Innovation
in Technical Communication

tcworld India 2015

Created by Tom Johnson / @tomjohnson

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View online at http://tomjohnson1492.github.io/innovation
Note: Some slides move down instead of to the side, so use the space bar to advance slides.

Startup cultures encourage innovation

"As to what your journey says, I think it says that all the current models of tech comm development are deeply unsatisfactory in one way or another."

— Mark Baker, Every Page Is Page One

"Think Big Thursdays"

Story of telegraph and telephone

Bell and an early model of the telephone

A framework for innovation

Survey of innovations

Innovations with technology

HTML5 • REST APIs • CSS media queries • oAuth • AJAX • instant search • SVG • augmented reality • Internet of Things • big data • social networks • YouTube • Bootstrap • static site generators • jQuery • YouTube • StackOverflow • Github • continuous integration • LESS & Sass • wikis

Innovations with ideas

decentralization • agile • crowdsourcing • gamification • Cluetrain Manifesto (user-to-user communication) • "Everything Is Miscellaneous" • The Long Tail • semantic web • information architecture • content marketing • transparency • simplicity of design • open source • social coding

Innovations in tech comm

information typing • minimalism • task-based documentation • topic-oriented documentation • DITA • DocOps • Every Page Is Page One • emotional language • personalization • interactive video • user-generated content • content strategy • single sourcing

Most significant innovation for TC?

Everyone is a technical writer

Unofficial technical writer

Job trends for "technical writer"

How to stay relevant?

Dilemmas with innovation

How long can you operate at a sub-performing level while you do research and development?

How can you switch models when you're mired in legacy content and systems?

How can you build anything if you're not really an engineer?

What happens to your career skillset when you invest in an obscure technology?

Pressure to conform to mainstream

So many limitations

XML and the web: Drifting apart?

JSON is standard

Technologies used by web developers

The turning point

The genius of Github and open source

Collaborate, version, distribute

Revolutionary for software development

"Github, in my humble opinion, is one of the most revolutionary things that has happened to software in 20 years."

— Joe Malin

"Social coding"

What if everyone's help were in an open Github repo?

Treating documentation as code

Writing documentation like a developer

File format: Text files
Authoring: Text editor
Building: Continuous build scripts
Collaborating: Source control
Versioning: Source control
Pushing live: Terminal commands

This slidedeck is just HTML5.

Here's the code for this slide:


          <section>
            <h3>This slidedeck is just HTML5.</h3>
            <p>Here's the code for this slide:</p>
             <p>Github repo: <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/tomjohnson1492/innovation/">
             https://github.com/tomjohnson1492/innovation/</a></p>
            <p><i>So much more satisfying to work in text 
            file formats.</i></p>
         </section>

Github: https://github.com/tomjohnson1492/innovation/

So much more satisfying to work in text-file formats.

Disruptive tech: Static site generators

Lightweight, flexible, no database

Static site generator characteristics

  • Lightweight
  • Fast
  • Usable
  • Flexible
  • Secure
  • Suitable for hackers

Jekyll is most popular

Live preview rebuilds with each save

Documentation theme I built on Jekyll

Clone me here: http://tomjohnson1492.github.io/documentation-theme-jekyll/

5 reasons why static site generators can be a disruptive technology

Reason 1: Snug fit into web technologies

HTML, JS, CSS

Bootstrap

jQuery

Markdown

UX talent will help when platform is web

Reason #2: Scale infinitely

Grow as needed without budget constraints

  • Allow unlimited number of authors.
  • No price per "seat."
  • Avoid free-for-all content junkyard of wikis.
  • Handle any type of content.

Allows everyone to be a tech writer

One person writing from one perspective in one company, especially an outsider to the actual business context of the user, can't possibly cover all the information needs for every user.

Reason #3: Content APIs

Growth in REST APIs

Healthcare.gov site as API

Why not create help content APIs?

Populate UI text dynamically from API

Reason #4: Push content into templates

Custom templates for custom content types

Iterate through items


{
  "entries": 
[
    {% for page in site.tooltips %}
    {
      "id"    : "{{ page.id }}",
      "body": "{{ page.content | strip_newlines | replace: '\', '\\\\' | 
               replace: '"', '\\"' }}"
    } {% unless forloop.last %},{% endunless %}
  {% endfor %}
]
}

Reason #5: Leverage open source model

My larger point:

Maybe not Jekyll, but ...

Look outside the tech comm bubble

3 Strategies for innovation

  1. Look outside the tech comm bubble.
  2. Ride the innovation of the web.
  3. Share with the community around you.

Thanks!

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