On my smartphone, I used to have Google Reader as one of my four quicklinks on the bottom toolbar. I recently replaced it with Twitter Topic, an app that shows all tweets that meet a specific hashtag. For example, if I'm interested in reading about other experiences at Confab, I'll search for the #confab topic. If I'm interested in seeing what's new about findability, I'll search for the #findability topic. If I'm curious to know what pe...
Listen here: The recording is available in a variety of formats: Audio with Slides PowerPoint Show File PowerPoint Original File iPod format I recently gave a presentation at the STC Summit in Sacramento titled "Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-based Hierarchies." I would have recorded my presentation, but recording is not allowed. I did, however, record a practice run-through in my hotel room the mornin...
Mark Baker The following is a guest post by Mark Baker. The a-ha moment came for me reading David Weinberger's Everything is Miscellaneous, a book Tom and I both admire. Weinberger's central thesis is that miscellany has become more powerful than order. No one ordering of information is ideal for every reader. The web allows readers to find information for themselves, and to organize it for themselves and for others. The power to organiz...
Tomorrow I'm giving a four hour workshop on blogging and WordPress at the STC Summit in Sacramento. I thought I'd post my outline in case anyone is interested in how I approach these workshops. In preparing this outline, I realized that my focus on WordPress and blogging has shifted more towards producing content rather than manipulating the technology. Several years ago, you had to be more techie to make adjustments to your theme and get...
In my Organizing Content series, I've been exploring the idea of adding metadata to help topics so you can sort them into different arrangements for different audiences. For example, you could add metadata tags such as "popular" or a specific role or a business goal and then provide entry points that arrange topics based on that metadata. Since I'm presenting on this topic at the Summit, it would be nice to have a few examples of help sys...
Michael Hobren This is a guest post by Michael Hobren. Michael is a technical and "marcom" contract writer, as well as a fictional novelist. He resides with his family in the Tampa, Florida area. As a technical writer, I don't think my late father ever quite understood what I do for a living. I would try to explain to him what I did, but to no avail. Despite my best efforts, my explanations were typically met with dad saying, "You know, ...
I was recently reading about Mooer's law in Peter Morville's Ambient Findability. Morville contrasts Moore's law with Mooer's law. Moore's law (much more familiar) asserts that the number of computer transistors that you can fit on an integrated circuit doubles every two years. We're all familiar with the ever-increasing amount of storage space, processing power, memory, and other rapid advance with technology. But Mooer's law is perhaps ...
After I linked to my interview with Kristi Leach about collaborative posts, a reader submitted the following question: One of the problems I've had to combat over the years has been boredom/burnout — that feeling you get either when you've been on the same project for too long or a you're on new project that just feels like exactly what you've been working on for years. How do you breath life into work that you've done many, many times be...
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Kristi Leach interviewed me for a quick Q&A about the occasional collaborative posts that I do on this site. You can read the interview on Kristi's site, Why Tech Comm. Here's an excerpt: When I was deciding on a format for my workshop, Grassroots Documentation Testing, I thought of Tom Johnson's collaborative posts on his blog, IdRatherBeWriting.com. In collaborative posts, Tom poses a question to his readers (who include many seasoned ...
In Ambient Findability, Peter Morville has an interesting observation about visual maps. He notes that we use a lot of physical wayfinding metaphors for the web -- we go to a page, we follow a path, we search for objects, we become lost, we use breadcrumbs to orient ourselves, we surf around, we use sitemaps, we design with blueprints, we practice information architecture, we navigate around, etc. These are all metaphors for using the web...
saratogaspringssecondtrip We went down to Saratoga Springs along the Jordan Parkway Trail. This time I brought Molly, Callie, and Lucy, and let them all ride in the Burley. Walking is much easier this way, even though three kids is a bit too much in that space. Cozy makes three in a burley Looking at Google Earth images the day before, we were intrigued by the butterfly pattern that you see below. The strange butterfly path pattern As we walke...
We walked down to the Saratoga Hot Springs tonight -- just Callie and Lucy, since Avery was sick at home. The trail to the hot spring is short, maybe half a mile. Beautiful walk, as you can see Utah lake and the mountains. We weren't sure if the hot spring was bathable water, but when we arrived, it was full of people, including a couple of hippies drinking beer. They called the tall grass elephant grass and joked about watching out for snakes...
The following is a guest post by Noz Urbina, organizer of the upcoming Congility conference, held May 24-26 in Gatwick, UK. We live in a multi-in, multi-out world. There are so many information pipelines running into, out and around the organisation these days that it's overwhelming companies the world over. The famous information overload is in stark contrast to an endless pressure to deliver excellent content — quickly and cost effe...
Robert Desprez has an interesting post on How Will Technical Writing Change in the Next Ten Years. Among a few predictions, he writes the following about tech comm's future for mobile: We'll all be preparing our online help for mobile devices. Smartphones and tablets are expected to start outselling computers in the near future. More and more people will be using these devices to work and will need technical assistance. I expect this is t...
