Transatlantic video interview with Anne Gentle on the Social Web for Documentation

We’ve just uploaded a 15 minute extract from a transatlantic video interview I recently conducted with Anne Gentle, where we talked about The Social Web for Documentation.  The sound is a little patchy on the first slide, but it improves afterwards. A longer, 37 minute, version will be available to anyone who purchases the Cherryleaf Learning Zone… Read more »

Review of Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation

We were sent a review copy of Anne Gentle’s book , Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation  (www.xmlpress.net). Anne has been a pioneer in developing technical documentation that includes Web 2.0 concepts, so I read it with great interest. It’s a book that provides practical advice on how to add user generated content… Read more »

“Push me, Pull me” dilemma for technical authors

There are a number of posts on various Blogs, at the moment, concerning documents as conversation and moving beyond the traditional manual. Some of the comments suggest implicitly  that technical authors (aka technical writers) could end up having to resolve two conflicting views regarding communicating with users.  The problem is that many technical communicators work in hierarchical organisations where… Read more »

Which model of communication will technical communicators employ in the future?

About 44 minutes into his presentation, Michael Wesch talked about network size and the effect it traditionally has on the ways teachers communicate information to students. He said as the audience size increases, teachers have found they’ve had to get their students to participate less and follow more. He argued educators should and could move back to… Read more »