Presented by Nicki Bleiel at Documentation and Training LIfe Sciences, June 23-26, 2008 in Indianapolis. Documentation deliverables have evolved beyond manuals and online help in recent years, and with the emergence of Web 2.0, things are changing faster than ever. Technical communicators have many more options to enhance the user experience, and developing many of them provide the opportunity to work with other departments to find a more holistic approach to content development and delivery. But there is no one-size-fits-all set of solutions. This workshop will review the types of analysis you need to do to determine which deliverables are right for your project, your customer, and your company. Other factors that can’t be ignored, such as translation needs, staff/time constraints, file size limitations, corporate image and control, and proprietary concerns will also be discussed, including: Analyzing the Product * Intended audience; delivery method (desktop, web application, etc.); competitor offerings; software development methodology. The UI as part of the Help system. Product Management expectations. Identifying User Wants and Needs * Preferences and expectations for information; work environment; knowledge and experience levels. Ascertaining Internal Needs and Opportunities * Working with Training, Support, and Marketing to reduce duplication and provide the user with consistent, useful information. * Finding ways to incorporate information from other departments to improve documentation. Accessing Deliverable Options * What is the optimum mix for the product? * The traditional: online help, manuals, embedded help, job aids, forums, web sites, technical support knowledgebases. * Emerging trends: wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, software demonstrations, podcasts, and other collaborative tools. They can supplement and/or enhance the traditional. Or, they may be a better fit for internal knowledge management or marketing use. Optimizing the Library * Single-sourcing; best practices for structuring information; continuous publishing

1. Analyzing Your Deliverables:
Developing th Optimal
D l i the O ti l
Documentation Library
(in a Web 2.0 World)
Nicky Bl i l
Ni k Bleiel
Senior Information Developer
ComponentOne
DocTrain Life Sciences 2008
Indianapolis, IN
June 26, 2008

2. What we ll discuss
we’ll
• Analysis
y
• Deliverables
• Traditional
• Web 2.0
• Putting it all together
• What’s on the horizon?
What s

3. Bottom Line
What it’s all about …
• Giving customers what they need
•Bl
Balancing customer needs and company needs
i d d d
• Driving the deliverables

4. PRODUCT ANALYSIS

5. Product Analysis
y
• How is the product delivered?
p
• What is your software development
process?
• What are the current library deliverables?

6. User Wants and Needs
Your • How they work
audience • Where they work
• Skill level
• Preferences

7. User Wants and Needs
How to find • Interview
out – Customer Support
– Q/A
– Training
– Power Users
• Read customer forum
• Site visits
• Surveys

8. Company Needs
Your • Corporate Expectations
audience • Corporate Image
• Corporate Philosophy
• Proprietary Concerns
• Regulatory Concerns

9. Company Needs
How to find • Talk to
out – Product Mgmt.
– Marketing
• Look at Intranet
– Blueprints
– Road Maps
– Requirements
q
• Don’t forget IT

10. Knowledge Management
and Reuse
• Investigate – discover sources of
information
• Find out what can be reused and shared
• Let others know what you have available
• Drive knowledge management
• Encourage consistency

11. LIBRARY DELIVERABLES

12. User Assistance Matrix
• Matrix that covers all deliverables we will
discuss. Includes:
• Deliverable
• Explanation/Details
El ti /D t il
• Features
• Things to think about
• Will reference as we go along
g g

13. Popular UA Technologies
Source: 2007 WritersUA Skills and
Technologies Survey
http://www.writersua.com/surveys/skillstec
h07/skillstech_techs.htm

14. The Traditional
Characteristics
• Comprehensive
• Controlled
• Defined Organization/Structure
• Taxonomy
• Content Authors – One to Many

15. The Traditional
• Manuals
• Online Help
• Embedded Help
p

16. Brief History/Future of Online Help
y p
• 1988: QuickHelp
p
• Help for MS-DOS; Helpmake.exe
• No HATs
• 1990: WinHelp
• RTF/Microsoft Help Compiler
• Si l
Single-sourcing b
i born; fi t HAT released
first HATs l d
• 1997: HTML Help
• Microsoft HTML Help Workshop released
• HTML Help the new standard/Browser-based Help
introduced

17. Brief History/Future of Online Help
y
• 2001
• Help 2.0 engine released, but only for integration with
Microsoft Visual Studio.
• 2003
• Announcement that Help 2.0 will not be released as a
platform; Longhorn Help may be released in future
future.
• 2005
• Security fix affects .chm files on a network.
• Announcement that Vista Help engine (formerly
Longhorn Help) will not be released. Now named AP
Help (Assistance Platform)
Platform).

18. Brief History/Future of Online Help
Notable facts about AP Help
(originally announced 2003):
• Uses XML (AML) markup
• The “Assistance Escalation Path
Assistance Path”
Well designed UI
A it
Assistance Di
Directly i UI
tl in
Help Pane and Help Center
User Community y
Your Product Support Center
What s
What’s next?? Update on new Help initiatives.
initiatives

19. The Traditional
• Job Aids
• Websites /Intranets
• Knowledgebases
g

20. Traditional/Web 2.0 Transitional
• Customer Forums
• Demonstration Videos

21. MATRIX REVIEW:
THE TRADITIONAL/TRANSITIONAL

22. Web 2.0 — Descriptions
“Harnessing collective intelligence”
g g
— Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media
“The living web”
“The active web”
“The read/write web”
—Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia

23. Web 2.0
Characteristics
• Not Comprehensive
• Not Controlled
• Organic
Organization/Structure
• Folksonomy
• Content Users –
Many to M
M t Many
• “Crowdsourcing”

24. Web 2.0
Includes:
• Wikis
• Podcasts
• Blogs
• Widgets/Gadgets
g g
• Social Networks
… and combinations of all the above

25. Web 2.0
20
Not everyone contributes equally –
y q y
• Creators (18%)
• Critics (25%)
( )
• Spectators (48%)
But all are important.
p
From Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by
Social Technologies by Li and Bernoff

26. Wikis
Websites that can be
edited by anyone
• Allow synchronous
collaboration
• Great for building
Communities of
Practice (COPs)
( )
• Keeper of the
“Group Memory”
•EExcellent for internal
ll t f i t l
knowledge
management

27. EXAMPLES

28. Wikis
Wiki drawbacks
• Learning curve
• Maliciousness
• Adoption
For those who prefer it, Twiki is a structured
Wiki.
See www.wikimatrix.org for list of wiki tools

29. Podcasts
Downloadable audio files
• Informal; can be very useful for
certain audiences
• Very easy to create/inexpensive
y y p
• Can be used to deliver training
• Can post to iTunes (Technology:
Software How To category) as free
downloads.
• Keywords in podcast title will
increase findability
findability.

30. EXAMPLES

31. Podcasts
Challenges
g
• May not work for your audience
• Generating material frequently
g q y
• Gathering talent

32. Blogs
Originally “weblogs” or online
g y g
diaries
• Can increase Search Engine
Optimization
O ti i ti (SEO) for your
f
company/ product
• Can be used to promote/educate Blog & Comments = a
customers about product features Conversation. Listening
required.
• Management can blog to
employees
l
Have something to say…
be ready for feedback.

33. EXAMPLES

34. Widgets/Gadgets
g g
Mini-apps
pp
• Updated weather, etc.
• Used on
webpages/social
networking profiles
• Can be used to
broadcast any
information

35. EXAMPLES

36. Social Networks
Interactive communities that
share interests/information
The usual suspects:
• MySpace.com, Facebook.com,
LinkedIn.com
News b k
N bookmarking:
ki
• Reddit.com, Digg.com, Fark.com,
Mixx.com
Website bookmarking:
• Stumbleupon.com, Del.icio.us.com
Blog bookmarking:
• Technorati.com
Th ti

37. EXAMPLES

38. Social Networks
Let’s look at some
trends/statistics…
trends/statistics
• What’s in it for your
y
company?
• What is the audience
a dience
interested in?

39. RSS Feeds
RSS Feeds drive
Web 2.0
• Really Simple Syndication
• Makes it possible for users
to receive a notice every
time information is updated.
• RSS Aggregators gather
feeds and make information
easier to keep track of.
- Google Reader
- Bloglines
• Makes Web 2.0 a “push”
rather than a “pull” system
pull system.

40. MATRIX REVIEW:
WEB 2.0
20

41. Incorporating Web 2.0
with Traditional
•IIssues
• Pitfalls
• GAINS ( (can b substantial)
be b i l)

42. Web 3.0
What is it?
Many definitions
• Th “Semantic Web”
The “S ti W b”
― Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World
Wide Web
One definition you will like…

43. OPTIMIZING YOUR LIBRARY

44. Best Practices
• Analyze often
• Know your audience
• Keep up with trends
• Tie Traditional/Web 2.0 efforts together
Traditional
• Single Sourcing
• St t i Information
Structuring I f ti
• Continuous Publishing
Web 2.0
• Encourage Communities of Practice
• Explore non-doc goals, such as SEO
non doc
• Gather champions/product evangelists

45. Tips and Tricks
• Post Videos on YouTube
• Post Podcasts on iTunes
• Post Presentations on Slideshare.net
• Post PDFs (etc.) on Scribd.com
• Embed all on your website, blog, etc. (code
provided)

46. Putting It All Together
g g
• Have solid (traditional) UA as a foundation
( )
• Supplement as is logical
• If Web 2.0 initiatives embraced, monitor and
nurture
– You are the expert; don’t ignore it
– Goals beyond doc
– Use Google Alerts to follow your industry

47. IN CONCLUSION …

48. You are not alone
ALL Information professions are
p
changing…
• Journalism
• Public Relations
• Marketing

49. A final thought
g
This is EXTREME continuous publishing …
Your “b k” will never b fi i h d! :-)
Y “book” ill be finished! )

50. MORE INFORMATION …
ARTICLES, BOOKS,
ARTICLES BOOKS CONFERENCES

51. More Information
Books
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by
Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh
Bernoff
Wikipatterns b St
Wiki tt by Stewart Mader
tM d
Website: wikipatterns.com; Blog: ikiw.org
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes g
Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D.
Williams
The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by
Barry Schwartz
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

52. More Information
Articles
STC Intercom Web 2.0 issue Sept/Oct. 2007
http://www.stc.org/intercom/index.0910.2007.asp
The Wisdom of the Chaperones by Chris Wilson
Slate.com htt //
Sl t http://www.slate.com/id/2184487
lt /id/2184487
What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business
Models for the Next Generation of Software
by Tim O’Reilly
O Reilly
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/200
5/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
What do you want from Social Media?
Socialmediatrader.com
http://socialmediatrader.com/what-do-you-want-from-
social-media/

53. More Information
10 Best Intranets of 2008 (Jakob Nielsen)
( )
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/intranet_design.html
Web 2.0 Neglecting Good Design
(
(Jakob Nielsen/BBC) )
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6653119.stm
5 Uses for a Wiki at Work (Chris Brogan)
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/5 uses for a wiki at
http://www lifehack org/articles/technology/5-uses-for-a-wiki-at-
work.html
SharePoint: Wiki While You Work (Mauro Cardarelli)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc162514.aspx
http://technet microsoft com/en us/magazine/cc162514 aspx
Company Blogging 101 (Matt Cutts)
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/company-blogging-101/

54. More Information
The Content Wrangler Community
g y
http://thecontentwrangler.ning.com/
Id
I’d Rather Be Writing blog (includes TechWriter
Voices podcasts)
http://www.idratherbewriting.com/

55. Conferences
Web 2.0 Summit
http://www.web2summit.com/
WikiSym – International Symposium on Wikis
http://www.wikisym.org/ws2008/index.php/Main_
Page
SOBCon – Biz School for Bloggers
http://www.sobevent.com/
http://www sobevent com/

56. Questions
Contact information:
Nicky Bl i l
Ni k Bleiel
ComponentOne
Pittsburgh, PA
nickyb@componentone.com
nickyb@componentone com
www.componentone.com
Blog “Technical Communication Camp
Technical Camp”
http://blogs.componentone.com/CS/blogs/techcamp/default.asp
x
Podcast on T h Writer Voices/Interview with Tom Johnson
Pd t Tech W it V i /I t i ith T Jh
Analyzing Your Users and Needs Before Creating help
Deliverables