New WIKI book now available

My latest book "WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun & Profit" was officially launched at the 2010 XML Conference in Philadelphia on October 13th.

It is now available to order on-line either through the publisher's website, or via Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.com.- eBook Kindle version is also available for just $9.99

WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit introduces the concept of wikis, and show why they are becoming the must-have communications and collaboration technology for businesses of any size.

The book will also include several case studies highlighting the ways that various companies are using wikis to solve differing business and communications issues, and the resulting benefits in terms of both efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Looking for a way to increase team collaboration, manage your company’s knowledge? Do you need a way to manage projects with customers or suppliers outside your company firewall? Would you like your customers to provide feedback on the information you publish? Then a wiki might be just what you are looking for.

Perhaps you have already decided that you should use a wiki, but are not sure how to go about it. Maybe you have a wiki but would like to encourage more people to use it. Or you would just like to learn more about the practical applications for this fast growing technology.

Then this is the book for you.

The Global Language - A Preview

Perhaps the greatest advantage offered by the Internet and the World Wide Web today is the fact that it is truly “world wide,” and opens up an unprecedented international marketplace for the delivery of goods and services. Small companies can now sell into marketplaces never dreamed of before, while large multinational companies can streamline their internal communications; and cross-border and cross-cultural cooperation has become a reality.

However the global marketplace also raises a fundamental issue – that of global communications.

Global communication raises the idea of a common language that will easily be understood by all who use the information being delivered. It is still a common misconception that the dominant language on the web is English and is the de-facto language of business. This stems from the fact that the early days of internet growth was primarily from within the United States, but was quickly overtaken by other cultures, especially in Asia and the Pacific Rim.

While English is still the most popular language on the web[1] (only just – Chinese is close behind) it represents only 42% of all websites. On a global scale English is also in decline as a spoken language. The spoken language with the largest numbers of users is Chinese. As a written language it relies not on abstract symbols (letters), but on ideograms – pictorial representations of ideas. Perhaps this is where the answer to a global language lies. In pictures.

Scott McCloud, a leading theoretician on using graphics to communicate points out[2] that “pictures are received information (they) need no formal education to ‘get the message.’ – The message is instantaneous. Writing is perceived, it takes time and specialized knowledge to decode the abstract symbols of language.”

In the 21^st Century it may be that visual iconography will finally help us realize a form of universal communication.

..... The above is the opening to an article on using graphics, symbols and icons in technical communications that I have just completed for the STC's INTERCOM magazine. - Look out for the full article in the December issue.

---

[1] http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm

[2] McCloud, Scott – “Understanding Comics” – Kitchen Sink (1993)

New Book now available for Pre-Order

My latest book "WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun & Profit" is written, edited, proofed, designed and off at the printers.

It will officially be launched at the 2010 XML Conference in Philadelphia on October 13th. But you can NOW PRE-ORDER your copy at a discount from Barnes & Noble.com.

WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit introduces the concept of wikis, and shows why they are becoming the must-have communications and collaboration technology for businesses of any size.

The book will also include several case studies highlighting the ways that various companies are using wikis to solve differing business and communications issues, and the resulting benefits in terms of both efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Looking for a way to increase team collaboration, manage your company’s knowledge? Do you need a way to manage projects with customers or suppliers outside your company firewall? Would you like your customers to provide feedback on the information you publish? Then a wiki might be just what you are looking for.

Perhaps you have already decided that you should use a wiki, but are not sure how to go about it. Maybe you have a wiki but would like to encourage more people to use it. Or you would just like to learn more about the practical applications for this fast growing technology.

Then this is the book for you.

An early reader review has already described the book as "Indispensable for people who want to get a wiki going."

There is also a dedicated FaceBook page for the book where you can sign on to get all the latest news and happenings, as well as discuss the ideas and techniques covered.

There's More to eBooks Than Words

“It’s all about the content.”

This simple, yet insightful, comment by leading publishing consultant, Ann Rockley, during a recent webinar on “Exactly What Not to do When Making the Move from Print Publishing to New Media,” (made me think about the many discussions I’ve had, and the many articles I’ve read, about the so-called digital publishing revolution.

I came to the realization that most of us are missing one vital component of this new opportunity. It seems that no matter how much we talk about the changes in process from print to eBooks, we still aren’t giving enough consideration to ways to add value to the content itself. Even when we create and repurpose content, using either traditional serial, or modern modular approaches, we are still, for the most part, delivering content that is not really taking advantage of the fact that the delivery platform (be it Kindle, iPad, or who knows what in the future) is digital.

For all the talk, we are still mainly focused on delivering text.

- Read the rest in my latest article for THE CONTENT WRANGLER web site - "There's More to eBooks Than Words."

Are you an "Awesome Dude"?

I just spotted this message posted by one of my nieces to her FaceBook account the other day:

[name] finally has picture messaging on her Nokia N900 thanks to an awesome dude and his step by step youtube video!!

A seemingly simple message, but one that made me stop and think. I've written, and spoken a lot over the last year of so about the way that the digital generation access and assimilate information (a subject I'll be revisiting at this year's LavaCon), and also held forth on my view that as Technical Communicators we should be embracing and working with new media.

Here is a perfect example of that convergence. Rather than use the manufacturers, instructions, or look for an answer on their web-site, or on-line help, my niece turned to the internet and the wider online community.

Her answer came not from Nokia, but from some "awesome dude" on YouTube.

What are you doing to make sure that you as a technical communicator can be the next "awesome dude"?

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.

Technical Communication As Story Telling

Over on his "I'd Rather Be Writing" blog, Tom Johnson, has taken my idea of Tech Comm as storytelling, and expanded on it an excellent post, that I highly recommend.

In particular I like these two ideas on the practicalities of applying story telling techniques to technical documentation:

THE ELEMENT OF CHANGE

In a good story, the resolution always brings about some type of change, or comes about because of change. If you listen to stories on The Moth podcast (a storytelling podcast), you’ll constantly hear this element of change near the end of each story. For a story to feel meaningful, the protagonist always changes as a result of the conflict. Without this element of change, the story feels flat.

In technical documentation, achieving that element of change is difficult. In almost all technical documentation, the reader is the protagonist, since our point of view is second person (“you”). You (the reader) have a problem. ..... Through the help topic’s steps and information, you find a solution that solves your problem. Hooray, you’re much happier and complete now. That’s the basic transformation.

And..

FOCUSING ON THE PROBLEM

A problem of some kind usually drives and gives rise to the story. But isn’t every help topic by default the answer to some problem? And aren’t users coming to the help content with a problem already in mind? Do we need to explicitly supply the problem, since it’s already apparent in the user’s mind?

Yes, your protagonist already has a problem. That problem is what is fueling his or her path through the help. But it can still be helpful to state the problem explicitly so that users can connect their problem to the solution you describe.

In many ways the examples and ideas that Tom cites, also feedback to my earlier post on Applying the 10 Commandments of Storytelling to Technical Documentation.

It's great to see these ideas being picked up and expanded upon.

Print or Digital ? - Using Augmented Reality to bridge the gap.

One of the the strangest aspects of all the recent discussions in the mainstream publishing world about the emergence of eBooks seems to be the notion that digital and print are mutually exclusive delivery options.

Nothing can be further than the truth; as we well know in the technical and corporate publishing world, electronic delivery of information is just one delivery option.

But how about combining the two? Print publications augmented by digital content?

Check out this video of a young reader's reaction to a copy of the BBC's science magazine, FOCUS, with augmented reality content.

Think about how effective that would be when used to deliver technical or training materials?

Perhaps Augmented Reality maybe just the thing to bridge that perceived gap between print and digital? Food for thought.

Where's The Manual?

Over the last couple of days my life in corporate and technical communications seems to have crossed over into my life as both a pop-culture writer, and motor racing fan.

While watching the advance press-screening of TOY STORY 3, I was delighted to discover that a central plot point revolved around the toys using the manual to discover how to effectively reboot Buzz Lightyear via his 'reset' button - of course, as they say, "hilarity ensues."

Then this morning I was pointed in the direction of this amusing video of McLaren Formula One team drivers, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton, both World Champions, trying to build one of their race cars without the aid of their team. The plaintive cry of "Where's the manual?" made me smile.

But as much fun as it is to hear "manuals" used and talked about like this, it made me think about a more serious take.

I still keep hearing people in the technical communications industry say they aren't valued, that what they do has no place in a hi-tech digital world. Well it doesn't come much more hi-tech than Formula One, or digital than Pixar, but still the idea of, and need for, a "manual" is paramount.

In both cases, the toys, and the drivers, wanted to know how to do something.

And that's where the future of technical communications lies. It doesn't matter what form the "manual" may be, now or in the future; we have the skills to provide the best answers to the question "How?"

Now, that's real value...

Just ask Buzz or the McLaren F1 team.

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.