http://tc.eserver.org/authors/Albing,_Bill A bibliography of works by Albing, Bill in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Albing,_Bill http://tc.eserver.org/30775.html http://tc.eserver.org/30775.html In this podcast, I talk with Bill Albing, founder of KeyContent.org, about the impact of social media on technical communication. Bill talks about different ways social media helps audiences interconnect and interact. Good social media technologies enable professionals to collaborate easily, without being encumbered by complicated technology or even burdened by managing and filtering feeds. Bill explains that the web is more than just a venue for publication -- it's a medium that allows people to interconnect and work/collaborate with information. This is the direction we're moving towards, and technical communicators are starting to integrate social media, such as user forums, directly into their help. http://tc.eserver.org/29795.html http://tc.eserver.org/29795.html The era of desktop publishing is over, and I must bid Microsoft Word and several other desktop applications good-bye. In case you think I'm singling out Microsoft, it's not just MS Word, but also OpenOffice, GoogleOffice, or any application that makes what we used to call 'documents'. Nowadays, I'm simply using a wiki for collaborative information sharing and a blog for online reporting. http://tc.eserver.org/29798.html http://tc.eserver.org/29798.html Part of professional development involves recognizing your strengths and learning how to express it to others. It is a helpful exercise to develop a tagline for yourself, in the same way that professionals in a previous generation were encouraged to develop a mission statement. With shortening attention spans, today's professional needs only a few-word tagline to fit in the sound bite of management's smaller time slots. Beyond what Chris Benz would call shameless self-promotion, having a personal tagline keeps your career development focused and on track. http://tc.eserver.org/29274.html http://tc.eserver.org/29274.html It is a helpful exercise to develop a tagline for yourself, in the same way that professionals in a previous generation were encouraged to develop a mission statement. With shortening attention spans, today's professional needs only a few-word tagline to fit in the sound bite of management's smaller time slots. http://tc.eserver.org/29197.html http://tc.eserver.org/29197.html While the effort to provide more interactivity and power to the end-user seems to suggest that we open up a wiki to allow them to add and edit content, the basic idea of a set of edited documentation is now challenged with a social network of participating customers, all of whom may now edit, add, and delete content. How social can you go? This article is an attempt to look at the process of evaluating the use of a wiki for end-user documentation, if such a thing can exist. Are the two types of customer content--wikis and end-user documentation--mutually exclusive? http://tc.eserver.org/28962.html http://tc.eserver.org/28962.html Do you ever think about how much time you spend tackling process issues and tools issues? The tools, as advanced and automated as they are, will not fix all our problems. But we have to work with what we have, and automate as much of the production and maintenance of our content as possible. http://tc.eserver.org/28154.html http://tc.eserver.org/28154.html In the same way that the word 'truthiness' is not a real word but is gaining usage in our culture, so the word 'connectfulness' offers us in the professional arena a way to express an important aspect of our work. Just as truthiness says more than accuracy and is friendlier than truthfulness, so connectfulness says more than networked and is friendlier and more inclusive than connectedness. http://tc.eserver.org/28178.html http://tc.eserver.org/28178.html As technical writers, we work more online than ever before. We are beginning to work with documentation in a new way, so that we can repurpose content and free it from the restrictions imposed by any particular delivery mechanism. We no longer solely create paper-publishable documents. We do not, as yet, have a good word for what we do; we do not have a single word or phrase that summarizes the effort or the deliverables. Nor can we use any single existing lexicon because the concepts are new. This difficulty is a natural consequence of the inter-networked world in which we work, where information is delivered multiple ways for diverse audiences. But let us look at the phrases currently growing in popular usage that refer to this effort. http://tc.eserver.org/28173.html http://tc.eserver.org/28173.html It is commonplace to find information through the Web, but the use of the Web for technical communication is still uncommon. What the competition entries made me realize is that in this networked world, the places where we find information are no longer one or two dimensional. Communication is no longer simply about words on a page (or on a screen). Technical information is now accessed through a multidimensional cyberspace. http://tc.eserver.org/28168.html http://tc.eserver.org/28168.html There is much left to be done with words. I think the trend toward more graphical interfaces will continue, but so will the complexity of the technology we develop. So there will always be a need for communication experts to figure out the best wording for the details involved in that technology. Finding the best way to articulate ideas and communicate information for making decisions will continue to be our bread and butter. We will see who has the last word. http://tc.eserver.org/27999.html http://tc.eserver.org/27999.html We explain why we chose a wiki-based content management system (CMS) as the basis for the portal for KeyContent.org. We compare various tools and discuss other sites that have implemented similar software for collaborative solutions. http://tc.eserver.org/27593.html http://tc.eserver.org/27593.html Microcontent refers to small, granular, and possibly representative (that can provide a summary of or a navigation to a larger set of information) bits of information, typically available on the Web. An example in the domain of journalism might be headlines and news summaries, small bits of content that can be used on a front page of the news with links to more in-depth articles. The definition has grown in scope as much as in its application. http://tc.eserver.org/26940.html http://tc.eserver.org/26940.html As long as we are working with people, there will be clogs in the flow of information. As long as we are working for corporations, the bottom line will be money. With the dependence on computers and information in accessible and digital form, there is still a challenge in getting meaningful information. The tools, as advanced and automated as they are, will not fix all our problems. But we have to work with what we have, and automate as much of the production and maintenance of our content as possible. http://tc.eserver.org/26938.html http://tc.eserver.org/26938.html I thoroughly enjoyed reading Podcasting Solutions: A Complete Guide to Podcasting by Michael W. Goeghegan and Dan Klass. I was able to digest the material quickly. The frustrating thing for me was that the title just didn't seem to fit the approachable and practical content that made the book such a treasure. For example, the subtitle 'A Complete Guide' is a bit overstated, because it is not a compendium but a getting starting guide. Especially as time goes by and the field progresses, and more techniques and tools are developed, this book will become more out of date. http://tc.eserver.org/26474.html http://tc.eserver.org/26474.html Now it is very important to recognize the vital role of a technical writer and services expected to provide to justify the requirements of this profession. Since technical writer is a sub category of technical communication, that involves other categories involved in documentation, like content writer, software configuration manager, technical editor, information designer and many more. http://tc.eserver.org/26475.html http://tc.eserver.org/26475.html This is ostensibly a review of Joel Spolsky's book "User Interface Design for Programmers" by way of a comparison with Jef Raskin's "The Humane Interface." http://tc.eserver.org/25639.html http://tc.eserver.org/25639.html This is a summary of open source tools for what is variously called: * distance learning * course management product or system * learning management system * virtual classroom http://tc.eserver.org/25379.html http://tc.eserver.org/25379.html As technical communicators, we are being challenged with how to structure information in a multiple dimensional space made possible with Web technology. http://tc.eserver.org/25380.html http://tc.eserver.org/25380.html The implications for transforming communication due to the development of nanotechnology is summarized. http://tc.eserver.org/24650.html http://tc.eserver.org/24650.html XML authoring is the latest mode of electronic communication of content. XML is about freedom: freeing the content, freeing the author. http://tc.eserver.org/24649.html http://tc.eserver.org/24649.html The advent of automatic generation tools, that could automatically generate the information was a major step in the creation of more accurate documentation and it held the promise of saving time and money. http://tc.eserver.org/24651.html http://tc.eserver.org/24651.html As technical communicators grapple with the changing processes and tools within which they work, we are seeing a gradual but dramatic evolution of technical writers into content developers. http://tc.eserver.org/24654.html http://tc.eserver.org/24654.html With government getting more involved with healthcare and organizations collecting information about the risks of some diseases, there is a plethora of information about heath risk that must be made accessible to the general public. http://tc.eserver.org/24655.html http://tc.eserver.org/24655.html Advances have been made to provide that information online to the point where electronic access to the information involves nothing more futuristic than a laptop computer and access to a database. http://tc.eserver.org/24644.html http://tc.eserver.org/24644.html Topics on technical communication written by experts in the field and posted online. http://tc.eserver.org/24652.html http://tc.eserver.org/24652.html The promise of content management systems as presently implemented in large corporations will never be fulfilled. http://tc.eserver.org/24658.html http://tc.eserver.org/24658.html Just as clothing styles change, and fall's fashion is different from summer's, so Microsoft presents it's new fall's fashion of online help to a fashion-consious entourage of software companies always eager to follow Microsoft's lead. http://tc.eserver.org/24661.html http://tc.eserver.org/24661.html In the financial documentation realm, there are so many new buzz words, but they all boil down to the documentation equivalent of bean counting. http://tc.eserver.org/24660.html http://tc.eserver.org/24660.html With the nation intensifying its homeland security and industry focusing on computer security, the experienced technical communicator can assist with documenting procedures. http://tc.eserver.org/24648.html http://tc.eserver.org/24648.html The purpose of this collaboration is to collect on one portal page many of the current theories of software development, so that a technical communicator working with developers can at least be a bit familiar with these. It is by no means a thorough explanation of all the contemporary methodologies, both organic and imposed. But it should give readers some tips about what they are and where they can find more information. http://tc.eserver.org/24645.html http://tc.eserver.org/24645.html This article is not really about the future; it is about the present, because the future is already upon us. http://tc.eserver.org/24647.html http://tc.eserver.org/24647.html Technical communication is a profession and a discipline in its own right and that it must determine whether it will be part of the game or give the reigns of thought leadership to another group outside our profession. http://tc.eserver.org/24646.html http://tc.eserver.org/24646.html In stark contrast to the suggestion that software products are easier to use these days, I would have to say that in general they are _not_ any easier to use, _especially_ Microsoft products. While they have more features and deliver more performance, I would be careful about making a blanket statement about ease of use, especially when we know the resources to create usable products in most of the industry has been shrinking.