Wow this looks cool - but hang on a minute...

The first time I saw this video from the folks at TIME Inc. on the possible future of their glossy magazines (in this case Sports Illustrated), I thought - Wow, they get it. Someone has at last seen the real potential of using digital content.



But the more I watched it, two things suddenly occurred to me.

1. While the flashy interface may look cool, it is still very much a paper based paradigm with a page-based sensibility. - Now I accept that jumping straight from physical paper limitations to the theoretical infinite canvas of a digital world may not be acceptable for the consumer market, and this sort of screen bounded design maybe the best solution to manage that transition.
2. The text is still being considered as a design feature and a lump of fixed content. There doesn't appear to be any mark-up used to make the text intelligent. Where are the hyper-links in the articles? Consider an SI article that on the mention of an athlete's or team's name lets you pull up a library of photos and past articles from the SI archive. Or links to apps that let you build your own performance statistics. How about a link to a virtual tour of a stadium? Or an audio clip of a classic piece of commentary.? Why not the ability to search the text, and order your results the way you want them?

While the surface results of this mock-up look amazing, underneath it is still bound in many ways by thinking of the publication as the product and not the delivery of intelligent content as a portal to adding value.

Times They Are A Changin' But Most Publishers Aren't

A few days ago I saw a job posting from the publishers of my first book, who were looking for an editor for one of their imprints. What caught my eye was that the posting emphasized that the new editor should have experience and skills in using the same software that had been used to produce my book. A book that was published in 1997 – thirteen years ago!
Technology has changed a lot in thirteen years and so has the way that content can be created, handled and made ready for publication. But this publisher is far from being alone in sticking with old processes. My experiences working on other book projects in the last few years have just reinforced my belief that the vast majority of the traditional publishing market still works around a production system designed to do one thing – move paper.

A process that, despite changes in tools, has changed little since the dawn of the printing press.

You can read the rest of my article on using XML in Publishing at THE CONTENT WRANGLER

Writing Technical Comics

My article on "Writing Technical Comics" was selected as the lead feature article for this month's issue of the STC magazine, INTERCOM.



It is now available as a free download by clicking HERE.

Tech Comm Ts

You've seen all those t-shirts with fun slogans for programmers, scientists, chemists and virtually every other profession. So why not have a range of fun t-shirts for Technical Communicators?

We've decided to solve that shortage in the market by setting up an online store called Tech Comm Tech T-Shirts.

To start with each design will only be available for a month.

Kicking things off, and available till the end of February is the "I CAN SPELL XML" shirt.




You can get yours at the online store.

Look for more designs over the coming months.

10 Questions You Must Ask Before Implementing a Wiki #10

Ask yourself and your team the following questions before you start to implement a wiki, and be truthful with the answers.

Think about the issue you are trying to solve, and then see how a wiki might be applied, but remember don’t just focus on the positive, think about the potential down sides too.

10. What sort of controls will I need, if any?
It can be argued that the first rule of wikis is that there isn’t any rules. It is true that wikis function best when they are driven by the community that uses them, but you need to think about a few basics of control before you start. Do you need logins, if so who will authorize those. Will you have some sort of initial structure? What about giving users a ‘sandbox’ area to learn the wiki in? Who can see, read and edit what pages? Who will monitor recent changes and do any necessary roll backs? What’s the philosophy for rolling back content, incorporating comments? You will find that these answers change and evolve along with the wiki, but it is good practice to at least set a baseline.

10 Questions You Must Ask Before Implementing a Wiki #9

Ask yourself and your team the following questions before you start to implement a wiki, and be truthful with the answers.

Think about the issue you are trying to solve, and then see how a wiki might be applied, but remember don’t just focus on the positive, think about the potential down sides too.

9. Which type of wiki should I use?
There are many different types of wiki in the marketplace, don’t just decide to use one type because it’s the only one you’ve heard of, go and do some research. Talk to people who have used wikis for similar implementations that you have in mind, find out what they used, and why. Find out what they rejected and why. Develop a short list of at least three wikis to prototype and test.

10 Questions You Must Ask Before Implementing a Wiki #8

Ask yourself and your team the following questions before you start to implement a wiki, and be truthful with the answers.

Think about the issue you are trying to solve, and then see how a wiki might be applied, but remember don’t just focus on the positive, think about the potential down sides too.

8. Where will the wiki be hosted?

The location and hosting of a wiki can be a contentious issue and it is one that needs addressing early. In large organizations the IT group may want to host it (or they may actively be against the idea), in certain circumstances it may be better hosted at a departmental or project team level (and trends seem to indicate that these sort of bottom-up wiki implementations are usually the most successful ones), or even by a third party wiki hosting company outside the firewall.

10 Questions You Must Ask Before Implementing a Wiki #7

Ask yourself and your team the following questions before you start to implement a wiki, and be truthful with the answers.

Think about the issue you are trying to solve, and then see how a wiki might be applied, but remember don’t just focus on the positive, think about the potential down sides too.

7. Who will own the wiki?

Every wiki needs a wiki maven to maintain it, but it also needs someone with a sense of ownership. Be aware of inherent ‘not my idea’ resistance in championing a wiki implementation, and be prepared that even though it may have been your idea, you may have to give up ownership in order to ensure implementation

How a Great Story Can Help Your Brand

Yesterday evening I spent a couple of hours interacting with other local business people and entrepreneurs at this month's Network In Austin event. As usual it was an excellent opportunity to meet and learn about a whole new bunch of local businesses.

In the space of two hours I must have heard about at least a dozen new businesses, what they did, and what they were called. That's a lot of information to take in in a short time.

As I drove home I did a quick mental review to see if I could recall the salient points from each conversation. I managed to recall something about everyone, but what struck me was that the first two businesses that came to mind were the two that had stories attached, and one in particular that had a story attached to the brand name.

The lady who ran the company had told a fun short story of how the company name came from an expression her father used to use a lot.

Brand names with a story behind them stick.

Several years ago I used to write a regular marketing newsletter that included the stories and histories behind some of the most well known brand names. That section was always the most popular part of the newsletter. It gave me the idea of maybe writing a book on the subject - but then I found out that someone had already done it...


And Evan Morris' fun book "From Altoids to Zima" is now one of the most thumbed books on my marketing bookshelf.

There is a story behind most company and brand names. I've worked for companies named after bags of chips, science fiction villains, a historical event, and even one that got it's name from a typo.

Discover your story - work it in to your pitch, put it on the website, and people will remember it, and they will remember you.

10 Questions You Must Ask Before Implementing a Wiki #6

Ask yourself and your team the following questions before you start to implement a wiki, and be truthful with the answers.

Think about the issue you are trying to solve, and then see how a wiki might be applied, but remember don’t just focus on the positive, think about the potential down sides too.

6. Who will use the wiki in the future?
Of course one of the great things about wikis, and the central theme of this book, is that they foster growth and further collaboration. There are numerous examples of cross pollination of wikis inside organizations as one team sees the benefits that another gain from using a wiki. Before you start even the first wiki, spend some time thinking about areas of potential growth and possible future cross functional collaboration. Make sure you make plans for scalable growth and allow easy access for anyone who may need to contribute, or observe, not just on the initial projects, but on potential future ones as well.