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Tom Johnson
All About Technical Writing — The Writing Show
This is an informative intro-to-technical writing podcast by Alistair Christie. Great for writers trying to determine whether technical writing is a field they should pursue. It’s always refreshing to hear Alistair’s perspective.
Every piece of content matters – an interview with Gerry McGovern | Information & Design
Listened to this podcast last night and this morning. Gerry McGovern talks about the importance of “care words” on a website. These words are the content people are looking for but aren’t using in the search engines. He says finding the right words to match what the customer is looking for can make a huge [...]
Apple blogger makes living from blog
When I read about guys like John Gruber, who make their living from their blog, it fills me with envy. I want to do that. Not sure if tech comm’s audience is large enough, but perhaps someday.
Time lapse video of Macworld cover art creation
Really fascinating video about how the cover of a Macworld magazine is created. makes you realize all that’s involved in this process. (Thanks to Daring Fireball for pointing me to the link.)
Palimpsest: Learn DITA and XML at your desk
Sarah O’Keefe at Palimpsest is offering several webinars on DITA and XML. I attended a webinar by Sarah before. It was clear, straightforward, and engaging. I definitely recommend her.
Porting documentation to wikis: problems and possibilities
Mary Connor talks about the latest tools for exporting documentation to wikis. She seems to prefer Webworks ePublisher for its ability to export to Confluence, a wiki that supports authoring for future releases.
3 Question you ask me a lot, about money
Penelope Trunk is my favorite blogger right now. Everything she writes is fascinating. It’s persuasive and eye-opening. Always makes me think.
Want to Feel Better About Yourself? Read a Book! – mediabistro.com: GalleyCat
According to a survey, reading books boosts your optimism more than anything else. Quite a bit more than “blogs,” the survey says.
How Help Can Be Structured to Look Like a Website | Gryphon Mountain Journals
I like Ben’s point here — that if users search the web for help more than they search an application’s help file for help, perhaps we should dress up our help to look more like the web. Lots of comments on this post.
Write When Inspired – Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report
I loved this essay on writing. I always hear advice from writers that you must write daily no matter what. Zeldman takes another perspective on this idea, and encourages you to “write when inspired; rest when tired.” Very eloquent prose throughout.
How Can Directory Assistance Be Free?
Ever wondered what the business model is behind Goog 411 (free directory service)? It’s “a test bed for a voice-driven search engine for mobile phones.”
Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business
Chris Anderson’s analysis about the economy of free (or “freeconomics”) is about the most fascinating thing I’ve read in a long time. Everything on the web is trending toward free — how are companies turning free into a business model? Anderson explores various reasons for the zero cost trends and lists several strategies companies [...]
Audio / Video – Audio – Series 2 Episode 4, iTunes Live Festival – The New Adventures of Mr Stephen Fry
It’s fascinating to listen to Stephen Fry. He’s an extremely eloquent British scholar, filmographer, literary critic, and who knows what else. Listening to Fry feels liberating and exhilarating at the same time. In this iTunes festival speech, he talks about the love of the art and music, and how, even if these lovers of art [...]
An Open-Source Look at the Cost of WordCamp Dallas – One Man’s Blog
I had no idea it cost so much to run a Wordcamp conference. Apparently Wordcamp Dallas cost about $20k. Wow, I thought it would have been a tenth of that. As much as I enjoy them, I don’t think I’ll ever get involved in planning and running a conference.
Welcome to STC’s Notebook!
The STC just converted News & Notes into a blog. Check it out.
Publish Your Shared Items from Google Reader
You don’t always have to use the Publish2 bookmarklet to publish links. You can have Publish2 automatically import links to your Shared Items in Google Reader. Publish2 will periodically look at your Google Reader page for newly shared items and import them into Publish2.
Gryphon Mountain Journals Blog Archive Blogging: An Outlet for the Habitual Writer
Ben Minson reflects on the value of having a blog when your day job is technical writing. Blogging can be an outlet to practice your own literary voice, rather than always be trapped in a style guide.
Telecommuter’s Notebook: 15 Things I Miss About the Office – CIO.com – Business Technology Leadership
An engaging article about the benefits of working in the office. Makes working from home seem lonely and dull. (Found on tc.eserver.org.)
Are You Irrelevant? – The Content Wrangler Community
I saw this video on the Content Wrangler Community. The original source is on youtube. Talk about engaging. I completely agree with the person here. In a day when I’m arguing for the merits of moving the Intercom online, this video couldn’t be any more apropo.
Do Screen Captures Still Makes Sense?
Paul Masalsky argues that screen captures in documentation introduce more trouble than they’re worth. Localization is the main difficulty. Another is size and the fact that many times the screenshots duplicate what the user already sees in the interface. This post raises a lot of issues that are worth exploring. While I agree that screenshots [...]
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