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Six ways to add Web 2.0 functionality to your manuals

This is an end of a long day post, so forgive me if I miss anything obvious. Here are some suggested actions and ideas for creating Web 2.0 technical documentation:

1. Put your documents on the Web, as Web pages.
2. Create a link to the Web version on folksonomy/tagging sites such as Digg, Technorati and del.icio.us. Describe your content on these sites (using tags).
3. Consider aggregating/incorporating content from other sources into the online version. This could be content from other departments, such as support, or external content. You can use RSS feeds to acquire this content.
4. Create a RSS feed for your content. This can help users be aware when content has changed, and help them re-use the content elsewhere. You could use Feedburner to do this.
5. Create a Twitter account and link your RSS feed to this account. This means users who are also Twitter users can receive your updates through Twitter. You can use Twitterfeed to do this.
6. Consider enabling users to add comments to your content. Some Help authoring tools allow you to add this functionality. Others allow you to embed this functionality from elsewhere. Another potential way to do this could be by using the Adobe Air viewer.

What about wikis? Wikis can be a good idea, particularly if you want to use content from development staff. However, you need to consider how you control and approve content and how you create printable manuals.

What is Web 2.0?

We 2.0 is name for a collection of Web technologies that can be summarised enabling conversation, aggregation and collaboration.

Why add Web 2.0 functionality?

That's a whole conversation in itself, but the benefits include establishing a better relationship with your clients and prospects and getting others to write some of the content.

Have I missed anything out?
Should you take this advice?

The eee pc and the right to remix documentation dilemma

Last week we purchased and received an Asus eee pc 900. Its popularity illustrates the dilemma manufacturers will face in the future, with regard to their user documentation/user assistance.

Background

The eee pc is a ultra portable laptop, which costs roughly a fifth of the price of an Apple Airbook or a Sony Vaio.

It runs on Linux and it was originally designed for children, which explains why it is so cheap. It has a simple interface that provides links to the key software but restricts you from doing much else.

The consequence

Its low cost, low weight and size means the eee pc is popular outside its target audience. The consequence of which is Asus now has a group of users who want to do more with the laptop than was originally intended. They want to add more software and access the Linux desktop hiding underneath.

The manual supplied provides basic, but usable, information on how to use the laptop as originally designed. It doesn't provide any more detail than that. So, as a consequence, a number of Web sites have developed, such as eeeuser.com, which tell users how to access the advanced features.

The problem for Asus is they now have a group of users making modifications to their laptop, based on completely unofficial information. Users have to trust this information is correct - hoping it won't trash their machine.

The dilemma

Here's the dilemma:

Should Asus distance itself from this information? They might miss out on sales to business users if they do.
Should Asus let its documentation be "remixed" - supplemented with additional, more geeky information from users? The information might be incorrect.
Should Asus moderate this user information in someway? They might end up with more support calls if they do.

So what should they do?

Will Nokia's new technology reinvent the manual?

Nokia is developing new technology which could reinvent the user manual as we now know it.

Combining a mobile phone's camera with image recognition software, location tracking technologies and improved processing speeds, Nokia intends to provide users with "augmented mobile reality". The goal is to enable anyone to look at the real world through their camera-phone and virtually augment it with information based on parameters such as where they are or what they're looking at. Nokia suggests "you will for example be able to look at a particular building and get all sorts of information about it; or a given shoe model at a shoe store".

The technology works by simply pointing to an object with your handset's camera and either taking a picture of it that is used to apply intelligent pattern matching technology or moving your camera around and obtaining a real-time match of the image. The phone will retrieve this information from the handset or from servers via the Internet. The network uses location tracking technology to know where you are.

In addition to providing tourists with information on building facades and shoppers details on retail products, this concept could also be used to provide users and maintenance engineers with user assistance and instructional information.

There could be a time where you open up the bonnet of your car, point your mobile phone at the engine to (a) identify which part is which and (b) call up instructions on how to remove and replace a particular part.


The technology was first demonstrated by Nokia in October 2007, although it could be a number of years before it is included in publicly available handsets.

Does user documentation belong inside or outside the firewall?

We've been involved in arranging a video interview with a candidate currently working in California. The client has been considering flying the candidate to Florida to use their video conferencing room at their office there or booking a couple of hours at a video conference facility in California.

We suggested "You could just both install Skype, attach a Web Cam and chat for free", but not with much expectation that they would do it. Skype(*) is a tool that can give corporates the heeby jeebies. It's one of those things that Leon Benjamin called in his book (Winning by Sharing) "outside the firewall" and "in the Green Zone".

Leon wrote:

"In a meeting with another brand, Thomas and I were talking about the latest web sites of interest and their features, particularly social software sites and how convenient they were for a variety of different reasons. The executive had heard of some of them but noted that he couldn't access any of them from work because they are blocked by the company firewall, deemed unnecessary, alien and un-productive. Prior to this explanation, the executive said, 'We don’t get this stuff in the green zone'...I thought the green zone was outside the corporate firewall and the definition of freedom, and the red zone was where you are straitjacketed, confined and only able to access what the company deems safe for you. I didn’t want to appear dim. Once again we were talking at cross-purposes. Our value systems and definitions of freedom and confinement are often diametrically opposed to those of employees working inside large corporations."

This attitude can also be reflected in an organisation's view of user manuals and online Help - that any comments from users or other partners are "outside the firewall". From a technical perspective it's now possible to get users participating in documentation. MadCap Flare can enable users to add additional information to Help topics. AuthorIT enables you to draw user modifications into your project files. What is unclear is whether the Corporates, in particular, would be happy doing this.


(*Disclosure - Skype has been a client of ours.)