Month: March 2008

bookmark_borderAre online communities worth it?

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The boom of the internet is better documented elsewhere but the one key and founding principles is the ability to converse with anyone, anywhere in the globe. From the early days of IRC and email, onto graphical websites and instant messaging through to the current swathe of, for want of a better phrase, Web 2.0 services.

Twitter, blogs, social bookmarking, and online communities are the current rage but, do they work?

I’m a member of several email lists, swapping emails with a large number of people on a range of topics. I spend a fair amount of time filtering out topics which don’t interest me, and over time I’ve come to recognise various people by name. However email, whilst great for sharing information, is a limited when it comes to building communities.

Understanding who you are conversing with and the additional interests they have helps build trust, helps build better conversations and helps build communities. Transferring that kind of interaction online means we can better leverage shared experiences and hopefully make it easier to find other people with the same, unique, slice of knowledge and interests.

It’s only now, pulling together all the available technologies that such online communities are possible.

And the good news is that we, as technical communicators (content professionals) now have such a community.

Scott Abel, aka the Content Wrangler, has launched the Content Wrangler Community website and, having signed up and started using it a little I have to say that it is well worth a look. There are already several hundred members (825 at present), and these early adopters have started forming focussed groups, all of which relate back to our profession. In the words of the website:

Network with peers. Find jobs. Share information. Start a blog. Upload and watch videos. Join a group. Begin a discussion. Learn about software. Find events. Ask for help. It’s all here. Become a member. It’s free!

It’s safe to say that “social networks” aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’d strongly urge you to check it out. Despite only having been launched a couple of weeks ago, it’s already proving popular and, as the conversations start and people start to find clever ways of using the various features available then it’s only going to get better and better.

Visit the Content Wrangler Community website today, sign up and join in!

bookmark_borderWe can haz electricitics?*

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We can!!

Lessons learned, if you know someone in the ‘trade’, ask them for a recommendation. Not only have the guys done a bang up job, clearing up after themselves in the process, they were HALF the price we got quoted for a job that would’ve taken twice as long?

When we told Danny, our newest bestest electrician friend, about the other quote he was gobsmacked both at the price and the length of time quoted.

If you are in the South Lanarkshire area, I’d recommend you steer clear of “First Call Electrical Services” and Mark Rodger.

And if you need an electrician I’ll happily pass on the number of our newest bestest electrician friend.

So, step one in getting the kitchen finished is complete. Just waiting on the delivery of a new worktop and then rescheduling the fitters. Another week perhaps??

Anyway, to celebrate saving a fair wodge of cash on the job, we’re off out for dinner with our friends Ian and Susan. Ian is our “friend in the trade” (and his Mum comments here on occasion, Hi Moyra!) so this is a big THANK YOU for helping us de-stress a little and hopefully lowering my blood pressure… ohh I’ve not told you that news have I… 176/116 is bad, apparently so I’m being healthy now. It sucks. More on that, later (but not tomorrow as we are car boot sale-ing and have to be up at 4am to get a pitch!!! Mental!).

Must dash, we’re going out in an hou… ummm.. 40 minutes!!

* In case anyone is wondering (surely by now EVERYONE has heard of them?) the wording of the title is a tribute to Lolcats.

bookmark_borderHow many books is too many?

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I have a lot of books. I have a lot of unread books. I keep saying I’ll go through the ones I’ve read and ditch some but I never do. Instead I buy more. I don’t know why I do that. Why do I do that? Why do I buy more? I have enough as it is, many unread. So why, as I have many books, do I buy?

It’s a compulsion, etched into my mind, an inherited trait that I can’t fight, an itch that remains out of reach no matter which way I toss and turn.

I have books on all sorts of topics, fictional stories that others have recommended, factual books on many topics, from mental wellbeing, web design, philosophy, gardening, exercise, movies and more. Just about all of them are kept for some tenuous reason or another but I really need to let go…

But that doesn’t help solve the puzzle of why I keep buying new books, especially as I have so many that remain unread, some of which I purchased several years ago.

I’ll quite happily admit that I bought a few books with ‘betterment’ in mind (and ‘of mind’). Be they a classic novel or a book on the great philosophical thinkers (bought from Meg I think) I deliberately chose them with a view to becoming better read, whatever that means, although I quickly ditched those in favour of the really highbrow stuff (The Da Vinci Code for example) so that reasoning has back-fired.

I wonder if I buy books because I don’t trust my memory and I’m scared I’ll forget the name or author of that one killer book? Perhaps I need to do is hack my brain to chuck the name and author of a book into a list, rather than just order it “because it’s only £4.99”. I mean we all know what lies at the end of that road, “it’s only £4.99” soon becomes, “yeah but I’m gettin’ 4 books for under £20!”, swiftly followed by “Ohhh one more for free shipping…”.

I buy books based on author, David Mitchell, Ian Rankin, Alice Sebold, and ignore them for the latest James Patterson. Hell I’ve probably read more pages from Esquire magazine in the past 6 months than I have pages of a book. I know I go through spells of reading but this is becoming an increasingly dry time. A fallow spell of unbroken spines, if you will.

Why do I read? For enjoyment largely. I enjoy the escape, the way time slips past in the shadows as you immerse yourself deeper and deeper into the words on the page.

If this were a movie, this is where you’d get a CGI scene with the words floating up off the page and spinning up and round me as I sit, transfixed.

Ohh and whilst I remember, you bloggers who have had books published (I count 5 on my shelf) aren’t helping!

You know what, perhaps a clear out would help. Allow me to refocus on the books I’ve not read. Yes yes, a clear out is in order.

Let’s not be too hasty though… let me just check what Amazon have on sale…

bookmark_borderIn the spirit of things

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I got told off by our security guard as I entered the building this morning. We met at the door just as he was leaving and he politely asked me not to smoke there.

It’s nice that he was concerned for my health, although as I was huddled over trying to listen to my mobile at the time it was a little confusing. That and the fact I don’t smoke of course.

It’s funny, but any time I start thinking about this topic I end up considering smoking jackets and from there it’s a short hop to smouldering jackets (which belch smoke from the jacket itself), I’m sure it’s a comedy sketch from somewhere but I can’t recall where. I digress.

Having never been a smoker I really don’t see what all the fuss is about and as far as I’m concerned it’s a vile habit. Admittedly I choose to kill myself by slowly hacking off my limbs a millimetre at a time so I reckon my lifespan is about the same as that of a smoker but at least I’m not polluting those around me…

My grandparents smoked, my Grandpa more than my Gran and after several strokes left him wheelchair bound and in need of permanent care. He couldn’t talk and had very little control over his body, meaning that my abiding memory of him is an angry old man, banging on the table to try and communicate. He still had a smile and twinkle in his eye but for a young boy he was quite scary. Lord knows what my sister thought of him.

I know it’s a hard habit to break and I know it’s a bit twee (not to mention self-righteous of me) to suggest you thinking about it on this particular day, simply because someone, somewhere, decrees today as No Smoking Day but, if not today, when?

bookmark_borderBack to DITA?

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I’ve mentioned DITA a few times on this blog, and my DITA is not the answer post is still attracting attention. As I’ve said, I think the DITA standard is an excellent one for software documentation and the DITA movement is slowly catching up to the hype. I’ve never given up on DITA and had always planned to use it as the basis for the next stage of our content development, and as it happens the switch to a full DITA/CMS based solution may be closer than I had anticipated.

We have been considering how best to publish up to date information in keeping with patches and minor releases, and if we can tidy up and publish useful information from our internal Wikis and support system. The nature of the product we work with means there are a lot of different usage patterns, not all of which we would document as they fall outwith typical (common) usage.

So, how to publish formal product documentation, in-line with three versions of the product, in PDF for ‘printed’ manuals, JavaHelp to be added to our product, and HTML to be published to a live website alongside other technical content (ideally maintained in the same system as the product documentation). Storing the content as XML chunks also allows us to further re-use the content programmatically (which can be tied into our product in a smarter, dynamic, fashion).

The obvious answer is single source using DITA to structure the content, storing the content as XML to give us the greatest potential avenues for re-use. Nothing particularly startling there I know, but it’s a switch from the direction we had been considering. So I’ve been catching up on what’s new in DITA-land and have to admit I’m a little disappointed.

We already have FrameMaker and Webworks in-house, although both are a couple of versions old, and thinking we might keep using those applications I’ve been hunting about to see if I can find a solution that offers a coherent, end-to-end, story. There are several CMS solutions which require an editor, editing solutions which require a CMS, and a few products that straddle both CMS and editing but then require publishing engines.

I understand that it would take a collaboration between vendors to be able to offer a simple, seamless solution

In addition to that there does seem to be a tendency for any DITA focused solution to remain the remit of the overly technical. Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite happy delving into XML code, hacking elements, or running command line scripts to get things done. But surely I shouldn’t have to resort such things? Now, I’m sure there are many vendors who will tell me that I don’t need to worry, but I’ve seen several demos and all of them miss a part of the FULL story.

Come on then vendors, stick your necks out. If you are a CMS provider, then recommend an editor. If you sell editing software then talk nice to a CMS vendor and start promoting each other (yeah Adobe, I’m looking at you!).

And yes, I’ll happily admit that maybe I’m just not looking closely enough. If only there was some sort of technical community website that I could join, perhaps with a group or two on DITA? That’d be great.

Ohhh wait. There is! (not the most subtle plug in the world, was it? I think the new Content Wrangler communities could be a big hit, do check them out).

Have a got the wrong end of the stick, are there really gaps in the market in this area at present or is it just my imagination? I guess I’ll be running a fair few evaluations over the coming few weeks and, of course, I’ll post my thoughts and findings here.

bookmark_borderAdapting

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Isn’t it amazing how quickly you can adapt to your given circumstance.

I’m sitting on the couch, laptop on, ehhh, my lap, to my immediate right is our dishwasher, to my left the washing machine blocks half of the other sofa, the fridge/freezer sitting behind it blocks the other. The other half of the living room holds the contents of the kitchen cupboards and the kettle. The hallway is stacked high with boxes containing the new kitchen and everytime the phone goes we need to clamber over the washing machine to get to it. We are washing dishes in the bathroom sink and the patio has the remnants of the old kitchen, the old cooker and a few other bits and bobs to go to the skip.

Yet I’m surprisingly stress free which, given the nonsense over the weekend with the taxi driver, is both surprising and very welcome as, apparently, my blood pressure is high.

When I was at the doctors last week to see about my cough (lung infection as it turned out) she also took my blood pressure and it was a little high the first time, and the second time, and the third time. So I’m going back tomorrow to get it taken again. Given the past week I was worried that I was on the verge of a heart attack but I actually feel quite relaxed and calm.

Maybe I’ve got all my stress out of my system…

I’m taking things a little easier on the web front at the moment, as we are heading into a busy time at work so between that and the kitchen I won’t have that much time. Fear not, everything and everyone is fine and now that I’ve said that I’ll be too busy I will, as usual, probably blog more in the coming weeks than I have for a while.

As I said, it’s amazing how quickly you can adapt to your given circumstance.