http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Articles/Content-Management/Writing A listing of the most recently indexed works about Articles and Content Management and Writing in the field of technical communication (and technical writing). 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/Articles/Content-Management/Writing http://tc.eserver.org/35801.html http://tc.eserver.org/35801.html Single-source publishing is a zombie idea that revives itself periodically and refuses to stay dead. Its zombie supporters chant its purported benefits as a “write once, publish to many” promise and ploddingly follow it as their ultimate goal for mechanized authoring and machine translation. As an object-oriented writing methodology, it is as human as present-day robot technology—good only for conveyor belt assembly or specialized tasks, and always very expensive to implement. Single-source publishing lacks purpose in today’s world of information turnover and the dynamic nature of the Web 2.0 moving to Web 3.0 landscape. http://tc.eserver.org/35680.html http://tc.eserver.org/35680.html Although the creation and translation of technical documents are essential parts of the product lifecycle they still play a subordinate role in most international organizations. Many companies are therefore leaving these tasks to an outsourcing provider. To ensure a smooth collaboration and guarantee high quality technical documents, the outsourcing process needs to be planned and supported thoroughly. http://tc.eserver.org/35297.html http://tc.eserver.org/35297.html A Content Curator is someone who continually finds, groups, organizes and shares the best and most relevant content on a specific issue online. I think that professional writers and technical writers should consider a move towards this role. We already search for and find the best content, sift through loads of content, discard poor content, and publish the most worthy content whenever a software release goes out. This description also sounds like something a content strategist would do as part of their analysis of the content. http://tc.eserver.org/34907.html http://tc.eserver.org/34907.html オンラインコンテンツは、文脈とは無関係にユーザーの目にとまることが多い。本来想定された目的とは違う目的で読まれることもよくある。そうした目的を全部予測することはできないが、テキストのさまざまな利用を考慮することはできる。 http://tc.eserver.org/34679.html http://tc.eserver.org/34679.html Be known for your content first, for your name second. I can’t bear to hear anyone say one more time that “content is king,” but the truth is simple, if painful. http://tc.eserver.org/34411.html http://tc.eserver.org/34411.html None of the technologies mentioned so far support the production of content for purposes of producing technical documentation. Such a system is a specific type of content management that has specialized functions for technical communicators doing multi-channel publishing, yet it hasn't spun off its own specific acronym. http://tc.eserver.org/34295.html http://tc.eserver.org/34295.html Users often see online content out of context and read it with different goals than you envisioned. While you can't predict all such goals, you can plan for multiple uses of your text. http://tc.eserver.org/34145.html http://tc.eserver.org/34145.html Recently there has been a flurry of activity around a concept called “Office 2.0” – another offshoot of the term “Web 2.0” – in which all traditional office applications can be replaced by online services accessible through a generic web browser. http://tc.eserver.org/34052.html http://tc.eserver.org/34052.html Twitter is changing the way information spreads online. Links that would have been blogged a couple of years ago are now more often shared via the micro-blogging service instead, which fundamentally changes strategy when trying to get content to spread. http://tc.eserver.org/34032.html http://tc.eserver.org/34032.html Microsoft’s Visual SourceSafe was not created with technical communicators in mind. It was created for engineers writing software source code. But it is successfully used by technical writers in offices around the world to control documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/33637.html http://tc.eserver.org/33637.html We, the people who make websites, have been talking for fifteen years about user experience, information architecture, content management systems, coding, metadata, visual design, user research, and all the other disciplines that facilitate our users’ abilities to find and consume content. Weirdly, though, we haven’t been talking about the meat of the matter. We haven’t been talking about the content itself. http://tc.eserver.org/33638.html http://tc.eserver.org/33638.html It’s an open secret in our daily work how often the challenges posed by content elude our collective talents and acumen. We’ve all been there. For me, lorem ipsum makes it personal. It personifies the proposition at the heart of what content specialists do and mocks how often the manifold complexities of content can get the better of all of us. It’s happening because we haven’t been talking. http://tc.eserver.org/32822.html http://tc.eserver.org/32822.html Are you getting hung up with the XML and all of the other Content Management goodies and forgetting about the CONTENT? http://tc.eserver.org/31729.html http://tc.eserver.org/31729.html Content producers are about to live through interesting times, to adapt the popular saying, with the dawning of The Age of Content. Industry is discovering content as a commodity; the rules are changing, and fast. What have traditionally been seen as the lowliest form of commercial content within an enterprise, technical manuals, are starting to take their place alongside the other valued corporate assets. http://tc.eserver.org/31736.html http://tc.eserver.org/31736.html XML for use in technical publications is growing in popularity. As the author explains, technical writers are likely to become more and more involved in XML document production in the future. This article looks at the many benefits of XML authoring and the trend that's moving technical publications toward structured content. http://tc.eserver.org/29809.html http://tc.eserver.org/29809.html I'm all for formulaic writing. I love hierarchies and classification. I'm all for measuring content. There is a 'right' way to write content. Sure, it may not be the 'perfect' way, it may not be the way Shakespeare or Joyce would have written it, but it'll do. It'll get results and deliver value. A production line can be set up where this content can be mass produced, tested, and measured. http://tc.eserver.org/29565.html http://tc.eserver.org/29565.html Academic writers are used to having their ideas encapsulated and enshrined in printed text (e.g., a journal article or a book), but publishing them in a wiki strips them of this protection. What happens when strangers change our writing? Since the traditional academic publishing paradigm has not caught up with the open-editing, peer-to-peer model, are we equipped to deal with the paradigm shift that wikis represent? These are issues we consider in this short piece. http://tc.eserver.org/28790.html http://tc.eserver.org/28790.html Kennedy's presentation on modular writing and reusability was attended by about 200 people. In her presentation, Debbie explained how to chunk content by first looking at different content types: procedures, processes, facts, principles, and so forth. She also mentions a tool called Content Mapper that writers can use to chunk and reuse information through Microsoft Word. 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/24999.html http://tc.eserver.org/24999.html Say you have a document that needs to be presented in two languages and you are the translator. While the translation is in progress, someone revises the original master document. This means you now might be working with an outdated paragraph or one no longer present in the master version. This article tries to map this problem to parallel development, which version control systems solve with the branch and merge model. You will also see how svk helps you maintain translated documents easily. http://tc.eserver.org/22197.html http://tc.eserver.org/22197.html Everyone has heard (or experienced) stories of CMS or knowledge management initiatives that did not work because content contributors refused to use the tools deployed or were unwilling or unable to supply content in the format required. The conclusion often reached is that writers cannot give up their WYSIWYG tools and that any attempt to make them do so is doomed to failure. On the other hand there are always those who will reply with stories of systems where writers have successfully adapted to the use of XML or SGML, and the CMS is working well. All that is required to duplicate this success, they maintain, is that writers must be forced and/or trained to use the new tools. http://tc.eserver.org/22157.html http://tc.eserver.org/22157.html The support chain is becoming increasingly important as we begin to understand the deep underlying economic trends of the last half-century. http://tc.eserver.org/22153.html http://tc.eserver.org/22153.html A discussion of how XML changes what you do as a writer. http://tc.eserver.org/20463.html http://tc.eserver.org/20463.html No term has caused such a sensation in recent years among technical writers and illustrators as 'Single Sourcing.' The reasons: Enormous amounts of text and image material builds up in documentation and illustration companies. It is not uncommon for individual documents to contain several thousands of pages. If this is translated into several languages, then the administration needs are greater for both texts and graphics (graphics can contain text which must also be translated). http://tc.eserver.org/19784.html http://tc.eserver.org/19784.html Lam’s software-controlled robotic etchers demanded multi-disciplinary manuals that were time-consuming to write. Since both software and hardware changes required a six-month re-write, manuals lagged behind product. Dividing manuals structurally into modular books enabled separate updates, as most urgently required. Modular engineering approaches to ongoing etcher development later drove a different modular design; but the approach enabled quick documentation of rapidly changing product. Company growth and product proliferation now combine with computer technologies to drive development of increasingly smaller modules of information, leading to a database model for books that may someday match individual machines. http://tc.eserver.org/13625.html http://tc.eserver.org/13625.html Maintaining a steady flow of high-quality content can be a major challenge for any online venue. Shifting priorities, unexpected crises, ebbing resources, and just plain burnout can (and probably will) take its toll on your content plans. These tips can help you prevent or compensate for problems with your supply of fresh online content.