What links spy scandals to technical writing?

Answer: Context. Someone recently said “content is king, but context is queen”. This is true when it comes to actions as diverse as spying and writing technical documentation. We can illustrate this using scenes from the World War II film “Went the day well?”. It’s a story about spies and “fifth columnists”. The importance of… Read more »

How many cuddles are you putting into your user guides?

From Fast Company: “Neuroeconomist Paul Zak has discovered, for the first time, that social networking triggers the release of the generosity-trust chemical in our brains. The essence of affection. The cuddle chemical. In other words, oxytocin. If these changes apply in the world of social media, the implications for business — for every brand, company, and marketer… Read more »

When will the Technical Author become the Customer Engagement Manager?

Rahal Baillie posted on Twitter a link to an article which, in passing, made reference to “Customer Engagement Management“. Julie Hunt described it as: The activity of monitoring of brand and customer conversations on corporate websites, as well as bi-directional communication extensions to external social sites. In essence, it’s about creating and managing content that… Read more »

Three Technical Communicators discuss trends in technical communication

Scriptorium has published the recording of the webinar it hosted on trends in technical communication. In this webinar, Ellis Pratt, Sarah O’Keefe and Tony Self discussed emerging trends in technical communication. Trends in technical communication for 2010 There was a suprising amount of unanimity between the three of us.

“Digital Natives” and the end of traditional hotline support

Are we seeing a new generation growing up who are shying away from telephone-based support in favour of text-based support? This is one conclusion we can draw from a New York Times article last week on teenagers (whom it called “Digital Natives”) and technology. It reported on research from the Pew Research Center that indicated: Children… Read more »