In this interactive session, technical communication experts Sarah O'Keefe, Nicky Bleiel, and Tony Self give their opinions about important current topics in the industry.

1. Ask
the
Experts
April
17,
2012
background image
flickr: spierzchala

2. Agenda
❖ Introductions
❖ Areas of expertise and/or interest
❖ Most common questions
❖ Hot topics
❖ Your questions

3. Nicky
Bleiel
❖ Senior Information Developer,
ComponentOne
❖ 17+ years of tech comm in software
❖ VP-elect, Society for Technical Communication
❖ Speaker at STC, tcworld, and others
❖ Instructor at Community College of
Allegheny County

4. Dr.
Tony
Self
❖ Based in Melbourne
❖ Trainee Technical Writer in
aircraft factory in 1979
❖ Started HyperWrite in 1993
❖ Help organisations implement
documentation technologies
❖ Help systems, online content, DITA
❖ Adjunct fellow at Swinburne University

5. Sarah
O’Keefe
❖ Founder and president,
Scriptorium Publishing
❖ Content strategy for tech comm
❖ Currently working on Content
Strategy 101 (contentstrategy101.com)

6. Twitter
❖ @sarahokeefe
❖ @nickybleiel
❖ @hyperwrite (Tony)

7. User assistance
DITA
Standards and methodologies
Minis
Embedded help
User assistance design
Single sourcing
Convergence tech comm
Star Trek (TOS)
XML and DITA
Publishing automation
Content strategy
Chocolate

8. “What is the best [Help Authoring Tool | DITA Editor |
Publishing System | CMS] to
use?”
“What should I be delivering?”
“Should we implement DITA (or XML?)”

9. It
depends.
flickr: Richard Fisher

10. “What
is
the
best
[Help
Authoring
Tool
|
DITA
Editor
|
Publishing
System
|
CMS]
to
use?”

11. “What
should
I
be
delivering?”

12. “Should
we
implement
DITA
(or
XML)?”

13. Should
I
use
a
wiki
for
documentation?
flickr: phillipstewart

14. Content
strategy:
Fad
or
fab?
flickr: stevendepolo

15. The
tech
comm
career:
Awful
or
awesome?
flickr: wordridden

16. Your
questions flickr: theogeo