Web technologies expert, John Fintan Galvin, is claiming 2010 will be the year of the Semantic Web, when semantic technologies really take off. If that is the case, how could it be used by technical communicators to deliver better user assistance? The Semantic Web is all about the automation of connections between “resources” in a context-sensitive way…. Read more »
Category: user assistance
Why are there so few UK technical authors on Twitter?
At a rough guess, there no more than 20 UK technical authors using Twitter on a regular basis. Given the Social Web is going to play an increasing role in User Assistance and Customer Support, that’s a surprise. What’s stopping them, I wonder? It may be they don’t understand how to use Twitter, they might… Read more »
Google Chrome OS Help – What will it be like?
Techcrunch has reported on an early glimpse of Google’s upcoming Operating System, Chrome OS. So, you are no doubt asking, will Chrome OS come with online Help? Will it be initiated in a similar way to Help in Windows or by some sort of new means? From the screen shots on the Techcrunch site, it appears, yes, there… Read more »
Google Wave – A case study in 21st Century User Assistance
Google’s latest product, Google Wave, provides a case study in how User Assistance is sometimes provided to users for popular Web-based applications. It is a useful case study, because: The application contains unfamiliar concepts and tasks; Google hopes it will be used by many people; and It’s from a major provider of software. While the… Read more »
BBC’s Rory “Read the manual? Never!” Cellan-Jones discovers the need for manuals
I wonder if the BBC’s Technology correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, is regretting posting an article in August called “Read the manual? Never!” . In it, he said: It may be sad that we no longer seem to have that thirst for knowledge about how things work. But I’m afraid I’m just not going to start reading… Read more »