In the last couple of months there has been some great discussion inspired by Michael Hiatt’s blog post about the “myth of single-source authoring”. I love Michael’s summation of the nearly 20-year history of single sourcing: Single-source publishing is a zombie idea that revives itself periodically and refuses to stay dead. Its zombie supporters chant(…)
Last month I wrote an article for Gizmag.com about the Santa Barbara Instrument Group’s AllSky horizon-to-horizon camera. The AllSky’s main gig is extended, unattended sky watching. Point it up, switch it on, and you’re good to go. The AllSky is meant for tracking clouds, meteors, UFOs, and whatnot. It features a high-gain CCD sensor in(…)
With props and apologies to Sonia Simone over at Copyblogger, from whom I totally stole the idea and foundation for this article, here is my list of the top seven harsh realities of technical communications. Sonia’s article, The 7 Harsh Realities of Social Media Marketing, looks at the “not-so-kumbaya” aspects of marketing using social media.(…)
“Making the case for web content strategies – Common questions from the content creator” is the title of a great diagram created by Richard Ingram. (Click for a larger view.) As Richard says: Hiring an external contractor to help create useful, usable, and enjoyable web content without a comprehensive content strategy raises too many questions(…)
Sure all the cool kids are doing it but is collaborative, social, conversational product documentation really the best way to meet your customers’ needs? Despite the buzz, Web 2.0-based documentation can act as a roadblock to getting your content to your readers. Ellis Pratt at Cherryleaf has a good summary of some of the problems(…)
I just viewed a great presentation by Melissa Rach called “10 things every business person should know about content strategy”. Whether you’re in the content creation biz or not, this is an excellent introduction to how you should be thinking about your content (if you’re not already). 10 things every business person should know about(…)
