I read a few STC articles from Doug Davis on the business side of technical communication today. He had some interesting things to say. The following 15 cities are where 50% of the technical communication jobs are found. So if you're looking for a job, you might have better luck living in one of these locations: San Jose, California ( Silicon Valley) Boston, Massachusetts Seattle, Washington Washington, D.C. Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minneso...
Like taking surveys? Even if you don't, there are two more that you might just want to take: The Innovations survey. This survey is an eye-opener as to what features are out there in help systems, and what features you believe are innovative. (Side note: The Hat-Matrix site, which lists a lot of the features of different help systems, is pretty interesting.) The WritersUSA Salary survey. This survey is particularly important because it h...
I have been thinking about how to monetize Tech Writer Voices. Most podcasters spend a lot of time creating and editing audio for their podcasts. What's the return on investment? You can make money with podcasting, but the ads (such as ads for hosting services or other products), don't seem to generate enough profit to be worthwhile. However, I just stumbled upon an idea that may prove to be a powerful revenue generator: selling job descr...
I just posted a first cohost podcast with Heidi Hansen, a technical writer in Seattle and my new co-host. If you listen to the podcast, let me know what you think of the new cohost format. I think it went well; it was different from a regular interview, and the new style is something I'll have to work on. We also tried a little recording trick to try to make the voices clearer. Heidi's voice sounded crisper and clearer than mine, so I wil...
Listen here: This podcast takes a different direction than the previous podcasts, which were more interview-driven. This time the podcast consists of Heidi Hansen (co-host) and me talking about various topics in technical communication. The flow is more conversational and spontaneous. Topics covered include an introduction to the new co-host, competition entries, an interesting entry from Microsoft, audio in instructions...
After Clyde posted his survey about technical writing blogs, we read the following from Fred Sampson's blog: ... I included a comment saying that discussing technical writing bores me. And Jenny comments: Well, apparently, it bores me as well. I haven't posted anything about it in at least a year (hell, I haven't posted about anything in quite a long time), and yet they still listed my blog on the survey. *sigh* I guess even a barely-acti...
DMN Communication's latest podcast is well-worth listening to. It is by far their best podcast to date. They've moved from a scripted style to one that is more natural and conversational. They also lengthened it to 16 minutes. I really enjoyed listening to them talk about their honest thoughts about RoboHelp 6 (which, by the way, they give a thumbs down.) They've also embedded the Podbean player directly into their blog posts. Overall, e...
I was reading a post by John Chow on 10 blogging mistakes that got me thinking about some basic usability principles when it comes to blogs. When reading blogs, here are 10 simple principles to follow. I've used some screenshots from John Chow's blog that illustrate some of my points. Allow me to easily comment. If you disabled comments because of spam, it ruins the interactive appeal of your blog. Blogs are two-way conversations. But ev...
My friend Clyde Parson has a blogging survey that I encourage you to take. He's gathering info on what makes blogs more appealing than others.
If you've ever listened to the Diggnation podcast, TWIT (This Week in Tech), Buzz Out Loud, the WordPress podcast, or other popular podcasts, one thing they have in common is co-hosting. And this is the new direction we're taking with the Tech Writer Voices podcast. Until now, Tech Writer Voices has largely been a podcast of interviews. But now we will switch to the co-host style and be more conversational. The focus of the podcast will n...
If you prefer to post by email, you can do this with WordPress. Posting by email might be advantageous if you want to automate your job postings or even your listserv announcements. When you post by email, you set up a secret e-mail account and simply send the e-mail to that account; the content of the message then appears on your blog as a new post. The only drawback in posting by email is that your posts must remain in plain text, so yo...
Forrester has started to publish some podcasts for free. Check them out here: http://www.forrester.com/podcasts/im One that I particularly liked was the podcast on Social Computing, which features an interview with Charlene Li. Here's a description of the podcast: The next generation of marketing is more than just adopting emerging, consumer-generated "Web 2.0 channels" like blogs or wikis. Forrester believes that firms and consumers are ...
For a long time now I've wanted to make a chapter member map mashup with Google maps. To see what I'm talking about, look at this page: http://stc-suncoast.org/map.html. I'm not finished putting all the members up there — this is obviously just a start. Google Maps has an API that allows you to blend your own data with their mapping system. It's really much easier to create a Google map mashup than it may initially appear. To create a me...
Although I currently use RoboHelp 5, I can think of at least 10 good reasons not to upgrade to RoboHelp 6. 1. Communication from Adobe is bleak. Have you ever posted a comment on their blog? After I finished the RoboHelp podcast on Tech Writer Voices, I posted a comment on the Adobe RoboHelp blog letting them know about the podcast. I assumed my comment was in moderation, but apparently it was filtered. Maybe Adobe didn't like the podcast...
I heard this on NPR the other day and it was in my head all day, so I decided to make a post about it. The San Francisco Chronicle allows voice comments on their articles, and an irate reader called up complaining about redundant terminology used to describe pilotless aircrafts. The Chronicle plays the comments as mini-podcasts on their site. Someone remixed the pilotless drone comment into a catchy little tune that is now amassing thousa...
