Anne Gentle vs JoAnn Hackos: Is There a Documentation Wiki In Your Future?

By Anne Gentle, special to TheContentWrangler.com JoAnn Hackos’ recent article titled Is a Documentation Wiki in your Future? struck a chord with me because of my upcoming article about wikis for technical documentation in the September/October issue of STC’s Intercom. I know that many writers have wikis in their present and future. I have talked with people who have acquired a company with a wiki and had to figure out what to do with it in addition to the wiki they had already started. Merge the two? Maintain separate ones? Read the full article…

Have It Your Way: Dynamic Technical Content Delivery Using DITA

If you’re just using XML to publish to pre-defined PDF, HTML and Help formats, you are missing the boat. The real promise of XML is in supporting dynamic, personalized content delivery – and you don’t have to change a thing about how you create content now. No, it’s not science fiction. And, no, it’s not something that that we’ll be able to do in the future. It’s possible today. Those organizations that provide dynamic, personalized content will be able to deliver the right information, to the right people, in the Read the full article…

DITA Test Drive Challenge: A Great Deal If You Ask Us

Sometimes the sheer volume of information on the internet is overwhelming. Even with the help of Google Alerts and RSS feeds, it’s easy to miss interesting news. That’s likely the reason we failed to notice this especially interesting offer from the folks at Data Conversion Laboratory (DCL). It’s called the DITA Test Drive Challenge, a program that allows content-heavy organizations a shortcut to DITA. For $3000 (okay, $2995, technically), DCL will convert 500 pages of legacy content to DITA and perform a Content Reuse Analysis on 2500 pages of legacy Read the full article…

Making The Business Case for Web Content Management: First, Admit You Have A Problem

By Michael Silverman, CEO, Duo Consulting What is Content Management? Businesses and organizations that have large amounts of information to provide to users need a method for guiding that information from creation through editing, approval, publishing and maintenance to archiving. This process is generally referred to as content management. While the concept of content management has been around for a long time—newspapers have been using it for decades—it’s a relatively new term for most people. The rise of digital technology and the proliferation of Web sites have brought content management Read the full article…

The Rockley Blog: A Handy Online Reference for Content Creators and Managers

Add another blog to your daily reading list (and by all means subscribe to the the RSS feed). The content management gurus at The Rockley Group have published their first blog, aptly named, The Rockley Blog. Of interest to folks looking for a standard XML schema is the post, DITA: Not Just for Tech Docs, which outlines several reasons why the popular XML authoring standard may also be appropriate for non-technical content, in part because DITA allows for specialization. Keep an eye on this blog! We will.

[Web 2.0] SeeqPod Introduces “Playable Search”

Ever wish you could search the web for a special song or video and actually find and listen to/view it within seconds? Thanks to the folks at SeeqPod, now you can. The team at SeeqPod is passionate about technology as well as music. So they decided to apply some pretty sophisticated technology to music and video search so that anyone, anywhere can mine the deepest crevices and corners of the Web for media that is publicly available, yet not always easy to find. According to its creators, SeeqPod is a Read the full article…

Josh Porter on The Psychology of Social Design

Joshua Porter, a web designer, researcher, and writer from Newburyport, MA, has made available a presentation slide deck and resource list of interest to professional communicators who are keen to better understand the psychology of social design.  It’s an interesting look at the potential value of interaction with customers and the impact social design concepts may have on organizations attempting to establish better customer relationships. The concepts Porter discusses in the presentation are regular fodder for his blog, Bokardo, an online publication we find particularly useful. Download this presentation as Read the full article…

Behind the Scenes: 10 Best Support Websites

In this exclusive interview with Jeffrey Tarter, executive director of the Association of Support Professionals (ASP), you’ll discover what it means to be one of the “10 Best Support Websites” and learn how the Association of Support Professionals can provide you with a free evaluation of your current support website. Find out what you’re doing well—and what you can improve with a little help. TCW: Jeffrey, thanks for agreeing to chat with us today. For our readers who don’t know who you are, tell us a little about yourself and Read the full article…

Volumizing: Good For Hair, Bad For Content

Life in the 21st Century centers around information. In practically every waking moment, we create it, we receive it, we process it, we pass it on, we ignore it, but most of all, we need it. Those who process information for a living have developed a relentless informational imperative: If it can be written, it must be written. So, content developers fall into “volumizing” their content instead of preparing if for the global workflow and end users. In this article, I’ll examine why content volumization occurs, what its effects are, Read the full article…

Ann Rockley on EMC Acquisition of X-Hive

We asked content management maven Ann Rockley of The Rockley Group to share her thoughts about EMC Documentum’s acquisition of X-Hive. This is what she had to say. TCW: How significant do you feel the acquisition of X-Hive by EMC is? Ann Rockley Very. As Peter O’Kelly of the Burton Group stated in the original eWeek announcement, “X-Hive will ultimately provide the foundation for EMC’s future content management products and services, focusing on XML content components rather than documents at the center of the architecture.” This is a major shift Read the full article…

Author IT Ditches The Desktop: New Hosted Solution Announced

Website Contract Changes Require Notification, 9th Circuit Court Says

Although web-based editing tools make it easy to update content on-the-fly, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit says online contracts cannot be changed without first notifying website users who agreed to the terms of the earlier version. No news yet whether this decision, which directly impacts businesses in the nine westernmost States, between Mexico and Canada—and the territories of Guam and Northern Mariana, although other states are expected to consider similar mandates. Expect those who don’t want this rule to survive to challenge the 9th Circuit in Read the full article…

[Web 2.0] Viddler Makes Creating Video Documentation Fast and Easy

If you think video documentation is something only large companies with big budgets can create, think again. A new service called Viddler will change your mind. Viddler is a web 2.0 service that allows anyone with a webcam and a computer connected to the internet to easily create and share video content with others. But that’s not all. Viddler differs from other services like YouTube in that it also helps you (and those who view your content) to add metadata, including tags (think of these as post-it-notes for video files) Read the full article…

Need a Mission Statement, Dilbert Can Help

We all know how important it is to have a mission statement, but writing them is not a lot of fun. In fact, the time spent crafting them in the traditional way could be better spent working on high value projects. That’s where Dilbert’s Mission Statement Generator steps in to lend a hand. Enter a list of adverbs, adjectives, verbs and nouns and the service does the rest. In just a few seconds (or less, depending on your connection speed), you’ll have freshly crafted mission statement prose. If you don’t Read the full article…