For those of you who are still wondering what’s the point of Twitter, check out this new site powered by the popular microblogging site that provides a real-time glimpse into the opinions of folks interested in the US presidential election.
By Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler and The Content Wrangler Community The remix. It used to be a term used purely to describe different renditions of the same dance tune. Now, it’s a term creeping into our daily lives in a variety of new ways made possible by recent advances in computer and Internet technologies. Originally crafted by talented music producers like Tom Moulton and dj’s like Larry Levin, remixes were designed for one purpose: To make the audience dance. Okay, that’s not entirely true, there was also another motive: Read the full article…
Ever wonder how converting to a DITA/XML content management system would play out in real life? What if we added globalization? What if it showed nearly $100,000 savings for the first two deliverables (in 9 languages)? This step-by-step plan, by Jennifer Linton of CaridianBCT (formerly Gambro BCT), tells us exactly how it played out for them. Read the article in Data Conversion Labs newsletter.
Language Weaver projects a US$67.5 billion market for digital translation in 2009, enabled by advances in machine translation (MT). Common Sense Advisory says they believe the untapped market potential is much higher, but the problem is getting buyers on board. The organizations today that stand to gain the most from MT are those driving advertisement-reading eyeballs to their sites, Don DePalma writes.
By Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler and The Content Wrangler Community
Social-media sites like Wikipedia and Digg are celebrated as shining examples of Web democracy, places built by millions of Web users who all act as writers, editors, and voters. In reality, a small number of people are running the show. Read the article (recommended by Nicky Bleiel).
The Content Wrangler recently conducted a survey of content professionals on the need for legacy content conversion tools. Those who completed the survey were entered into a drawing for free tickets to the Documentation and Training conference of their choice. The winners are: Todd Nowlan, Nortel Jason Campbell, Macquarium Intelligent Communications Dave Davis, AT&T Matt Ceglia, Google Marsha Glassner. GSA Magdalen Neuwald. Yahoo! Ralph Nissler, IBM Jennifer Campanile, GMAC Julie Waxgiser, Thomson Reuters Nancy Thompson, Epson Congratulations to each of the winners. Look for a summary of the legacy content Read the full article…
. Intelligent Content 2009 has announced a call for presenters. The event, to be held January 29-30, 2009 at Le Parker Méridien Palm Springs, needs presenters who are creating, managing, and delivering intelligent content and who can present on such topics as: Adaptive content Content mining
If you haven’t heard, late last Saturday night the Tribune-owned Florida newspaper Sun-Sentinel inadvertently posted a 6-year old article (with no dateline) on it’s website with the headline “UAL Files For Bankruptcy.” The posting triggered a temporary stock price drop—and financial freak out by the shareholders of United Airlines. The Tribune says it’s Google’s fault. No matter where the fault lies in this situation—see Who Is To Blame? publishing inaccurate and outdated content can cause financial and other damages. And, it’s an unnecessary risk. It could happen to any organization Read the full article…
Documentation manager Alistair Christie wrangles documentation for Memex Technology Ltd (Edinburgh, UK). He also produces an informative podcast series, ITauthor available from iTunes. Check out his recent show, Documentation and Agile Software Development (an interview with Graham Campbell). If you’re interested in learning more about Agile software development methodology, Alistair recommends you read Scott Ambler’s articles on the subject.
By Richard Hamilton, RL Hamilton and Associates Humans are wired to put things in buckets. We have an innate need to create categories and sort things into them. While the average human leans this way, technical communicators dive off the cliff. From the DITA Maturity Model to The Content Wrangler’s article categories, if it’s not tied down, it will get dropped in a bucket. This is not a bad thing; buckets help us organize and retain information. If you are shopping for a television, having a set of criteria in Read the full article…
Plain and simple: Litmus makes testing email newsletters, websites and web-based solutions easy and quick. According to the owners, “It’s relied upon by thousands of smart freelancers and switched-on agencies; as well as big companies like Yahoo!, Facebook and eBay.” Plans range from free—which tests only IE 7 and Firefox 2 for websites and Outlook 2003 and Gmail for email newsletters—to unlimited individual and team accounts that allow you to run tests that examine your designs against 23 web browsers, 14 email clients, and 16 SPAM filters. We like that Read the full article…
Most of us are familiar with the fast-growing interest in and use of e-learning in organizations. But as popular as e-learning is becoming–an understandable trend, given the freedom e-learning provides from classroom settings and the restrictions it lifts on users’ time constraints—e-learning is still evolving. New approaches are stretching boundaries in exciting and game-changing ways. One of the newest ideas is work-embedded e-learning. Read Work Embedded E-Learning (Intercom, the magazine of the Society for Technical Communication).
By Amber Swope As an information architect, I evaluate content, analyze its purpose, categorize it, and determine the proper storage and retrieval for it. This is all well and good for my professional life, but I realized I had perhaps taken it too far when I applied information architecture (IA) to my personal life. Granted, I have a long, rewarding relationship with spreadsheets, like the one I used when to help ease the transition when I moved … or the one I used to organize my wedding … or the Read the full article…
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