog No Comments

By Martha Tucker, Special to TheContentWrangler.com Most writers have dangerous issues they pay little or no attention to until it’s too late–their health! And yet, health can be more of a problem than writer’s block, complications of concentration, writing anxiety, daily output frustration and editor angst. What I’m talking about is sitting-related diseases. It took me five years to write my novel, The Mayor’s Wife Wore Sapphires, and all during that time, I had to work at keeping healthy. First of all, I was gaining weight. Then came cold feet Read the full article…

If These Walls Could Talk: Unlocking the Interoperability of SCORM, S1000D, and DITA

March 28, 2007 Blog No Comments

In If These Walls Could Talk, technical communication maven Diane Wieland explores the possibility of using the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) as an antecedent, or precursor, to S1000D in order to create smaller bits of reusable information that can be used to create S1000D data modules, and at the same time be used for things like customer support, e-learning, parts catalogs, etc. Wieland interviews experts in the field to uncover the possibilities of integrating DITA and S1000D with other content standards, including Shareable Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM). Wieland Read the full article…

Contextual Advertising: The New York Times and Cocaine

March 27, 2007 Blog No Comments

From our friends at Web Pro News comes this jewel—an example of how contextual advertising can go awry. To quote: “And we have yet another example of the distance contextual advertising has to go. When a New York Times advertisement pops up above a guide to the Big Apple’s cocaine scene, there is clearly more work to be done. The ad is covered in a thick layer of irony, informing its target market that the Times is the “ultimate guide to global travel,” advising on: Where to Stay; Where to Read the full article…

Dan Saffer: When To Do Design Research Before You Start A Project

March 25, 2007 Blog No Comments

We at TheContentWrangler.com are staunch believers in the importance of research. We’ve watched projects flounder (and eventually fail) for reasons usually related to a lack of research. But, even we like to skip steps every once in a while. Sometimes, a project seems just like one we already completed, and in those situations, we don’t conduct as much design research as we might if we felt we were starting from scratch. This sentiment is echoed by Dan Saffer at Adaptive Path. In a recent essay entitled, Research Is a Method, Read the full article…

Oxford English Dictionary Recognizes Wiki As A Word

March 24, 2007 Blog No Comments

The Hawaiian word “wiki” (a type of Web page designed so that its contents can be edited by anyone who accesses it) has been acknowledged by the Oxford English Dictionary as part of the English language. “Words are included in the dictionary on the basis of the documentary evidence that we have collected about them. A while ago this evidence suggested that wiki was starting to make a name for itself,” John Simpson, the dictionary’s chief editor, said in a statement to Reuters. “We tracked it for several years, researched Read the full article…

Drive-By Pharming Attacks Could Hit Home Wireless Networks

March 22, 2007 Blog No Comments

By Kevin Murphy (Reprinted with permission from ComputerWire, a Datamonitor Company) Security researchers at Symantec Corp and Indiana University have figured out a way to compromise home networks using a single line of JavaScript in a web page. The attack, which they have called “drive-by pharming”, would enable attackers to convincingly pretend to be any web site on the internet, making it fairly trivial to repeatedly phish for sensitive information, install malware on users’ machines, or steal email. “When I tried it out for first time, when I wrote the Read the full article…

Joe Gollner on S1000D and DITA: Bridging the Gap between Exchange Standards and Usable Content

March 21, 2007 Blog No Comments

Joe Gollner likes solving puzzles. In fact, he often draws on his passion for history and philosophy to help him with the paradigms for modern-day conundrums. “That’s probably why I work so much,” admits Joe, “though it doesn’t feel like work to me. I love to figure out things that initially baffle me.” And baffling situations seem to be thrown Joe’s way on a regular basis. The latest puzzle he’s trying to solve is how to support authors who work in complex authoring environments. How do you raise their success Read the full article…

Helvetica: The Movie

March 21, 2007 Blog 2 Comments

Just when you’ve gotten used to the idea of separating content from format (and realized you won’t be in charge of selecting fonts any more) comes Helvetica, a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. According to the producers, the documentary “looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.” The Helvetica font is said to be one of the widest in use around the globe. It’s Read the full article…

Enter Content: New Firm Offers Help Selecting Content Management Software

March 20, 2007 Blog No Comments

Seth Gottlieb has announced the start of his own consulting firm, Content Here, a vendor neutral consulting and analyst firm specializing in content technology selection and architecture. While Gottlieb’s has, in the past, primarily focused on open source content technologies, his new firm will also offer support for proprietary software, including hosted content management software solutions. Gottlieb writes for a variety of trade publications and is a frequent presenter at industry conferences (don’t miss his presentation, When Open Source Makes Sense, at the upcoming Web Content 2007 conference, June 18-19, Read the full article…

Larry Kollar’s XML Heresy: Structure Can Take Care of Itself (Can’t it?)

March 19, 2007 Blog No Comments

In XML Heresy the Second: Structure Can Take Care of Itself, Larry Kollar discusses structured authoring, and why he thinks “it’s getting far more attention than it needs (or deserves).” The gist of his self-described “heretical view”: structure is not necessary to enforce “consistency both within a document and across a suite of related documents…a properly-designed style sheet (combined with good old-fashioned peer pressure) is sufficient.” As you can imagine, Kollar’s views aren’t echoed by consultants who work in the technical communication and structured authoring arena. Sarah O’Keefe, founder and Read the full article…

In Review: The Elements of Style Illustrated

March 18, 2007 Blog No Comments

By Jeanette Evans If you last read The Elements of Style [ISBN 9781594200694, The Penguin Press] years ago and would most likely not read it from cover to cover again, this reissue of the book with illustrations can draw you back to the text—a good thing, since rereading the material is most useful. The advice on writing still applies. The illustrations are zany and welcome, making the reader stop and think more about the material. For example, the book states, “enclose parenthetical expressions between commas.” The accompanying example sentence is Read the full article…

Social Truthiness: That’s Wikiality!

March 18, 2007 Blog 1 Comment

Political humorist Stephen Colbert of The Daily Show fame, coined the term Wikiality on his popular television program, The Colbert Report. According to Colbert, wikiality represents “A reality where, if enough people agree with a notion, it becomes the truth.” Colbert and his team of humor-loving writers have dubbed Wikiality.com, the truthiness encyclopedia. Its tag line? It has many. Our favorite is “Wikiality: What you want the facts to be.” Of course, Wikiality.com is a work of parody—a website where Colbert and friends can have some fun and get some Read the full article…

New AMA Manual of Style Helps Science and Medical Writers

March 17, 2007 Blog No Comments

For decades indispensable, the AMA Manual of Style continues to provide editorial support to the medical and scientific publishing community. Since the 1998 publication of the 9th edition, however, the world of medical publishing has rapidly modernized, and the intersection of research and publishing has become ever more complex. The 10th edition of the AMA Manual of Style brings this definitive manual into the 21st century with a broadened international perspective. Take a peek at what’s new. AMA has made some selected excerpts and the index available for download (PDF). Read the full article…

ChaCha: People-Powered Search Aims To Be Google Alternative

March 16, 2007 Blog No Comments

When you can’t find what you need quickly using popular search services like Google, try ChaCha, an online search engine that offers—drum-roll please—free human customer support. Unlike any other search engine we know of, ChaCha will instantly connect you with a live ChaCha Guide who can help find what you’re looking for. And it’s free! According to ChaCha, its Guides are “real people skilled at finding information on the Internet and knowledgeable on the subject at hand so that you get the few exact results you want, not the millions Read the full article…