The Costs of Poor Communication

December 30, 2008 Blog 2 Comments

From lost relationships to steep financial penalties, the price of poor communication is high, research shows. By Rich Maggiani, Solari Communication, special to The Content Wrangler Poor communication costs business millions of dollars every single day. Most executives and managers understand this, yet they don’t realize how big a part they play in this miscommunication. Financial statements do not carry a line item for poor communication, although they should since, with a little effort, it can quickly be quantified. Communication is vital to the success of your organization. To be Read the full article…

Dave Kellogg: Top Ten Content Technology Predictions for 2009

December 22, 2008 Blog 1 Comment

We asked technology guru Dave Kellogg, CEO, Mark Logic Corporation to share with you his predictions for the coming year. Check out Dave’s list to see which tools, techniques, and technologies will make news in 2009. Then, add your predictions to the list (using the “Comment” feature at the end of the article). Dave Kellogg’s Top Ten Content Technology Predictions for 2009 Component-based authoring move beyond technical publications—While the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and other component-based authoring approaches have seen increasing use within the technical publications community, in 2009 Read the full article…

It Could Happen To You, Redux

December 16, 2008 Blog 4 Comments

By Maxwell Hoffmann, special to The Content Wrangler When winter comes and times get tough, many birds fly south. In our current economic climate, the birds are not alone. You need to get your wings in gear to do a little flying next year to some conferences, even if it’s on your own nickel! We are nowhere near hitting bottom in this economy. This is the worst recession of my life; since I’m in my mid 50s, that’s quite a mouthful. You may be among the fortunate ones who are Read the full article…

Document Engineering: A Logical Career Move For Some Business Content Pros

December 15, 2008 Blog 3 Comments

By Lisa Woods, Senior Collaboration Consultant at Allegient It’s exciting when the state-of-the art in several disciplines gives rise to a brand new one. And it’s thrilling to watch someone extrapolate concepts from one arena to another in a way that makes connections jump out as if they were obvious all along. It’s like magic. Authors Robert Glushko and Tim McGrath perform such a conjuring feat in their new book, “Document Engineering; Analyzing and Designing Documents for Business Informatics and Web Services”. This practical guide synergizes old ideas about software Read the full article…

Looking for Adobe Technical Communication Suite Case Studies

December 12, 2008 Blog No Comments

If your organization is using the Adobe Technical Communication Suite, let me know. I’m looking for a few case studies (and lessons learned) from folks who are using the software. Email me if you’re interested in learning more!

Confabb.com: The World’s Largest Free Conference Database—80,000+ Listings

December 11, 2008 Blog No Comments

Need a place to promote your conference? Why not try posting your information to the world’s largest free online conference database, Confabb.com? Confabb combines an aggregate database of major conferences, conventions, and trade shows sorted by industry with social networking tools designed to empower conference attendees to improve their overall experience. Built into the site is a reputation management system to be used by conference attendees, speakers, organizers and administrators allowing people to plan for and attend conferences, and critique and review those they have attended and want to share Read the full article…

What’s All This Talk About Intelligent Content?

December 4, 2008 Blog 3 Comments

By Ann Rockley, The Rockley Group Content has often been managed as documents. Metadata for search and retrieval has become more and more important as the amount of content has increased. In recent years with the increased interest in the use of Extensible Markup Language (XML) for content creation and the rising popularity of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) XML standard, content has begun to move from unstructured documents to structured XML-based component-based content. And with the advent of XQuery, an XML query language that searches on the structure Read the full article…

Nokia Chases iPhone With Release of Nokia N97

December 3, 2008 Blog No Comments

At Nokia World December 2, the popular mobile phone maker announced the Nokia N97, the company’s answer to the Apple iPhone. According to a press release, “the Nokia N97 combines a large 3.5” touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an ‘always open’ window to favorite social networking sites and Internet destinations. Nokia’s flagship Nseries device introduces leading technology – including multiple sensors, memory, processing power and connection speeds – for people to create a personal Internet and share their ‘social location.’” Learn more. Technology guru Robert Scoble posted Read the full article…

PowerXEditor Eases Online Collaborative Authoring and Workflow

December 2, 2008 Blog 17 Comments

By Rahel Bailie, special to The Content Wrangler As the market develops for XML tools that work for a growing number of user types in a variety of industries, we are starting to see creative products come on the market. One need that is becoming more common is for the average business author – that is, someone who is not a technical writer and hasn’t studied the craft of writing – to create documents that validate to an XML DTD. The difference between the needs of the typical business user Read the full article…

MadCap Flare Selected as Top Authoring Application in Two Technical Writer Surveys

December 2, 2008 Blog No Comments

MadCap Flare has been selected as the top authoring application in two surveys of technical writers. Flare was identified as the authoring application of choice by more than 39 percent of respondents to the surveys conducted on behalf of the HAT-Matrix.com and I’d Rather Be Writing technical communications blogs. The surveys represent the first time that Flare, which debuted in March 2006, has seen “higher customer use than any other competing solution–including legacy applications that have been on the market for more than a decade,” according to a press release Read the full article…

[Job Opportunity] Vice President, Global Branding and Communications at LexisNexis

December 1, 2008 Blog No Comments

LexisNexis, a leading global provider of business information solutions to professionals in a variety of areas, including legal, corporate, government, law enforcement, tax, accounting, academic and risk & compliance assessment, is seeking candidates qualified for the role of Vice President, Global Branding and Operations. This person will be responsible for leading, managing and integrating the company’s brand and reputation strategy to significantly leverage the firm’s growth over the long term. With responsibility for strategic brand development and communications, this executive will be the key architect and chief executor of a Read the full article…

The Power of the Crowd: Finding DITA Resources and Information

December 1, 2008 Blog No Comments

You can find a wide variety of groups that focus on DITA on The Content Wrangler Community, the global network for content professionals. Membership is free and requires online registration. Each group is moderated by an industry expert. Some of the most popular groups include: DITA Metrics—The purpose of this group is to promote the discussion and education of metrics for DITA. DITA in FrameMaker—A forum to discuss DITA-based authoring in Adobe FrameMaker. DITA Users—A meeting place for existing DITA Users. DITA for Training and eLearning—A forum to discuss DITA Read the full article…