Category: Work

Those of you who have been reading for a while will recognise the title of this post, as it used to be the name of this blog. Then I realised how naff it was and dropped it when the ‘one man’ stuff was borne.

The phrase itself remains particularly apt, probably more so than when I first used it and, with reference to the exponential growth of Twitter, it is coming back into prominence. Social media applications, and the use thereof, shows no sign of slowing. This is a good thing because I firmly believe that social media applications (think Facebook, Twitter and the like) can be useful to many and the basic model of all of these things is based on the premise that “the more people that use them, the more valuable they become”. Which, of course, is (sort of) in direct conflict with those of us fighting information overload.

Of course, we only have ourselves to blame, as the bulk* of the online information we digest is driven by either opt-in or by deliberately choosing to monitor or follow a particular thread of information. This point is crucial. If you feel you are being overloaded by the amount of information you are choosing to receive to parse, be it by RSS feed, email, or directly from a website, then you can choose to reduce that load.

Twitter remains a bit of a mystery mind you, every morning I gain another follower or two, sometimes based on a product name (hello Dyson Airblades) and sometimes on a completely random basis. Or at least I assume they are random because I don’t recognise the person following me, nor do I recognise their website (yes, I do check profiles in case it’s just a username I’m not familiar with) and, as of yet, there is still no easy way to find this out. I’m presuming that this is the same for everyone, and it is just the usual clamouring for ‘Friends’ that so many people seem to think a good thing to do.

Each new social media application brings with it yet another raft of gurus trying to exploit and harness the “wisdom of the crowd” for themselves in a hope of forcing a “Tipping Point” even if their idea isn’t “Made to Stick”. What they don’t get is that this is not just another marketing bandwagon to jump on, not this time. The phenomenon of social media and the way it allows people to connect can be very powerful, but the important piece thing to understand isn’t the fact that people all over the globe are connecting, but because it’s PEOPLE that are making the connections.

The opt-in model is still the most powerful part of all of this, ensuring that those people who are passionate about a product or service can seek each other out and share their thoughts and ideas. Over to Matt Haughey who suggests that companies should:

make awesome stuff that gets people excited about your products, hire people that represent the company well, and when your stuff is so awesome that friends share it with other friends

Twitter continues to be the buzzword of the moment, the numbers rise and more connections are made. I glad to say that I am benefitting from being on Twitter, something I wasn’t sure of even a few months ago. Particularly as some of my peers are now on there, posting ideas and links to articles of interest to my profession. The iPhone is a boon for such things, particularly as Twitterific and InstaPaper to keep a track of “to read” articles and blog posts (Twitterific has built-in Instapaper bookmarking capabilities).

So whilst I’m not blogging here, or on either of my other two blogs, you can find me on Twitter, or read the links I post to my Instapaper account, browse the random things I find and post to my Tumblr account, or keep an eye on the websites I bookmark using del.icio.us. You can see my photos on Flickr, and see what music I’m listening to on Last.fm.

It’s a bit scary seeing all of my online data listed out like that. What’s even worse is that I do have an RSS feed that monitors them all… talk about information overload!

* I’m aware that many social applications (or whatever we are calling them today) generate a lot of email notifications, but again, you can usually either turn them off or, you know, opt out of that application.

As well as my full-time job, in my spare time I also design and build websites. It’s something which fits well with my skillset as a technical communicator, and allows me an insight into the world of development as well and has mirrored my career every step of the way.

The first company I worked for sent me on a training course to learn how to create web pages and, since then (13 years ago), I’ve continued to follow the trends and techniques involved. I’ve been through using tables for layout, to the introduction of frames, the launch of Internet Explorer and the first release of CSS.

The parallels between the theories of technical communications and those of web design are very similar, the key aim is to keep the audience in mind at all times. The way you structure and present the information is also important, as is a sense of usability of the content itself.

I’ve been lucky enough to have a fairly constant stream of web design work, largely by word of mouth, and have just finished chatting with another potential client. Part of my approach is to ask to have a questionnaire filled in, largely to help me understand the requirements for the website, as well as to have something to focus the initial conversations around.

Two of those questions are:

1. Who will be using your website? What is the intended/current audience?
2. Does your current website meet the needs of your audience? If not, why not?

Which, as I’m sure many of you will already have realised, is exactly the kind of questions we, as technical communicators, should be asking ourselves on a regular basis.

Yesterday was Ada Lovelace day, a day when women in technology, particularly those who blog, take a moment to highlight some of the heroines (am I still allowed to use that word?).

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines. Whatever she does, whether she is a sysadmin or a tech entrepreneur, a programmer or a designer, developing software or hardware, a tech journalist or a tech consultant, we want to celebrate her achievements.

An excellent idea and, whilst it was open to me as well I completely, and utterly, forgot about this. So by way of apology I’ll offer up some of the blog posts that others have posted:

• These women
• An interview with Ada Lovelace
• Oh me, oh my – it’s Ada Lovelace day
• Oh shit it’s Ada Lovelace Day post
• Ada Lovelace! Ada Lovelace!
• Ada Lovelace Day: Rachel Dixon

There are a variety of women I could mention in respect to Ada Lovelace day, particularly as my area of IT (technical communications) has a higher percentage of women than others, but over the past year or so there is one name that springs to mind, Anne Gentle, who has been a constant source of inspiration to me. I’ve been lucky enough to swap some emails with her, and we’ve bounced a few ideas between her blog and mine.

There are many other women in my field that I could mention and I’m lucky that, as I say, my area of IT is quite well represented. So, for those that missed it, what women inspire you?

Apologies for the silence, as ever life is making posting to this blog a ‘challenge’. I’ve not forgotten about it, and I will get back to more regular posting soon. I’ve a few posts almost completed that I’d love some feedback on, not to mention a few outstanding questions that have been asked in the comments to answer.

So, as the sign says, I’ll be back.

I’m in the midst of doing a little tweaking to this, and the other ‘one man’ websites. Part of that means rejigging the RSS Feeds.

There are two changes to note.

1. The miniblog feed is dead. I haven’t had a miniblog for ages and, since deleting the feedburner feed for it, it appears to have been taken over by a chinese website. I’d suggest you unsubscribe!
2. I’m planning on change the main feed for this blog. Yes it’s a pain, and I’m sorry but it’s the last remnant that needs changed to complete the move to the ‘one man’ domain.

So if you are subscribed to http://feeds.feedburner.com/Gordonmcleancouk then this is the last post you’ll receive from there.

From tomorrow, the RSS feed for this blog will be http://feeds2.feedburner.com/onemanblogs.

Apologies for the hassle.

And, finally, for those following the Super Duper Trough of Information (the one which includes my del.icio.us links and Flickr photos, don’t worry, that one ain’t changing!