http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Podcasts A listing of the most recently indexed works about Podcasts 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/Podcasts http://tc.eserver.org/35318.html http://tc.eserver.org/35318.html What can a non-designer do to harness the power of visual design without calling professional help? Quite a lot, says internationally-regarded visual designer Dan Rubin. We called Dan to talk about what design techniques are accessible to mere mortals. http://tc.eserver.org/35319.html http://tc.eserver.org/35319.html What happens when, one day, you’re asked into the boss’s office and they drop “the web site” and “information architecture” into your lap? Regardless of your experience, where do you begin? Donna says your first question should be, “Why do we bother to have a web site in the first place?” “What’s its purpose?” She says if you don’t get this out of the way first, you’ll run up against it when you’re further along the trail and it won’t be easy to deal with. http://tc.eserver.org/35326.html http://tc.eserver.org/35326.html Although getting a job is the focus of the podcast, I also talk about what technical writers do, how they approach a project, how they decide what to create, and how they generate ideas for tasks. Specifically, I talk about about a project people can work on at tech.lds.org. People can start writing help for the project here. http://tc.eserver.org/34428.html http://tc.eserver.org/34428.html Many people have not had the opportunity to see someone use a refreshable Braille device to access the web. I recently videoed Bruce Maguire describing how he uses the Internet with a refreshable Braille display. He also demonstrates finding a book on the Amazon site. Transcript of the video is at the end of this document. http://tc.eserver.org/34430.html http://tc.eserver.org/34430.html A podcast interview with Anna Parker Richards, incoming president of the STC Toronto chapter, about their event-driven chapter model, in which they replace regular meetings with periodic all-day events. http://tc.eserver.org/34401.html http://tc.eserver.org/34401.html In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe of Scriptorium Publishing explains the results of their recent survey about the state of structured authoring in technical communication. In the survey, they found that 84% of respondents are either thinking of moving to structured authoring, are in the process of moving to structured authoring, have already adopted structured authoring, or are undecided. Only 16% of respondents said they were not moving to structured authoring. She also discusses other survey results, such as the adoption of DITA and mistakes people make in moving to structured authoring. http://tc.eserver.org/34390.html http://tc.eserver.org/34390.html While system-centered places the system and programmer at the center of the design, and user-friendly considers the users, user-centered design put the user at the center of the design. What better way to design for the real needs, tasks, skills, knowledge, and behaviors of the users? http://tc.eserver.org/34380.html http://tc.eserver.org/34380.html Blogger outreach has quickly become an integral part of many brands’ marketing efforts. The blogosphere enables interactive dialogue between bloggers and consumers, and blogger outreach opens the door for conversation between your brand, bloggers and consumers. For any company that is looking to leverage the blogosphere for your marketing or PR strategy, here are 5 benefits of blogger outreach. http://tc.eserver.org/34381.html http://tc.eserver.org/34381.html A blog and podcast about users, texts and technology. http://tc.eserver.org/34363.html http://tc.eserver.org/34363.html Claude Vedovini is the developer behind the DITA Open Platform. In Part 1, we talk about the DITA OP and other aspects of DITA in general. http://tc.eserver.org/34365.html http://tc.eserver.org/34365.html Claude Vedovini, the developer behind the DITA Open Platform, offers some thoughts about trends on the Web such as cloud computing, the usefulness of social networks when starting a small business, and Amazon S3. http://tc.eserver.org/34343.html http://tc.eserver.org/34343.html Anticipate the reader’s questions and then construct your writing as a response. This type of writing focuses you on your audience and gets you thinking about the specific questions, concerns, issues, and other problems your users might have. Each sentence you write should somehow answers those questions — you construct the conversation. http://tc.eserver.org/34262.html http://tc.eserver.org/34262.html This talk gets to the heart of how people interact and exchange information in online communities: through social capital, or as Cory Doctorow calls it, Whuffie. The key to growing customers in online communities is through growing your social capital. You will learn the 5 lessons of raising Whuffie through online communities in this presentation. http://tc.eserver.org/34171.html http://tc.eserver.org/34171.html The first of a pair of presentations by Alan Kay (of Smalltalk fame). The presentation is from 1983 and discusses the development of user interface design from the 1960s onward. http://tc.eserver.org/34172.html http://tc.eserver.org/34172.html The second of a pair of presentations by Alan Kay (of Smalltalk fame). The presentation is from 1983 and discusses the development of user interface design from the 1960s onward. http://tc.eserver.org/34071.html http://tc.eserver.org/34071.html A fluid text is any work that exists in multiple versions. What are the ethics and legality in the creation, sharing, and ownership of textual versions? What are the boundaries of textual appropriation? How does technology abet appropriation; how might it assist in the useful designation of boundaries? Is the law keeping up? http://tc.eserver.org/33415.html http://tc.eserver.org/33415.html If you ask designers what the most frustrating parts about designing a project are, one of the top answers would be undoubtedly be “communicating and documenting the design process.” And with good reason… it’s not easy. That’s why I interviewed Dan Brown for this week’s SpoolCast. I don’t know of anyone who knows more about solid design communications than Dan. http://tc.eserver.org/33313.html http://tc.eserver.org/33313.html A conversation between Scott Nesbitt of DMN Communications and Adam Hyde, who runs FLOSS Manuals. In a wide-ranging conversation, they talk about why Adam started the project, the way in which FLOSS Manuals gets things done, Book Sprints, Adam’s thoughts on the 80/20 rule, and more. http://tc.eserver.org/33290.html http://tc.eserver.org/33290.html Several weeks ago I wrote about my trip to Brigham Young University-Idaho and the presentation I gave there titled “Debunking the Boredom Myth of Technical Writing.” This podcast is a recording of my presentation. http://tc.eserver.org/32784.html http://tc.eserver.org/32784.html A chat with technical communicator and blogger Anne Gentle in which we discuss wikis, DITA, the XO Laptop, documenting Open Source software, and a lot more. http://tc.eserver.org/32156.html http://tc.eserver.org/32156.html What’s it like doing documentation as part of an Agile software development team? Why is it a better way of working? I mull this over these and other questions with Graham Campbell. http://tc.eserver.org/31761.html http://tc.eserver.org/31761.html The key methods you can employ to create effective presentation slides. http://tc.eserver.org/31759.html http://tc.eserver.org/31759.html What’s the best way to handle questions from the audience when presenting? This podcast examines key things you can do to deal proactively with audience questions. http://tc.eserver.org/31762.html http://tc.eserver.org/31762.html Who to target with your email, how long it should be, and what should and shouldn't go in it so that it can be an effective means of communication for you. http://tc.eserver.org/31760.html http://tc.eserver.org/31760.html This training podcast provides examples as well as explanations and tips for dealing with a few grammar or usage problems that occur for many engineering and technical professionals who have to communicate in a hurry, via, for example, email. Listen for ways to know when to use can or may, affect or effect, it's or its, and also me, myself, or I. http://tc.eserver.org/31763.html http://tc.eserver.org/31763.html Brenda Huettner provides us with the basics for making our web sites accessible in this training podcast. http://tc.eserver.org/31737.html http://tc.eserver.org/31737.html Heidi Hansen takes 15 minutes to discuss five books that she read over the past year and published book reviews for. http://tc.eserver.org/31584.html http://tc.eserver.org/31584.html In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe talks about XSL, Flash, and live blogging. XSL (extensible stylesheet language) is a programming language that transforms XML content into a specific format, such as HTML. She explains what you can do with XSL, why it’s unique, and how the output is created. http://tc.eserver.org/31568.html http://tc.eserver.org/31568.html An interview done by Scott Nesbitt of DMN Communications. Nesbitt talks with Stewart Mader, author of the book WikiPatterns. In the interview, Nesbitt and Mader discuss adopting wikis, how best to use them in an organization, building communities around wikis, and why Mader is so passionate about wikis. http://tc.eserver.org/31090.html http://tc.eserver.org/31090.html In this podcast, I talk with Theresa Putkey, a usability consultant in Vancouver, about how she transitioned from technical writing into usability. http://tc.eserver.org/30632.html http://tc.eserver.org/30632.html An interview with David Malouf on his article, Foundations of Interaction Design. We discuss several foundations of Interaction design including time, metaphor, abstraction, and negative space. David also provides greater detail to comments posted on his article from readers from around the world. http://tc.eserver.org/30625.html http://tc.eserver.org/30625.html Explains how HFI's evolving set of user experience metrics can help you: quantify best practices in design at a site, sub-site or page level; prioritize your usability resources across a range of projects; get valuable feedback quickly, in 'design time'; track and benchmark user experience over time; learn how you score against your competitors; and synthesize your various user data streams into an integrated UX dashboard. http://tc.eserver.org/30579.html http://tc.eserver.org/30579.html An interview with Whitney Quesenbery about minimalism and plain language in user experience design. http://tc.eserver.org/30463.html http://tc.eserver.org/30463.html Talks about myths, rewards, trends, tips, and issues surrounding blogging and podcasting, especially in terms of how it affects your career. http://tc.eserver.org/30465.html http://tc.eserver.org/30465.html R.J. Jacquez, senior product evangelist at Adobe.com, talks about the new Technical Communication Suite from Adobe, which includes RoboHelp 7, Captivate 3, Acrobat 3D version 8, and Framemaker 8. http://tc.eserver.org/30065.html http://tc.eserver.org/30065.html Gives a few pointers on how to give your podcast a more professional sound in addition to a number of easy-to-follow procedures for more complex functions. Though aimed at the beginner and intermediate Audacity user, anyone who wants to save time by using Audacity will find the tips and tricks useful. http://tc.eserver.org/29919.html http://tc.eserver.org/29919.html This podcast features Char James-Tanney's June 2007 presentation to the Suncoast Florida STC chapter on virtual ways of communicating. http://tc.eserver.org/29172.html http://tc.eserver.org/29172.html An interview with Kevin Shoesmith about information architecture and the challenge of organizing complicated websites. Shoesmith explains about the importance of metadata, providing user-driven organization, taxonomy vs. folksonomy, the Dublin core, the usability of web menus. http://tc.eserver.org/28849.html http://tc.eserver.org/28849.html David McNamee presented on Vista and Office 2007 to the Suncoast chapter in May 2007. This is a recording of his presentation. He talks about how the purpose of Vista and Office is to help you create, find, and share information more efficiently. http://tc.eserver.org/28795.html http://tc.eserver.org/28795.html This podcast talks about the convergence of web 2.0 with help documentation. It mentions examples of Web 2.0 sites, such as Flickr, Payscale, and Digg, and what help files need to incorporate these same Web 2.0 features. http://tc.eserver.org/28793.html http://tc.eserver.org/28793.html Rahul Prabhakar talks with us today about ten lessons he has learned as a technical communicator. Rahul is an Indian technical writer living in South Korea working for Samsung. http://tc.eserver.org/28797.html http://tc.eserver.org/28797.html In this podcast, Karen Bachmann, manager of the Usability and User Experience SIG, provides an overview of the user-centered design process. This is part one of a two part series. http://tc.eserver.org/28796.html http://tc.eserver.org/28796.html This is part two of Karen Bachmann's presentation on Usability. In this part of her presentation, Karen gets more in depth with principles and methods for usability. http://tc.eserver.org/28782.html http://tc.eserver.org/28782.html Ann Rockley shares information about an upcoming report on component content management systems her group will be releasing this summer. She also says the Rockley Group is launching a blog to provide quicker information to users in a more interactive way. She talks about the growing presence companies have in the blogosphere, and why they chose WordPress as their blogging tool. http://tc.eserver.org/28783.html http://tc.eserver.org/28783.html Thompson talks about his search for the right content management system. He talks about the importance of content reuse across an entire system and having a workflow for editing, reviews, and translation. He discusses AuthorIT as a possible CMS solution. He also gives tips for talking with CMS vendors without being suckered in. 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/28778.html http://tc.eserver.org/28778.html Geoff Sauer is one of the founders of tc.eserver.org--the largest online index for all works related to technical communication. The library indexes works by technical communicators in dozens of categories, and allows users to add new works, rank them, and get RSS feeds of specific titles. There are over 25,000 RSS feeds generated on the site and 15,000 visitors each day. http://tc.eserver.org/28779.html http://tc.eserver.org/28779.html Shares some trends in the technical communication industry, arguing that writers need to become hyphenated to move forward and be successful in the future. Molisani owns a technical writing staffing company and also produces the Lavacon conference, which is in New Orleans this year, but is traditionally in Hawaii. He says users aren't concerned about polished language these days; they just want accurate, relevant content. http://tc.eserver.org/28788.html http://tc.eserver.org/28788.html Brazill gives tips for writers who document APIs or write other information for developers. He says that because developers are busy and want to get started, you have to write less and provide more examples. Developers are more goal-oriented than task oriented. He also explains the different levels of API writing. http://tc.eserver.org/28781.html http://tc.eserver.org/28781.html Abel's presentation on Web 2.0 was the most popular presentation of the STC 2007 conference (at least this is my impression from these interviews). In his presentation, Abel touches upon RSS feeds, wikis, blogs, geospatial positioning, social networking, tagging, podcasts, and other Web 2.0 technologies. He expands here on geospatial positioning and tagging. Abel also explains why he uses a newsletter in addition to a feed for his popular blog, www.thecontentwrangler.com. http://tc.eserver.org/28787.html http://tc.eserver.org/28787.html Bryant talks about videoblogging as a tool for promoting yourself or for communicating with others. She explains the equipment she uses and the process for producing videoblogs. Her book, Videoblogging for Dummies, is available from her website: www.mortaine.com. Bryant also discusses interesting ways lawyers can use videoblogging to educate their clients. http://tc.eserver.org/28785.html http://tc.eserver.org/28785.html Quesenbery is one of the authors of Content and Complexity: Information Design in Technical Communication. Quesenbery explains the five E's -- a simple way to talk about product usability. The five E's are efficient, effective, engaging, error-tolerant, and easy to learn. She elaborates on what it means for a product to be engaging/satisfying. Quesenbery also explains the importance of personas, which she has written about in the Personas Lifecycle by Tamara Adline and John Pruit. She says stories are essential to personas. http://tc.eserver.org/28762.html http://tc.eserver.org/28762.html Keith Hoffman, president of the Madison Wisconsin Four Lakes Chapter, talks with George Hayhoe, editor of the Technical Communication Journal, about the emergence of technical communications in China and Korea, and the forces behind the push for technical communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/28766.html http://tc.eserver.org/28766.html Is technical writing boring? We discuss a post that spawned a lot of comments and exchanges. We also talk about an article on information architecture in the Tech Comm journal. http://tc.eserver.org/28763.html http://tc.eserver.org/28763.html I talk with Katherine (Kit) Brown, Brenda Huettner, and Char James-Tanny about their latest book, Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools. http://tc.eserver.org/28769.html http://tc.eserver.org/28769.html An introduction to the new co-host, competition entries, an interesting entry from Microsoft, audio in instructions, screen demos, the STC annual conference, other technical communication tools, wikis, blogs, NetVibes, Get me the Geeks video, David Pogue, Walt Mossberg, and more. http://tc.eserver.org/28749.html http://tc.eserver.org/28749.html This is a presentation titled 'Creating Help in the Web 2.0 Age' that Neil Perlin gave to the Suncoast Chapter in Tampa, Florida in February 2007. Neil talks about what Web 2.0 is, and how help can be delivered on the fly according to specific user requests. http://tc.eserver.org/28753.html http://tc.eserver.org/28753.html This is presentation Keith Hoffman gave on writing and Web 2.0 at the University of Wisconsin. If you recall, Keith wrote the feature article in January's Intercom on Web 2.0. http://tc.eserver.org/28754.html http://tc.eserver.org/28754.html In this podcast, Katriel Reichman, a technical writer at Method M in Jerusalem, Israel, talks in-depth about how to use wikis for documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/28548.html http://tc.eserver.org/28548.html In this week's Tech Writer Voices podcast, Heidi and I talk about some innovative research from Microsoft, Word 2007, convincing upper management you're not a cost, focusing on information users actually want, tool versus industry experience, the curse of knowledge, the slow movement, and a tip for handling your e-mail inbox. http://tc.eserver.org/28743.html http://tc.eserver.org/28743.html Tech Writer Voices is a podcast specifically intended for technical writers. Podcasts include all topics relevant to the profession of technical writing, from single sourcing to collaborating with SMEs. http://tc.eserver.org/28381.html http://tc.eserver.org/28381.html A weekly podcast for technical writers by a company called DMN Communications.