Musings and learning about technical communications issues from your TechCommGeekMom–a geeky mom who is into tech comm…since 2012.
Author: TechCommGeekMom
Danielle M. Villegas is a technical communicator who currently employed at Cox Automotive, Inc., and freelances as her own technical communications consultancy, Dair Communications. She has worked at the International Refugee Committee, MetLife, Novo Nordisk, BASF North America, Merck, and Deloitte, with a background in content strategy, web content management, social media, project management, e-learning, and client services. Danielle is best known in the technical communications world for her blog, TechCommGeekMom.com, which has continued to flourish since it was launched during her graduate studies at NJIT in 2012. She has presented webinars and seminars for Adobe, the Society for Technical Communication (STC), the IEEE ProComm, TCUK (ISTC) and at Drexel University’s eLearning Conference. She has written articles for the STC Intercom, STC Notebook, the Content Rules blog, and The Content Wrangler as well. She was very active in the STC, as a former chapter president for the STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter, serving and chairing on several STC Board committees, and most recently was the STC Board Vice-President before the organization closed.. You can learn more about Danielle on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemvillegas, on Twitter @techcommgeekmom, or through her blog.
All content is the owner's opinions, and does not reflect those of her employers past or present.
This morning while reading the latest news, I came across a CNET news article, entitled “Flash quietly re-emerges on Amazon’s Kindle Fire.” Speaking to All Things Digital in an interview published …
Danielle M. Villegas‘s insight:
As always, RJ Jacquez is promoting the next level of interactive design, namely HTML5 instead of Flash. His blog post here is a little long (only because it’s images from Twitter of his Twitter conversation), but it really brings to life the pros and cons of full-conversion to HTML5.
For the moment, I can’t take a side because I’m undecided. I really understand both sides of the issue. Having spoken to my developer husband about the topic in the past, I know he says that getting the desired effect is easier with Flash. I’ve been in companies that are very slow to changing over to mobile, let alone change over to utilizing HTML5. Flash is still predominant and people like it, so it’s hard to push those kinds of changes.
What do you think? Post here, or feel free to post on RJ’s site as well.
I admit it. I’ve been a bad TechCommGeekMom lately.
I know I haven’t been doing much on the blog lately. I think part of it is that I was driving so hard on this blog for a long time that I burned out a bit on it. It happens. It doesn’t mean that I’m not passionate about technical communications or m-learning anymore. Quite the contrary! If anything, the real reason I haven’t been online as much is that I’m really busy these days–and that’s a good thing. I started writing this blog was because I was looking for an outlet for all the things I was interested in and was learning about, and I wanted to share it all with anyone who would “listen”, especially potential employers. Now, I’m in a great contract that’s already halfway over, and I’ve gained a lot of confidence through the blog and with this position to know that I have some competence in technical communications. I feel as if without this blog, I would be nothing. And yet, I’ve been not attending to it as I should.
I could make promises to do better. I will certainly try, yet right now, it’s difficult to keep up with my own blog. As I said–it’s a good thing. My summer has become rather busy. I’m incredibly occupied with my web publishing job right now, which I’m thoroughly enjoying. I put a lot of hours into it, and I’m glad that my hard work for them is producing great results. It’s one of the best gigs I’ve ever had in my career, and thankfully, it’s the first one as a full-blown technical communicator. But it’s not enough for me. For the next six weeks, I’m going back to grad school–even though I’ve already graduated with my Master’s degree–to take a course I felt like I missed during my tenure. It’ll be on Proposal Writing. I got a head-start on the reading tonight, and so far, it sounds like I’ll have a good grasp of how to approach it. The introductory chapter information sounded a lot like the creation of content strategy, of which I think I have a decent understanding. I’m also dealing with the usual parental duties that accompany summer, namely running around with my son for camps, all those medical and dental appointments I can’t do during the school year without taking him out of school, etc. I’m also dealing with a few of those kinds of appointments myself, as I’m still recovering from my hip injury that happened as soon as I got home from the STC Summit. That takes time out of my schedule as well. I have commitments to the STC to write for their blog as well once a month, and I do get a few other requests now and then, too. So, after doing all that, you could see why it’s hard to carve out some time to do any extra writing–or still have enough energy leftover to do anything extra!
It’s not an excuse, but rather, it is what it is. I don’t hate writing, but the hot days of summer are certainly pushing me to my limit, and these days I’m often too tired at night to do any deep thinking. Even finding time to curate content is hard, as I always want to be sure that I post articles that are relevant and useful, not random blatherings. I’m hoping that I’ll be introducing a new guest blogger soon, (I have to find more time to read more of her past articles and talk with her), and I still have a book review or two that are pending (I haven’t forgotten! I’m still reading the books as thoroughly as I can in the little bit of time I have!).
So, there’s just a lot on my plate, as the saying goes, and I’m trying to work my way through all of it without making myself burn out completely.
The current Doctor Who–bowtie and all!
If I was as popular as the Kardashian sisters above, I don’t think I’d have to worry. My audience would be waiting for me. It’s much like my beloved Doctor Who series. It’s a long time between seasons and episodes right now, but it’s worth the wait.
For me, I don’t always know that. I’m not a glamourous Kardashian, nor am I a cool, bowtie-wearing Time Lord. I used to get all worked up about my blog stats until a wise woman reminded me that in the end, it’s not the blog stats that matter most. They are great, but they aren’t everything. Keeping the integrity of the blog is what’s important. If I write or curate good content, they will come (much like the Field of Dreams). I’ve chosen to embrace that approach because I would otherwise work myself into a frenzy, and we don’t want that, do we? (When is it EVER good to work a mom into a frenzy, especially a TechCommGeekMom?)
So…that’s the deal. Right now, I’m just not as vocal as I usually am. I haven’t stopped doing TechCommGeekMom, but I can’t do it as much right now. Hopefully, you understand and hopefully, at some point, when things calm down a little more, perhaps I can get some new information up more often. I felt a responsibility for telling those of you who are regular readers what’s been going on, so that you didn’t think I fell off the face of the Earth. I haven’t been so great in keeping up on social media outlets lately as well, or promoting the few items I have posted as vigourously as usual. 😦
In the meantime, there are 403 posts on this blog– so there’s plenty to read. Go back to the beginning, and see if there’s anything you missed in the early days of TechCommGeekMom. Perhaps things have changed in the last year and months since that post was first posted. Feel free to constructively comment, and perhaps even start a dialogue on some of those old posts. That was my intention for this blog in the first place–to create a central area for technical communicators, both experienced and newbies, to come together to openly discuss current topics in a professional, respectful, and casual arena. (Kumbaya!)
Do stay tuned! I hope to have something great to post in the near future to share with you! And thank you for your continued support!
Bill HR 521 is focused on education technology and is slowly working its way through the US Legislature. Technology is ever advancing and in order to stay
Danielle M. Villegas‘s insight:
This information came my way courtesy of @ronkowitz (Ken Ronkowitz) on Twitter. As you know, I’m a big proponent of technology for the classroom, and yet so many schools in the US are not up to speed just with the technology used in the classroom. Additionally, access is limited to this technology for many schools, as there could be one computer for a large group of students. Not very productive! This bill will help remedy that problem. Let’s hope it goes through! –techcommgeekmom
Realize the potential of mobile learning in your organization.
Danielle M. Villegas‘s insight:
Mayra Aixa Villar is a rising star in the e-learning/m-learning world, and she knows her stuff! I’m pleased to also call her my friend as well. She definitely is an authority on mobile learning strategies–check this out!
TechCommGeekMom 
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