Nightmare on ContentOps Street (podcast)
In episode 136 of The Content Strategy Experts Podcast, Alan Pringle unveils horror stories of content ops gone horribly wrong.
Humor
Content creature feature
You don’t need a scary movie or a haunted house to see ghoulish creatures—sometimes, they are lurking in your content processes. Learn how to fend off these monsters in posts from the Scriptorium crypt.
Content strategy monster mashup
In a content strategy project, it’s important to be aware of the monsters lurking in the shadows and waiting to pounce on your project. Here are the gruesome details:
Trick or treat? Halloween content strategy
If done properly, a new content strategy will bring added value to your organization. The transition itself is not always easy, and the success of the projects depends on your stakeholders. Much like trick or treating, you never know what to expect when someone “opens the door” to change:
Content strategy: you’re doing it wrong
This post is part of Scriptorium’s 20th anniversary celebration.
You know you’re doing content strategy wrong when…
- You focus on tools and not business requirements:
Your content is not special
You. You over there with the finicky formatting and the inability to use templates and the hours of adjusting graphics when you add a paragraph.
Yes. You.
Reducing tedium in content workflows with exceptionally mobile technology
The content lifecycle can involve many needlessly tedious tasks. Perhaps the most tedious of tasks is review tracking. There are many ways to send content out for review. Some people prefer using a manual process, others prefer automated workflows. Whatever approach you use is fine, provided one critical detail: that the reviewer actually read the material.
To date there is no sure-fire way to ensure that reviewers read the material assigned to them. No matter how many alerts they receive, and no matter how many times you bug them, there is no systematic way to ensure that reviewers read and comment on the material in a timely manner.
But what if there was?
Content strategy: What’s your exit strategy?
You’ve probably heard the announcement countless times: “Please locate the nearest emergency exit.” Chances are you ignore these exits most of the time, but you feel safer knowing they’re there. You wouldn’t go to a restaurant or movie theater or travel on public transportation that didn’t have an emergency exit—so why would you develop a content strategy without one?
In a recent blog post, Alan Pringle brought up the the importance of having an exit strategy, and I wanted to expand on that idea. Without a plan for what to do if your implementation doesn’t go as expected, your company could face tremendous costs—in terms of both time and money—trying to move on to a system that works.
From toilets to techcomm: tallying tool risks
I’m about to replace an old toilet, not-so-affectionately nicknamed the Lazy River.
Stairway to Həll
We’ve been in our “new” offices in Durham for about a year now. Overall, I’m quite happy to be here, nice building, good restaurants for lunch, lock on the door to keep sales people out…all those things.
Let go of your silo
In reality, collaborative authoring is little more than a euphemism for the idea that “anyone can write.”
That’s Tom Johnson’s take on collaborative authoring in his latest blog post. The writer in me sympathizes deeply because the “anyone can write” attitude is a direct challenge to the careers of professional writers.
(Non)predictions for 2012
With 2011 waning, people are contemplating what 2012 will bring for technical communication. Our profession is changing rapidly, so intelligent conversations about the future of tech comm are essential.
All that smart talk has absolutely nothing to do with this post.
Preview of coming a-QUACK-ions
My presentation for the STC Summit in Dallas is finally done. The session, “Managing in an XML environment,” is scheduled for Tuesday, May 4, at 4 p.m. Central time.
I hope to see you in Dallas, but if you can’t make the conference in person, I will also do a webcast version of this presentation on June 15 at 1 p.m. Eastern time. That event is free but does require registration.
I’m sure you’re wondering about the duck. In my presentation, I will be introducing a formula for measuring documentation quality. It’s based on Quality, Usability, and some other factors that spell out, you guessed it, QUACK.
And if that’s not enough to bring you to the session, I also have several other animals in my slides. Consider yourself warned.
Some Friday fun: tech writing in movies
Here’s a movie montage I found on YouTube featuring scenes of characters either offering or reading procedures:
Enjoy!
Finding the blogging superhero in yourself
Power blogger.
That’s a new phrase to me, and it was new to Maria Langer, too, as she noted in her An Eclectic Mind blog. As part of a podcast panel, she was asked to offer advice on how to become a power blogger. Some of her fellow panelists mentioned the quantity of posts, but Maria’s focus was elsewhere:
The number of blog posts a blogger publishes should have nothing to do with whether he’s a power blogger. Instead, it should be the influence the blogger has over his readership and beyond. What’s important is whether a blog post makes a difference in the reader’s life. Does it teach? Make the reader think? Influence his decisions? If a blogger can consistently do any of that, he’s a power blogger.
I couldn’t agree more. I appreciate reading any blog that gives me useful information or analysis that hadn’t occurred to me. For example, I recently had issues with a new PC I’m using at home as a media center. It was not picking up all the channels in my area, and an excellent blog post helped me solve the problem with little fuss. To me, that author is a power blogger.
What I frankly find irritating—and certainly not my worth my time—are blogs that are basically what I’ll call “link farms”: posting links or excerpts from other blogs with no valuable information added. I’m quite the cynic, so when I stumble upon such a blog, I figure the blogger is merely trying to generate Google hits and ad revenue, is lazy, or both. Quantity—particularly when said quantity is composed of rehashed material from other bloggers—does not a power blogger make.
When it comes to contributing to this blog, I try to write posts that have a least one nugget of helpful information, analysis, or humor, and I think that’s true of the posts from my fellow coworkers. (At the risk of sounding like I’m bragging about my coworkers, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read one of their posts and thought, “That’s smart!” or “That’s cool!”) Frankly, I’d rather not write anything at all than to publish something just because it’s been a few days since I posted. And I have a lot more respect for bloggers who write quality posts once in a while over those who put out lots of material that is borrowed from elsewhere.
And on that note, I’ll leave you with a short clip showing superheroes using their powers for a practical solution. (See, I’m trying to entertain you, too!)
Lost in translation (and in my brain)
Last night, a bit of spam managed to worm its way through the filters on a personal email account, and I have to admit I glanced at the content while scanning previews of messages. That’s when I spotted a paragraph that really jumped out at me:
They have good management systems, product quality inspection system. And international speedboat (EMS) is the door – door accurate! Soon!
My thought process was, What’s up with the international speedboats? And why are emergency medical services (EMS) using these speedboats? I knew that the person who wrote the content was likely not a native English speaker, but I could not figure out what the writer was trying to communicate.
This morning, I finally realized what the message was trying to say: the company uses EMS worldwide delivery services for prompt and accurate delivery to my door. My brain must not have been firing on all cylinders last night when I thought EMS meant “emergency medical services.”
I don’t think I’ve ever spent as much time thinking about a company’s marketing message, but my thoughts weren’t about using the company’s services–I was merely trying to comprehend the message itself. That’s not what the company intended, I’m sure.
Marketing for a global audience–particularly one that associates EMS with “emergency medical services”–is not an easy thing!
More cowbell!
About a year ago, we added Google Analytics to our web site. I have done some research to see what posts were the most popular in the past year:
- The clear winner was our FrameMaker 9 review. With 21 comments, I think it was also the most heavily commented post. Interestingly, the post itself is little more than a pointer to the PDF file that contains the actual review.
- InDesign CS4 = Hannibal post, which discussed InDesign’s encroachment on traditional FrameMaker features.
- A surprise…a post from 2006 in which Mark Baker discussed the merits (or lack thereof) of DITA in To DITA or not to DITA
Our readers appear to like clever headlines, because I don’t think the content quality explains the high numbers for posts such as:
We noticed this pattern recently, when a carefully crafted, meticulously written post was ignored in favor of a throwaway post dashed off in minutes with a catchy title (Death to Recipes!).
For useful, thoughtful advice on blogging, I refer you to Tom Johnson and Rich Maggiani. I, however, have a new set of blogging recommendations:
- Write catchy titles
- Have an opinion, preferably an outrageous one
- More cowbell
The end of the world is approaching
What other explanation is there for Adobe, nicknamed The Cone of Silence, making this announcement:
If you are planning to attend the [STC] Conference [in Minneapolis], you now have added incentive. We will be providing technology sneak peeks of the features of the next versions of FrameMaker, RoboHelp and Captivate.
For details, see Vivek Jain’s blog entry on the Adobe TechComm blog. No mention of a requirement for a non-disclosure agreement, so I assume any information shared at these sessions will be public.
I won’t call Adobe “transparent” just yet, but this reduction in opacity is quite welcome.
Update (May 3, 2007): Over at Core Dump, a post on the same topic entitled Hell is Freezing Over.
Your beautiful life
I just installed a wireless mouse on my PC here in the office. The instructions that came with the mouse have some interesting turns of phrase, including this gem:
[The mouse] combines with 27MH RF wireless technology, user-defined keys, and outstanding design, so that you can use it freely to improve your efficiency and enjoy your beautiful life from the high technology.
Yes, I often enjoy my beautiful life with high technology. Don’t you?
Helpdesk in the Scriptorium
(hat tip: Steve Rickaby, who posted it on framers this morning)
Note: Safe for work, but you might want to set aside all beverages before proceeding.
Our best shot at a Winter Wonderland
As of this afternoon, the snow is melted, but I justed wanted to prove that we do TOO get snow in North Carolina.
Oh, and that green stuff in the background? Those are daffodil shoots that started coming up last week during the heat wave.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of maple syrup
Wednesday evening, I detoured from XML 2006 in Boston up to Nashua, New Hampshire, for a presentation at the STC Northern New England chapter.
(Thanks to Char James-Tanny for providing transportation!)
Traditionally, presenters are given a jug of maple syrup. Yum. I love maple syrup.
But sadly, the TSA does not permit maple syrup in quantities greater than three ounces in your carry-on luggage. And I don’t check luggage except under extreme circumstances. (And transporting maple syrup doesn’t — quite — qualify.)
My thoughtful hosts, however, decided to give me maple taffy and maple cream cookies instead. Much appreciated.
Note: Cattle prods and throwing stars are permitted in checked baggage only. Good to know before my next on-site class . (And no, I am not making this up. Look under “tools” and “martial arts & self-defense items”)
