NowLive Makes Hosting Your Own Show A Breeze!

November 29, 2007 Blog No Comments

What will happen when the entire world has the power to create a live broadcast at anytime from anywhere? That’s the question NowLive CEO and co-founder Kevin Bromber is asking. NowLive is a combination social networking and user-generated broadcasting site that empowers users to host live, interactive talk shows from a regular telephone, Google Talk or Skype. The service helps users without any special broadcasting skills to take to the airwaves. Perfect for marketers, film makers, presenters, as well as, wanna-be dj’s and talk show hosts. Users with a social Read the full article…

Chinglish: Lost In Translation

November 28, 2007 Blog 2 Comments

We’ve discovered yet another humorous book many of our readers may want to add to their collections. It’s called Chinglish: Lost in Translation (Gibbs Smith), a hysterical photo book loaded with images of so-called Chinglish signs. The author, Oliver Lutz Radtke traveled the provinces of China capturing images of Chinglish signs, bill boards, placards, menus, and documents. Chinglish, for the uninitiated, is an English language slang term, used to describe English interspersed with Chinese language errors common to those Chinese speaking persons who have yet to master English. According to Read the full article…

A New Tool for Technical Communicators: Coventi Pages— Interview with Peter Lee and Dan Wilson

November 28, 2007 Blog No Comments

Read our exclusive interview with Peter Lee and Dan Wilson, inventors of Coventi Pages, a new authoring and collaboration tool for technical communicators.

A New Tool for Technical Communicators: Coventi Pages— Interview with Peter Lee and Dan Wilson

November 27, 2007 Blog No Comments

TCW: Peter and Dan, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with us about your new software product aimed at technical communication pros. Before we get started, can you tell our readers a little about yourselves and your company, Coventi? PL: Thank you Scott for this opportunity to tell your readers a bit about Coventi. The brief history is that Dan and I met at Stanford where we were both Computer Science grad students. Dan had been working on some great technology for annotating and discussing Read the full article…

HD Web: Nelly Furtado In High Definition

November 26, 2007 Blog No Comments

Take a sneak peek into the future of online video. Showcasing content from a variety of industries, including music, movies, professional sports, games, and news, the HD Web site enables you to watch All Things (Come To An End) the new music video from Nelly Furtado, see an episode of CBS’s CSI or BBC’s Earth, follow top skiers around the world, preview the trailer for an upcoming DVD, and more—all in High Definition quality.

The Kindle: Amazon Reinvents The Book

November 25, 2007 Blog No Comments

Amazon.com has developed an electronic book reader known as Kindle, which provides a revolutionary electronic-paper display via a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper. The device is lighter and thinner than a typical paperback; weighs only 10.3 ounces and comes with features traditional books can’t match—adjustable font sizes, a full text search engine, and wireless connectivity via the cellular Whispernet broadband service. This means you can buy books nearly anywhere, whether you are near a wireless hotspot or not (with no extra connection charges or service Read the full article…

When Personalization Goes Wrong: PayPal Goes Haywire

November 25, 2007 Blog No Comments

By Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler After winning an eBay auction for a previously elusive (and very durable) Griswold Cast Iron Skillet, I was excited. So much so that I thought I’d pay immediately, in hopes the item would ship out in time for the holidays. Unfortunately, I was unable to pay for my purchase using my favorite online payment service, PayPal.com due to a glitch in the system. While PayPal is usually problem-free (I’ve completed over 700 PayPal transactions without incident), something went awry when I clicked the familiar Read the full article…

Webinar Software Under Attack: Google Docs and SlideShare Take Aim

November 23, 2007 Blog 1 Comment

Whether they intended to or not, hosted software solution providers Google and SlideShare are starting to give traditional webinar shops a run for their money. Both companies are providing consumers with alternatives to pricey webinar software. SlideShare, described commonly as YouTube for presentations, offers a new service called SlideCasting. It’s a marriage of SlideShare and podcasting that allows users to sync up their video and audio files. Because SlideShare is an online service, some users are finding creative ways to use the software. Rashimi provides some great tips on how Read the full article…

50 Percent U.S. Consumers Will Watch Online Video In 2008

November 21, 2007 Blog No Comments

Next year represents a mass-market benchmark, as more than 50% of the US population – 155.2 million people – will watch video online, according to Video Advertising Online: Spending and Audience, a report from eMarketer. How this audience reacts to online video advertising will ultimately shape the format well into the future. US online video viewers as a percent of broadband users, total internet users and total population 2007 will show the greatest year-over-year growth for online video ad spending, rising 89% to $775 million, according to eMarketer. But more Read the full article…

The Cat Owner’s Manual: Operating Instructions, Troubleshooting, and Advice on Lifetime Maintenance

November 20, 2007 Blog 2 Comments

It’s not often that we spot excellent technical communication products, especially not while taking our feline pal to the kitty dentist. But that’s exactly what happened on a recent excursion to our local veterinary office. While our domestic short-haired friend was being prepped for plaque removal (not very much fun, according to the cats we interviewed), we discovered two books displayed in the clinic waiting room that we couldn’t pass up. Both tomes are published by aptly-named Quirk Publishing, creator of “irreference” books (Irreverent + Reference = Irreference) and are Read the full article…

EContent 100 List Announced

November 20, 2007 Blog No Comments

The folks at EContent Magazine have announced the EContent 100 for 2007, an annual list of technology companies that matter.

Are You Hurting Your Career By Not Blogging and Podcasting?

November 20, 2007 Blog No Comments

Tom Johnson says he started podcasting because he couldn’t find many relevant audio interviews of interest to technical communicators. So, he took it upon himself to give podcasting a shot. After more than a year of podcasting, his experimentation with podcasting has created a popular online destination—TechWriterVoices.com. In this 45 minute interview with Johnson, fellow podcasters Scott Nesbitt and Aaron Davis of DMN Communications have an interesting discussion about the impacts of blogging and podcasting on their careers.

Finding the Hidden Trouble Spots in Your Content: Michael Gross on Content Conversion

November 19, 2007 Blog No Comments

If everyone in your department—better yet, your organization—formatted documents following all the rules (they don’t—don’t even pretend they do), document conversion would be quick and easy. It’s neither. It’s not quick because most content creators break existing rules, prefer to develop their own personal style (“I do it this way because…”) or workarounds, and it’s not easy because authors find creative ways to achieve the same goals (making a font bold instead of using a formatting style, for example). As a result, automated document conversion tools—necessary as they are—can’t alone Read the full article…

Do You Owe Someone A Beer? Let Foamee Help You Remember

November 19, 2007 Blog No Comments

We’ve said it before—numerous times. Web 2.0 solutions help you “do stuff”. That means the best Web 2.0 tools help you solve specific problems, like remembering who you promised to buy a beer. While this may not seem like a really important problem to solve, the problem of remembering things is something all humans can use a little help with. That’s why we like Foamee so much. It’s an excellent example of how we can use the web to help us get better organized and act upon our promises. And, Read the full article…