If you’d rather lurk and read than debate, we had lots to choose from on the magazine and portals as well. Ryan Minaker is getting rave reviews for his rave review of Content Strategy: Connecting the Dots Between Business, Brand, and Benefits (authored by Rahel Bailie and Noz Urbina). Jacquie Samuels offers a Getting Started guide to Topic-Based Writing, and Craig Cardimon serves up some great commentary on content strategy, tech comm, customer experience management and user experience (be sure to check out the high school tech writers and their cardboard boat) in Tech Writer This Week.  When you’re finished with those, take a few minutes to vote in the new poll, where I resurrect a classic argument—is content or structure more important? The terminology and the technology have changed, and we’re wondering if our direction should as well.  So do add your own opinion to the discussion.

So much to do and read, so little time… or so it seems when you’re doing your thing as a technical communicator. Grab some coffee, or tea, or maybe a mint julep, and relax with all the tech comm goodness you can handle.

Have a great weekend!

-Connie and the gang at TechWhirl

	Tech Writer This Week for May 16, 2013 In my job as a technical writer, one of the decisions I wrestle with every day concerns topic length. Is the topic short enough to retain readers but long enough to cover the material? If the topic is too short, should I merge it with another? If the topic is too long, should I break it into two topics? This is a lot of what I think about. So does Tom Johnson (I’d Rather Be Writing). Tech Writer This Week gives you other stuff to think about: research, content strategy, taxonomy, customer journey maps, UX, CXM, and cardboard boats… huh?
	Getting Started with Topic-Based Writing Think for a minute about how you would like to see your writing described by a critic (say for the New York Times): sensible, understandable, logical, resonating, compelling, interesting…topical? Writing content that works for your readers, especially when it covers something technical and complex, doesn’t just happen. It takes some thought and planning to structure it, both to be usable and relevant to the reader, and to be reusable and effective for your organization. Enter: Topic-based writing.
	Technical Communication Poll: Is Compelling Content or Robust Structure More Important? Technical communicators are, and probably always have been, a passionate bunch willing to debate the merits of their favorite points of view with anyone who has access to a keyboard and a connection. And at least as far back as the turn of the century, one of those classic debates has turned on content versus structure. Back then it was “Structure vs. Substance.” It’s also been technical versus writer. You could even argue that it’s about logic versus intuition. Today, we ask the question as our weekly tech comm poll: is compelling content or robust structure more important?
	Book Review: Content Strategy – Connecting the Dots for an Epic Win I have a habit of relating most things in my life to video games and board games (some people call this gamification). I find that this way of thinking is especially relevant on a professional level. My quest—as someone who produces and manages content within a content lifecycle—is to overcome obstacles, to complete these tasks, and to achieve my epic win. Content Strategy: Connecting the Dots is the strategy guide that gets me closer to the epic win.

Technical Communication News:

• Quark Joins EMC Information Intelligence Solutions Partner Program 
• The Rockley Group Licenses Rockley Strategic Method to Content Rules

Editor’s Note: For readers who want to enjoy Tech Writer This Week for May 16 via RSS without all the formatting issues, we’ve made it a bit easier by posting the introductory content here, and a link to the Storify curated content.

In my job as a technical writer, one of the decisions I wrestle with every day concerns topic length. Is the topic short enough to retain readers but long enough to cover the material? If the topic is too short, should I merge it with another? If the topic is too long, should I break it into two topics? This is a lot of what I think about. Tom Johnson (idratherbewriting.com) offers two interesting posts relevant to my dilemma. In the first post, he asks if short topics make information more findable. This is my current school of thought. In the second post, he takes the position that long topics are better for the user and explains why. As a lone tech writer, I love this stuff. Closing out Technical Communication, Column McAndrew opines that bad help breeds contempt. After all, if your dining experience at a restaurant isn’t memorable, are you going to return? Or will you avoid the place and tell your friends to do likewise?

Linda Newman Lior (uxmag.com) kicks off User Experience with tips on creating a successful information experience for your users. Bo Amidor (ux.walkme.com) follows up with three UX goals to keep in mind. And Thomas Wendt (uxbooth.com) ponders what matters more, intention or interpretation.

In Content Strategy & Curation, we start with a primer on enterprise taxonomy from the good folks at Siteworx. Then John Waghorn (koozai.com) details the importance of research to building a content strategy (including all the same great reasons we do research in tech comm) On the curation side, TishiaSavesTime.com shares seven content curation tips for you  to follow. I was pleased to note that I am already following several of them. Jason Miner (curationsoft.com) closes this section with his take on the benefits of content curation.

The world of Customer Experience Management opens with David Ashton (SDL.com) encouraging us to unthink six sacred cows of CXM (and we’re wondering if unthinking is anything like cow tipping… but I digress). Writing in CMSWire, Ian Truscott gives us four superb reasons to be working with customer journeys, and Marisa Peacock explains what the customer journey is and how to use customer journey maps.

If you’re at all like me and could use a good online technical dictionary, I found one offered by Computerlanguage.com. Elsewhere in Career and Life, Vic Laurie (www.TechSupportAlert.com) tells us about Process Explorer, a powerful and free Windows system tool. Bill Kerschbaum (intextwriting.com) follows up with a “cheat sheet” for better writing. Gotta love those cheat sheets. And we close out with a great story about high school tech writing teams and cardboard boats. Who knew deadlines and design could have such a soaking outcome?

Continue to Tech Writer This Week on Storify.

With the advances in tools, and the focus on producing great experiences for our users, the terminology has changed, but the question remains and it impacts how we move forward (or not) in our careers. Should technical writers (or technical communicators, content managers, producers or designers) focus more on compelling content that gets read and helps the user? Or should they place more emphasis on making it easier to reuse and to produce across many channels to provide ROI to the business?  Perhaps it’s the nature of what we do—to be conflicted in serving two (or more) masters (stakeholders in our PC world). We want to “balance” the needs of the user against the goals of the business, but how can we do that when looking at “cheaper, faster, or right—pick one”?

TechWhirl’s articles, and the email discussion list, split fairly evenly along tools versus skills questions.  So we can’t make this any easier. We’re asking you to pick one, and we’d love to hear why you choose one over the other.  ”Both” is not an option, but I don’t believe there’s a right or wrong answer.  Does it depend on your innate ability to turn a phrase, or to streamline a process?  Is it more satisfying to get the phrasing just right, or to see it appear optimally in any medium you choose?  Or has the nature of what we are required to do changed so much that the question is no longer valid?  (You still have to pick one or the other, but that would be an interesting debate).

Take a few minutes to vote, share the poll with your colleagues, and post a comment here or on the email discussion list.

 “Highly recommended to anyone looking to take their existing business-critical content life-cycle to the next level.”

I have a habit of relating most things in my life to video games and board games (some people call this gamification). I find that this way of thinking is especially relevant on a professional level. My quest—as someone who produces and manages content within a content lifecycle—is to overcome obstacles, to complete these tasks, and to achieve my epic win:

• Have content recognized as a business asset
• Continuously demonstrate a positive return on investment (ROI)
• Make content more valuable to users, by continuously improving the user experience (UX)
• Make content adaptable enough to be future friendly (multi-channel publishing)
• Leverage existing technologies (markup and semantics) and industry best practices (structured content and reuse models)
• Use content assets to manage risks, wherever possible
• Implement a repeatable process for implementing, managing and growing these tasks

Anyone who’s ever played a game without a strategy probably realized they should have had one. Sure, you might win the game or eventually complete your quest, but at what cost? Why spend 100 hours accomplishing something that you could have accomplished in 50; or why do something wrong three times when you can do it right the first time? This is where a strategy guide would come in handy.

The snapshot review: Content Strategy: Connecting the Dots Between Business, Brand, and Benefits is the strategy guide I was looking for (weighing in at 383 pages for the eBook version). It contains just about everything you would ever need to know to get started developing a comprehensive content strategy, in any industry, and for any type of content.  Authors Rahel Bailie and Noz Urbina have put a lot of their thought leadership and practical experience into a book that serves its readers well in achieving that epic win. As a gamer, I found it easy to interpret the book’s content:

• Introduction (to business-critical content and content strategy)
• Your first day in the field (why having a content strategy is important, how it can add value to your organization)
• Tactics (why content should be treated as a critical business asset and the importance of ROI and UX)
• Resource management (a close look at what content is, and why this resource is so critical)
• Tools, equipment, and crafting (the importance of using the right tools and technologies to create and manage content)
• To battle (developing and implementing a content strategy)
• Glossary

Overall, I’m really impressed with this book. As someone who’s worked in the technical communications field for over ten years, most of the terminology, strategies, processes, and technologies etc. were already familiar to me. The information is well-focused, well-organized and easy-to-read, a trifecta for professionals who have packed schedules and a need to advance their skills and knowledge.

The authors clearly state that this is not a ‘how to’ book. I tend to agree with that; however, there are several case studies that did contain valuable ‘how to’ type information. But the real value, I found, was how the authors brought everything together to explain why content lifecycle and content strategy are important, why you shouldn’t have one without the other, and then listed all the things that need to be considered.

Since content strategies come with often-hefty price tags, being able to being able to sell your sponsor on this idea is crucial. Noz and Rahel present the business case for content strategy in clear and compelling terms. They also manage to bridge the gap between the technical side of things (XML, DITA, semantics, and structured content) and the business side of things (ROI, risk management, and brand building).

I recommend this book to anyone who’s interested in content strategy or anyone who works with content now (with or without an existing strategy in place). I recently noticed that content strategy (+16%) was one of only two skills on my LinkedIn profile that were identified as trending upwards (the other one was online publishing). So jump on this trend, buy this book now, and plot a strategy towards achieving your epic win.

Editor’s Note: For readers who want to enjoy Tech Writer This Week for May 9 via RSS without all the formatting issues, we’ve made it a bit easier by posting the introductory content here, and a link to the Storify curated content.

The STC Summit 2013, held in Atlanta, Georgia this year, got off to an excellent start with an entertaining and eye-opening keynote address by New York Times technology columnist David Pogue. Larry Kunz (sdicorp.com) shares his impressions of the summit and Danielle Villegas (techcommgeekmom.com) and Sarah Maddox (ffeathers.wordpress.com) also have a few things to talk about. The STC posted a ton of photos, tweets, and slideshows on eventifier.co. The slides are great. I’ve seen a few shows already, and have dogeared more to view. Remember to take a look at our annual Pinterest board, offered for your enjoyment.

Elsewhere in Technical Communication, Scriptorium Publishing posts a slideshow on the state of the tech comm industry. Joe Merlino (terraxml.com) talks about the fundamentals of technical writing. And in an older but still valid post, Gary Hoffman (arrl.org) offers his opinions on why no one reads manuals.

In User Experience, Paul Brooks (uxmag.com) wonders if your website offers a Home button, calling it a “Get out of jail free” card. Danielle Arad (ux.walkme.com) lists 19 UX thought leaders you should know about, and then follows up with a library of 75 UX resources.

Content Strategy & Curation features Sean Li (seo-hacker.com) describes his approach to developing a user-centric content strategy.  Then in curation, Ian Lurie (portent.com) shares his tips for doing content curation in just 13 minutes a day. (I need to step up my game.) On a similar note, Laura Crest (seocopywriting.com) offers her own great time-saving content curation strategies, many of which I’m already doing. And Scott Scanlon closes this section with an intriguing podcast, wondering if commentary is necessary for content curation.

Minda Zetlin (www.inc.com) shares five ways to mow through a tough task in Career and Life. Kim Komando (usatoday.com) discusses five email tricks everyone should know. And on a lighter note, Matt Petronzio (mashable.com) has a PC Weenies cartoon on experiencing life away from your computer screen.

Continue to Tech Writer This Week on Storify.

Adobe calls it a “thought leadership and networking platform.” We call it fascinating, fun and worth far more than a half day’s effort in Hotlanta on May 5.

Back by popular demand, Adobe Day at the STC Summit in Atlanta featured thought leadership, debate and great networking opportunities for the participants… and oh yeah… great food and hospitality provided by the TCS 4 team.  Folks in the room were treated to a keynote by the “Father of Framemaker,” Charles Corfield (nVoq), offering a glimpse at the past and a look at the future.

Rahel Bailey (Intentional Design) talked about the content economy and how to prepare for it and succeed in it. John Daigle (Evergreen Online Learning) chauffeured the group down the mobile documentation highway. Mark Lewis (Quark) hammered home ways to develop useful metrics  for content carpenters. And the soon-to-be-(in)famous panel of thought leaders weighed in on a few questions that should matter to all of us in technical communication.

If you couldn’t be in Atlanta for the STC Summit, zip on through these comments, posts and photos to get the highlights and big tweetable moments from Adobe Day 2013.

Continue to Adobe Day at STC Summit 2013 on Storify.

Before we head out, we want to give you the highlights of this week’s TechWhirl activity in our communication recap for May 3. Settle in with a cup of coffee or tea, and enjoy a good laugh with another classic humor piece from Lisa Higgins.  Take a look at what’s happening in tech comm social media and the blogosphere with Craig Cardimon’s Tech Writer This Week.  And remember to vote in the new technical communication poll on the impacts of ubiquitous computing.  More importantly, share your thoughts on the email discussion list, or by posting a comment to the poll introductory article.

Hope to see lots of Whirlers in Atlanta!

Have a great weekend!

-Connie and the gang at TechWhirl

	Tech Writer This Week for May 2, 2013 Tech Writer This Week heads into some new territories, with a new topic area, and some controversy in our old standbys. First in the standbys is Technical Communication. I’d venture a guess that most people think of technical writers as the quiet sort (I do my best to fly under the radar). But being quiet doesn’t mean we shy away from controversy. Peruse User Experience and then Content Strategy & Curation. Dive into our new area of Customer Experience Management, and finish off with some Career and Life goodies.
	Technical Writing Humor: From the Sidelines on Family Tech Support About a month ago, my dorky little brother was in town. As usual, he drove to Colorado from New Mexico with a truck full of stuff. Once, after he left, I counted fourteen bicycles in my garage. Once, I ended up with a cat. Always, though, I get computer stuff. This time, though, I didn’t get all of it. See, my mother lives maybe five miles away from me, and my brother gave her a computer, too.
	Technical Communication Poll: How Is Ubiquitous Computing Changing Tech Comm? We started a fascinating conversation on TechWhirl with last week’s poll question. Respondents are almost evenly split on whether wearable computers will change tech comm. Based on the commentary, we’ve attempted to extend the question. Wearable computers are merely a new iteration of a concept first discussed 25 years ago—ubiquitous computing. The question is not whether it will change tech comm, but rather how is ubiquitous computing changing tech comm.

Technical Communication News:

• NextDocs 6 Flexible Deployment Options Drive Faster Adoption and Lower Costs | http://ow.ly/2wxhGw

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• Our Google Plus Page – what’s happening behind the scenes | http://goo.gl/SO0R4
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