A Tale of Two Cities (and Conferences)

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times*. Or at least that's the impression about the state of the content development industry that came across during two different publishing conferences I have attended in the last few weeks. Hosted in two cities that couldn't have been more diverse, Palm Springs, CA and Austin, TX, the conferences were opposite reflections of their locations.

Palm Springs CA can perhaps be summed up by the fact that the city's greatest attraction appears to be an aging vaudeville theater that boasts that it is home to the World's oldest chorus line! This, the city not the theater chorus line, was the venue for the 2012 Intelligent Content Conference (ICC12), a vibrant well programmed exchange of ideas that drew attendees from various aspects of the enterprise content development world, especially from service information, business process, and marketing; along with new technology practitioners, leading consultants, and content strategists. This group understood that the real value of the new publishing model was in the content itself (hence the title of the conference.)

The underlying feeling coming away from this conference was that the attendees thought that this was indeed the "best of times" to be in content development. The biggest revolution in content development and delivery since the invention of the printing press is opening up an incalculable number of opportunities to redefine both the business model, and the way we tell our stories and interact with those who consume them.

Austin, TX on the opening day of the annual SXSW Interactive conference gives off that same vibe of excitement and opportunity as leading thinkers, futurists, innovators, and entrepreneurs descend on the Texas capital to discuss the future of the web. Part of this year's opening day events included a one-day mini-conference based on O'Reilly's Tools of Change (TOC) annual publishing industry get together in New York. As expected the majority of attendees where from the worlds of traditional book and magazine publishing. The contrast between this crowd and the attendees at Intelligent Content, and the larger SXSW crowd, couldn't have been more marked. The underlying vibe that I picked up at the TOC day was one of confusion, and even panic.

The first speaker, mobile designer Josh Clark, provided one of the best summaries on how to approach the new publishing paradigm when he said that "Your product is called content, everything else is a container." He also went on to say that "Mobile isn't about Apps. An App isn't a strategy." Yet nearly every other speaker, and question from the audience, ignored this great advice. The focus of most conversations was firmly on the delivery process and medium, not about the thing actually being delivered, the content. And during the sessions I was at I never heard a single word about how to add value to the content by making it intelligent

My feeling was that most of the TOC audience this is "the worst of times," as things are changing too fast to understand, and the traditional business model no longer works.

And that's where I believe the disconnect between these two groups originates - with the business model.

In the corporate world the development of content is a key part of any business process (In fact in THE CONTENT POOL book I put forward that it is THE key component), and that while it may not always be recognized as such, it is generally developed irrespective of the delivery platform. Yes particular platforms may be specified, but they are more a matter of convenience and familiarity than an integral part of the company's overall business model. The value to the organization is implicitly in the content, not the delivery model.

In traditional publishing, no matter what lip service is paid to content, it is the delivery mechanism that provides the value. The business model of traditional publishing is built around the infrastructure and process to move pieces of paper from the printer, to the warehouse, to the retail outlet, and eventually into your hands as a consumer. It is only you, as a consumer, who then derives any value from what was on that paper - the content.

While the corporate world sees new delivery models as an opportunity to provide more and more intelligent content, traditional publishing sees it as a disruptive event to a centuries old infrastructure.

The best of times; the worst of times.

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* With apologies to Charles Dickens for the paraphrasing. - "A Tale of Two Cities" was originally published concurrently in two separate formats - In the weekly magazine All Year Round without illustrations , and in collected monthly installments with illustrations by regular Dickens artist Halbot Browne (from which the illustration at the top of this post is taken.) Dickens was a master of realizing the value of his content over format often publishing new works in various formats and platforms to reach the widest possible audience, before eventually publishing the full work as a novel.

If he were around today, I'm sure he would be one of the pioneers of digital publishing.

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THE CONTENT POOL book - Just a week away.

I'm looking forward to the Intelligent Content Conference in Palm Springs next week for several reasons.

And top of that list is the fact that the conference will be the location for the official launch for my latest book, THE CONTENT POOL, which in many ways is based on this blog. (Cover above.)

Today Scott Abel posted an interview with me abut the book, and the ICC12 launch, at his Content Wrangler site.

I mention in the interview that we will be publishing a special limited edition of THE CONTENT POOL for conference attendees. The ICC12 Edition will be limited to just 100 copies and will include an exclusive chapter linked to the panel on "Making a Business Case for Innovation" which I will be participating in at the conference.

If you are heading to Palm Springs next week for ICC12 I look forward to seeing you.

If you can't make the conference the standard edition of THE CONTENT POOL is available for pre-order.

Every Presentation, Ever: A Communication Failure?

I have spent, and continue to spend, a lot of my professional life either giving, or sitting through presentations. I have seen every one of the communication failures parodied in this video.



After I'd watched the video and smiled in recognition, and even winced occasionally about things know I've done in the past. I started thinking about the title.

Is every presentation ever given an exercise in communications failure?

I would submit that the vast majority are - sure there are good ones (see the various TED talks for instance), but most presentations are simply a dry regurgitation of facts and ideas that could be better expressed in much more entertaining and different ways.

How?

By focusing on the speaker, not on the PowerPoint.

Think about the conference sessions you remember most - I bet it was the ones with the energtic, passionate, articulate speakers, rather than the ones with the prettiest slides. I have seen a growing trend amongst top rated speakers and presenters to just use single image slides acting as a backdrop to a particular point as a way of getting the audience to focus on them and the message they are delivering. I even have spoken to several other regular conference speakers about dropping the use of slides altogether, but conference organizers seem to get scared when you say you don't have any slides.

During the course of the year I attend two distinct types of industry events, first there are the technical and business conferences, then as a pop-culture writer there are the the various conventions. For as long as I have been attending science-fiction and comics conventions the default way of communicating with the audience is to have a panel of guests discuss a particular topic in which they have a stated interest, or experience. No PowerPoints, just people discussing what they know and what they are passionate about. The results are invariably both enlightening and entertaining.

Yet business conferences are still dominated by the "person in front of a slide deck" model. - Why? Over the last couple of years I've been lucky enough to be invited in a few business conferences that have experimented with the panel approach (usually just one or two in a program dominated by presentations), and in every case they have been well received, and a joy to participate in.

But it doesn't necessarily need a panel to get that same effect. I mentioned the TED talks earlier - many of the most viewed videos are of a single person on stage, just talking. Sharing ideas with a passion.

Of all the presentations I have ever sat through the most spell-binding was from graphic design guru Edward Tufte who spoke for a whole day on the subject of graphics, and never once used a PowerPoint slide.

Instead of "presenting" information and hiding behind slide decks we should be encouraging expression of ideas, conversations, and discussion. - That's what communication is really about.

That Was The Week That Was ....

I'm not sure I could have asked for a better first full week of the New Year. No matter how I look at it 2012 looks like it's going to be a promising, exciting, and busy year in the world of Content Strategy and Business Communications in general, and on a personal level for 4Js Group as well.

Let's take a look at what made this week such a perfect start to the year.

• I kicked off the week by delivering the final manuscript for "THE CONTENT POOL" book on Content Strategy to the fine team at XML Press for final copy edits, indexing, and layout. - We are looking at publication in the first half of the year. - As soon as we have nailed down a date I'll post it here and on my twitter accounts. - I'll also be posting updates here as the book goes through the final stages before publication.

• Then the fine folks at MindTouch issued the list of what they considered the most influential people in the Technical Communications and Content Strategy industries. I was delighted and honored to make the list under both my own name, and as 4Js Group, alongside so many other great industry professionals.

• On the conference front, it looks like I will be speaking at this year's Lavacon in Portland in October. Lavacon has rapidly become on of my favorite events of the year, and I always enjoy speaking there.

• I was also invited to join a panel on "Delivering the Business Case for Innovation" at the upcoming Intelligent Content Conference in Palm Springs next month. - The conference has a great line up of speakers and subjects.

As I mentioned, overall a great week - and a great start to the New Year.

LavaCon 2010

I will be presenting two sessions at this year's LavaCon conference in San Diego from Sept 29 to Oct 2nd.

Is Print Dead? Digital Content for the Next Generation

The new generation of customers and technical communicators look at information design and collaboration in a totally new way. The book paradigm and things like Tables of Contents and Indexes are alien to them. So how do we prepare? One way to watch our kids do their homework and we learn from them. This session will take a look at why the print page based model we are all so used to is broken, and puts forward some ideas on how we should be thinking about information design for the digital generation.

And

The Case for a Chief Content Officer

Every company does five things, develop a product or service, tell people about it, sell it, collect money for it, and write about it. The first four activities are usually the responsibility of either a VP or CXO level executive, while the fifth is virtually ignored. This presentation will talk about how to identify, organize, manage and leverage a company’s biggest hidden asset — its content — at a strategic level.

Click on either title to vote for the session, or to leave comments and feedback.

What's Your Frame of Reference?

I spent a large part of this last weekend attending various sessions at the annual "It's My Heart" conference on Congenital Heart Defects (my youngest daughter is a CHD survivor - and she and her mother are very active in trying to raise CHD awareness).

As the majority of the sessions were hosted by various members of the medical profession, I expected them to be freely peppered with jargon (see my last post), but what really caught my attention was the frequent referencing of names and research to an audience, that, no matter how educated they had made themselves on various aspects of CHD, could not follow the point being made.

This group of medical professionals knew they would be speaking to an audience of lay-people whose own experiences lay outside those of the medical staff they interact with on a day-to-day basis; but no adjustment was made to accommodate that.

The first rule of any sort of communication is know your audience and adjust as necessary. While the various surgeons did explain a lot of technical information, references to other supporting material and research remained obscure.

This made me think about my own techniques when presenting. My public speaking tends to fall into two camps, the corporate communications world, and the creative side of pop-culture. I know I often make pop-culture references when I talk about corporate communications, but now I wonder am I assuming too much that my audience will understand them?

Adjusting for the audience is not just about vocabulary and jargon, it's also about adjusting your own frame of reference.

STC 2010 - A short walk from history.

For the first time in many years I wasn't chained to a vendors booth during the STC Summit, which meant as well as presenting, I could actually take time to sit in on many other sessions, and have lengthy hallway (and coffee shop) conversations.

What struck me about this year's Summit was how upbeat it felt in contrast to recent years. There was, at least to me, a definite feeling that the STC, and the industry itself, had weathered a crisis and was heading in the right direction. Yes there are still challenges to face, but there is definite light at the end of the tunnel.

There was less talk this year about jumping on to the latest production technology fad, and a lot more about considering our audience and answering their needs. As Anne Gentle put it during one panel, "it's about answers, not about documentation."

[Although one technology fad that was pretty much a constant - was the use of Twitter - used as both a communications tool and a way to post notes and ideas from sessions it added another valuable layer to the conference experience.]

I was also pleased to see that on the whole the attendees realized that as the industry is changing, so they need to. There were very few with the crossed-arms defensive "I am a technical writer" posture; most of the people I spoke to, and the audiences in the sessions I attended, realized that this is the perfect time to make yourself even more valuable by adding new skills and re-evaluating and realigning your role. Be it Information Architect, Community Manager, User Experience Designer, Multi-Media Producer, or something else, there is great opportunity out there for skilled and open minded technical communicators.

Each time I visited the expo floor it seemed busy, and all the vendors I spoke to were very happy with both the constant traffic flow and the questions they were being asked.

When I set out for the conference I had delusions that I would get an hour or so each evening to sit in my hotel room and write - it didn't happen. Literally from breakfast at 7:00am to crashing at 11:00pm each night, it was pretty much constant conversation and learning. All the presentations I attended were excellent and the two panels I participated in were great fun. I know the panel format was a bit of an experiment this year, but I hope that it returns for future conferences.

The conference was held at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas, and was just a couple of blocks from the infamous Dealy Plaza, site of the Kennedy assassination. (in fact I could see the plaza from my hotel room - see photo above.) Hence my title about being a short walk from history. But I also believe that the profession itself is now also a short walk away from its own history. It faced a crisis over the last 12 months that it has endured and come through, and we are now on the first steps of a new direction. What direction that new history takes, will be up to us as a profession, and us as individuals, as to how we adapt and embrace the new challenges awaiting us.

Round Tripping - Myth or Promise?

As I mentioned in a previous post, later in October I will be taking part in the WikiFest panel as part of this year's Wiki Symposium in Orlando.

As a small taster for those who can't join us (but if you are free that week, I encourage you to make the trip to Florida), here's the brief presentation description I submitted:

Round Tripping – The Holy Grail of Documentation Wikis – Myth or Promise?

More and more companies are using the wiki platform to publish their product and design documentation online. One of the main attractions of taking this approach is the hope that the documentation users will both comment on, and contribute to, the documentation set. In other words that the companies will move from developing documentation based on theory to documentation based on the collective experience of the community. But how do you manage that user generated content? Many are looking towards a solution that will automate the integration of feedback into their source content. This presentation will look at if that goal is feasible, manageable, or even desirable.

Panel Picking Time for SXSWi

Time is running out to vote for the panels and topics you would like to see discussed at next years SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin, TX.

SXSW Interactive features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer.

I have a couple of panels up for consideration and if you haven't yet voted, I would appreciate a "thumbs up."

Wikis are Wonderful - or Are They? - Corporate wikis are not wikipedia, but are they of any use? The adoption of wiki technology in companies and organizations of all sizes is growing fast; but is it hype, or are there real benefits? The panel will discuss the use of wikis, when they work, and when they don’t.

Spandex and Software: Can Comics Get You To Read The Manuals? - Google Chrome wasn’t the first product to be accompanied by documentation in the form of a comic book. Sequential art based messaging is everywhere, and has a long history. In today’s more visually literate society is the humble comic book placed to be the next big thing in user docs?

And while you are visiting the panel picker, here's a few more panels that I'd recommend checking out and voting for.

Sarah O' Keefe on "Will User-Generated Content Wipe Out Technical Writers?"

Rahel Anne Bailie on Greening Your Content: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle."

Brenda Huettner on "All About Audience: Improving User Experience."

Charlene Kingston on "Designing Projects That Change User Behavior," and "Reach Your Diverse Community With A Persona Strategy."

Warbling About Wikis

"You know you should really do that using a wiki," seems to becoming a regular part of my daily conversations. In recent weeks I know I've used it at:

- a social event related to my wife's work when someone was describing a public outreach program they had recently put on;
- a friend's book-signing where I fell into conversation about the usefulness of social networks and community collaboration;
- a science fiction convention during a conversation with a fellow writer about a research project he is part way through.
- a conversation with the CEO of a niche publishing company about using a wiki to connect his existing community of loyal readers.

It's perhaps only natural as I start to write the first few chapters of my upcoming book on the subject, "WIKI: Grow Your Own For Fun and Profit," that the concepts, technology, and practical application of wikis should be fresh in my mind; but what I am starting to notice is just how far reaching the application of wikis could, and should, be.

Wikis are far more than online encyclopedias, or a new way to deliver documentation.
Wikis can also be:
- Project management tools
- Forums for community conversation
- Knowledge capture tools
and much, much more.

In fact when you think about the ways a wiki can be used they can even replace the two most used corporate software applications - email and word-processors.



In October I'll be taking some of this wiki conversation and discussion on the road when I present a session at the WikiFest portion of WikiSym, the 5th International Symposium on Wikis.

I also have a panel on Wikis up for possible inclusion in next year's SXSW Interactive festival. If you would like to be part of that discussion, please head over to the SXSWi "Panel Picker" and give the proposal a "thumbs up" vote.

STC Proposals #3 - What Tech Doc Can Learn From The Comics

Proposal for a paper to be presented at the 2009 STC Summit in Atlanta, GA

#3 - What Tech Doc Can Learn From The Comics

The recent Google Chrome comic caused a lot of buzz. But it's far from being the first "technical" comic. Find out how comics can help you produce better tech docs.

There is a long tradition of connections between the worlds of comic books and technical documentation, but it is one that is often overlooked. (For example the US army has used technical comics for over 50 years)

This presentation will present examples of technical documentation done using comic book techniques from over the years to the present day.

It will also show how by studying the story telling and artistic techniques used in comics we can improve the readability and quality of technical documentation.

STC Proposals #2 - How To Make Executives Love The Publications Department

Proposal for a paper at the 2009 STC Summit in Atlanta, GA.

#2 - How To Make Executives Love The Publications Department

"The publications department gets no respect" is an often heard refrain. But it need not be that way.

It is possible to make Publications one of the most respected groups in your company?

Building on my own experience of doing just that, this presentation will show five key steps to take in order to change the way people think about publications.

The lessons presented can be applied equally to a single writer, as well as to larger publications groups.

STC Proposals #1 - Move Over DITA, Chaos is Coming

Last week I submitted proposals for three papers for the 2009 STC Summit in Atlanta GA, and thought it might be fun to post the summaries here. Let me know if you'd be interested in hearing any of these and if so, what sort of questions you'd like answered or topics you would like me to cover.

#1 - Move Over DITA, Chaos is Coming

The Technical Publishing industry is on the edge of a paradigm shift and may not realize it.

As the digital generation enters the workforce they will bring new expectations with them that will challenge the way we write and deliver content.

This presentation will contrast the way we currently produce documentation and our expectations of user behavior with what we can expect our users to be asking for in the not too distant future.

In the world of social networks, online video, wikis, blogs and twitter is structured topic based authoring really the answer?

NM bound

This weekend I'll be on the road heading to Santa Fe, NM to attend the upcoming CIDM Best Practices conference.

I'm looking forward to the conference, meeting up with some old friends, and hopefully learning a few new ideas and concepts about the art of Corporate Publishing.