Screencast tutorial update

We haven't had much to report as we have been working tirelessly to meet a deadline for a series of screencasts. Tomorrow, we should have one of them ready for the client and then move to the second one. Alas, the only news I've been able to share is screencast related - Using Techsmith's Camtasia and Snagit software for this project has been an enjoyable experience. I was glad to join the screencasting group on Facebook and plan to add some podcasts/screencast when I have some time to do non-client work. We will be presenting a family video for my mother's birthday bash in Greece later next month (shh, I hope she isn't reading my blog before then) and perhaps can include some clips from that.

Will try to join back with you soon with more DITA news. To date, I have received word from a salesperson at Ixiasoft and she has reported that DITA is breaking ground with medium-sized enterprises, even with, and I quote, "documentation teams of 3-4 writers". I will be looking at the finer points of Ixiasoft's CMS (content management system) in the fall. No question that CMS is the way to go to leverage all of DITA's benefits.

New trends in technical communications

I am inspired by the In Plain English videos produced by Common Craft that have recently appeared on the web. The videos embody the power of effective technical communication: know your audience and communicate using a style and language to match that audience. The success of the videos says that they have accomplished this feat. The In Plain English podcasts remind me of the For Dummies guides in their approach to communicating key information in an easy to follow format. Great job guys!

Wikis in Plain English:


RSS in Plain English:


Social networking in Plain English:


I know it's a lot, but thought they were worth showing. In fact, right now I am using info from a For Dummies guide to create a video. My guess is this will be an important way to transfer knowledge in the years to come.

Using Mediawiki for knowledgework wiki

We changed our business wiki from wikispaces to mediawiki today. As a background, we have been experimenting with a wiki and have found it quite useful. In our case, my partner and I work in different locations, so it is helpful to keep information stored on one site. We have been using the wiki to collaborate about ideas and information related to marketing, technology and other topics pertinent to knowledgework.

Some of the ways I have been using the wiki for work have been to store information I am learning via webinars, reading material and podcasts in one site. I add links, type and capture screenshots of key information and store it for future reference. This definitely beats saving info in files on my computer!

DITA specialization tutorial just out

A great new tutorial that explains in detail how to specialize DITA for your company or organization can be found here. This is a useful guide for anyone wanting to learn the practicals of creating specializations for DITA.

Update: Same tutorial in real time from Central Texas DITA users group:

Good to watch if you want to learn more about creating specializations for DITA. Note that without specialization it becomes impossible to use XML on a large scale. Thanks CT DITA users group for this resource!

Screencast tutorials used more often in technical communications

Technical communications are experiencing a profound shift with the advent of new technologies. One example is the use of podcasts and screencasts to explain procedures that once were outlined in user manuals and quickstart guides. While I don't believe the need for printed material will disappear, online tutorials are necessary to improve customer satisfaction and product understanding.

We are currently working on an online training series for a client that takes the form of interactive screencasts. The goal of this project is to help company employees adopt and become proficient with Lotus Sametime and reduce the number of calls to an already overworked helpdesk. Lotus Sametime has the ability to connect users through instant messaging, voice chats and online web conferencing, but it will only have value if employees really start using it. Employees currently have access to written material, however, they lack the time to learn this software with their busy schedules. Hence, the IT department would like to offer on-demand training videos designed to help people get up-to-speed with the basics.

I will soon be including examples of customized training videos on our website at www.knowledgework.ca. If you think this service would be useful for your company, please contact us at info@knowledgework.ca stating your needs and I would be glad to provide you with a reasonable quote. Best regards.

Lone-DITA offers useful compilation of links

I was beginning to compile a list of links and data related to DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture), which is a method of structuring content created by IBM. We believe DITA is useful for those who need a way to maintain consistency and reduce costs with the increased push to publish information about different products in multiple formats and languages. Specifically, we find DITA has the potential to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of information due in large part to its ability to:

• Publish content in multiple formats from a single source
• Create reusable content
• Create versions for multiple audiences, platforms and products
• Separate content from formatting
• Improve consistency by making changes in one place and the change propagates everywhere
  

Today I discovered the site Lone-DITA. This site is extremely helpful in that it provides a DITA tutorial, which explains DITA and also allows you to see how it functions. The site contains a plethora of useful links to information that will help anyone learn about this methodology and determine whether it is right for their needs. I was randomly collecting links related to DITA, XML and other related technologies but will hold off, seeing that this has already been taken care of by Lone-DITA.

I plan to use Lone-DITA as a resource and am adding it to the right hand side of links for anyone else who would like to delve in and explore. This has saved me time in trying to do this myself and I would like to thank the author of this site and wish her much success. Cheers.

Using Camtasia to do screencast tutorials

We are presently preparing a series of tutorials on software products including IBM Lotus Sametime, a web conferencing tool that allows teams to meet remotely, instant message and share desktops. This is a good tool for businesses and the software we are using to record the tutorials is Camtasia.

So far so good. The plan is to have some of these tutorials up on our site as an example of our work, and to give an idea of the kind of customized information products that we produce to enhance learning. Look for this by the end of July to early August. Have a good weekend everyone!

W3 working document on best practices for XML internationalization

A working draft by W3 consortium came out a few days ago on best practices for XML internationalization. This is an important piece of work and something our company will strive to implement.

I have linked to it on my wiki and will be pouring over it in the coming days/weeks. This is key information for me to apply for any of my clients producing or seeking to produce global content. Note the coverage on ITS (internationalization tag set) and DITA in the document. Enjoy.

Update on DITA and Plone progress

I think it will be useful to record my progress in learning DITA over the coming weeks and months, albeit it may be boring for those readers not interested in structured authoring and topic-based writing. The DITA info center is added to the right hand side list of links as it is accelerating the learning process.

Today covered more of DITA and worked on a project at the DITA users group. Also investigated eLearning solutions for a client that is trying to bring their executive team up to speed on recent technology adopted by the company.

Also, the plone site is coming along. We have looked at a few skins and replaced the logo with our own. It does seem like it will be a time-consuming and labour-intensive process though. While there are numerous tutorials and ample reading material about plone, it is quite difficult to find exactly what you need for a specific problem. Perhaps I could help out with the documentation team, if I had more time. I think screencasts are the future in technical communications, especially in an instance like learning plone. Some good plone screencast tutorials are here, here and here. The tutorials are good, but a little basic for my needs. I'd love to see the same kind of thing, but for more advanced topics - must put this on my list of things to do for when I have some time.

Our Plone-hosted content management site

This weekend found my partner, Asad, very busy getting our content-management site up and running. You can see it here. It is still quite bare-bones looking, but the power in the site is quite impressive. A Plone-hosted content management site enables users to upload and download heavy files, assign client/member access and manage document tracking and versions. There are many other interesting features and I invite anyone who wishes to learn more about Plone by checking out right-hand column of my blog . Simply select Plone under on-demand learning or look at the web 2.0 tutorials as there are frequently Plone vodcasts that show up there. You can go to Plone.org and learn more there too of course.

Well, now our task is to make the site more knowledgework friendly and accurately describe our products and services. We look forward to showing this to world as it evolves.