http://tc.eserver.org/publisher/KeyContent.org A listing of works published by KeyContent.org 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/KeyContent.org http://tc.eserver.org/34436.html http://tc.eserver.org/34436.html This portal (organized into categories) lists external resources for content developers, technical communicators, information architects, and web designers. http://tc.eserver.org/34417.html http://tc.eserver.org/34417.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/34418.html http://tc.eserver.org/34418.html A discussion of social bookmarking; its use and trends. http://tc.eserver.org/29198.html http://tc.eserver.org/29198.html This is a list of limitations of the types of automated audio translation offered by such services as Talkr.com. Since we do not see a list in their help center, we thought we would compile our own list and offer it as a wiki page for any customers to keep a list of limitations. 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/28003.html http://tc.eserver.org/28003.html Single-sourcing allows authors to re-use content in different deliverables. This article explores using XML and a CMS (content management system) to take a different approach--multi-sourcing. 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/27868.html http://tc.eserver.org/27868.html How can you create an RSS for a specific HTML page, especially if the page-create software or web host doesn't provide an automated method. This article discusses how to use a screen scraper to quickly and easily create a RSS feed for any HTML page. http://tc.eserver.org/27594.html http://tc.eserver.org/27594.html While a lot of effort is spent on designing an effective structure of the course, individual memory is seemingly the more untouched and somehow neglected aspect of our efforts to develop effective learning solutions. There is a need to add a psychological perspective of memory and retention/recollection to the way we design learning 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/27595.html http://tc.eserver.org/27595.html This page provides some answers to the question 'What resources would you recommend for someone moving from unstructured Frame to Frame+DITA?' Carla Martinek, Translation Coordinator/Editor, started making this list in response to a CMS question on the FrameMaker+DITA listserv, and thought it would be worth sharing. http://tc.eserver.org/26937.html http://tc.eserver.org/26937.html An interactive glossary of terms from content management systems. http://tc.eserver.org/26941.html http://tc.eserver.org/26941.html In the financial end of business, more work is being done with documentation, thanks to Sarbanes-Oxley and financial accountability. http://tc.eserver.org/26935.html http://tc.eserver.org/26935.html This will be the story of my life from the time my boss came to me and said, 'Hey, maybe we could do that Knowledge Base in XML. I hear good things about that XML,' to the time that I figured out everything I needed to know and deployed a fully functional XML knowledge base to the world. 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/26936.html http://tc.eserver.org/26936.html Eclipse is an open-source community. One of its primary projects is the creation of 'an extensible development platform...for building software.' This platform takes shape in the Eclipse workbench, a Java-based IDE (Integrated Development Environment). http://tc.eserver.org/26939.html http://tc.eserver.org/26939.html The XML Authoring Group is an informal gathering of technical communication professions in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) area of North Carolina who meet once every two months or so to discuss issues regarding the development of technical content with structure or XML tags. We are not a group of XML programmers and we are not beginners with XML either. We are using XML for developing, delivering, and maintaining technical content, not data. http://tc.eserver.org/26933.html http://tc.eserver.org/26933.html Technical writers provide information enabling users to learn and apply various technologies. In the endeavor to enable users, technical writers often need to use different strategies of classification, presentation, and structuring for the different types of information. However, in most cases such classifications or decisions about the best method of presentation and optimum structure are guided by instinct and are rarely heuristic. In this article, we present an established classification of information called Bloom’s taxonomy (of educational objectives), which can help technical writers make decisions about content classification. 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/25877.html http://tc.eserver.org/25877.html This is a collaboration about the issues involved in creating documentation for Java software products. It began as correspondence between Bill Albing and Matthew Arnold Stern and includes a bit from Rick Sapir, too. 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/25638.html http://tc.eserver.org/25638.html This is a collaborative article with a list of case studies of technical communicators who assume new roles beyond the traditional ones like writing and editing. When they do so, they add value to their clients and organizations — as well as making themselves more valuable. This is in connection with the presentation slides from the STC Annual Conference (May 8-11, 2005 in Seattle, WA). The editor hopes these case studies will provide inspiration and encouragement for technical communicators who are looking for ways to add value. http://tc.eserver.org/25378.html http://tc.eserver.org/25378.html Creating an XML-based Content Management System to single-source technical publications is as simple as 1 - 2 - 3. OK, maybe it isn't quite that easy, but this article discusses how it can be done. 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/24653.html http://tc.eserver.org/24653.html LaTeX and DocBook (and for that matter any manner of XML editors), which could be considered excellent single-sourcing tools, are almost never discussed. http://tc.eserver.org/24659.html http://tc.eserver.org/24659.html Although online help (either task-based or UI-centric) and API reference documents serve different purposes, there are times when you may want to at least create associations between the two or at most merge them into one system. 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/24657.html http://tc.eserver.org/24657.html Here are the ten simple steps to successful software development kit (SDK) documentation. 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.