Feedback on our 1st Documentation Managers/Leaders mentoring meeting

We hosted the first of our peer-group mentoring meetings on Tuesday, and I pleased to say the event went as well as we could have expected. We’ve attended and hosted sessions for other entrepreneurs, but this was our first experience of running such an event for documentation managers.  The interactions and the nature of the outcomes… Read more »

TechCommAlliance founded as an international consortium for professional technical communication services

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 26 May, 2009, 12.00 GMT Contact: Ellis Pratt +44 1784 258672 London, UK―Cherryleaf Ltd  is joining with Scriptorium Publishing  (United States of America) and HyperWrite (Australia) to create the TechComm Alliance. Ellis Pratt, Sales and Marketing Director at Cherryleaf Ltd., commented, “Working with TechComm Alliance means that you’re working with technical communicators… Read more »

Why bother with end user documentation for Web Applications?

In Rahel Bailie’s excellent presentation at the STC Conference (“The New Face of Documentation“), she looked at the “No Documentation” approach to software user assistance. This, she summed up, as the “we don’t document it; we just fix it” view of software development. She argued that a “No Documentation” approach doesn’t lead to no documentation. Users soon… Read more »

Workshop on on career development – an approach and key skills

I’ve been asked to present a workshop at the STC TransAlpine Conference on “career development – an approach and key skills”. This will be held on 8th June in Vienna. I’m a late replacement for a speaker who has unfortunately been taken ill. We’ll look at: Future trends in technical communication – where’s it all heading… Read more »

How can technical authors become part of technology ecosystems?

Jonathan Mitchener has written an article in Engineering and Technology magazine on the interest of technology providers in creating “ecosystems”. This is the concept of offering not just gadgets but also a range of related products and services, which can integrate seamlessly with each other in an overall system. The poster boy for this ecosystem approach is… Read more »