All Blog Posts (258)

The Plain English Campaign: Fighting For Crystal Clear Communication

The Plain English Campaign officially began in 1979, after founder Chrissie Maher publicly shredded hundreds of official documents in Parliament Square, London. Entirely independent, the campaign funds itself through its commercial services, which include editing and training. The organization provides some great examples of clear communication (see… Continue

Posted by Scott Abel on October 10, 2008 at 3:26pm — No Comments

< Previous Post

My take on electronic readers replacing paper textbooks in the classroom

There's been a lot of talk recently about the myth of the paperless office, but at the same time, there's been a lot of talk about the rise of electronic reading devices. I find these two arguments contradictory and tend to think that the rise of electronic reading devices (and e-newspaper, e-paper, etc) will ultimately be the tools that help us realize the promise of the paperless office. The key, I think, is to switch people over to these new technologies while they are young, before they have… Continue

Posted by Rowan Hanna on October 9, 2008 at 6:39am — No Comments

< Previous Post

It’s In The Mix: The Next Generation Of Open Source Publishing

The remix. It used to be a term used purely to describe different renditions of the same dance tune. Now, it’s a term creeping into our daily lives in a variety of new ways made possible by recent advances in computer and Internet technologies. The same principles behind music remixing are at the heart of a hugely important open source software documentation experiment, taking place on the web today. It’s called FLOSS Manuals, a content remixing project that provides its website visitors with t… Continue

Posted by Scott Abel on October 8, 2008 at 3:00pm — No Comments

< Previous Post

Painting The Athletic Male: Interview with Brenden Sanborn, Studio 805

"There’s nothing like working from a live model," says watercolor painter extraordinaire Brenden Sanborn, "but live models can be very expensive. Working from a photo works just fine for me. I make the process of working with a client as simple as possible and always welcome new commissions of any kind. I just have one request… Continue

Posted by Scott Abel on October 8, 2008 at 1:00pm — No Comments

< Previous Post

I won and then lost a Doc Train East ticket

I've just had a phone call that I had won a Doc Train East ticket. This was from the ISTC conference I attended a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately I can't go. We booked a week in Scotland only 2 days ago. I did sugegst I could send one of my writers but they are going to redraw it. I wonder whether they will find any takers. It is short notice plus the trans-antlantic flight and accomodation still made it expensive. Which in these fiscally compromised times may make it difficult for anyone.… Continue

Posted by David Jones on October 7, 2008 at 6:01am — 4 Comments

< Previous Post

Author-it 5.11

We're having another go at upgrading to Author-it 5. If you've read some of my previous posts we've had quite a bit of fun trying to upgrade over the last year. The attitude of Author-it themselves has been pretty dire and this continues. I think that this time we will be able to stay with the upgrade, so far none of the problems are insurmountable. Though we do have problems and unexpected results. The first one was the editor not opening for a couple of my writers. We got to the bottom of it.… Continue

Posted by David Jones on October 7, 2008 at 5:53am — No Comments

< Previous Post

Online Literacy Is a Lesser Kind

When Jakob Nielsen, a Web researcher, tested 232 people for how they read pages on screens, a curious disposition emerged. In this study, he found that people took in hundreds of pages "in a pattern that's very different from what you learned in school." It looks like a capital letter F. At the top, users read all the way across, but as they proceed their descent quickens and horizontal sight contracts, with a slowdown around the middle of the page. Near the bottom, eyes move almost vertically,… Continue

Posted by Kevin Chilton on October 6, 2008 at 5:57am — 2 Comments

< Previous Post

Edward S. Klima, Sign Language Expert, Dies at 77

Edward S. Klima, an eminent linguist who was one of the first scholars to pay serious attention to sign languages, and in so doing helped them win long-denied recognition as languages in their own right, died on Sept. 25 in the La Jolla section of San Diego. He was 77 and had lived in La Jolla for many years. (Source:… Continue

Posted by Scott Abel on October 5, 2008 at 6:57pm — No Comments

< Previous Post

MediaWiki Upgrade Success!

After a bit of research and study, I was ready to dive in. I was a bit intimidated, but it turned out to be completely easy, once I found a developer happy to show me how to do the hard bits. Thought for the day...New skills are a good thing, otherwise, boredom can set in, and that always leads to pranks and blogging. Continue

Posted by Evelyn Yoder on October 5, 2008 at 3:16am — No Comments

< Previous Post

It’s time to recast the webmaster’s role

Gartner claimed at its recent Portal, Content and Collaboration Summit in London that businesses need to increase their use of Web 2.0 technologies in order to build a high performance workplace and remain competitive. Such technologies give companies more outlet opportunities, but often come accompanied by ‘groans’ from the IT department, who see increased data to manage and a greater workload. Whilst web technologies have traditionally been the preserve of the tech wizards (for whom XML is s… Continue

Posted by Robert Bredlau on October 2, 2008 at 10:16am — 1 Comment

< Previous Post

Human Behaviour and Wiki's

Given the recent implementation of a 3 separate wiki’s (using MediaWiki) within the same company, it has become apparent that people are simply not used to working collaboratively. We have three departments using the same wiki software you find on wikipedia. For the sake of confidentiality, lets refer to the departments as Support, DevelopmentProject1 and DevelopmentProject2. In all three instances, there are a range of different behaviours (human) when it comes to updating the wiki. Scenario… Continue

Posted by Nikki Ward on October 1, 2008 at 11:20pm — No Comments

< Previous Post

XBRL and DITA; How 1 + 1 > 2?

Today I am finishing a consulting engagement where the topic - as always related to XBRL; it's what I do - was defining a vision for a content management environment for XBRL information (basically managing financial reports like 10Q/10K's and the like), from information creation to information presentation. This was a "Learning Experience" kind of an event which gave me some interesting insights into where one domain ends (XBRL information markup) and the other begins (authoring and rendering… Continue

Posted by René van Egmond on October 1, 2008 at 1:41pm — 1 Comment

< Previous Post

Updating MediaWiki - any advice?

I'm not a programmer, although I was one in a previous (job) life, so I know enough about computers and software to be dangerous... I freely admit this. I enjoy the challenge of learning new skills, and am generally able to do so, while inflicting no permanent damage to the system. When it comes to administering MediaWiki, I'm doing OK so far. I've mastered the basic authoring tools, and have successfully installed a few extensions. (Installing a MediaWiki extension requires creating folders and… Continue

Posted by Evelyn Yoder on October 1, 2008 at 2:37am — No Comments

< Previous Post

Moving Legacy Content To XML: Affordable, Self-Service Analysis/Modeling Tools Needed, Survey Says

Moving to structured XML authoring is a challenge for many organizations, especially those with lots of legacy content locked away in unstructured, proprietary Microsoft Word files, a new survey of 500 content professionals uncovered. The survey, conducted by The Content Wrangler, discovered widespread interest in self-service, web-based legacy content analysis tools, software that can analyze content and provide metrics-rich reports designed to he… Continue

Posted by Scott Abel on September 30, 2008 at 11:00pm — No Comments

< Previous Post

ISTC Conference day 2

Well I'm back in the office now. My presentation "Managing the Black Hole" seemed to go well. The premise being that you can't continually throw content into your CMS and expect to get out what you put in, without some kind of planning and management. Without it your CMS turns into a balckhole. It certainly seemed to get plenty of inte… Continue

Posted by David Jones on September 26, 2008 at 1:30pm — No Comments

< Previous Post

This just in: Position for Web Project Manager, NYC

Work Location: New York Home Office, Mid Town (see travel below) Web Project Manager Sal, 65-75K plus bonus eligible Duties/Activities: A Web Marketing Project Manager is asked primarily to coordinate activities to ensure that projects are delivered on schedule to internal customers. Gather and document objectives and requirements from internal customers, create plans, synchronize activities between the marketing, content and design teams and report on progress. Participate in the day-to-day… Continue

Posted by Judy Aron-Sellaro on September 26, 2008 at 10:10am — No Comments

< Previous Post

Every Editor's Nightmare

So, I'm the Editor in Chief of Forever MX-5 magazine - it's about Mazda Miatas. We publish technical stuff, travel ideas, and anything of interest to Miata owners and enthusiasts. It's a fun job and I get to run around in a great old Miata. We depend on our readers for the bulk of our content. People love to submit their road trip stories and club event reports and even their tips and procedures for upgrades and repairs to their cars. Sometimes, they do a lot of research and offer us stories ab… Continue

Posted by Jeff Zurschmeide on September 24, 2008 at 6:11pm — 1 Comment

< Previous Post

Professional blog

My professional blog is here: http://cybertext.wordpress.com Continue

Posted by Rhonda Bracey on September 24, 2008 at 6:00pm — No Comments

< Previous Post

If you're looking for my blog...

I have a blog external to this community. I was hoping I could have my posts appear here in this spot (like how Facebook works with notes) but it doesn't seem to be possible. But, if you look toward the left of my profile you should see "techcommdood's brain dump" with many of my latest posts linked there. Or you can just click the link I just provided. Since this particular blog… Continue

Posted by Bill Swallow on September 24, 2008 at 1:30pm — No Comments

< Previous Post

ISTC Conference 2008 day 1

Well I'm here in Nottingham at my second ISTC conference. The venue Eastwood Hall is great beautiful grounds, nice hotel, good service, great food - can't fault it really. About 100 delegates, which makes it small enough to be able to chat to most people. The standard of talks so far has been high, it'll probably go down when I speak tomorro… Continue

Posted by David Jones on September 24, 2008 at 1:30pm — No Comments

< Previous Post

Featured Blog Posts

View All

Latest Blog Posts

Monthly Archives

2008

October (24)
September (49)
August (23)
July (19)
June (27)
May (62)
April (41)
March (69)
February (1)

Welcome to
The Content Wrangler Community

Sign Up
or Sign In

Support Our Sponsors

Web Content Tampa Bay brings together nationally-recognized technology, design, content, and marketing authorities to explore “The Impact of Social Media on Web Marketing Strategy”. Presenters will demystify social media technologies, and examine standards, methods, tools, and best practices that impact web content professionals. This event is expected to sell out. Space is limited. Register today!

Introducing Adobe® Technical Communication Suite 1.3 software – a complete solution for authoring, managing, and publishing interactive instructional information from technical documents and books to online help systems, knowledgebases, interactive training, and eLearning content in multiple formats and languages. Now with new Adobe Acrobat® 9 Pro Extended.

Welchman Pierpoint are specialists in Web Operations Management , a systematic, holistic approach for building and operating websites and web-based organizations, from strategy and decision-making, to execution and measuring success.

Yesterday's content was static, hard to find, and difficult to manipulate. Today we're not restricted by the technology, format, or use. Today we create, manage and deliver content in a more intelligent manner. If you'd like to learn how, attend Intelligent Content 2009, an intimate educational event brought to you by The Rockley Group and The Content Wrangler. Seating is limited. Register today!