Author: TechCommGeekMom

When personal computers first appeared more than 30 years ago, it was thought that its presence would be the genesis of a paperless society. The opposite effect happened. I think the main reason it didn’t happen was it was the first time people could easily print thing for themselves, and there wasn’t always the easy ability to share or transport documentation. With the advent of smartphones and tablets, it’s much easier to do this now, so becoming a paperless society is within reach more now than thirty, twenty, or even ten years ago. I use some of the tools mentioned in this article, and I’m definitely trying to move to being more paperless. Isn’t that what writing and managing mobile content is supposed to be about? –techcommgeekmom

Thanks to Christopher Pappas for posting this great article by Christie Wroten on Google+. 

I think people in technical communication who don’t work directly in e-learning should learn these terms as well! I learned them by hanging out with the right people (like Christopher) on Twitter. I can say that I knew what all of these were! But even the other day, I mentioned "m-learning" to someone in the tech comm field, and they had no idea what it was, even from inference.  Understanding these terms is important, because a big part of content is e-learning these days, whether it’s a simple help document or a full course.  E-learning is moving fast, so understanding this lingo will help immensely.  

–techcommgeekmom

This is a great article on TechWhirl by my friend, Rachel Houghton.  During my grad school years, my professors were my best mentors in the end. I tried joining a mentorship program, but the person I was paired up with questioned my choice of technical communication for my career field. (Ha! Look at me now!) And since graduation, especially since I’m a contractor and not an employee, I have found that having my friendships with people whom I’ve met through social media and especially those who were social media friends who I got to meet in person through the STC and Lavacon events have been great resources for mentorship. I feel that I don’t have one mentor, but many! That’s a good thing, because that way, I can get a variety of experienced opinions that can help me weigh in on information throughout my career.  

Good advice in this article. 

–techcommgeekmom

I agree with all of these, although I admit that I’m not familiar with Markdown which is mentioned. I looked at the Wikipedia explanation of what it was, and it’s just an extension of basic HTML, so learning that makes sense, and I’m sure I could figure that out, too!

I find the significance of this important. During one of my past positions, there were those at the company where I was contracted that were full-time employees making the big bucks with the big titles, but were considered "web publishers." The irony of it was that not one of those individuals knew basic HTML needed to fix a simple table, let along any basic HTML formatting issues. A large part of my job was fixing tables because these people would merely copy and paste a table from Word into the CMS, and thought it would automatically format the same way. It wouldn’t.  And yet, these were WEB publishers!  Having the basic skills outlined in this article have actually taken me far in my career. It got me out of a life of doing customer service into the IT/tech comm world.

This is a must-read article!

–techcommgeekmom 

This is an excellent article that I found on LinkedIn this morning. I agree with the main points of this article. While I am not without fault on occasion myself, I do find that effective communications skills are quickly slipping away professionally, and this need to be readdressed in professional education. Having worked customer service/client services, where communication is key to ensure a happy customer, and now being in technical communication, I see this issue clearly.  This idea of clear communication is essential, as the author of this article correctly points out, as information is exchanged more freely and openly due to internet mobility. It disappoints me enough that  I find simple grammatical mistakes and even wrong data in online articles from various news sources. I was looking at an online magazine today from the UK where people were clearly mislabeled in photos, incorrect relationships were listed (in the case of the article I was reading, it was that Princess Margaret was married to George VI. No! George VI was her father!), and common grammatical mistakes that should have never been there in the first place. As I watch television show–especially the reality shows–it is often obvious to the audience what an issue is, and yet the players in a situation can’t articulate the issue effectively to resolve the problem.

As professionals of any kind, clear, articulate communication is key, and I’m glad to see that more professionals are starting to realize that as a world society, we need help and we need to correct this now!

–techcommgeekmom