[Sigia-l] Documentation and Training - April 18-21, 2007

[Scott Abel]

> Jonathan:

Excellent question.

Technical writers (not all, but a significant number) have been  
creating reusable content for 10-20 years. We started the "write it  
once use it often" approach that is creeping into web content  
management. We have been exposed to all types of technologies over  
the year (we wrote about them) and eventually many of us became  
keenly aware of the importance of experience.In fact, those of us  
with a usability gene found it insulting that we were often relegated  
to the end of the process ("Hey, sweetie, the product is due out  
Monday. Could you whip up a user guide for us?") and forced to try to  
explain-away (in our documentation) the bad designs many software  
developers created. Of course, we knew the developers were not  
designers, but no one asked us.

Increasingly, organizations with large amounts of content are looking  
for ways to shave money off the very expensive content lifecycle.  
They are being challenged to look at their content lifecycle with a  
critical eye and find ways to eliminate manual tasks, automate them,  
and use the spare time for innovation. I'm oversimplifying, of course.

The more you understand about information (content) and those who  
create it, the better you'll be. Many technical writers will be  
making the move to IA roles. They're doing it already in some firms.  
But, in many others, it's a slower road to IA.

Attending the Documentation and Training Conference will be a great  
experience to network with folks who are professional communicators  
(marketing aviation, medical, life sciences, etc.) whose outputs are  
many (wireless, paper, mobile, PDF, web). I'm certain you would learn  
a lot and have much to share with others.

There are members of this list who are speakers at the event (and a  
few attendees, I'd imagine) who might be able to share some  
additional reasons this type of event might benefit you. As always,  
I'm happy to chat via telephone. 317-466-1840.

Scott Abel
Documentation and Training Vancouver
The User Experience
April 18-21, 2007

>
> Until recently, I've only been vaguely aware of technical writing as a
> discipline that pre-dates much of what I am involved in as a web
> development IA who designs systems that other people build. While it
> seems to me to be coming at the IA/UX thing from another angle, I'm
> intrigued as to whether this is an area I could learn more from.
>
> So - looking at http://www.doctrain.com/, I'm thinking of applying to
> attend, but I need a bit of a business case to do so as it's not like
> the IA Summit or something that I can hit my budget holders for. I'm
> hoping that I'd be able to get a new angle on things that I can bring
> back into my organisation (a large digital communications and
> development house), but does anyone have anything more specific to say
> on that point?
>
> In other words, what can the technical writing community do for  
> me? ;-)
>
> Jonathan
>
> PS: Scott, there's a typo in the first para of the home page:
> "Documentation & Trainining"