Zeitgeist

I find it interesting that certain words and phrases come popular. I've noticed some recently - The elephant in the corner, Tinternet, Bubble 2.0, blook.

Our happy place

We've received a nice testimonial from one of our clients today:

"Our Web site was confusing, not easy to find and didn't define what we offered. What Cherryleaf did was improve the ease of search, define our services and clearly improve the format and layout, using plain English to allow our potential clients understand what true value we can offer. Thanks to Cherryleaf, we now get more hits on our Web site and finally we are getting enquiries… worth every penny."

Ian Plumbley, CEO, Kazco

Is this a golden age for technical authors?

Is this a golden age for permanent technical authors and technical writers? It may well be, even if it doesn't feel it today.

We are probably at the point in the UK where the jobs market is *just* to the advantage of job-seekers, though salary rates have not been affected. Most likely, we're also at a tipping point for the adoption of new tools and technologies, such as DITA XML, Web 2.0, AuthorIT and Flare. Significantly, these are technologies that can be adopted across the enterprise.

Then there's the possibilities of an economic downturn in 2007/8 and more off-shoring of work in the future. If, in two years time, you're doing the same things in the same way as today then you may well find you have been passed by.

So is this a golden age? We may be in a better place to tell in about two years' time. What do you think?

Flare, Training and new technologies

We aim to reflect the trends in new technologies and tools in the training courses that we offer. We recently introduced a training course on DITA Darwin Information Typing Architecture, and today we've announced a training course for Madcap Software's Flare. Flare is a new Help authoring tool from the former developers of RoboHelp.

We'll also be offering consultancy for RoboHelp users who want to migrate their RoboHelp project to MadCap Flare, and consultancy for those in migrating to DITA.

What will have the greatest impact on technical communication in the future?

What will have the greatest impact on technical communication in the future? Vista Help, DITA XML, single sourcing perhaps? More likely, it will be the application of Web 2.0 technologies to the task of supporting users - affecting both technical support and user documentation.

Given the nature of these things, we're likely to see its adoption emerge from start-up software/Web companies rather than existing software houses. Indeed, it could come from Web 2.0 companies themselves. What will Web 2.0 add to user support? Better customer loyalty, certainly greater product differentiation for early adopters, possibly reduced support costs too. See What is Web 2.0?

So will your company be in front of this trend or behind? Will it lead like Google or play catch up like Microsoft? It will be interesting to see which organisations contact us.

An Introduction to DITA XML

Cherryleaf has launched a course for anyone wanting to understand the key concepts behind DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). DITA is an open source XML-based framework for designing and delivering well-structured content efficiently and consistently in a single-sourcing environment. It provides a standard approach for creating task-oriented information and assembling topics into books or other outputs.

DITA provides an open source, OASIS standard for supporting topic-based authoring of well structured content. DITA comprises three primary information types (concepts, tasks, and reference) that provide a structure amenable to most technical information, and provides a way of customising it for your industry's needs.

Early-bird discounts

Since this is the launch of a new course, we are offering special prices for advanced bookings.

See http://www.cherryleaf.com/an_introduction_to_dita.htm for more details.

Will Barclays Bank really be making things clearer for us?

The BBC has reported that Barclays Bank is moving away from "the arcane language that has be-devilled bank customers for generations". The bank said it wants to move away from confusing acronyms and jargon, using "more colloquial" terms instead. Jim Hytner, Barclays' marketing director, said: "We will be using language that everyone knows and understands".

We think that's a great idea, but we're not sure that the new words and phrases will make things clearer.

On Radio 5, they said Barclays were going to replace "cash machine" will "Hole in the wall". We don't see what's wrong with "cash machine"; surely everyone understands that phrase?

"Customer service" will have new signs asking "Can I help?" (good), while the "Bureau de Change" will simply be called "Travel Money" (not good). Not every one who buys foreign currency uses it for travel.

The press release stated, "the new style of communication showed far better that Barclays understands it's (sic) customers."

A colloquialism is "an expression not used in formal speech or writing". It may be informal, but often it isn't language used and understood by everyone.

ROI of software quality

If you are looking to justify software testing and quality, then these two reports may help:

The Economic Impacts of Inadequate Infrastructure for Software Testing

The ROI from Software Quality - An Executive Briefing

Developing online Help with Visual Studio 2005 SDK

Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 SDK now includes a Help authoring tool that allows "authoring, building and deployment of documentation to be plugged into Visual Studio". The tool, HelpStudio Lite, is a slimmed down version of the Innovasys' HelpStudio. If you would like training in Help Studio or Help Studio lite, then please contact us.

Using social psychology to motivate contributions to online communities

Many online communities suffer from a lack of contributions by community members. Researchers from the University of Indiana have tested ways to encourage participation in online communities.

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue4/ling.html

They found individuals contributed when they were reminded of their uniqueness and when they were given specific and challenging goals.

Were they correct?