Technically incompetent or just bad design?

Last week I suddenly noticed that the Dell laptop I use for certain contracts was no longer picking up my home office wireless network. In fact it was telling me it was connected to an unrecognized public network without internet access. No matter what I tried I couldn't get it to disconnect from that network and pick up the wireless.


On Tuesday afternoon I plugged the laptop directly into my ethernet cable and spent several hours disabling, and enabling network adapters, rebooting modems, and frantically googling various scenarios. Most of which told me the culprit was a well known Windows 7 bug related to a rogue ID file that showed up in the Windows Services menu. Except I couldn't find that file anywhere on my machine. In the end I just reset everything and resigned myself to spending an afternoon on a help desk call.


But first I needed to be on-site at a client's facility. Thinking the problem might be my home network, I took the laptop along hoping to connect to the client's wireless - no such luck. I mentioned the problem to several people, and no one had any suggestions.


Then about 5 minutes before I decided to call the Help Desk someone who has the same model laptop asked me if the wireless switch was off.

What wireless switch?




Ah that one!!

A switch that in the five month's I've had the laptop have never even noticed.


From a communications perspective a couple of things sprung to mind from this incident.

• How about putting up a warning dialog on screen at boot up when this switch is switched to the off position (maybe with a location diagram) instead of leaving it to Windows to think it has connected to an untrusted network? Would have saved sveral hours of frustration. BTW when the switch is OFF it displays a red background - but let's face it, who looks at the side of their laptop on a regular basis?



• How about making switches a different color, better labeled and slightly more obvious? Most people reading this probably know I'm a big advocate of using symbols to communicate. But make them big enough and clear enough. For a guy of a certain age who wears bifocals, how am I suppose to know what that is?

Oh and who puts a switch that can disable a major feature in a position where it can slide on and off through the process of picking up the lap top and sliding it into a case? Not exactly a well thought out design there.

The Force is strong in this Content.

I, like many of my friends, linked to, and shared, the video below today on our various Social Network accounts. I guess we did it for a few reasons:

1. It's funny.
2. The kid is cute.
3. It leverages a shared pop-culture reference that we all (well at least my friends) can immediately relate to.

But later in the day I started to think about this video in terms of content strategy and marketing.

Just before I wrote this post I checked some numbers on YouTube.

This video was posted on February, 2nd - just one day ago. It has already posted some impressive numbers:

• 2.3 Million views
• 605,000 posts on Facebook
• 29,600 links from Twitter
• 23,705 "likes"
• over 3,500 user comments.

Why?

Partly for the reasons I mentioned above. In short it's great content that people enjoy and want to share. And that's the key to a marketing message like this going viral - you need good content that the community is happy to recommend and share.

But also it plays across markets, and across language barriers. Of the 1 minute 2 seconds running time only, 8 seconds uses text that would need translating. There is no voice over to be translated or actors to be dubbed. It's all done through the power of images and music.

Using different media types in this way can be (if you will excuse the pun) an effective force for making your content connect with your audience.

Webinar: Collaborate Your Way to More Effective Customer Support

Join Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler, and myself, THIS FRIDAY (February 4th) for a lively discussion about the changing face of customer support on the web. You’ll learn how innovative organizations are leveraging the power of collaborative authoring, user-generated content, social currency, feedback and ratings to improve customer service and support.

You’ll discover the importance of collaborating with your customers to produce experiences that meet — even exceed — customer expectations. And, you’ll find out how collaborative support communities can help organizations create loyal customers, improve productivity, increase sales, and reduce expenses.

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The Return of the LP & what it may mean for Content Delivery.

I think it was generally agreed among my family that the coolest present I received this Christmas was the one my eldest daughter bought me. She ignored everything of my Amazon wish list, and instead proved that she did in fact listen to her father when he went off on one of his nostalgia trips about the music of his youth. She bought me a turntable. Yep one that actually could play the few remaining vinyl albums we had in the house (most of which now spend their days in frames on the living room wall.)

Once we had it set up and were spinning a few of the old records, I had a fairly lengthy discussion with her and her boy-friend about how a record and turntable worked, and just what was so special about the good old LP as opposed to a modern CD, or digital download. (Still seems a little funny to me that two 21 year-olds had never seen a record being played before.)



That conversation stayed with me over the holiday. Why had the LP had such a cultural impact? Records and record players had been around for decades before the sudden explosive growth of music ownership that started in the mid to late 1950s and early- 1960s. Sure the birth of rock-n-roll had a large part to play, but I thought there must be more to it than that. Then earlier this week I read the following passage by Jonathan Gould in "Can't Buy Me Love" his excellent social history of The Beatles.

"Ultimately the attribute that sealed the success of the LP in the popular market had little to do with its expanded capacity or its improved sound quality. Designated as 'packaged product' by the recording industry LPs were the first records to be sold in foot-square cardboard jackets faced with glossy cover art, which served as an alluring advertisement for the music within. This allowed them to be prominently displayed in racks or bins in virtually any kind of store; it also allowed them to be advertised as recognizable products in newspapers and magazines. (Singles in contrast, were still packaged in plain paper sleeves and sold mainly in specialist record stores.) The LP cover became a companion piece to the listening experience by providing photographs, biographical information and promotional copy."

As I've been working on my upcoming book, The Content Pool, I started to equate this great piece of social and economic history to the ideas of Content Delivery.

Think about the LP - it was still delivering the same sort of content as earlier record formats (78s and 45 singles), yes it was using new technology to deliver more in the same media, but it didn't find traction with its user base until the packaging and delivery channel was changed.

What made it work?

• When the content was placed in the same location that the users frequented anyway - they no longer had to go searching for it.


• It was clearly labelled and could be browsed - instead of having to read the fine print on a label, or be an expert.


• It was presented along with additional information that gave the content context.


• The new packaging was durable and could be accessed many times without degrading - inviting reuse.


• Social networks and peer recommendation developed around the ease of accessibility and navigation.

As we all struggle with ways to present our content in new formats and on new media, maybe we can learn a few lessons from the past.

Now you will have to excuse me, I have to go turn this copy of "The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl" over.

"Globish"? - It all sounds rather familiar

Thanks to a recent Twitter post from the always entertaining and informative Stephen Fry, I recently came across the word "GLOBISH." - Mr. Fry went on to explain that "Globish" was shorthand for "Global English."

Now that piqued my interest, and after a quick application of my Google-Fu skills I found myself at the Globish website where I found out that it is described as

.... a simple, pragmatic form of English. It involves a vocabulary limited to 1,500 words, short sentences, basic syntax, an absence of idiomatic expressions and extensive hand gestures to get the point across.

And then there was this informative video.



Now this all sounds very familiar. This approach of using a controlled sub-set of English to reach non-native English speaking customers is something we have been working on in the technical communications community for decades. In fact as an idea it dates back to the 1930s.

Yet it seems that this newest incarnation of the concept seems to be getting a lot of mainstream publicity that our efforts have never achieved. Globish has been the subject of stories by, among many others, the BBC and the New York Times. I can never recall any mainstream press being interested in the ideas, concepts and benefits of Simplified Technical English, or even the government sponsored Plain Language initiatives. - I wonder why that is?

Paying the Ferryman - The cost of putting your content in someone's hands.

As part of the research for my next book for XML Press book (Which like this blog is also entitled THE CONTENT POOL.) I was having a conversation with a couple of people at a large manufacturing company about the cost of their documentation; at the start of the conversation I was expecting to hear all about the software they used to author, manage and publish their information, or even about the cost of training and retaining skilled technical communicators. But the conversation very quickly turned to one aspect of technical publishing that most of us (and I include myself in that) often completely overlook. - The cost of actually getting the information into our customers hands.

For this company their largest publishing related cost is simply Postage.



When we talk about modern technical communications and publishing systems, processes, and technology, we tend to think about digital creation and delivery. Along with that comes an assumption that most, if not all, our customers are in some way connected to the internet. There is a lot of talk (and again I'm just as guilty as anyone) of web delivery, mobile delivery and the bright digital future we are all marching towards. Yet that is a very Anglo-American centric view of the world.

Recently someone at Facebook developed a visualization of all the various Facebook connections, and the image that appeared (below) turned out to be a startlingly accurate rendering of a map of the World. Except that large areas of that map were dark. It reinforced the message that even if we are producing information digitally, we can't assume that if we are operating on a global scale everyone who needs access to our information has a wired connection.




So back to my earlier conversation. The company I was talking to uses XML and topic based authoring processes, along with content management tools, to efficiently single-source their documentation into many different deliverables.

But their products are literally used all over the world, including in some of the world's most inhospitable and remote locations. Not everyone is wired, so instead they ship sets of DVDs to customers and business partners.

Depending on the product being used the DVD sets can consist of anything from 3 to 12 separate DVD discs. And they ship 15,000 such sets every month. While the cost of shipping a set of DVDs within the US may be relatively cheap, the cost of shipping on set of DVDs to to a user working in the African jungle maybe as high at several thousand dollars. As well as the actual postage there is the cost of import duties, time to fill out customs forms and get approvals, as well as the actual delivery cost. I was told of one DVD set that involves the monthly rent of a boat and boatman to delivery it along a jungle river!



The total annual postage and delivery cost of DVDs for this company is in the Millions of dollars range, and recent increases in postage rates have meant a dis-proportianate rise in that overhead.

So next time you are considering the cost of your documentation - don't just think about the investment needed to actually create the content - think about what it takes to actually get that information into the hands of all your customers, no matter where they are located.

The evolution of the book.

Excellent video produced by UK publishers, Hatchette, that reinforces the point that while the technology of the "book" has been, and will continue to be, one of constant evolution, the knowledge and wonder it delivers (i.e. the content) is a constant.

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.