Tag: singular experience

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What you so afraid of? Part II – The Tech Comm Edition

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

torchwood_jacktorturedI’ve been reflecting a lot, lately, into what makes me continue to pursue a technical career, especially in technical communications. I’ve been thinking about what I’ve been doing in the last year to stay on top of trends and issues in the technical communications field, because the last thing that a prospective employer needs is someone who is stuck in his or her own ways, never learning and never progressing. Technology is constantly changing, and both technical communications at-large as well as the e-learning world are both in the flux of a “revolution”–a revolution that reflects that these fields are in the process of changing and revitalizing in order to keep up with modern thought and technological advances. One of the reason I try to stay as active as possible in social media is to stay on top of those trends and have an understanding of the current issues and advances in these fields so that I can go into a job understanding what the needs of a company are in order to help that company move forward.

And yet, it seems like there are so many companies, from my own observation, that are terrified of change and progress. Is it too much too soon? Perhaps it is. I’ve talked about this topic before at length specifically in regard to how the m-learning revolution is trying to make headway in the e-learning field in my post, “What Are You So Afraid Of?” back in July 2012. But as my most recent experiences personally have been more tech comm related, I’m starting to think that this fear of progress extends to the tech comm world as well.

I remember a big part of what was mentioned at the Adobe Day panel was the idea that as technical communicators, we understand the value of our work better than the higher-ups in managerial positions, and it’s our duty, in many respects to make sure that these higher-ups understand that value and the ROI (return on investment) that using structured content and other tools at a technical communicator’s disposal will benefit the company in the long run.  When I’ve gone on interviews or worked at various jobs, I talk about the advances that are going on involving mobile technology and how companies need to keep up with this fast-growing technology. While the interviewers or other people I speak with are impressed with my knowledge and agree the changes need to be made, the argument made is that the higher-ups, who don’t understand this value of technical communications as well as we do, insist on sticking with old ways, and slowing down progress for the sake of comfort levels. It’s a “Don’t fix what ain’t broken”-kind of mentality. I know that sometimes budgets can limit how soon progress is made, because ever-changing technological advances can be expensive, especially if one is always trying to keep up with the latest and greatest. But I also know that spending a lot of money on ancient systems that aren’t keeping up with current technology and even supporting such ancient technology and methods that aren’t even supported today is throwing money away too. Would we even have smartphones or cell phones if we settled for landline phones only? Would microprocessing computers have even been invented if we settled for manual typewriters long ago? Settling for the old doesn’t really benefit anyone, especially global companies that want to stay ahead of the competition.

The photo above is a favorite character on one of my favorite TV series, “Torchwood,” named Captain Jack. Captain Jack is generally a fearless guy, especially since he has some sort of capability where he cannot die. In that sense, when up against some sort of danger personally, he’s got nothing to lose at all. But since he’s lived for so long, he also respects the past and understands the full impact of his actions and how they affect others. Despite having nothing to lose by his actions, he’s actually the conservative one when it comes to making decisions, basing his actions on what he knows and what he researches first. He is cautious, but he’s not against trying something new if it makes sense. If you see him with a facial expression like the one he has above, you KNOW that something REALLY bad is going on, and it has greater repercussions beyond himself.

There are times that I have that same feeling, at least in my own mind.  While I respect that certain systems work and work well, and I know I’m not the most experienced technical communicator out there, I’ve done some due diligence, and again, I try to keep up with what’s going on in the world so that I’m ready to keep up with the latest advances and thought in the field. When I hear that companies are hesitant to budge from an old way of thinking, I feel frustrated. How are these companies supposed to keep their standings as world-class, advanced companies when their communications are not cutting edge, or at least up-to-date? Again, I understand that executive managers have to look at the full picture and work within budgets, but with a world that is going mobile faster than anyone can keep up with, why aren’t big companies even attempting to keep up even a little bit? Just as I had mentioned in the last article on this topic relating to m-learning mentioned above, I see it occurring in tech comm itself as well, with companies not keeping up with the latest version of how documentation outputs have to be changed to keep up with mobile technology. There is little risk with proven methods.

As a global economy–not just in the United States–we are trying to emerge from one of the biggest financial crises in economic history. Looking back at history, it’s usually during these times of economic woe that some of the greatest leaps in technology and business have been made, using great intellect and creativity to push things forward when resources were scarce. This is a time of emergence again. There are so many companies that have taken the leap forward to help take us to the next step. Smartphone and tablet manufacturers have brought us the next means of gathering information and providing communication between us. In turn, software manufacturers, like Adobe with TCS 4 and MadCap with Flare, among others, have provided us with tools to help take the content that technical communicators write to a new level of efficiency and flexibility among all the new mobile devices in the world while still keeping up with desktop capabilities.  If any companies embrace any of the changes that are going on in the technical communications field, they can deliver bigger and better communications thus benefitting from the changes, not being hindered by them.

So, what are you so afraid of, corporate world? Help technical communicators help you. Even the smallest step forward will be step towards a better future for your company.

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Tech Writer This Week For November 22, 2012 | TechWhirl

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

See on Scoop.it – M-learning, E-Learning, and Technical Communications

Pre-Thanksgiving roundup of technical communication, content strategy, and user experience commentary for the tech writer hungry for more than just turkey.

I’m the first article listed! Nice! Thanks, TechWhirl!

–techcommgeekmom

See on techwhirl.com

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Happy Thanksgiving 2012!

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

Today, in the United States, it’s a holiday. Thanksgiving is a day that we Americans celebrate to remember the sacrifices that the first English pilgrims made after their first year of survival in the New World. The celebratory tradition started with those pilgrims sharing the bounty of the harvest they reaped with the Native Americans who lived in the area and taught them some of the survival skills, and gave thanks for everything that came their way. Many generations later, we Americans, use this day to remember and give thanks for what we have as Americans. We celebrate with family, friends, and a huge feast.

OK, so that’s the general idea of the holiday–or at least that’s what it’s supposed to be. The legend or fairytale has been marred over the years with the realities of those who were cast out due to religious oppression in their own country coming to this one and taking horrible advantage of the native people, eventually driving them out over time and making the Native American nation into a minority that is still, to this day, trying to culturally and literally survive. America, for all the pretty stories of pioneering, didn’t always get there in a nice and clean way with hard work. There are some ugly stories too. I just wanted to put that out there, just in case anyone thought that I was unaware of any atrocities in our nation’s history and had notions of any overly lofty American ideals.

But for a moment, let’s just run with those lofty ideals for a moment, and get back to the core idea of how Americans celebrate it now–Americans of all races, religions, cultures, ethnicities and creeds celebrate. Thanksgiving is a nice concept of a holiday, no matter how one celebrates it. I’m sure there are other holidays in other cultures that have something like it, where it’s just a day to celebrate family, friends and whatever good fortune has come by in the past year. There’s been a lot of bad things that have happened over the centuries, and even more recently. Heightened wars in the Middle East, poverty and starvation in different parts of the world, and even closer to home, the devastation of what Hurricane Sandy did to my home state and area. This is a day that I’m thankful that the worst thing that happened during Hurricane Sandy was that a tree fell on our house and ruined part of the roof, and that I didn’t lose my home or more importantly, my family.

It’s a time to realize that while no life is perfect, and all people have their own issues, that some good things can come out of life, and to be grateful for those good things, whether they are big or small.

For me, it’s been a very interesting year. While I’m sure I’ll say more as the year draws to a close, I’ll just summarize the good things I’m thankful for this year, as much of it does deal with my entry into the technical communications world. I’m thankful that there was a program at NJIT in technical communications, and that I could graduate with my Master’s degree in the topic this year. I’m thankful for the professors and students in my program who helped me get out more into the social media world to make my voice heard, and continue to support my endeavors post-graduation. I’m thankful to have met so many people through social media–Twitter, this blog, Facebook, etc.–who are professionals in the technical communications world who have mentored me as well as become my friends. I’m thankful for the opportunities I’ve had through these associations, such as the chance to go to Adobe Day, have my webinar, do the NJIT promotional video, get my teaching job or meet other professionals in person. I have learned so much, and continue to learn so much from all of them. But most of all, I’m grateful for my husband and son, for without them, none of this would be possible. Allowing me to be me, allowing me to continue to learn and grow, and supporting me every step of the way is so important to me. Without those two wacky guys of mine, I would not be in the technical communications field, and would not be continuing to pursue a technical communications career.

So, whether you are in the United States partaking in a big holiday, or it’s just another Thursday or Friday (other places, it’s Friday already from the time I’m writing this!), take a moment and remember what it is that you are thankful for, even if it’s just being glad the be able to pursue a technical communications career that is growing and expanding each day, and that you are part of the great changes that are happening in this world–one little bit at a time.

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Do you speak the Queen’s English? It’s a Rhetorical Question.

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom
William and Kate,
aka The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

I’ve been a big royalty follower for 30 years. It started the weekend before the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, and it hasn’t stopped since that time. Nor has my interest in royals been limited to just the Brits. I’ve always been fascinated by any royals, no matter the nationality, and keep up with the “royal gossip” reading Hello Magazine online.

So, what does this have to do with anything, especially something related to technical communications? A friend of mine found the following article in the Telegraph, which talks about how the received pronunciation of how the Duke of Cambridge’s elders speak is starting to change to a more modern pronunciation, with less crispness and precision than in the past–more like how the Duchess of Cambridge and many average Brits speak.

Prince William’s cut-glass accent is a little less polished than Kate Middleton’s

To me, this fact is of notable significance. English, like any other language, is a constantly evolving language. While the same base language is spoken among those claiming to speak English, there are significant differences not only in pronunciation, but also in how it’s used. Those speaking English in India, Australia, and New Zealand greatly differentiate from their fellow speakers in Canada, the U.S. or South Africa. Heck, just within my own state of New Jersey, there are different pronunciations of certain words! Different vocabularies and different expressions are used often, but the foundation of the language is the same. This also applies to other languages as well that are used globally like Spanish and French.

This is an important thing to note, as rhetoric is a good part of technical communications. How language is presented in spoken word, whether by a recording, audio file or video file, can make a difference as to whether the message being delivered is clear to the audience.  This also has an impact on the translation in technical communications. Recalling Val Swisher’s talk on Adobe Day, the choice of words when writing documentation that needs to be translated into other languages is critical. Using expressions or colloquialisms is frowned upon, as often these expressions cannot be translated directly.

However, I’ve also seen this happen within different English dialects. For the past two months, I’ve been teaching a virtual technical and business writing course to Asian-based employees of a very large global software company. Of all the students I had, only one was a native English speaker. Knowing that typically British English is used outside the Americas to learn English, I did my best to adapt my vocabulary accordingly. (Good thing I’m such an Anglophile and watch a lot of British television these days!) Even with that, I could hear from my students–who usually spoke English well–that certain nuances from their particular locales still came through their speech, and I don’t mean just accents.  Students from India and Singapore were much more formal with their words and phrase choices than their colleagues based in Korea or Kuala Lumpur. There’s nothing wrong with that, but merely an observation.  I also thought about how American English has changed. If one watches an American film made in the 1930s or 1940s, much of the rhetoric used was very different from today, much like the American equivalent of the Queen’s English described in the article above. There are still very good speakers in the U.S, but that crispness of speech is more relaxed and modern.

For me, I think my rhetoric holds up decently enough. I know that I will slide into some bad habits now and then, but not too often. I don’t have a pronounced “Jersey” accent that’s put forth on television shows, but I am a native Jersey Girl through and through. (You can judge for yourself on the home page of my e-portfolio, where I’m featured in a video for NJIT’s MSPTC program.) One of my younger sisters is an actress, and while she has had extensive elocution lessons, she doesn’t necessarily have a particular accent, especially a “Jersey” accent. So when a famous British actor met her years ago and spoke with her at a book signing, he swore she was from Sweden and not from New Jersey!

As we become more globally aware, thanks to Internet connectivity, we need to become more aware of how we communicate to each other rhetorically to make sure that we understand each other as clearly as possible. As technical communicators, we should be setting the standards and leading the way for others.

So as you speak to fellow English speakers that you know locally and globally, how does your rhetoric stand up to the rest?

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Structured Content is Like Your Closet | Content Rules, Inc.

Posted on by TechCommGeekMom

See on Scoop.it – M-learning, E-Learning, and Technical Communications

Structured content is a lot like a new closet. No amount of organization will work until you put everything in its rightful place.

This is a fantastic article that my new friend, Val Swisher, wrote about understanding structured content management. She is a marvelous speaker that I saw at Adobe Day at Lavacon, and spent some time with her afterwards. She’s a creative and smart person, and knows a lot about this subject!  I love her analogy with the closet in this article! I definitely encourage you to read this article, because it’s a great breakdown of how the whole concept works.

Happy reading!

–techcommgeekmom

See on www.contentrules.com