Key Concept Archive

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…

Conference notes from: World IA Day 2016

Last month I went to World IA Day 2016 in Seattle. I’m based in San Francisco, which also hosted World IA Day event, but every now and again it’s good to get out of your little corner of the world and see what is going on elsewhere. I have a very…

Using Controlled Language to Improve Reuse and Global Readiness

Mindful and enlightened TCs working in a CMS environment maximize re-use and create global-ready content that meets their audiences’ needs while reducing costs and improving efficiency. Controlled Language, implemented correctly, can help you achieve these goals. However, many companies implement Simplified Technical English or other controlled language initiatives, but struggle…

Information Architecture Bottom-Up

The advent of electronic media and particularly the Web has profoundly changed how people seek and use information. Information seeking today is dominated by search, and not by search of individual works, but search of the whole: whole sites, whole doc sets, and, in particular, the whole Web. With search,…

Unhappy Customers are Just the Beginning: Potential Costs of Skimping on Documentation

A perennial question in the technical communication community is how to justify our work in financial terms that management will understand. One partial answer is to consider potential consequences of putting insufficient resources into technical documentation. What happens if the material is poorly written, or not written at all? Consequences…

To DITA or Not To DITA: How to Choose?

To DITA or Not To DITA? That is the question. DITA isn’t the right answer for every situation. In this session we’ll discuss the differences between the two doctypes to give you a foundation to decide between them. Janice Summers, Single-Sourcing Solutions, specializes in helping people who’ve only ever used…

How to Think Like An Indexer

Indexing is a profession: Learn from the experts! This session had a lot of votes, so we found Lucie Haskins, professional indexer, and found a time when she can come talk! Here’s what she’s going to talk about: In the age of rapid fire information exchange, the artful skill of…

Discovering the Hidden Treasure of Dynamic Product Information

Summary: After this presentation, you will be able to show those in the C-Suite how a transformative adoption in product information can differentiate your company in the market place and provide breakthrough results in driving shareholder value. Regardless of size or the number of years that a company has been…

How do authors find content for reuse?

Your customers can find content, but can your content creation team? DITA content explodes. How do you manage it? A lot of customers have been asking us recently about how they’re going to manage content that explodes into lots and lots of little topics and content fragments. Authors wonder if…

Everyone is talking content strategy, but what is it?

Content strategy differs from corporate communications strategy. Content strategy is far more than your web content or social media content or any of those things that come strictly out of the corporate marketing group. It is far more than “corporate communications.” Tactics are the actions you take to make your…