Our interview in AccountingWeb – “Don’t be a boring accountant: Lessons from a technical author”

Cherryleaf’s Ellis Pratt was interviewed recently for an article for AccountingWeb called Don’t be a boring accountant: Lessons from a technical author. The article has been published today. It explores what accountants can learn from Technical Authors in how to avoid being seen as boring, whilst still maintaining their credibility. The full article is available… Read more »

Content Strategy Lightning Talks: Applying Lean principles to content strategy

On Tuesday 26 February, Ellis Pratt from Cherryleaf will be speaking at the popular London Content Strategy lightning talk. Ellis will explain how the principles of Lean manufacturing can be applied to developing and managing content. It’s a way of writing that focuses on maximising the value to the user and minimising waste. Since the Agile development… Read more »

The importance of content in maximising the value of your business

According to business strategist Dr Alan Rae, it has been calculated that only 15% of the value of a company appears in the balance sheet. The rest is intangible value, which lies in four main areas: Knowledge in people’s heads – skills and tacit knowledge. Formal intellectual property rights – copyrights, patents, trademarks, brand equity etc…. Read more »

How much content can you actually re-use when you move to single sourcing?

One of the challenges when considering moving to a single sourcing authoring environment, such as DITA, is determining the Return on Investment. This often boils down to a key question: how much content can you actually re-use? Organisations typically attempt to answer this question in a number of ways: Conducting a semi-manual information audit of the… Read more »

Is there a difference between a Content Strategist and a Technical Author?

What’s in a name – at this week’s Content Strategy Meetup, which unfortunately I missed due to illness, a number of the attendees and speakers came from the technical communications community. They were Technical Authors/Documentation Managers or had a background as a Technical Author. So are Technical Authors and Content Strategists one and the same… Read more »