Some unanticipated but resolvable glitches in moving our email discussion list to our TechWhirl Community Forums platform have kept us hopping this week, but it sure hasn’t prevented us from bringing you some really outstanding articles. Everybody in our world knows that a technology project never goes off without a hitch, no matter how prepared you might think you are. We’re no exception, but the issues we had Monday are under control, and things are now proceeding. I think it’s going to make a pretty good case study in project management and change management, among other topics.
Now to the really outstanding articles part. Alyssa Fox began her series on Agile and TechComm, and Jacquie Samuels tracked down Joe Gollner and Nolwenn Kerzreho to talk about content collaboration in advance of their LavaCon workshop. We’re also excited that Edward Smyda-Homa, the man behind @uselessassist on Twitter will be publishing a monthly column on the same topic with TechWhirl, beginning later this month. And remember, you still have two weeks to write up your Tech Comm Horror Story… I think I have an idea for that… except it will have a happy ending :-)
Have a great weekend!
-Connie and the gang at TechWhirl
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Tech Writer This Week for October 3, 2013Our weekly best of the web is cleaning up and thinking about traveling. We found some great articles on communications, strategy, job search and upcoming conferences for your reading pleasure. |
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Content Collaboration and the Integrated Product TeamJacquie Samuels caught up with Nolwenn Kerzreho and Joe Gollner as they were preparing for their LavaCon post-conference workshop in late October, to discuss how content collaboration and integrated product development are changing the face of content creation and management. |
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Tech Comm Whistleblower Joins TechWhirl RosterAsylum seeker and Useless Assistance (@uselessassist) Twitter account creator Edward Smyda-Homa announced he will be publishing a monthly column that analyzes user discontent with user assistance on TechWhirl. Useless Assistance debuts in mid-October… |
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Agile and Tech Comm: Writer Challenges in Agile and Traditional Development TeamsAgile’s iterative nature and focus on the self-directed team support writers’ attempts to expand their roles on project teams, improve the quality of their deliverables, and avoid most of the end-of-release-cycle crunch that typically results from a traditional waterfall process. No matter if your employer has joined the agile movement, or if you still work in a 20th-century waterfall world, or some hybrid of the two, you can recognize and learn to rise to the challenges common to most development teams. |
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Using Copyright Traps (poll)Usually when I hear technical writers talking about plagiarism, they’re riffing on job candidates who’ve stolen items to include in their own portfolios. But, anyone with the duties of writer or editor in their daily workload should be considering intellectual property issues, specifically copyright infringement and plagiarism, on the content they publish. Do you use copyright traps? |
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TechWhirl Third Annual Tech Comm Halloween Horror Stories FestivalTechnical communicators are invited to share their encounters with the macabre mechanics of corporate existence, both real and imagined, in TechWhirl’s Tech Comm Halloween Horror Stories Festival. |
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