Key Concept Archive

For more information about how our library science background (and our love of all things metadata) guides the way we catalog information, see the Techcomm and Arbortext Resources page.

Secrets of a gumshoe librarian: Tips for transforming your career and staying relevant

Is your career ready for a makeover? Have you been forced into making a change? Client and employer needs evolve, and we should too. But no one wakes up and just decides to upend their career, because change can be hard and sometimes scary. In this session, Marcy Phelps shares…

Technology that solves the top technical problems for presenters (My Presenter’s Tech Kit)

b Post Summary Updated: 2018-12This post details what is in my Presenter’s Tech Travel Kit. As a frequent presenter, I want to be prepared for any situation and I want it to always work. Ultimately, I’m responsible for solving any technical problems for presenters that arise because of the device I choose to travel…

Industry Trends in Technical Communications 2018

As we close out the year, I’ve written up Industry Trends in Technical Communications we’ve seen in 2018. I don’t believe we should seek out or follow trends. Observations about trends are useful to see what other people are doing and to get a peek at what might be ahead for us….

From Open Source Volunteer to Full-Time Tech Writer

In this talk, Gale describes a little bit about what open source software is and how she used her volunteer experience as an Apache Taverna committer to become a technical writer at Facebook. She describes the tangible and intangible skills she gained, as well as how she got noticed when…

Top 3 Things a Presenter (and Booth Staffer) Needs on the Road

Updated: 2018-07 – I found an even better booth bag. It’s conference season and that means many of us who present frequently are on the road at some point in the next few months. For me, the season starts with a 9-day trip that begins at STC Spectrum and ends…

The Art of Personal Branding: How to Tell the YOU Story and Gain New Customers

If you want someone to hire you or your company, you need to be able to tell your story: who you are, what your plan is, and what defines you. There are key points to address at each point in the story in order to gain customers. Whether you’re the…

How to use root-cause analysis to promote information supply chain methodologies

If your documentation process is implicated in a customer quality incident (CQI), Congratulations! You have the platform needed to shine a light on the problems you’ve been escalating for years. In this presentation, Seth Park will argue that errors in documentation are actually symptoms of underlying data flow issues. If…

Publish High-Quality, Print-Ready DITA in less than a day

b Post Summary Everyone says, “Publishing DITA is Hard!” But the truth is you can publish DITA content for ePub and Print output with very little work. The promise that vendors (like us) have been giving for 20 years is real today. I published Arbortext 101 in less than one day for…