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Podcast: What’s New in the Field of Technical Communication?

September 5th, 2008 | Posted in Tech Writer Voices |

Download MP3 (right-click and select Save Target As to download)
Duration: 45 min.

Having taken a three-month podcasting break, it feels good to be back. In this podcast, I talk with Charles Jeter and Heidi Hansen about what’s new in the field of technical communication. See the sections below for the four main topics we discuss.

Note: If you’ve never listened to a podcast before, see my brief page on How to Listen to Podcasts.

Hosts

Major Topics Discussed

1. Flossmanuals.net

Will this new wiki/help authoring/publishing tool hybrid take off?

2. Google Chrome’s comic book white paper

What can technical writers learn from Google’s Chrome comic book?

3. “Why I Hate PDFs”

Is the PDF a dying format?

4. “Technical Writing — Look Before You Leap”

Is a career in technical writing incompatible with a secret life as a creative writer?

Minor Topics Mentioned

The following links point to topics briefly mentioned during the podcast:

Other Podcasts You Might Like

If you like the Tech Writer Voices podcast, you’ll also like Alistair Christie’s IT Author podcast and the DMN Communications podcast. Check them out. Alistair has recently posted two new podcasts within the past couple of weeks.

I also enjoy This Week in Tech and the WordPress Podcast.

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11 Responses to “Podcast: What’s New in the Field of Technical Communication?”

  1. 4Fear Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 6:14 am

    Finally a podcast. Its been such a really long time since the last podcast. Thought we’d be confined to text only postings forever :) Do look forward to the future Sharon Burton podcast. That would be cool

  2. Anne Gentle Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 8:09 am

    Thanks to all of you for talking about FLOSS Manuals - your analyzes sounded spot on. The remix capability and PDF output is like no other wiki implementation I’ve seen, and the API that allows you to embed the wiki content into other websites is also unparalleled.

    Here’s an example of a web site that uses FM’s API to embed FLOSS Manuals content into their web pages. It’s an Open Publishing toolkit. NGO in a box stands for Non-Governmental Organization, and in a box means
    they’re bundling the software in cardboard. http://openpublishing.ngoinabox.org/
    We’re hoping to do something similar for OLPC’s website and wiki (embedding wiki content into another wiki).

  3. Alan J. Porter Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 12:43 pm

    Great to hear you podcasting again. I find the current discussions about the Google Chrome comic to be particularly interesting.

    It was a great attempt at using the medium of comics in this way, but in some ways was fatally flawed and I think in retrospect may end up being viewed as a wasted opportunity.

    I’ve been using comics to communicate technical ideas for a few years now, but more as an alternative to a white paper or marketing piece, than as a user manual. One of the problems with the Google attempt (other than the main one I blogged about)was that it didn’t seem to know what purpose it was meant to achieve.

  4. Tom Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 8:33 pm

    @4Fear, Thanks for the feedback. I recorded the podcast with Sharon this morning and will post it on Monday. Glad to hear that you missed the podcasts.

    @Anne, You’re involved in such an interesting project. I was curious to know who coded that flossmanuals.net site. It’s really impressive. Also, I like the idea of the booksprint. Is that a new term you coined?

    @Alan, I think your post about Chrome’s comic is spot on. I made it to page 5 and lost interest. As you say, there’s no main protagonist, no main story. It lacks continuity. Mostly, the comic book involves people talking to each other, or other characters. But I agree that the comic book format exposed the content to a much wider audience.

    I have a colleague who does comics. Can you point me to a post of yours with more samples and references to comic book documentation?

  5. Flossmanuals.net: A New Wiki Help Authoring/Publishing Tool Hybrid | I'd Rather Be Writing - Tom Johnson Says:
    September 5th, 2008 at 11:52 pm

    [...] Keith Soltys wrote about Floss and linked to numerous other writers, including Charles Jeter and Janet Swisher. We also talked about Flossmanuals.net briefly on the last podcast. [...]

  6. Felicia Says:
    September 6th, 2008 at 12:18 pm

    Wow for a great topic and nice comments. Really leaned a lot while going through this article. The links are very helpful. Thanks for the post :)

  7. Laura Says:
    September 9th, 2008 at 11:14 am

    Nice post. I fund every thing on this site which i was looking for. Thanks a lot for lovely post and links.

  8. BookSprint Laps | just write click Says:
    September 10th, 2008 at 8:21 pm

    [...] http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2008/09/05/podcast-whats-new-in-the-field-of-technical-communicatio... [...]

  9. Alan J. Porter Says:
    September 11th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    Hi Tom -

    I put together a quick post on other instructional comics - hope you find it interesting.

  10. Susan Says:
    September 13th, 2008 at 8:04 am

    Really interesting podcast; enjoyed it immensely.

    I especially enjoyed hearing about your struggles in staying up to date with the field. It often feels like the information I need to know grows exponentially; if my knowledge grows by an inch today, the field grows by a mile.

    I find the blogosphere, and particularly webcasts like these, a tremendous help in keeping current. I just make myself a cup of coffee, click, listen, and learn. Many thanks!

  11. Tom Says:
    September 19th, 2008 at 1:23 am

    @ Susan, thanks for the feedback on the podcast. I agree that staying up to date is a major challenge. But it’s also part of the fun.

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