So are you ready for a vacation yet? First full week back on the job, and I’m looking a bit longingly at the fairly empty meeting calendar of the last three weeks. No matter, lots of cool things have started the year off with a bang, and our tech comm and content friends are part of making it all happen. Jill Viers captures the themes, the takeaways and the ambience that was LavaCon 2013, and Alyssa Fox provides practical advice for communicators who want to be a key part of their company’s agile team. If you haven’t made your professional resolutions yet, vote in the poll and let us know what your goals are for the new year. And of course Tech Writer This Week uncovers what others are talking, or at least musing, about in the worlds of tech comm, content strategy, and customer experience management.
The community forums/email discussion list always has some interesting debates, so go ahead and lurk, participate or initiate as you feel inclined. As always, if you have ideas for topics we should be covering somewhere on TechWhirl, or a hankering to cover some of them yourself, drop me a note.
Have a great weekend!
-Connie and the gang at TechWhirl
 Geologists have a saying – rocks remember. – Neil Armstrong |
Tech Writer This Week for January 9, 2013This edition of Tech Writer This Week has a little bit of everything. In fact, it’s sort of an aimless river with a little bit of thinking on data structure, some good information on why customer experience matters, and some great shares from @UselessAssist. |
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Content Professionals’ Resolutions for 2014 (poll)Are you procrastinating about making your 2014 resolutions? I am. I think one of them will be to stop procrastinating, but we’ll have to see about that. From the professional standpoint, it’s important to think about SMART resolutions, that take into account what motivates you, how those resolutions could benefit your career and your organization. |
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Agile and Tech Comm: Four Must-do’s to Become a Key Agile Team MemberAgile development relies heavily on frequent and clear communication. Consequently, it might seem like communication will not be an issue for us—after all, we are professional communicators. The fact is, essential communication on an agile team often is thwarted by preconceived ideas. Here are four must-do’s to enable that communication and become a key agile team member. |
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LavaCon 2013: Depth, Breadth, and a Welcoming Atmosphere for Content ProfessionalsHaving now attended my first LavaCon conference, I can say I made a great choice. I picked up some new skills, met a lot of intelligent people, and plan to attend the next conference in October 2014. It was good to get out of the house and talk technical communication and content strategy with some of the brightest minds in the field. |
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