Microsoft has announced the preview release of its documentation service, https://docs.microsoft.com, which currently provides content for its Enterprise Mobility products. “We interviewed and surveyed hundreds of developers and IT Pros and sifted through your website feedback over the years on UserVoice. It was clear we needed to make a change and create a modern web experience… Read more »
Category: online communities
Stack Overflow is moving into documentation (get the popcorn)
Stack Overflow, a collaboratively edited question and answer site for programmers, has announced its plans to add documentation to the site: “Lately we’ve been asking ourselves “what else could we do to improve developers’ lives on the internet?”. Jeff’s original announcement of Stack Overflow said this: There’s far too much great programming information trapped in forums,… Read more »
Atlassian no longer lets users comment on its documentation – good or bad news?
Last week, Atlassian sent out this message on Twitter: We’re changing our documentation platform, including closing comments. Read more and learn why http://t.co/PjZVCV1Vze — Atlassian (@Atlassian) April 14, 2015 This was a surprise, as Atlassian has been a strong advocate for having user comments appended to user documentation. Sarah Maddox, when she was working at… Read more »
The conversation confusion in technical communication
We noticed last week a few tweets in our Twitter stream about how technical documentation and user assistance will be turning into a conversation. A dictionary definition of conversation is: 1. The spoken exchange of thoughts, opinions, and feelings; talk. 2. An informal discussion. Informal, verbal, interactive, spontaneous communication is quite different from pretty much all forms… Read more »
What does Stack Overflow’s success mean for traditional User Assistance?
Last night, I saw Joel Spolsky speak at a London Enterprise Technology Meetup, held at the London School of Economics. Joel is one of the founders of Stack Overflow, a hugely popular question-and-answer website on the topic of computer programming. He also claimed in a blog post back in April 2000, no-one reads manuals (see our… Read more »