Closing out a month of TechWhirl on the actual last day of the month doesn’t actually happen very often. So I’m looking back on 31 days of sheer madness, happy in what I accomplished, and happy that the month is done (and wishing for a few days off to mentally recuperate). We debuted a new member of the SWU, attended the STC Summit, launched our Content Structure Research Portal, added to a lively debate by those more learned than us (That would be Tom Johnson, Sarah O’Keefe, and Mark Baker), and welcomed two summer interns to the slightly off-kilter ranks of TechWhirl. Add to that a slew of freelance projects, and it’s no wonder my brain is full. Does anybody else wonder what happened to the last month? It disappeared before I had a chance to really enjoy it.
And in spite of the long holiday weekend, we didn’t really slow down on the new content. Jacquie Samuels told the epic tale of the Three Musketeers of Content, and Roger Renteria treated us to another Summit Summary—Dr. Laura Palmer’s session on social media. Craig Cardimon curated another round of great stuff on tech comm, content and UX (apparently those folks don’t take vacation either) in Tech Writer This Week.
And if that’s not enough, hop on over to the email discussion list, where you can lend your expertise on selecting a CMS, figuring out if it’s a CMS that you really need, setting a freelance rate, and the ever-popular word usage questions. You still have time to complete the Adobe WYSWYG survey for a chance at fabulous prizes, or to vote in our structured content “or”, “and”, and “for” the web tech comm poll, and tell us why you voted the way you did.
See you can be just as crazy busy as I am… all in one place.
Have a great weekend!
-Connie and the gang at TechWhirl
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Tech Writer This Week for May 30, 2013Hope all our US readers had a relaxing and reflective Memorial Day Holiday. As everyone gets back to work after the long weekend, Tech Writer This Week offers easy servings of tech comm views and commentary. Then it’s on to a hearty helping of content strategy, with a side of customer experience management and garnished with a smattering of user experience. And it’s all calorie-free food for thought… |
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Summit Summary: Laura Palmer on Staking Your Claim in the Social Media FrontierYou only have to look at the number of folks who tweet with the #techcomm hashtag on any given day to see that technical communicators need to play a role in the corporate social media strategy. Dr. Laura Palmer, agrees, and her session at the STC Summit 2013 in Atlanta, introduced us to the frontier of social media and how to tackle its many pitfalls. |
The Three Musketeers of Technical ContentCreating good technical content can be an adventure fraught with danger. But do not despair, for there are some brave heroes who will fight for you! Call them the Three Musketeers of Technical Content. Together, they introduce flexibility, usability, and efficiency into creating, maintaining, and publishing technical content. |
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Technical Communication Poll: Can Structured Authoring and Web Content Delivery Co-exist?Three of the most respected names in technical communication, —Tom Johnson (I’d Rather Be Writing), Sarah O’Keefe (Scriptorium), and Mark Baker (Every Page is Page One) – have been having a spirited online discussion over the role of structured authoring and the World Wide Web. Now mind you, it’s been is a very respectful disagreement with each of them acknowledging each other’s insightful comments along the way. Essentially, their arguments boil down to the choice of one little word: Or, And or For… inserted between structured authoring and web content delivery. |
Technical Communication News:
- AIIM Study Shows 82 Percent of Companies Still Lack Enterprise Content Management
- Doc-To-Help 2013 Features Industry’s First HTML5 Editor for Content Authors
- Connexions Journal Issues Call for Papers for Second Issue
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