Hey, Book Publishers! Evolve or Get Out of the Way

May 15, 2012 Blog, Featured No Comments

Book publishers are an endangered species. That’s right. The producers of textbooks, romance novels, and cookbooks aren’t long for this world. Their likely extinction is both predictable and preventable. Even if they put up a good fight, it’s unlikely they’ll survive in their current form for one reason: They are slow to evolve. Case in point: Just over two years ago, while book publishers were busy conducting business as usual, an outsider invaded the industry and reshaped it in the publishers’ image. The invading force was Apple, a fierce predator Read the full article…

Detecting Expensive Inefficiencies: The Case For Optimizing Content Production Processes

May 8, 2012 Blog, Featured 4 Comments

businessman drawing an organization chart on a white board

I’ve got a challenge for you. Take a look at the way you create, manage and deliver content. No, really. Take a close look. Conduct a systematic, fair, scientific survey of your content production lifecycle. Get professional help if you need to. Look at each and every step in your process and ask yourself, “Is this the best we can do, or is it just the way we’ve been doing it for so long that we believe it is the correct — and only — way to work?” What I’m Read the full article…

Re-Thinking In-Line Linking: DITA Devotees Take Note!

May 3, 2012 Blog, Featured 19 Comments

by Mark Baker The question of whether links on a web page should be inline in the text or relegated to one of the margins is not a new one. It deserves re-examination because the increasing popularity of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) introduces a technical bias into the question. Managing inline linking in reusable content in DITA is complex, which makes it expensive, which makes it rare. It is commonly considered a DITA best practice to avoid inline links in favor of links created by external reltables, which Read the full article…

[Chief and Chuck] The Rise Of Tablet Computing

April 25, 2012 Blog, Featured No Comments

Dave Blazek, a self-proclaimed “CIA experiment gone awry”, likes to make people laugh. A stand-up comic, award-winning producer of commercials, and a writer for comedy programs like Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist, Blazek is not only smart and funny, he’s also an excellent cartoonist. His most recent effort, Chief and Chuck is one of our favorites. 100% chuckle-worthy. Spread the laughs around your office. CHIEF & CHUCK is underwritten by CA Technologies and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at http://www.ca.com/cdit.

Using Facebook To Scrutinize Employment Candidates? You May Not Want To Do That

April 5, 2012 Blog, Featured 1 Comment

The following post originally appeared on Raganwald’s Posterous blog. We present it here because we think the content is something every business professional who has ever thought about using social media tools to scrutinize employment candidates, or for that matter, existing employees, should seriously consider before doing so. The ideas introduced by the author in this fictional account are partially based in reality — there are actually people in positions of power at organizations around the United States who are stupid enough to ask (even demand) access to Facebook login Read the full article…

Surprise! American Workers Are Big Time-Wasters — Facebook, Video Games, Email Biggest Time-Suckers

April 3, 2012 Blog, Featured 3 Comments

Wasting time concept: alarm clocks in the trash bin

Americans pride themselves at being good at many things. Now, we can add to the list thee ability to waste 2 out of every eight hours we spend at work. This news comes to us via the results of a recent survey from American Online and Survey.com. The results, encapsulated in this attractive infographic from onlinecourses.com, show that American workers spend most of the time they are wasting on social networks, playing video games (seriously), emailing and instant messaging. Workers in Missouri, Indiana (go Hoosiers!), Kentucky, Wisconsin and Nevada appear Read the full article…

Are Marketers Walking the Content Marketing Talk?

March 28, 2012 Blog, Featured 3 Comments

At times I think marketers live in a vacuum. We spend a lot of time talking shop to each other on social media … it’s fun; it’s comfortable; it’s edifying; but is it useful? I know one thing: When I retreat to the safety of my marketing communication bubble, I violate my own advice to clients, which is – Get out of the ivory tower Don’t be inwardly focused Listen to customers Talk their language Write from their point of view Put a profitable purpose into every marketing activity I Read the full article…

Heresy or Genius? Advertising in eBooks and Apps

March 13, 2012 Blog, Featured 3 Comments

Cigarette and alcohol advertisements were placed in some types of printed books in the past

According to a survey of 600 publishers across the trade, professional, and educational markets, the biggest struggle publishers face is maximizing ebook profits as the industry struggles to go digital. Part of the profit problem will be solved as publishers reduce production expenses by moving to scalable digital workflows, rather than retrofitting existing, outdated and inefficient publishing processes. While saving money by increasing productivity and reducing expenses is an important part of gaining a positive return on investment from ebooks and apps, maximizing profits also requires publishers to find innovative Read the full article…

[Infographic] Technical Communication Management Compensation and Career Outlook

March 5, 2012 Blog, Featured 2 Comments

The field of technical communication in the United States is experiencing big changes, both good and bad. On the one hand, communicators who have advanced, specialized skills, as well as those with expertise in law, science, and technology, are in demand. On the other hand, in some geographic areas, it’s difficult for displaced technical communication professionals to find employment, especially in sectors that have been hard hit by economic challenges. An increasingly competitive global marketplace combined with the decline of traditional manufacturing in the US has led to layoffs and Read the full article…

WineMaps Helps Wine Lovers Find Wineries and Wines: An Interview with Ryan Ornelas

February 17, 2012 Blog, Featured No Comments

In this exclusive interview, Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler (TCW) chats with Ryan Ornelas (RO), a San Francisco-area information technology expert about his latest endeavor, WineMaps.com. TCW: Thanks for agreeing to speak with The Content Wrangler today, Ryan. For those who don’t know who you are, tell us a little about yourself and what you do? RO: I am the former IT Director of Joie de Vivre Hospitality (JDV). I am now a consultant for JDV on the relaunch of their website which includes a new booking experience that will Read the full article…

Everyone Into “The Content Pool”: An Interview With Alan J. Porter

February 13, 2012 Blog, Featured No Comments

In this interview with Alan Porter, Senior Digital Publishing Consultant for PTC, we discuss his new book, The Content Pool, which explores the most important hidden asset in your company, your content. We have a Chief Executive Officer and a Chief Financial Officer; why don’t we have Chief Content Officer? TCW (The Content Wrangler): Hi Alan, thanks for taking the time to speak with us today. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do. AJP (Alan J. Porter): Thanks, it’s always a pleasure to be involved with The Read the full article…

Collaborative Authoring and Communication Tools Help Writers, Editors, SMEs Work Together

February 7, 2012 Blog, Featured 6 Comments

By David Kowalsky, Guest Editor Do you ever find yourself overwhelmed with trying to keep track of all the versions of a document that are being sent back-and-forth by you and your work colleagues by email? When opening a document to edit, have you ever had the experience of being frustrated by immediately seeing a message pop up telling you that the document is locked? Many companies have introduced features to their products to alleviate these types of issues, making collaborative authoring– projects where written works are created by multiple Read the full article…

Understanding Word of Mouth Marketing

February 4, 2012 Blog, Featured No Comments

Straight from the horse’s mouth? Sorry, we could’t resist. This video from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), does a great job of demystifying word of mouth marketing. WOMMA is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing and advocating the discipline of credible word of mouth marketing and promoting word of mouth as a solution to business challenges.

The Financial Services Insider: Who Needs A Web Content Management System When We Can Print The Web?

January 11, 2012 Blog, Featured 2 Comments

by The Financial Services Insider (a secret, for obvious reasons) Too many companies are still treating enterprise web content as an animal separate and apart from the rest of the enterprise’s content. It’s a wasteful mistake that leads to some crazy behavior. Let me explain. I work for a financial services provider which is supposed to file its web properties with an industry watchdog or face audits and possible fines. When I started with the company, the websites had never been filed, and the compliance department was reluctant to increase Read the full article…