The Future of TechComm

Check out this great video from Adobe on their vision for the future of technical communication. I'm impressed!

Their point is that today's technical communicators must:

• Be well-versed in single-sourced content and XML/DITA, so that writing is made simpler to access, update, and translate;
• Understand that technical publications departments must consider business needs and ROI;
• and give their readers the information they need quickly, in short chunks, using illustrations and video, across a variety of devices. 

The future of techcomm, they say, is now. I'm inclined to agree with them. 

The job search begins...

I'm graduating from the University of Memphis in December. So many things to do! Besides classes, and my excellent internship at Publishing Smarter, I also have a thesis to write. My advisor, Dr. Loel Kim, told me that in order to find a topic, I should read about fifty articles on my subject. That seemed like a lot at the time...  but it turns out that when a subject holds my interest, I can't stop reading. Which is something I knew about myself. 

I'm using Zotero to collect my articles, and I love that it allows me to tag and make notes about each article. It's such a useful research tool, and I know I'll come back to it often as I write. My interest is in mobile applications and how they're currently being documented. I'm finding a lot of really interesting articles about user experience and how to translate a particular brand's experience across any screen they might be using to  find information or create content. I haven't quite settled on a thesis statement yet, but it's dancing around somewhere in the back of my head. 

I also realized that it's time to start my job hunt. Already!? I can't believe I need to start so early! But five months is not a lot of time, and I'd really love to have something lined up by the time I walk across the stage. So I've also been updating my resume and sending it to friends for review. I'm hoping to have a professional web presence soon, although the thought of that seems a bit daunting. I remember when a website was only HTML... and that's about how long it's been since I've coded one. I'm hoping I can put something together that looks professional and reflects who I am as a technical writer. 

Did I mention that I'm heading up the Mid-South chapter of the Society for Technical Communication's transition to a student chapter at the University of Memphis? It's going to be a busy semester. 

Help Authoring Topics: DITA

While attending the Conference for Software User Assistance, I came across an unfamiliar concept: DITA. "Dit-uh," I thought. "What in the heck does that mean?"

Turns out, the Darwin Information Typing Architecture, or DITA, is a way of authoring content that is maximally efficient. When you write using DITA, you break your content down into topics. These topics are generally sorted into three different types: tasks, concepts, and references. There are other topic types that are used, but the three I mentioned are the most used. 

Once you've taken the (admittedly sometimes considerable) time to break your information down in this way, it becomes very easy to reuse content you've already written and link topics to other topics in whatever way makes the most sense. When you author by DITA standards, you separate your content from your formatting. This allows you to, for example, publish the same content into HTML format, tweak it a bit, and then publish it into PDF format. 

DITA was originally created by IBM, who after three years of work on the structure released it to the public for free. It is now released by the OASIS consortium as an open-source standard.

For more information about DITA, check out Publishing Smarter's great DITA Primer. 

Jennifer Pahlka: Coding a better government

What an interesting talk on the way mobile applications are being used to improve local government.

WritersUA Conference for Software User Assistance: Contest!

I just found out through the Mid-South Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication on Linkedin that there's an awesome contest going on through always-informative TechWr-L (or TechWhirl, as they're more commonly known these days)!

They're looking for bloggers to cover the Conference for Software User Assistance here in Memphis. Here's more information about the contest. It looks like a great opportunity for an aspiring tech writer like myself to learn a huge amount about the world of software user assistance.

So, TechWhirl, why should you pick me?

• I'm an Honors student in Professional Writing at the University of Memphis, so it will be a snap for me to attend the conference. 
• My perspective, as a student, will be interesting to a new generation of tech writers as well as those with years of experience in the profession.  
• My career goals are at the intersection of writing and technology, so this conference is perfectly suited to my professional interests.
• I'm a digital native, and my writing is top-notch. Readers will benefit from my experience as a freelance business owner. Through my company, Edits, Full Stop, I edit and proofread technical, legal and creative documents, improving them substantively as well as grammatically. This experience has deepened my commitment to the process of producing quality technical communication.
• I was thrilled to learn about the conference, but as a student, it's going to be a little out of my budget without your help.

I look forward to talking with you soon!