I'd Rather Be Writing Podcast Feed
Tom Johnson
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Technical writing blog focusing on the latest trends, news, and other topics in the field of technical communication.
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5 days ago
30+ ways I’m using AI in everyday writing life as a technical writer, blogger, and curious human
In this post, I provide over 30 real-life examples of how I'm using AI on a daily basis, not just for technical writing tasks but more broadly in life, including summarizing content, explaining concepts, answering questions, troubleshooting problems, and having engaging conversations for a variety of tasks and scenarios. In my view, AI use cases are ubiquitous, equivalent to the use cases for computers or the Internet in general.
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6 days ago
Podcast: The evolution of podcasting, with Ed Marsh
In this podcast, I talk with Ed Marsh about podcasting. You may have listened to Ed Marsh's Content Content podcast previously. As an experienced podcaster, Ed has a lot of insights and thoughts about podcasting. We discuss what initially drew him to start podcasting, the equipment and logistics involved in podcasting, different formats that engage listeners (from co-hosts to single person podcasts, and more), incorporating AI tools, why podcasters often go on hiatus, the ongoing appeal of podcasting, and more.
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Nov 18, 2023
Podcast: Tech writing and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, with Dan Grabski
In this episode, I chat with Dan Grabski, a senior content developer based in Portland, both about his recent WTD talk titled 'Zen and the Art of Manually Creating API Documentation' and Robert Pirsig's 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.' Dan explains the importance of focusing not just on technical details of implementations but also on integrating the people side — on understanding the perspectives of different users and stakeholders involved. Dan provides examples from his engineering background to illustrate how intuition develops from experience, how to avoid spectator mode through hands-on exploration of APIs, on carving out time...
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Nov 9, 2023
Doing research with AI tools -- avoiding the trap of fabricated URLs
In this short podcast, I explore using AI tools to do research, the potential for fake URLs, and how to deal with the fabrication. I started by using Claude to summarize a podcast and provide a list of salient points, including the potential counterargument. What I didn't expect was for Claude to fabricate a list of imagined research and then summarize the fictitious research to conclude that it lended support for the counterargument. I took Claude's list of research and pasted it into ChatGPT with Bing to browse the real-time web to validate the sources. Using Claude and ChatGPT in...
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Nov 6, 2023
Notes for Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality
In Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality, Melissa and Chris Bruntlett describe how the Dutch achieved so much cycling success, and how other cities might do the same. The authors bring up a variety of techniques and approaches the Dutch have used, such as seamlessly integrating cycling with public transit, pursuing customized strategies based on each city's unique landscape and culture, taking an iterative approach to infrastructure, using tactical urbanism and prototyping, and more.
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Oct 25, 2023
My experience trying to write original, full-length human-sounding articles using Claude AI
You can use AI tools like Claude to help you write full-length content. By going paragraph-by-paragraph, you can direct the AI while seemingly maintaining your own voice and ideas. However, despite my attempts to use AI with writing, I've found that it's harder to pull off than I thought. I can get close, but due to the way AI tools are trained, they inevitably steer into explanation more than argument. This can remove much of the interest from a personal essay.
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Oct 20, 2023
Chatting about AI trends and tech comm with Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti
In this podcast, I chat with Fabrizio Ferri Benedetti, a tech writer in Barcelona who blogs at passo.uno and works for Splunk, about various AI news topics. We talk about the Forrester AI jobs impact forecast, the community element in documentation, the way the profession is changing with AI, content design roles with LLMs, how complex processes and interactions can't be automated, whether the word 'content' is problematic, and more.
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Oct 14, 2023
[Podcast] AI and APIs: What works, what doesn't
In conversations about AI, a lot of tech writers are asking what kind of scenarios is AI good for? What works, what doesn’t? In which scenarios? You may have read my responses to these questions before in previous posts, but this time I recorded a podcast with slides. In the podcast, I try to pull together these ideas into more of a narrative shape and flow. This podcast focuses on clarifying those scenarios where AI excels and where it doesn’t, particularly for technical writers creating documentation. I also argue for the inevitability of AI integration through an argument referred to...
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Mar 7, 2023
Presentation recording: Specialization myopia syndrome and the content journey
This is a recording of a presentation called Specialization myopia syndrome and the content journey, which I gave to a company's private tech comm event. With their permission, I'm posting it here. You can watch the recording via YouTube or listen the audio file as a podcast.
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Feb 26, 2023
Podcast: All about Redocly, with founder Adam Altman
In this podcast, I chat with Adam Altman all about Redocly, an authoring/publishing tool for creating API documentation. Topics we discuss include why he started Redocly, the approach to API doc tools, what explains the continued popularity of Redocly, the docs-as-code approach to API tooling, and more.
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Oct 31, 2022
Podcast about Archbee -- a new documentation tool with a block-based editor, API publishing capability, content re-use, and more
Archbee is a relatively new documentation tool that offers a block-based editor, API publishing capability, content re-use, and more. The initial version of Archbee was released in early 2019. Since then, the product has been steadily ramping up in features and growing its customer base. In this podcast, I chat with Claudiu Dascalescu about Archbee, the features driving its adoption, their target audience, and more.
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Mar 26, 2022
Keynote presentation to STC India 2022
This post is part of a series that explores tech comm trends that I've either followed or forgotten, and why. The overall goal is to better understand the reasons that drive trend adoption or abandonment in my personal career. This post contains a keynote presentation I gave to STC India on March 26, 2022.
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Feb 21, 2022
[Podcast] Become a technical writer: conversation with Bobby Kennedy about the technical writing courses he offers
I recently chatted with Bobby Kennedy to learn more about the technical writing courses he's offering at becometechnicalwriter.com. In this podcast, he shares a bit about why he started offering technical writing courses, some of the activities and strategies in the courses, and the outcomes so far.
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Feb 10, 2022
MEGAComm recording: How to increase awareness of tech comm inside corporate walls
I recently gave a presentation called How to increase awareness of tech comm inside corporate walls at the MEGAComm 2022 conference, which is a conference for tech comm professionals in Israel. The recording, slides, and description of my presentation are available below.
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Oct 29, 2021
Presentation recording -- 'Best practices in API docs: Product overviews and getting started tutorials'
I recently gave an online presentation about product overviews and getting started tutorials in API docs, sponsored by the STC Washington, D.C.-Baltimore Chapter. This post provides a recording of the presentation and related details.
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Sep 16, 2021
tcworld China 2021 keynote: 'Tech comm and marketing: How to make your tech comm group more visible to those within your company'
I recently gave a keynote presentation at tcworld China 2021 on the topic of tech comm and marketing. This post provides a recording of the presentation, slides, and detailed notes for the presentation.
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Aug 7, 2021
Recording of 'Product overviews vs. getting started tutorials: striking a balance between read-first and try-first user behaviors'
I recently gave a webinar to tekom Europe about product overviews and getting started tutorials. The recording and slides are below.
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Mar 21, 2021
Videocast: Micro content and Flare -- Conversation with Kate Schneider
In this videocast, I chat with Kate Schneider about micro content and Flare. Kate shares micro content examples from her current documentation and explains the strategies she considers when creating micro content. She shows specifically how to leverage analytics in determining micro content topics.
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Nov 17, 2020
The story behind Document360 -- podcast with founder Saravana Kumar
In a previous post, I explored how Document360, a new cloud-based documentation platform, handles API documentation scenarios. This time, I decided to record a podcast with Saravana Kumar, founder of Document360, to get the behind-the-scenes story about how Document360 came about, what's driving their fast pace of development, and their roadmap for the future.
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Aug 24, 2020
Playing a product design role as a content designer -- podcast with Jonathon Colman
In this podcast, I chat with Jonathon Colman about an innovative work model they implemented at Intercom with content designers. In their experimental model, content designers were allocated to one project only, and they expanded their roles to include not only content design but product design as well. These content/product designers engaged on a deeper level to help products succeed.
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Jul 24, 2020
A tip for doc reviews -- bring a list of questions
Although doc reviews are a central part of the tech writing process, it's often a challenge to get teams to review docs. One tip is to bring a list of questions to the doc review. This provides more structure and focus to the review meeting.
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Jun 24, 2020
Developer portal strategies for complex landscapes -- conversation with Kristof van Tomme
Recently I chatted with Kristof van Tomme, CEO and co-founder of Pronovix, about a topic that's become increasingly relevant in the past several months: how to deal with complex, rapidly evolving landscapes. Specifically, we focus on developer portal strategies that involve finding a balance between constraints and flexibility. Too many constraints reduces your ability to adapt to uncertain changes that might require innovative, unknown solutions. Too much flexibility might not lead to any coherent, overarching story about how to use your APIs in an integrated way toward a business goal.
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Jun 4, 2020
API the Docs recording: How Trends in API Documentation Differ from other Tech Comm Trends
I recently presented a session at the API the Docs virtual series on Wednesday, May 27, 2020, as part of the 5th edition. My session covered dev doc trends, and another session covered API design. A recording of my presentation is available below.
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May 31, 2020
WTD Australia event recording -- 'Remote discussion: Techcomm in the times of pandemic'
I recently co-presented in a WTD Australia event titled Techcomm in the times of pandemic on May 28, 2020. The other presenter was professor Kirk St. Amant. A recording is available below.
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Mar 30, 2020
Are technical writers increasingly playing non-technical roles? Some thoughts on the evolution of technical writing roles
How is the role of the technical writer evolving? It seems we're moving away from writing and more towards other roles, such as reviewer/convener, user champion, editor, publisher, and promoter. However, it's difficult to gauge change, especially across different job categories. In some scenarios, writing might never have been why we were hired.
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Mar 29, 2020
Podcast: Users as producers of knowledge -- conversation with Nupoor Ranade about how tech writer roles are changing
How can users shape and influence the documentation you're producing? In this podcast, I chat with Nupoor Ranade, PhD candidate at North Carolina State University, about how the roles of technical writers are changing. Instead of writers authoring content for passive users, users are actively directing and shaping the knowledge that writers produce. In this podcast, we look at ways docs-as-code workflows are facilitating that shift in roles. This podcast is more of a conversation, where I first ask Nupoor a series of questions, and then she asks me questions. There's also a transcript of the podcast.
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Mar 12, 2020
Webinar recording: How Trends in API Documentation Differ from other Tech Comm Trends
I recently gave a webinar on trends in developer docs to the STC Washington DC chapter on March 12, 2020. In this presentation, I presented the results and analysis of my Trends in Developer Documentation 2020 survey. A recording and audio file is available below.
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Mar 11, 2020
Introduction to API documentation - Recording from Los Angeles API documentation workshop
In January I gave an API documentation workshop in Los Angeles, and I recorded the first section of the workshop. This section provides an introduction to APIs, including an overview of APIs, the API doc market, info about API popularity, how to submit requests through Postman, and other trends. The recording is available as both a video/audio or standalone audio.
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Mar 9, 2020
Podcast: How Paligo is filling a niche in the CCMS market for complex documentation, with Anders Svensson
I recently chatted with Anders Svensson about how Paligo, a cloud-based CCMS, is filling a niche in the CCMS market for complex documentation needs. Complex documentation refers to documentation with multiple product variants, versions, languages, audiences, and more. In these scenarios, content re-use and scalability become more challenging. Paligo is filling a need for documentation teams that have grown beyond their help authoring tools and need the more robust support that a component content management system (CCMS) offers but without the price tag and implementation timeline.
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Feb 23, 2020
Podcast with Andrew Davis: Hiring API doc writers -- an inside look at fixing broken processes
I recently chatted with Andrew Davis, a recruiter for API documentation positions in the San Francisco Bay area, about why it's so difficult to hire technical writers for developer documentation roles. Andrew has more experience and knowledge with developer doc jobs, companies, and recruiting processes than nearly anyone else in the tech comm industry. He actually helped me find my first dev doc job when I transitioned to California years ago. Andrew's company is called Synergistech Communications. In this interview, Andrew provides an inside look at fixing broken processes around hiring.
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Feb 9, 2020
From API docs to developer portals
One comment I often hear from API workshop participants and other readers is that they want a more advanced API course. I've been thinking about what that more advanced course would involve, in addition to what might be involved in leveling up at my work, and I've come to a realization that I need to transition more from API documentation to developer portal strategies. Developer portal strategies includes API documentation but also encompasses broader concerns as well, not too different from content strategy.
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Dec 7, 2019
Podcast: API Design and Usability with Arnaud Lauret (API Handyman)
Arnaud Lauret, also known as the API Handyman, recently published a book called The Design of Web APIs. In this podcast, I chat with Arnaud about his book, specifically exploring best practices for designing web APIs and focusing on the roles technical writers can play.
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Oct 2, 2019
Podcast: Dealing with Project Overload -- Strategies to Manage Overflowing Documentation Tasks
In this podcast, I talk about how to deal with project overload, specifically covering strategies to manage tasks. Scrum is one framework for dealing with project work by allowing you to limit the work you have before you in a more systematic way. I also explain the importance of focusing on a project to build up flow and momentum, without always context switching.
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Sep 29, 2019
Podcast: 10 myths about API documentation
In this podcast, I debunk 10 myths about API documentation. For example, some myths are that only engineers can write API docs, or that you have to write API docs by deciphering an engineer's source code. In this podcast, I go through these myths one by one with discussion and analysis.
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Jun 8, 2019
Recording of Tech Comm Trends Presentation (STC Puget Sound chapter)
I recently gave a presentation on technical communication trends to the STC Puget Sound Chapter in Seattle, Washington, on May 21, 2019. This is one of the better presentations on trends I've given and culminates a lot of research and other iterations on this topic during the past year. You can view a recording of the presentation, check out the slides, grab the audio file, and see other details here.
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May 16, 2019
Crash course in API documentation -- a one-hour video
If you want a condensed, one-hour version of what I cover in my API documentation workshop, check out this crash-course video.
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Mar 1, 2019
Corporate exodus narratives: A close look at the tension between the corporation and academia
Corporations often expect tech comm academics to fashion their curriculums to suit corporate needs; in contrast, academic departments want to give students a safe space free of corporate agendas for critical inquiry. Tech comm academics are often caught between these two groups and must satisfy both.
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Feb 24, 2019
Recording and slides for my trends presentation at the Symposium for Communicating Complex Information (SCCI)
This week I traveled to Louisiana to attend the Symposium for Communicating Complex Information and presented on tech comm trends. You can listen to the recording, view my slides, and read my latest thoughts on trends here.
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Feb 7, 2019
How to become a 10X technical writer in the workplace
How do you become a 10X technical writer in the workplace (10X means 10 times more efficient and productive than others)? In this post, I raise the question and then offer a few tips I try to follow: (1) Record your meetings with engineers, (2) Respond quickly to emails and messages, (3) Iterate on content with ever-expanding layers of reviewers, (4) Put some work back on those who request it, and (5) Learn to say no so you can focus on fewer projects with deeper engagement.
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Feb 1, 2019
How to motivate users to provide feedback: Show that you're listening to their input
To encourage users to leave more feedback, add a contact email field on your feedback submission form. When you receive feedback, provide a quick response that shows you're listening and taking action on their input.
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Jan 14, 2019
Site analytics from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2018 -- are more engineers writing docs now?
Every year, when I re-examine my site analytics, I take the time to reflect on trends I’m seeing with traffic to my own site. Not necessarily industry trends, just trends about which topics are popular on my site. Based on these trends, I assess and re-evaluate some of my directions. This year, I found that the increase in traffic on my API documentation site (which accounts for 59% of my overall site traffic) suggests that more engineers are writing docs. This confirms my earlier predictions at the beginning of 2018 that specialization will drive more engineers to write API documentation,...
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Dec 4, 2018
Recording for Menlo Park API documentation workshop now available -- and some thoughts on using cardioid versus omnidirectional microphones for recording
The recording for the full-day API workshop that I recently gave in Menlo Park, California, is now available. This recording provides more than 5 hours of instruction about writing API docs -- for free. I also share some thoughts on cardioid versus omnidirectional microphones, and which is better in a workshop setting. The audio narration of this post switches around the microphones so you can hear the difference.
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Nov 30, 2018
New post in Simplifying Complexity series -- Principle 11: Be both a generalist and specialist at the same time
In my Simplifying Complexity series, I added a new post called, Principle 11: Be both a generalist and specialist at the same time. I also recorded this essay as a narrated podcast.
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Nov 19, 2018
How to avoid being a secretary for engineers
If we just see our task as documenting solutions that engineers have solved, it removes the creativity and critical thinking dimension from tech comm. The creative dimension in tech comm comes into play as we identify and solve tech comm challenges, such as devising ways to simplify complexity or otherwise improve the user experience.
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Oct 31, 2018
Upcoming full-day API documentation workshop in Menlo Park
I'm giving a full-day API documentation workshop on Nov 8, 2018, in Menlo Park, California, in coordination with Scott Abel (aka, The Content Wrangler). There are still a few open spots left in the workshop.
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Oct 24, 2018
Preferring technical acuity over specialized knowledge
In the debate between being a specialist or generalist, there's also a third option: developing technical acuity. A person with a high degree of technical acuity has the technical mindset needed to understand and solve problems across a variety of technical domains. Given the ever growing number of technologies, developing technical acuity can be more advantageous, especially in technical writing contexts since technical writers work with a lot of different technologies.
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Aug 9, 2018
If writing is no longer a marketable skill, what is?
When we try to sell our tech comm skills, promoting our writing skills doesn't seem to impress people anymore, as writing is considered more of a presumed skill everyone has. To give a sense of value, we need to hyphenate our job titles, becoming more of a hybrid professional.
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Aug 6, 2018
My conflicted thoughts about the decentralized web (while taking the Census of Technical Communicators survey)
Seeing my name in the Census of Technical Communicators survey as a possible source for professional development made me think about the impact of blogs as a learning resource. Advertising encourages bloggers to create rapid-fire, lightweight content in order to increase page views and other attention on the advertised product or service. The proliferation of blog content turns the wheels of social media, creating micro-bursts of attention for companies. The negative impact, however, is that more traditional forms of learning, such as scholarly journal articles and books, take a hit. The web's architecture and monetization model around content is optimized...
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Jul 31, 2018
Articulating stories that influence product adoption (new article in Simplifying Complexity series)
I added a new article in my ongoing series about simplifying complexity. The article is called Articulating the invisible stories that influence product adoption or rejection and explores why adoption of our products among users doesn't often live up to our expectations. I argue that we need to articulate the story we're telling about the product as well as the story users tell, and identify whether the two are in alignment. Note that you can both read and listen to this article, since I created an audio recording for it.
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Jul 11, 2018
Reducing the complexity of technical language (new article in Simplifying Complexity series)
I added a new article in my ongoing series about simplifying complexity. The article is called Reducing the complexity of technical language and explores reasons why the language in technical documentation tends become so full of jargon and other unfamiliar terms, and a few solutions for simplifying the language. I emphasize the need to read the competitor's documentation and other articles in the industry to get a sense of the right terms and contexts that users likely expect. I also decided to read the article for those who prefer podcasts.
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Jul 11, 2018
The relationship between academics and practitioners -- Podcast with Kirk St. Amant
In this podcast, I chat with Professor Kirk St. Amant about the relationship between practitioners and academics. Kirk recently co-authored an article about research as a unifying focus to bring academics and practitioners together. Using this article as the basis for discussion, we dive into origins of the divide, why both practitioners and academics of the same field need each other, potential solutions, and more.
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Jun 18, 2018
Evaluating the user experience of documentation -- Podcast with Bob Watson
This week I chatted with Bob Watson, an assistant professor of tech comm at Mercer University, about how to evaluate the user experience of documentation. The idea of doing a podcast came up during a comment thread on a previous post about reconstructing the absent user. We had a long exchange in the comment threads and thought it would be good to have a podcast about the topic.
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Mar 12, 2018
Recording of API documentation workshop in Denver
I recently gave a half-day API workshop in Denver on March 10, 2018. Topics in the workshop included how to document reference API content (endpoints, parameters, requests, etc.), what non-reference topics (for example, status and error codes, rate limiting, getting started, sample apps) are common, how to create an OpenAPI specification document and Swagger UI output, and more. You can view a recording of the workshop, browse the slides, and listen to the audio here. Because of the length, the content is divided into three parts.
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Mar 8, 2018
Recording of STC San Francisco presentation: Beyond mere endpoint reference — the overlooked content in API documentation
I recently gave a presentation to the STC San Francisco chapter called "Beyond mere endpoint reference — the overlooked content in API documentation" on February 21, 2018. You can browse the slides and listen to the audio recording here.
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Feb 14, 2018
Recording of OpenAPI and Swagger presentation (for STC and WTD San Diego)
I recently gave a presentation to the STC San Diego chapter and WTD San Diego group called "Swagger UI and the OpenAPI specification" (February 13, 2018). You can view a recording of the presentation, browse the slides, and listen to the audio here.
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Jan 19, 2018
Recording of WTD South Bay presentation: Publishing tools for API documentation
I recently gave a presentation called "Publishing tools for API documentation" to the Write the Docs South Bay meetup group on January 18, 2018. You can view a recording of the presentation, browse the slides, and listen to the audio here.
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Dec 1, 2017
How to become a voracious reader
Voracious reading begins with voracious thinking. Asking questions gives us a purpose and drive for reading.
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Nov 28, 2017
How do you communicate user progress in a course without a Learning Management System (LMS)?
When you don't have a system that logs users in and tracks their progress, it can be a challenge to show their progress in a course. However, rather than showing progress through completed pages, quizzes, or other interactive exercises, progress can also be measured through larger user goals that extend beyond the course. In the case of my API documentation course, the user's goal is to break into the field of API documentation, not so much to finish a course. Breaking into API documentation requires users to build a compelling portfolio, which is how I'm choosing to measure the user's...
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Nov 19, 2017
Intro to API Documentation -- recording of presentation to STC Silicon Valley chapter on 11/20/2017
I recently gave a presentation titled "Introduction to API Documentation" to the STC Silicon Valley chapter in Santa Clara, California. The video recording and audio are available here.
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Oct 5, 2017
SwaggerHub: A collaborative platform for working on OpenAPI/Swagger specification files, and more
When documenting REST APIs, the OpenAPI specification (formerly called Swagger) is pretty much the default standard. Yet learning the OpenAPI spec is not a trivial undertaking and requires significant ramp-up. SwaggerHub is a tool can reduce the complexity in creating your OpenAPI spec file because it enables collaboration between both developers and technical writers. This collaboration not only helps compensate for gaps in understanding with the spec, SwaggerHub also offers many other features (such as versioning, content re-use, inline commenting, and more) to make the authoring and publishing experience easier.
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Sep 20, 2017
Has plain language deepened or ruined our delight in language?
Although technical writers champion plain language, embracing plain language for many years can cripple your ability to use more eloquent language, like that of a literary author or essayist. There isn't much room for literary play or playful tones in technical documentation. Following the rules of simple language has distorted my ability to read anything that blatantly violates those rules without questioning the author's word choice and sentence construction. Sometimes I feel that simple language has removed my ability to delight more in language and to express myself in more articulate, interesting ways.
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Aug 23, 2017
Discoveries and realizations while walking down the Docs-as-Code path
This past week I had some good discussions with developers about the right directions in our doc-as-code project at work. I say good discussions, but actually they were challenging. The outcome led me to realize more details about embracing docs as code. The more you treat docs as code, the more you may have to set aside some common tech writer models of handling content and instead embrace the software code workflows entirely. Some of these principles include storing only source code in repositories, building from a build management system, and reducing build pipelines to work with 1 or 2...
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Aug 5, 2017
Why Stack Overflow's Documentation effort failed -- a few thoughts from a technical writer's perspective
Stack Overflow, mostly known as a forum for answering niche software questions, recently tried to launch a Documentation component to their site. The goal of Documentation was to 'do for Documentation what we did for Q&A'. In other words, provide substantial, valuable information that could be the go-to source for tech docs instead of just one-off answers around niche topics. However, the effort failed and now Stack Overflow is sunsetting their Documentation.
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Aug 4, 2017
Tech docs and Agile: Problems with integrating tech writers into engineering Scrums (Part 1)
Although it seems like documentation should be treated like other features worked on by a Scrum team, frequently it is not. When tech writers try to integrate into engineering Scrum teams, they usually run into a host of challenges. These challenges stem mainly from floating across multiple projects. Often doc tasks aren't assigned points or grouped in with other tasks in a real sprint, nor are tech writers co-located with project teams. This is a two-part post. In this first part, I outline problems for tech writers integrating into Scrum teams. In part 2, I explore solutions.
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Aug 4, 2017
Tech docs and Agile: Alternatives to integrating into engineering Scrums (Part 2)
This is part two in a series on Agile and tech docs. In the previous post, I outlined challenges in integrating into engineering Scrum teams. Some alternatives to Scrum include Kanban, Extreme programming, Waterfall, and various productivity methodologies. The most compelling solution, to me, seems to be to form your own documentation-focused Scrum. This allows you to keep with the same project management approach and language in the company, while also allowing you to avoid the pitfalls previously described with integrating into an engineering Scrum. Even so, there's not an extremely compelling reason for docs to adopt Scrum, so its...
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Jul 27, 2017
Why simple language isn't so simple: the struggle to create plain language in documentation
Although you can adjust your content's style to be simpler and more readable, technical documentation introduces many new terms and concepts for readers to learn. Many readers who don't already understand the discourse community may find this language impenetrable. Glossaries and inline tooltips can potentially help novice users, but there's no easy solution for simplifying your language for both novice and expert users.
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Jul 23, 2017
When the pain of ignorance exceeds the pain of learning
Users turn to documentation when the pain of their ignorance exceeds the pain of learning. Unfortunately, this is the worst state of mind to try to learn anything in. To address this impatient state of mind, we need to write documentation in simpler, easier to digest ways. Task-based documentation gets us part way there. But the varying starting points, unique pathway needs, and messy branching complicate the promised simple linear nature of steps. Overall, we need to increase the simplicity factor in our docs much more than we generally do.
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Jul 13, 2017
Transparency in documentation: dealing with limits about what you can and cannot say
Although traditionally as a technical writer you don't run into too many ethical scenarios for docs, sometimes you have situations where your ability to be transparent about a system's limitations gets curtailed by marketing or product management. It can be frustrating to have your documentation filtered like this, but you can take comfort knowing that, given the decentralized nature of information on the web, where any user can post information in forums, blogs, and other sites, the information filtered out of your docs will eventually be published online (it just might not be published by you).
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Jun 8, 2017
Recording of my WTD Portland 2017 presentation on Building navigation for your doc site -- 5 best practices
Here's the recording of the presentation I gave at the Write the Docs 2017 Portland conference. The presentation explores best practices for doc navigation, including principles such as hierarchy, modularity, progressive disclosure, entry point, and wayfinding. The presentation is about 20 minutes long, and you can either watch a video or listen to audio. Other WTD presentation recordings are also available.
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Feb 18, 2017
Recording of User-Centered Design Principles for Organizing Documentation
I recently presented to the STC Twin Cities chapter on User-centered Design Principles for Organizing Documentation. When organizing your documentation, such as arranging navigation titles, workflows, or other wayfinding features, you can apply universal design principles to make your content more user centered. Some of these principles include Modularity, Hierarchy, Five hat racks, and Progressive disclosure. These design principles, based on solid user research from design gurus, will help users better find and navigate your help content. You can view the recording and audio from the event here.
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Jan 24, 2017
Recording: Modern Technical Writing, by Andrew Etter (STC Silicon Valley chapter)
Andrew Etter presented about his book, Modern Technical Writing, to the STC Silicon Valley chapter on January 24, 2017 in Santa Clara, California. In the presentation, Andrew talks about the strategies he implemented at Palantir to change to a new way of doing docs. This new way includes having a smaller team, using text editors, writing in plain text, processing pull requests instead of bugs, and more. He dives into lightweight markup syntax, static site generators, version control tools, and more, as well as challenges he has faced.
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Jan 18, 2017
Recording: Writing tech docs like a hacker with Jekyll
I recently gave a presentation titled Writing tech docs like a hacker with Jekyll to the to the Southern Ontario STC chapter (on Jan 18, 2017). In the presentation, I introduce reasons why we started using Jekyll, how static site generators differ from content management systems, how to get started with Jekyll, and challenges involved in using Jekyll for technical documentation sites.
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Nov 15, 2016
Recording of Open Authoring -- Collaboration Across Disciplines presentation, by Ralph Squillace
Ralph Squillace, a senior content engineer for the Microsoft Azure Infrastructure team based in San Francisco, California, recently gave a presentation to the STC Silicon Valley chapter (on November 14, 2016) on Open Authoring -- Collaboration Across Disciplines. In the presentation, Ralph talks about Microsoft's approach to scaling their authoring and publishing efforts across the company by embracing Markdown, Github, open source tools, and other processes that allowed everyone in the company to write and contribute to Azure's documentation.
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Oct 18, 2016
Saving Your Sanity Through Better Client Relations -- with Alisa Bonsignore
In this presentation, Alisa Bonsignore, a technical communication consultant based in the San Francisco Bay area, talks about how she developed confidence and experience in consulting with clients about writing projects. In the beginning, Alisa started out by apologizing for projects in which she worked excessive numbers of hours for little pay, often trying to meet last-minute requests that required late nights and zapped her work-family balance. But project by project, she started to understand how to interact with clients in a more professional, self-respecting way. Ultimately this helped save her sanity and build a stable income through a reputable...
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Sep 20, 2016
How can technical writers thrive in agile environments? Event recording and details
Last Monday we had a record turnout at our STC Silicon Valley chapter (with about 40 attendees). The topic was a panel discussion on how to thrive in agile environments as a technical writer. With 5 panelists all from different companies, the perspectives and practices they shared varied a bit, which showed the adaptations different writers and companies have made with agile to make the process work for them. This post contains a full description and recording of the event.
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Sep 2, 2016
Recording of Let's Tell a Story -- Scenario-Based Documentation, by Matt Ness (STC Silicon Valley Presentation)
Matt Ness, a technical writer at Splunk and a co-organizer for WTD San Francisco, recently gave a presentation to the STC Silicon Valley chapter called Let's Tell a Story: Scenario-Based Documentation. In this presentation, Matt talks about ways to integrate storytelling techniques into documentation, drawing upon his experience as a Dungeons and Dragons player and his player experience from other video game or fantasy worlds. To help users on their journeys and quests, you need a narrative to guide them and a manual to help them overcome obstacles. Video, slides, and audio from the presentation are included in this post....
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Sep 2, 2016
Balancing the never-ending list of documentation to write with your natural interests and passions
Sometimes I think that I've covered every possible topic on this blog that is possible to write about, and my muse becomes silent for a while. But then I remember the purpose of the blog -- to be a web-based log, or journal -- and I realize that the only reason I wouldn't have anything to write about is if I stopped having experiences, stopped reflecting on those experiences, and ultimately became a zombie. That zombie state is the death of any career.
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Aug 15, 2016
The complexities of translation and the need for dynamic variables in the build process
Translation is a complex undertaking that usually requires you to take advantage of dynamic variables and other parameters in your source format in order to generate out different languages. Although most people think of static site generators as containing static content only, it's actually only static output. During the build process, you can take advantage of these more dynamic characteristics to handle rules for outputting to different languages. In this post, I explain some of the details you have to account for (includes, links, images, re-used content, etc.) when managing a translation project using a static site generator such as...
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Aug 15, 2016
Presentation recording: Hunting for API developer documentation jobs in the San Francisco Bay area, by Andrew Davis
Andrew Davis recently gave a presentation on finding developer documentation jobs (mostly for API documentation) in the San Francisco Bay area. The title of the presentation is Hunting for Dev Doc Work around the Bay. You can listen to the presentation recording, check out the slides, or just download the audio.
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Aug 1, 2016
The Story of Paligo: A new browser-based CCMS with all the features you'd ever want
Up until two years ago, Anders Svensson and his colleagues, based in Sweden, provided DITA and XML consulting. They eventually created their own XML-based component content management system (CCMS) called Paligo, which includes a full set of documentation features to handle single-sourcing, translation, and other documentation needs. Paligo solves the challenges that Svensson's customers had been facing for years with other CCMS systems.
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Aug 1, 2016
Will the docs-as-code approach scale? Responding to comments on my Review of Modern Technical Writing
My previous post reviewing Andrew Etter's ebook on Modern Technical Writing got an enormous response. Some readers said the docs-as-code approach works only for small shops and doesn't scale to large projects. They said content re-use and translation also become problematic. However, perhaps the real differentiator shouldn't be product size as much as product category. The docs-as-code approach (which is what I'm calling it) works particularly well for developer documentation, such as API documentation, which usually doesn't contain the same challenges that component content management systems (or CCMSs) were meant to solve.
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Jul 26, 2016
Review of Andrew Etter's ebook on Modern Technical Writing
In Modern Technical Writing: An Introduction to Software Documentation, which is an e-book you can read on your Kindle, Andrew Etter argues for a model of technical writing that involves lightweight markup languages (like AsciiDoc and Markdown), static site generators (such as Sphinx), distributed version control systems (like Git or Bitbucket), constantly iterating/updating doc content on your website based on analytics, and more. Etter's book resonated with me because it articulates so many of the principles I've felt about how documentation should be.
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Jul 20, 2016
Applying Tim Ferriss' 4-hour work week rules to tech comm projects
Principles in Tim Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Work Week can be applied to tech comm projects. By focusing on the 20% of tasks that result in 80% of the results, limiting your focus to two mission critical tasks a day, empowering those around you to make decisions, and avoiding distractions from trivial tasks, meetings, and email, you can be much more productive in your work. More than crossing off a list of tasks, this approach will likely make your efforts matter.
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Jul 15, 2016
Thoughts on Transforming Documentation Processes presentation at WTD: Evaluating the trend to treat documentation as code
At the last Write the Docs conference, Riona Macnamara, a tech writer working on internal developer documentation at Google, moderated a panel about transforming your documentation process. The panel consisted of four writers from various companies -- Balsamiq, Rackspace, Microsoft, and Twitter. The panelists talked about how they increased collaboration and openness in their company's doc culture by transforming their authoring and publishing processes. Most of these transformations involved adopting a 'docs as code' type approach, which seems to be a growing trend.
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Jul 13, 2016
Context switching and efficiency -- Kanban to the rescue?
In Become More Productive and Motivated, Mattias Sander provides a well-written overview of Lean, which is a strategy for eliminating waste and focusing more on customer value. What interests me most with Sander's discussion about Lean is context-switching and the subsequent strategy of Kanban, which uses cards to regulate flow. While these principles were developed in the context of Japanese car manufacturers (namely Toyota), they apply equally to the technical writer's world.
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Jul 12, 2016
Why Programming Sucks and the fallacy of documentation in the context of code chaos
Yesterday on Write the Docs, someone shared an article titled Programming Sucks, by Peter Welch. More than just a developer monologue, this article seems to hit on universal truths about programming, so much so that the article has been translated into 10 languages and even has a professionally-read audio version on iTunes (which I bought for $2).
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Jul 9, 2016
Thoughts on Documentation Avoidance for Programmers
This past week on the Write the Docs forum, there was a bit of discussion around a recent presentation titled Documentation Avoidance for Programmers. In the presentation, Peter Hilton lays out a series of tips on how programmers might get out of writing documentation.
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May 22, 2016
Recording of 'Two great teams that work great together: Bridging the gap between documentation and support,' by Neal Kaplan at Write the Docs
We recently hosted a Write the Docs meetup in Redwood City with a couple of excellent presenters. Below is the recording of Neal Kaplan's presentation. I also explain a bit about my new lapel mic and recording process.
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May 22, 2016
Presentation recording: Move Fast And ... Document Things? Lessons learned in building documentation culture at a startup, by Ruthie Bendor
During the May WTD meetup, Ruthie Bendor, a web engineer, gave a presentation titled Move Fast And ... Document Things? Lessons learned in building documentation culture at a startup. This post contains the audio and video recording of her presentation.
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Apr 24, 2016
Recording of WTD presentation on Video Documentation, by Alicia Avrach
Alicia Avrach, a content strategist at ThoughtSpot, gave a presentation about video documentation at a recent Write the Docs San Francisco meetup. In this presentation, Alicia covers all the aspects of video production, from scripting to recording, post-processing, publishing, and more.
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Apr 24, 2016
Recording of STC-SV presentation on the Shape of a Modern Technical Communication Organization, by Sanborn Hodgkins
Sanborn Hodgkins gave a presentation to the STC Silicon Valley chapter called Shape of a Modern Technical Communication Organization on April 18. In the presentation, she highlights the variety of roles -- editor, videographer, information architect, content strategist, manager, writer, tools developer, and others -- that tech comm organizations need to thrive.
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Jan 9, 2016
Spec-driven Development with RAML -- presentation by Michael Stowe to STC Silicon Valley chapter
In October 2015 Michael Stowe presented to the STC Silicon Valley chapter about spec-driven development, with a demo of RAML, which is an API specification similar to Swagger. Pretty much everyone who attended his presentation was impressed at how cool RAML is in making API documentation interactive. You can view Michael's slides and listen to the spec-driven development presentation recording here.
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Dec 22, 2015
Recording of Creating Documentation for Startups: Panel Discussion -- Write the Docs San Francisco
The following is a recording of a panel discussion at a Write the Docs San Francisco meetup held Dec 17, 2015. The topic is on creating documentation for startups.
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Dec 17, 2015
Recording of Version Control, Writers, and Worfklows by Richard Mateosian
You can watch the recording of Richard Mateosian's November 2015 presentation to the STC Silicon Valley about version control, writers, and workflows.
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Oct 12, 2015
Podcast: Spec-driven Development of REST APIs, with a focus on RAML -- interview with Michael Stowe
Spec-driven development is an approach to developing REST APIs by first describing and prototyping the API through a specification file (such as RAML or Swagger), and then coding the API. The spec not only serves as a contract for the API's development, it can also generate interaction documentation, unit tests, client SDKs, and provide other benefits.
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Oct 6, 2015
Udemy podcast (with me) and infographic on technical writing
Recently I was interviewed by Alex Bankoff from Udemy for a podcast on the field of technical writing. The Udemy team also created an infographic about the topics covered in the podcast.
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Aug 10, 2015
Podcast: The divide between academics and practitioners -- Interview with Lisa Meloncon
In this podcast, I talk with Lisa Meloncon, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnatti, about the academic-practitioner divide.
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Jul 30, 2015
Podcast: How do design, length, and relevance affect how people use API reference docs -- interview with Bob Watson
Bob Watson recently finished a PhD with research that examined how the design and content of API reference docs affects the user's performance. In this podcast, I talk with Bob about his findings and his other research interests, primarily around goal testing to measure documentation's effectiveness.
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Jul 7, 2015
The key to writing good documentation: Testing your instructions
Writing good documentation requires you to set up a test environment and test all of your instructions -- testing the instructions yourself and against a user. Testing instructions can be time consuming and tricky, especially with developer documentation. It's hard to see past personal blind spots and assumptions. But testing instructions gives you access to insight that makes your documentation much more accurate and useful.
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May 16, 2015
Introduction to technical writing -- slides and audio recording
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May 16, 2015
API Documentation presentation to East Bay STC chapter -- slides and recording
The other week I gave a introductory presentation on API documentation to the East Bay STC chapter in Silicon Valley. Here are the slides and recording.
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May 15, 2015
Recording and slides from "Jekyll vs. DITA: Bridging the Gap Between Tech Comm and the Web" presentation
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Mar 19, 2015
Recording of API documentation workshop (REST and Javadoc) at tcworld India 2015
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Mar 18, 2015
Recording of Innovation in Technical Communication keynote at tcworld India 2015
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Feb 9, 2015
Podcast: The upcoming tcworld India conference on March 12-13, with Akash Dubey
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Feb 4, 2015
Best practices for API documentation -- podcast with Andrya Feinberg
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Feb 3, 2015
Survival strategies for API documentation -- slides and recording
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Jan 27, 2015
API workshop video + audio + slides + workshop files from TC Camp
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Jan 19, 2015
Moving from passive to reactive documentation -- recording of presentation by Greg Koberger, ReadMe.com founder
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Jan 8, 2015
Podcast: Unifying the API doc publishing toolchain, with Mark Baker
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Jan 6, 2015
Podcast: Automating REST API documentation, with Peter Gruenbaum
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Dec 22, 2014
Learning how developers think, and other API doc insights: Podcast with Joe Malin
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Dec 17, 2014
Getting a job in API documentation: Podcast with Andrew Davis
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Nov 5, 2014
The Author Experience -- Interview with Rick Yagodich
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Oct 23, 2014
Slides and recording for "Perfecting the audio narration in instructional video" at Info Dev World
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Oct 16, 2014
API Doc presentation slides and recording (San Francisco STC chapter)
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Jun 19, 2014
Information Development World and the Customer Experience -- A Podcast with Scott Abel and Val Swisher
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Jun 16, 2014
Introduction to API documentation: Interview with Scot Marvin
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Jun 8, 2014
Lessons learned as a novice API technical writer -- Interview with Mary Linderman (podcast)
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May 30, 2014
Creating code samples for API/SDK documentation (webinar recording, slides, and audio)
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May 18, 2014
Recording of my STC Sacramento presentation -- Why users can't find answers in help material
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Mar 4, 2014
Videos and reflections from the 2014 Intelligent Content Conference
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Mar 4, 2014
Tobi Crabtree on Virtual Agents (Intelligent Content 2014)
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Mar 4, 2014
Val Swisher on Translation Without Borders at Intelligent Content 2014
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Mar 4, 2014
Noz Urbina on The Biological Imperative for Intelligent Content (Intelligent Content 2014)
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Mar 4, 2014
Mark Baker on Every Page Is Page One (Intelligent Content 2014)
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Mar 4, 2014
Rahel Bailie on the Language of Content Strategy (Intelligent Content 2014)
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Mar 4, 2014
Don Day on Connecting Intelligent Content with Micropublishing (Intelligent Content 2014)
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Mar 4, 2014
Theresa Putkey on Diagnosing and Solving Content Problems (Intelligent Content 2014)
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Mar 4, 2014
Kyle Wiens on gamification and iFixit / Dozuki at Intelligent Content 2014
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Mar 4, 2014
Sarah O'Keefe on The Many Facets of Content Strategy (Intelligent Content 2014)
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Mar 4, 2014
Marcia Riefer Johnston on Writing (Intelligent Content 2014)
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Mar 4, 2014
Tom Johnson on Blogging (Intelligent Content 2014)
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Jan 8, 2014
Recording of STC Berkeley presentation on why users can't find answers in help
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Oct 23, 2013
Recording and slides for "Why users can't find answers in help" presentation to STC Silicon Valley
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Jun 24, 2013
Recording of "Video Tutorials for User Assistance" (UA Europe Presentation)
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Jun 24, 2013
Recording of "Making Content More Findable When Users Browse and Search" (UA Europe Presentation)
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Dec 12, 2012
Podcast: Include It All, Filter It Afterwards -- Interview with Mark Baker
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Feb 18, 2012
Webinar Recording: Designing Quick Reference Guides
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Feb 18, 2012
Webinar Recording -- Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-Based Hierarchies
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May 18, 2011
Podcast: Organizing Help Content: Breaking Out of Topic-based Hierarchies
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Apr 6, 2011
Podcast: Content Strategy and Agility, with Noz Urbina
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Mar 18, 2011
Podcast: A Practical Guide to Information Architecture, with Donna Spencer
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Mar 14, 2011
Podcast -- Visual Composing: Document Design for Print and Digital Media, with Jo Mackiewicz
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Mar 7, 2011
Podcast with Alan Houser -- Candidate for STC Vice President
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Mar 7, 2011
Podcast with Victoria Koster-Lenhardt -- Candidate for STC Vice President
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Nov 23, 2010
Podcast: Educational Programs and Workplace Practices
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Oct 22, 2010
Why Help Content Fails and #contentstrategy
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Oct 22, 2010
Technical Writing Is More Than "Click This, Select That" [Podcast]
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Oct 8, 2010
Podcast: Finding and Creating Relevant Content -- Strategies for Social Media
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Oct 6, 2010
Podcast: Developing a Personal Voice in Audio (Intermountain-STC event)
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Sep 7, 2010
More Students Questions about Technical Writing
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Sep 6, 2010
Answers About the Field of Technical Writing for Students
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Apr 28, 2010
Podcast: From Overlooked to Center Stage (Overlooked)
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Apr 26, 2010
Podcast: “Anyone Can Write”: Changing Roles for Technical Communicators
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Apr 26, 2010
Podcast: Trends in Technical Communication
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Apr 11, 2010
Podcast: Ten Voiceover Techniques (PodcampSLC)
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Mar 2, 2010
Podcast: What's New in Flare 6 — Interview with Mike Hamilton
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Mar 1, 2010
Podcast: Documentation in the Cloud
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Jan 21, 2010
Podcast: Riding the Tide of Technical Communications Consulting
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Dec 26, 2009
Podcast on getting a job in technical writing (TW Job)
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Dec 22, 2009
Podcast: The Myth of Single Sourcing
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Nov 18, 2009
Podcast about the Podcast Poll
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Nov 5, 2009
Podcast on the seven deadly sins of blogging
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Oct 15, 2009
Podcast from BYU Idaho Professional Writing Panel
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Oct 11, 2009
Choosing Between Academic and Corporate Life: Did I Make the Wrong Choice?
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Oct 1, 2009
My STC Summit Blogging Presentation Is Free
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Sep 23, 2009
Information Overload -- Conversation with Ricardo Amigo
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Aug 26, 2009
Podcast with Anne Gentle about her Conversation and Community book
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Aug 15, 2009
Carcast: Friday Thoughts on Reading, Publish2, and Writer River
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Jul 28, 2009
Podcast on Content Strategy: Interview with Rahel Bailie
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Jun 20, 2009
Forms that Work – Interview with Caroline Jarrett (podcast)
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Jun 14, 2009
Blogging, Podcasting, and Screencasting: Eight Characteristics to Attract Devoted Followers [Part 2]
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Jun 14, 2009
Blogging, Podcasting, and Screencasting: Eight Characteristics to Attract Devoted Followers [Part I]
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May 27, 2009
Anne Gentle on her Forthcoming Book, Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation
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May 26, 2009
STC Toronto's New Five-and-Five Chapter Model
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May 26, 2009
Richard Hamilton's XML Press Imprint
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May 22, 2009
Converting Readers from Casual Subscribers to Devoted Followers
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May 20, 2009
Madcap's Flare-DITA Solution (podcast)
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May 20, 2009
The State of Structured Authoring in Technical Communication (podcast)
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May 17, 2009
John Hedtke on Disaster Preparedness and Book Publishing
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May 14, 2009
GUI Magnets -- Prototyping User Interfaces with Simple Magnets
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May 12, 2009
James Bond: The History of the Illustrated 007 (Podcast with Alan Porter)
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May 5, 2009
Ginny Redish -- Letting Go of the Words (Podcast Interview at STC Summit)
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Mar 24, 2009
Introduction to Technical Writing (podcast)
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Mar 24, 2009
Managing Writers: Interview with Richard Hamilton (podcast)
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Mar 15, 2009
Jane's Presentation, Twitter for Business (podcast)
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Mar 4, 2009
Podcast -- Blogging for Technical Communicators Webinar (Part 2)
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Mar 4, 2009
Podcast -- Blogging for Technical Communicators Webinar (Part 1)
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Feb 6, 2009
Documentation Review Techniques (videocast)
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Feb 1, 2009
Podcast: Make Your Help Indispensable, Safeguard Your Job
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Jan 17, 2009
Screencasting -- Workflow and Presentation, by Collin Turner (Podcast)
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Jan 15, 2009
A Technical Writer with Extra Privileges? Responding to a Question about Roles (Videocast)
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Jan 12, 2009
Top Technical Communication News for January 2009
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Jan 6, 2009
Podcast: Help Authoring with Doc-To-Help 2009, Interview with Nicky Bleiel
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Dec 23, 2008
Podcast: Technical Writing in Agile Environments -- Interview with Alyssa Fox
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Dec 14, 2008
Podcast: What Is the Technical Writer's Role in Interface Design? Interview with Bogo Vatovec
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Nov 3, 2008
Podcast: Debunking the Boredom Myth of Technical Writing
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Oct 29, 2008
Podcast: Personalities of Technical Communicators -- Interview with Deborah (Shapiro) Hemstreet
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Sep 19, 2008
Podcast: Repurposing Content for Multichannel Publishing (Single Sourcing)
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Sep 8, 2008
Podcast: Flare 4 -- Ten New Features, Interview with Sharon Burton
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Sep 5, 2008
Podcast: What's New in the Field of Technical Communication?
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Jun 1, 2008
Podcast: Using Video in Training and Documentation, Interview with Todd O'Neill
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Jun 1, 2008
Podcast: Analyzing Your Users and Needs Before Creating the Help Deliverables; Interview with Nicky Bleiel
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May 30, 2008
Podcast: How to Create User-Centered Documentation, Interview with Joe Sokohl
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May 27, 2008
Thinking About a More Personal Style of Podcasting
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May 25, 2008
Podcast: Workspaces, Collaboration, and Information Sharing -- Interview with Emma Hamer
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May 25, 2008
Podcast: Why Content Management Projects Fail, Interview with Rahel Bailie
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May 25, 2008
Podcast: How XML Enables Information Sharing and Reuse -- Interview with Joe Gollner
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May 18, 2008
Podcast: XSL, Flash, and Live Blogging -- Interview with Sarah O'Keefe
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May 18, 2008
Podcast: Document Engineering, Interview with Robert Glushko
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May 12, 2008
Podcast: Living Multiple Lives -- The New Technical Communicator, Interview with Noz Urbina
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May 11, 2008
Podcast: Embracing Wikis -- Interview with Stewart Mader
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May 7, 2008
Podcast: Moving 50,000 Pages of Unstructured Content to DITA
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May 6, 2008
Podcast: Leading Your Company into the Wikis, Blogs, and Social Networks of Web 2.0
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Apr 22, 2008
Podcast -- DITA: From the Perspective of Someone Actually Using It
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Apr 12, 2008
Podcast -- Social Networking and the Value of User Communities for Technical Communicators
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Apr 3, 2008
Podcast -- Transitioning from Technical Writing into Usability
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Mar 26, 2008
Podcast -- Tackling Godzilla: A Writer/Usability Consultant Reflects on the Largest Project of her Career
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Mar 2, 2008
My Blogging and Podcasting Presentation -- the MP3 and Video Recording
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Feb 5, 2008
Interview with STC President Linda Oestreich: Directions the STC Is Heading
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Jan 29, 2008
Going Beyond Technical Writing: Practical Advice for Diversifying Your Skillset -- Podcast Interview with Mark Hanigan
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Jan 19, 2008
All About Madcap Flare: Podcast Interview with Paul Pehrson, MVP in Madcap Software Forums
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Jan 14, 2008
The Impact of Social Media on Technical Communication -- Podcast Interview with Bill Albing
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Dec 10, 2007
Technical Communication Suite from Adobe -- Interview with RJ Jacquez
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Dec 5, 2007
Show Me Demos and Captivate -- Interview with Kevin Siegel
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Nov 19, 2007
Special DMN Communications Podcast with Tech Writer Voices (me): Are you Hurting Your Career By Not Blogging or Podcasting?
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Nov 12, 2007
Top 10 Worst Things SMEs Say or Do -- Interview with Brenda Huettner
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Nov 6, 2007
Building Online Communities: Interview with Svi Ben-Elya about Elephant.org.il
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Oct 17, 2007
Answering Tough Questions About Wikis -- Interview with Anne Gentle
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Oct 5, 2007
Usability Research Behind Microsoft's Ergonomic Keyboard
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Sep 20, 2007
Location is everything when it comes to getting information from SMEs — Carcast
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Sep 18, 2007
Virtual Ways of Communicating — Char James-Tanny
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Jun 22, 2007
Information Architecture: Organizing Chaos, Metadata, Taxonomy vs. Folksonomy, and the Dublin Core
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Jun 14, 2007
A New Approach: Tech Comm News
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Jun 1, 2007
Vista and Office 2007: Presentation by David McNamee from Microsoft
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May 19, 2007
Podcasting at the STC Conference: Reasons, Methods, and Reflections
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Jack Molisani on Trends in Technical Communication
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Geoff Sauer on tc.eserver.org, the Largest Tech Comm Index Online
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Rob Houser on Creating Nontraditional E-Learning
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Scott Abel on Web 2.0
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Ann Rockley on the Rockley Group Blog and a New CMS Report
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Chris Thompson on Searching for a Content Management System
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Caroline Jarrett on User Interface Design
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Harry Miller on Multimedia Documentation
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Stephanie Bryant on Videoblogging
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Mike Brazill on Writing for Developers
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: John Daigle on RoboHelp 7
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Debbie Kennedy on Modular Writing and Reusability
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Joan Lasselle on Adopting Content Management
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Cindy Skawinski on Activity Diagrams (Uniform Modeling Language Artifacts)
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Adrienne Escoe on Recruiting
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Teresa Lipus, Snake River chapter, Southern Idaho and Eastern Oregon
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Deanne Levander, Twin Cities, Minnesota Chapter, and John Garison, Vermont
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Laurel Bowen, Oakridge Tennessee Chapter
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Brad Simmons, Ames, Iowa
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May 19, 2007
STC Conference: Michael Gernes, Central Iowa STC Community
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May 19, 2007
Leadership Day: Jackie Damrau, Dallas, Texas, and Rachel Houghton, Willamette Valley, Oregon
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May 19, 2007
Leadership Day: Jeanette Rogers, Seattle, Instructional Design & Learning SIG
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May 19, 2007
Leadership Day: Lorrie Corbett, Philadelphia Metro Chapter
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May 19, 2007
Leadership Day: Hillary Hart, Austin Chapter
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May 19, 2007
Leadership Day: Todd Race, Toronto chapter, Canadian Issues Group
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May 19, 2007
Leadership Day: Dan Dornbrook, Chicago Chapter
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May 19, 2007
Leadership Day: Melanie G. Flanders, China; Beau Cain, Director 8
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May 19, 2007
Leadership Day: Paul Sinasohn, Berkeley Chapter, California
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May 19, 2007
Leadership Day: Holly Harkness, Al Hood, and Howard Speck — Atlanta Chapter
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May 19, 2007
Leadership Day: Rhevati Sampath and Wendy Tung, Berkeley Chapter, California
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May 19, 2007
Leadership Day: Kelly Schrank & Lou Martindale — Mid-South Chapter in Memphis and Suncoast Chapter in Tampa
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May 19, 2007
Leadership Day: Sue Kloster, Willamette Valley Chapter, Oregon
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May 11, 2007
Creating Help in the Web 2.0 Age — Presentation by Neil Perlin
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May 8, 2007
Special Announcements: Add your blog to techwriterblogs.com wiki, and also support Tech Writer Voices
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May 8, 2007
Presentation on Writing and Web 2.0 by Keith Hoffman — Given at the University of Wisconsin
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May 6, 2007
Wikis Are Coming: An In-Depth Exploration of Using Wikis in Documentation — Interview with Katriel Reichman (Israel)
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May 2, 2007
A Few Conversations at Doc Train — User Personas, Data Conversion, and Simplified Technical English
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May 1, 2007
My First Carcast: Driving Home from Vancouver After the Doc Train Conference
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Apr 29, 2007
Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools — Interview with the authors
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Apr 26, 2007
Interview with George Hayhoe, editor of Technical Communication Journal, on Technical Writing in China and Korea
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Apr 9, 2007
Defining Experiences: Five STC Candidates Share Influential Stories from the Tech Comm Field
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Apr 8, 2007
Making Help More Human, and other discussions
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Apr 3, 2007
Susan Burton Provides an Inside, In-Depth Look at STC's Most Pressing Issues
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Mar 26, 2007
Special STC Elections Podcast: Interview with Nicky Bleiel, Candidate for Director
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Mar 15, 2007
Is Technical Writing Boring? Tech Writers as Information Architects
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Mar 7, 2007
Online Communities, Member Maps, Virtual Chats, Sparkpeople, Intercom, and More
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Feb 27, 2007
Review of Word 2007, Tool vs. Industry Experience, the Slow Movement, E-mail Tips, and More
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Feb 15, 2007
First Cohost Podcast — A Natural Conversation about Technical Writing
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Feb 3, 2007
Discussion about RoboHelp 6 — Interview with Rick Stone
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Jan 23, 2007
How to Create a Site Where Users Can Actually Find Information — Interview with Thom Haller
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Jan 14, 2007
Ten Lessons Learned as a Technical Communicator — Interview with Rahul Prabhakar
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Jan 5, 2007
Mike Hamilton Gives Flare Demo to the Suncoast Chapter
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Jan 3, 2007
The Convergence of Web 2.0 with Help Documentation — Tom Johnson
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Jan 1, 2007
Understanding Principles of Usability, Part 2 — Karen Bachmann
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Dec 18, 2006
Understanding Principles of Usability, Part 1 — Karen Bachmann
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Nov 27, 2006
Web 2.0, CMS, and DITA — Interview with Ann Rockley
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Nov 13, 2006
How to Increase Collaboration and Performance — Interview with Emma Hamer
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Oct 31, 2006
Technical Writing in India — Interview with Sandeep Balakrishna
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Oct 23, 2006
Another Perspective on Single-Sourcing — Interview with Sarah O'Keefe
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Oct 20, 2006
How To Create a Usable Index — Interview with John McGhie
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Oct 17, 2006
Podcasting 101 — by Tom Johnson
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Oct 10, 2006
How to Implement Single Sourcing — Interview with Neil Perlin
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Oct 9, 2006
Joomla, an Open-Source Content Management System Solution — Interview with Sean Wheller about Joomla
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Oct 9, 2006
Knowledge Management and Technical Writing — Janet Foley
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Oct 9, 2006
Flare 2.0 and MadCap Software — Interview with Mike Hamilton
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Oct 9, 2006
Content Management Professionals — Interview with Scott Abel
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Oct 9, 2006
Writing for the Web — Ian Koss, Founder of Ink19.com
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