The convergence of information science and tech comm
Until I started working at Scriptorium, my educational and work background was in information and library science.
Structured content
New to tech comm? Expect the unexpected
When I started at Scriptorium a year ago, I knew almost nothing about tech comm. I knew what technical content was, having used it many times, but I’d never really thought about how it was produced.
Webcast: Transition to XML
Simon Bate provides a planning framework for implementing an XML-based structured authoring environment.
Hug it out with your IT department: collaboration beyond content
The stereotypical technical writer working in isolation is an endangered species—if not already extinct.
“Trust me” isn’t a business plan
Knowing you can rely on someone is vital to professional relationships. But when it comes to proposing process change, the words “trust me” are never, ever enough.
Webcast: Content strategy in technical communication
In this webcast recording, Sarah O’Keefe explores how to develop a content strategy specifically for technical content. That means stepping back from the temptation to focus on tools and instead taking a hard look at what the users need and how best to deliver it.
Drink me: starting small like Alice
“What a curious feeling!” said Alice; “I must be shutting up like a telescope.”
And so it was indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up at the thought that she was now the right size for going though the little door into that lovely garden.
Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
2012 resolution: Explore the frontiers of tech comm with Scriptorium
Our 2012 event schedule is starting to come together. Our guest speaker lineup includes Char James-Tanny, Peter Lubbers, and Sarah Maddox, with more to be announced.
This year, we are changing our conference schedule somewhat. I am looking forward to participating in Intelligent Content for the first time, and Simon is going around the world for tcworld India.
Webcast: The economics of information
In this webcast recording, Sarah O’Keefe discusses how the cost of developing content affects what is actually created. She leads with a discussion of Gutenberg and how we went from gorgeous, unaffordable, artistic books that took years to produce to more plebeian but affordable books. Then she considers today’s situation, with particular attention to the possibilities of video, information apps, and a look at what has NOT changed.
Webcast: Content strategy for software development (with Ray Gallon)
Content strategy is usually thought of in the context of web development. But today’s software is increasingly information-rich. Software is a content vector, and we need to manage the life cycle of that content. This webcast from guest speaker Ray Gallon adapts content life cycle management principles, taken from web-oriented content strategy, to software development cycles. Some examples from real experiences illustrate this adaptation.
Spinning tech comm improvements into marcomm strategies
This morning, I was among the many who received an email from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. He was responding to criticisms that Netflix “lacked respect and humility in the way [the company] announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes.”
The economics of information
Originally published in tcworld e-magazine, July 2011
In Europe before the 1450s, books were precious, rare objects and were usually copied by hand over a period of months or years. Johannes Gutenberg and his printing press changed the economics of information distribution.
Webcast: The State of Structure, 2011
In this webcast, Sarah O’Keefe discusses the results of Scriptorium’s 2011 survey on structured authoring. Topics include adoption rates, tools, implementation costs, lessons learned, and much more.
Calculating the ROI of DITA
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) provides an XML architecture for technical communication. Although implementing DITA is likely to be faster and easier than building your own XML architecture from the ground up, DITA is not suitable for everyone.
Webcast: Crafting Clarity in a Climate of Chaos
Scriptorium hosts Tristan Bishop of Symantec as he discusses what technical writers need to do to keep up with transforming communication methods and rapid advances in global, mobile, and social dialog.
Pitting tech comm and tech support against each other
Technical communication and technical support should be allies. After all, tech support needs the information that tech comm produces. Tech comm often has only limited customer contact; tech support has oodles of daily customer contact.
And yet, there is a common organizational pattern where tech comm and tech support are in conflict.
Social media: marketing in every message
Social media has transformed the work of technical communicators, but we’re far from alone in feeling its impact:
Webcast: Calculating the ROI for XML and DITA topic-based authoring
In this webcast, Sarah O’Keefe discusses how to calculate the return on investment of an XML/DITA implementation for technical content.
If you are considering XML and DITA, but are trying to figure out whether you can justify the cost and effort, this session is for you.
Failure to communicate: fatal to projects (and political parties)
Over the weekend, I was catching up with a friend I hadn’t seen since the mid-term elections here in the US. While hashing out what the election results meant, my friend said that he felt that history would be kinder to the accomplishments of Congress than the electorate was.
Rhetorical theory vs. tech comm reality
Let me qualify (heavily): this is, seriously, a rant.
I started at Scriptorium in June (2010), and since then I’ve learned more than I did in my entire time in the tech comm MS program I was enrolled in. And what’s more, the knowledge I’ve gained here has been useful.
Webcast: Content strategy analysis for technical communication
In this webcast, Sarah O’Keefe of Scriptorium offers an overview of content strategy analysis with an eye toward the implications and business case for your organization.
Webcast: XSL techniques for XML-to-XML transformations
In this webcast, Simon Bate leads viewers through the key steps in using XSL (extensible stylesheet language) to perform XML-to-XML conversions, a process that differs from more traditional XML-to-PDF and XML-to-HTML conversions.
Anyone can write
This article was originally published in STC Intercom in September/October of 2010.
“Anyone can write.” How many times have you heard that tired cliché? And how did it ascend to a cliché? It’s pretty clear to me that most people are terrible writers. When someone says, “Anyone can write,” they actually mean, “Our writing standards are so low that anyone can meet them.”
Distilling 20 years of tech comm into eight words of advice
Last month marked my 20th year working in technical communication. (Please send all congratulatory pastries and chocolates to Scriptorium’s offices. Thank you!)
