Joining Membership Organizations: When $100US Is A Big Waste Of Money

By Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler Each year about this time, many knowledge workers are asked to decide which membership organizations they want to join. Knowledge workers are often required to submit membership requests to management, usually accompanied by a written statement that outlines the benefits of the membership being considered (the value of membership to the organization). For those of us who are self-employed, we may use a similar, albeit less formal, approach. In both scenarios, the decision to pay membership fees relies on the cost of membership, its …

Life Sciences Conference Added To DocTrain 2008 Event Roster

Documentation and Training Life Sciences 2008 aims to explore content challenges faced by pharmaceutical companies, medical device and durable medical equipment manufacturers, and health and hospital corporations around the globe. The annual event takes place at the historic Crowne Plaza Union Station in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana, June 23-26, 2008. Sponsorships and speaking opportunities available. Contact Scott Abel, program manager, for details.

Darren Barefoot To Be Featured Speaker At DocTrain West

Popular blogger and technical communication professional Darren Barefoot is a featured presenter at Documentation and Training West, May 6-9, 2008 in Vancover, BC. Barefoot will deliver both a half-day workshop, “29 Web 2.0 Tools”, and a 60-minute presentation, “Social Media 101: Everyone’s a Technical Writer”, in addition to participating as a guest panelist during “Meet the Bloggers”, an hour-long discussion with some of the industry’s most popular technical communication bloggers (led by techcomm blogging guru, Anne Gentle). Darren recently completed work on a new book, Getting To First Base: A …

GOOG-411: Toll-Free Directory Assistance From Google

It’s free. It’s easy-to-use. And, it’s making telephone company provided Directory Assistance programs obsolete. It’s 1-800-GOOG-411, the new voice-enabled wireless directory assistance service from Google. Of course, aside from being convenient—and did we mention, free?—it also offers enhanced services including delivery of detailed driving directions and a map sent to your mobile phone. Watch this video from the voice researchers at Google as they explain the new service. Then, check out the GOOG-411 Frequently Asked Questions to learn more.

Google Airwaves: Search Giant Moves To Acquire 700MHZ Spectrum

From a pool of 266 applicants, Google Airwaves, Inc. is one step closer to bidding on the 700 MHz spectrum, up for auction because it is being vacated by television stations mandated to transition to digital broadcasts starting January 24, 2008. As such, ownership of the 700 MHz spectrum will return to US government, which plans to quickly convert the airwaves into much needed cash by auctioning off the wireless spectrum to the highest bidder. There may be Google wireless plan in you future, some speculate. According to Google, “As …

Content Convergence and Integration 2008: An Interview With Rahel Bailie

Santa Claus Licenses DocumentReader Software to Reduce Backlog of Christmas Wish Letters

Sometimes, marketing folks come up with a good idea that is so creative, you just have to give them kudos. This is certainly the case—at least partially—for the folks at A2iA Corp. whose marketing team announced recently that Santa Claus had licensed their product, A2iA DocumentReader, so he and his staff of elves could better manage the millions of Christmas wish letters sent to the North Pole from children around the world. The Santa campaign was a good idea, but A2iA missed the boat by failing to integrate the campaign …

IBM Introduces Free Smart Email Search Software: Pinpoint Accuracy Helps Save Time & Reduce Overload

When a company that has more than 350,000 employees worldwide who collectively send and receive more than eight billion e-mails every year sets out to invent a ‘smart’ email search solution, it’s serious business. That’s precisely what IBM Research has done—an e-mail search that can figure out what you are trying to find, even when you aren’t so sure yourself. And now, IBM is letting the rest of the world in on the secret sauce by making IBM OmniFind Personal Email Search (IOPES) for Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook available …

Building Your Requirements for a Content Management Implementation

By Suzanne Mescan, Vasont Systems, special to TheContentWrangler.com Your organization is considering implementing a content management strategy. What will you need to get started? Pick a content model. If your content is not yet in a structured form, you must choose a model for your content. Several standard DTDs (document type definitions) exist – such as DITA, DocBook, and others – and can get you started more quickly if your content fits one of these models. Do some investigation to see if there is an established standard for your industry …

Apple Marketing Genius: iPhone Fastest Rising Search Term On The Net

If advertising campaign success can be measured by the popularity of a product name being used as a search term, then the folks doing the marketing for Apple are big winners. According to Google’s 2007 Year-End Zeitgeist, iPhone is the fastest rising search term—not just in the US—but in the world. But it’s not just good news for Apple, some US politicians also have something to squawk about. Google’s fastest rising search terms (global) for 2007: iPhone Badoo Facebook Dailymotion Webkinz YouTube Ebuddy Second Life Hi5 Club Penguin In the …