Podcast: XSL, Flash, and Live Blogging — Interview with Sarah O’Keefe

May 17th, 2008 | Posted in Podcasts 9 Comments »

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Duration: 15 min.

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In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe talks about XSL, Flash, and live blogging. XSL (extensible stylesheet language) is a programming language that transforms XML content into a specific format, such as HTML. She explains what you can do with XSL, why it’s unique, and how the output is created.

Sarah also presented on Flash. Flash comes easier for people who are visual thinkers, she says. She recommends people learn Adobe Illustrator first, because many of the concepts transfer to Flash. Flash is basically Illustrator with a timeline — a collection of images that combine to form a motion. Flash can be good for animating conceptual topics you’re trying to clarify.

Sarah recently used Flash in a white paper she wrote titled “Friend of Foe: Web 2.0 in Technical Communication.” She embedded Flash videos in the PDF to illustrate concepts and engage readers (although some readers didn’t realize they were supposed to click the Play button).

Finally, Sarah talks about live blogging — the process of posting notes and writeups in almost real time from sessions you attend. Why live blog? She says it’s fun, keeps your attention, and helps you focus on the main point of the presentation.

She also relates some unexpected experiences of presenters who read her live blogs and confronted her about some of her observations.

Sara’s blog is at Palimpsest: http://scriptorium.com/palimpsest/. Her company is called Scriptorium.

Here are a few of Sarah’s latest posts from Doc Train:

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Tags: Blogging, DITA, Flash, Live Blogging, Sarah O'Keefe, Technical Writing, XML, XSL

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Support Tech says:

May 18, 2008 at 5:51 am

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Tech Agreement says:

May 18, 2008 at 5:48 am

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May 18, 2008 at 5:54 am

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Palimpsest: DocTrain: Tom Johnson podcast says:

May 19, 2008 at 3:28 pm

[...] asked me about the implications of Flash and XSL for technical writers. You can find that podcast here. It was an interesting session — Tom has a knack for asking questions that require (at least in my [...]

Tech Writer Voices: Podcasts on Technical Writing | A Technical Communication Community says:

May 20, 2008 at 7:56 pm

[...] Podcast: XSL, Flash, and Live Blogging — Interview with Sarah O’Keefe Sat, 2008-05-17 22:19 Download MP3 Duration: 15 min. [...]

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May 24, 2008 at 4:20 am

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hosting says:

August 12, 2008 at 11:33 am

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Tom Lindstrom says:

November 6, 2008 at 8:46 am

Interesting podcast.There are a number of benefits to having your own blog and running it as a career.Many people are blogging for a living because of how easy it is and how beneficial it can be for you and any business or web sites you may have.

Tom Lindstroms last blog post..7 Ways To Get People To Link To Your Web Site

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