Another successful example of Web 2.0 Tech Support usage as we’ve discussed earlier: HATT post 69635 Re: flare evaluation

I am nearing the end of my evaluation period with Flare (just 9 days
left!)

Here are my comments:

The MadCap (Flare) people came out of the woodwork to support me,
whereas Adobe (RoboHelp) never uttered a peep – even though I
downloaded free trials of both and have posted several times in this
group. It reminded me of the good ol’ days of Blue Sky Software
(original owners and the creators of RH) and I was delighted to learn
that MadCap is sort of a reincarnation of Blue Sky.

If you liked hearing that Regina, you should check out my blog article with pics of the new/old place and the podcast with Mike Hamilton done last December.

This past April my father Howard Jeter passed away. This is the first year without him, and I’ve been thinking about his accomplishments a lot particularly with the MLK Day holiday.

My Personal Heritage

I am, like Derek Jeter, of mixed heritage. My dad was mainly African-American and Anglo with a considerable amount of Native American. We are direct descendants of Pocahontas and the Mataponai tribe in Virginia. The first Jeter in our family came over from England in the 1600s as an indentured servant. We’ve been around here for nearly 400 years. My mom is German-American on both sides and blonde. Her side of the family came over around the same time.

Family reunions are amazing. You can see virtually every color of the rainbow of people within them. The resemblance between distant family members was uncanny. You would see certain facial features even though you were separated by thousands of miles and in our case, multiple different ethnic backgrounds. One of my cousins married an Irishman, but her daughter looks a lot like my daughter born four years later.

I was approached at the 2000 family reunion held in DC by a man who told me, “…you look like my son.” I, being in the family spirit, replied that I’d been hearing that a lot that night. I pointed out two other cousins who I resembled.

We introduced ourselves, found we had the same name, and had a great conversation. Later one my cousins came up to me and asked me if I knew that man was Derek Jeter’s dad. 

But it didn’t matter. Dr. Charles Jeter had told me earlier when I asked why his son wasn’t there that he had to work and just couldn’t make it. I think he knew then that I had absolutely no idea who he was. Of course I was from the West Coast and baseball really doesn’t drive the hero worship that it does back east.

Now I’ve heard recently that Derek Jeter lives in Vista, north of San Diego. If true we should get together and play some XBox when he’s not gallivanting around with the Hollywood crowd.

The Jeter Family in Civil Rights

Our contributions to civil rights are surprising and I didn’t find out about most of my dad’s accomplishments until after he passed away. He was the first black substitute teacher in several Bay Area districts, like El Cerrito. He was also the first African-American permanent teacher hired into the San Francisco school district and taught at Balboa High School during the 1960s and 1970s.

There’s more about my dad Howard Jeter in his memorial blog if you’re interested, I’m just hitting the highlights here.

I remember reading several civil rights books and being able to meet Dick Gregory, the author of one, during a speech he was giving in the 1980s at UC Berkeley. He greeted my dad like an old friend, and this was something that I had noticed around Berkeley. People knew my father everywhere he went, but at the age of twelve I didn’t know that it was on a national level.

My dad ran against Ron Dellums in an early Democratic primary that Ron won in the late 1960s (or Wikipedia says 1970). Ron Dellums went on to serve over thirty years in office and now has a federal building named after him in Oakland. I met him in the 1980s, and he also greeted my dad by name.

Another member of our family, Mildred Jeter, was part of the groundbreaking civil rights decision that overruled the Virginia ban on interracial marriage in Loving v. State of Virginia. This occurred 40 years ago to the day that my father passed away.

My political stance is neutral. Having not experienced the same level of discrimination as my father I’m fortunate for the work that they laid for me yet I also retain a certain amount of belief that the pendulum can swing too far in areas like quotas and preferential treatment.

MLK Day 2008: Going Forward From Here

Prejudice of one kind or another continues in the heart of man. This isn’t something limited to regions, or political parties, or class structure. It’s just how we’re wired. We’re tribal by nature and tend to group into clans. My mom experienced the same sort of prejudice against her when she taught on the Navajo reservation.

Prejudice of any kind is overcome by long term exposure to a different culture and the earning of respect by professionalism in work and loyalty in personal friendships. It’s overcome by involving oneself in the community they live in.

As my aunt once said, we’ve been vocal for generations and one more struggle is a walk in the park. She’s had numerous lifetime achievements for over fifty years of community service given to her where she lives in New Jersey.

I am satisfied however that right now my children will grow up with the knowledge that our very legitimacy is due to the struggles of the 20th century. Our family was not a bystander in this struggle, rather we were directly involved.

That’s my family’s legacy. I’m proud to have known their personal involvement and been able to chronicle some of it. In honor of my dad and of Martin Luther King, I’m posting it today.

In my opinion, Rahul writes with better clarity than about 80% of America’s high school graduates and probably with better structure than I do.

He’s a professional and does quite well in an industry that the STC India figures show has consistently increased in wage by 20 – 30% between surveys.

From Rahul Prabhakar – when the muse strikes!: the new black gold of India

According to Prabhakar, Bangalore is the frontrunner amongst all Indian cities working on technical writing ‘simply because most (technology-related) multinationals are based there’.

‘With no university courses, technical writers in India are left to the wolves. They are made to learn the ropes on their own,’ laments Prabhakar. But despite the lack of training possibilities, ‘India’s participation in the world of technical writing is something that everyone is talking about.’

I’ll be looking into trends of how the technical writing pipeline differs in India than in North America with later posts. Suffice to say, I think that there is real competition coming from India and it’s going to have an impact globally.

Continuing our discussion from eDMS Roshambo Part 1 | Reviving PnP Workflow and eDMS Online Content Management with Analyzer, Electronic Document Management Systems (eDMS) has a large presence in enterprise server software. Companies which rely on Policy and Procedure (PnP) compliance must handle and update internal documentation to comply with Federal, State and industry standards.

All of that costs money. These eDMS servers are not cheap. There are also SaaS models that keep it affordable, but the monthly cost is still fairly high. Most are direct enterprise models with onsite installation and maintenance. Integration of these eDMS systems is, as you might imagine, somewhat intensive.

Wikis versus eDMS / DMS – (Electronic) Document Management System

The power of wikis in a corporation is hotly debated, however the concepts of wiki collaboration are widely accepted. The question becomes how to get there.

Currently the position on Wiki collaboration has been carefully pushed back and forth – see How Wikipedia Works (Or Doesn’t) | Can Corporations Use Wikis? where the Stanford Business School sources put forth their objections to Corporate Wiki use.

Update Jan 21: My thoughts on Wikis in Corporations are disputed by none less than Stewart Mader!

Stewart’s book, Wikipatterns, is attractive and is first on my soon-to-read list. I actually stood in Barnes & Noble less than a month ago and my mom held it up and asked me if I wanted it. I couldn’t since I was unfortunately buried in research. Check out Stewart Mader’s well-worded rebuttal of my comments.

Now that Stewart has mentioned my site I’m holding out to buy an autographed version of Wikipatterns.

Let’s look at the eDMS collaboration workflow first.

From Wikipedia on Workflow within a DMS:

Workflow is a complex problem and some document management systems have a built in workflow module. There are different types of workflow. Usage depends on the environment the EDMS is applied to.

Manual workflow requires a user to view the document and decide who to send it to.

Rules-based workflow allows an administrator to create a rule that dictates the flow of the document through an organization: for instance, an invoice passes through an approval process and then is routed to the accounts payable department.

Dynamic rules allow for branches to be created in a workflow process. A simple example would be to enter an invoice amount and if the amount is lower than a certain set amount, it follows different routes through the organization.

From Wikipedia on Collaboration within a DMS:

Collaboration should be inherent in a EDMS. Documents should be capable of being retrieved by an authorized user and worked on. Access should be blocked to other users while work is being performed on the document.

This brings its own challenges, particularly if the document is large in scope, right? Which is where things tend to fall apart. Bringing all these different parts of a ‘document’ together, with the right styles in both appearance and verbage is where docs managers and info architects usually have job security.

It also happens to be where MadCap is targeting the usate of their improved MadPak with the Analyzer.

Rock Paper Scissors (RoShamBo): Wiki beats separate desktop tools & an eDMS

So here’s one blogger’s recent take on why to use a Wiki to do collaboration.

From Blog on Wiki Patterns: Why using a wiki instead of email or documents will multiply your collaboration effectiveness:

Because of its complex structure, the EDMS tends to compartmentalize content instead of letting relationships emerge, so it becomes a veritable black hole.

The wiki does a much better job because it allows emergent organization of content – people don’t have to decide which folder or section to put it in, they can tag it so it appears alongside other similar content. Also in a wiki, the fact that you put content directly on a page instead of uploading a file means it requires less effort for someone else to find it.

If it’s on a page, I can:

1. see it immediately, and
2. add to or edit it immediately.

The fact that I can see it immediately means I’m less likely to get distracted by the mechanics associated with downloading, opening, etc., so I’m more likely to remember something I might want to add. Then, the fact that I can edit it so easily means I’m more likely to make my contribution.

That’s the real power of the wiki.

I’ve already talked in a previous post about the disadvantages of PDF or other ‘black hole’ technologies with information.

Wikis provide a similar advantage to a help authoring workflow I was using five years ago with RoboEngine / RoboHelp and currently use MadCap Flare to author. So that’s nothing new, as long as that content can be repurposed and isn’t siloed the end user is helped quicker and it’s easier to update and distribute.

Read the rest of this entry »

This falls into the research I’ve been doing recently and I’m very interested in the innovation concepts in this book. From Ten Faces of Innovation – Knowledge Jolt with Jack:

Clarke Ching provides a link to an article / review of Tom Kelly’s book, Ten Faces of innovation (and the accompanying website).  It’s a collection of personae that are critical to innovation in teams.  I like how the personae are grouped by type.

So do I, Jack. Thanks for the lead.

Everyone knows what Roshambo is – rock, paper, scissors. It’s a quick to learn children’s game with its basic roots in human psychology. Apply this to an area, say Policy and Procedure.

Documentation Management or What’s with all this stuff on the H Drive?!?

The existing concepts – eDMS with separate DMS documents, implementing and overseeing a corporate wiki, or the RoboHelp Server each have different strengths.

There’s a great article pointing out the pros and cons of eDMS vs Wikis that I have planned for Part 2.

With Part 3 I’ll go into the history and technology of the RoboInfo Server – a/k/a RoboEngine a/k/a RoboServer a/k/a RoboHelp Enterprise

So now we have a nice easy Roshambo with strengths and weaknesses in each. I’ll also wrap up with where I will be recommending my clients to improve their procedures.

Existing Paradigm: eDMS

Within an eDMS Word documents, disparate help files, PDFs are all available yet siloed with content that cannot yet be single sourced. Editing workflows vary from product to product but none are core technology and are stagnant in quality. The eDMS price point is upwards from $10,000 for the India-based developers into the mid five or low six figures for top of the line eDMS integration.

So cost is a weakness. It’s also risky for a middle manager to have to make recommendations on adopting usage. Editing is normally either a multi-desktop tool evolution or some sort of half-baked internal editing tool within the eDMS.

Proposed use: Wikis.

Wikis are easy for multiple users to use, however dealing with recommended corrections tends to lead towards anarchy without consistent management and oversight. Not a lot of corporations are thrilled about the open-editing functionality and that limits Wiki adoption currently.

I’ve not seen much to change my views from the research I did last year, How Wikipedia Works (Or Doesn’t) | Can Corporations Use Wikis?

Dan from Astoria has a great position contrary to mine. He feels that existing corporate controls will tend to triumph over the anarchy.

So if you take the notion of a corporate blog and loosen the filters to “evolve” it to a wiki, is this the equivalent of letting a pack of hyenas into your living room?

A lot of pundits seem to think so, however, with the proper review and approve mechanisms there is no reason to assume you can’t maintain the same level of control. The benefits of a wiki as an input mechanism to a documentation process that had previously been behind an information firewall are vast.

My response is in the comments and basically states that if a corporation is willing to listen to the unvarnished truth without punishing the contributors, they will be able to get the wiki job done.

I personally am skeptical about corporations not killing the messenger.

Yesterday’s Faded Glory: RoboInfo Server / RoboHelp Enterprise

RoboHelp / RoboInfo with the RoboServer is one method I’ve used for the past few years. RoboHelp can import content in, but it’s siloed and wrapped in proprietary format once it’s in. With the RoboServer other source information can be indexed. The Adobe Technical Communications Suite (Adobe TCS) brings things to ‘almost single source’.

In my opinion the Adobe TCS strategy with bundling the Acrobat 3D is that people will start drawing all of their documentation instead of writing it. Sort of like IKEA furniture instructions. I am beginning to believe that Adobe doesn’t know the true definition of Technical Communication, or they are attempting to change that definition.

Disrupting the Doc Management Roshambo – Analzyer and MadPak

MadCap’s solution set of the MadPak with their Feedback Server has been making a debut with its innovative Web 2.0 interface. Now, with the addition of the soon to release MadCap Analyzer, we’re looking at a true Roshambo contest for data management and documentation managers. 

After sitting down to take a sneak peek at the MadCap Analyzer, I’m realizing that workflows as we know them for documentation are about to make an abrupt shift upwards in efficiency. As far as I know, MadCap’s Analyzer will release sometime this January.

Analyzer is breaking that rock-paper-scissors deadlock with a wrecking ball.

Since keeping documentation as simple as possible is the hardest task to accomplish, Analyzer allows a Documentation Manager the capability to review consistency quickly, a task that would normally take hours or days to complete is now a matter of minutes and can be run on a daily basis.

I’ll post a review of Analyzer shortly, having first seen its close to release version just this week.

What I’m guessing is that the MadPak will fit nicely into an existing eDMS solution, bringing Web 2.0 capabilities and advanced authoring assistance directly into the documentation team’s grasp.

My proposed adoption: For managers who have eDMS, use of the MadPak with the new Analyzer will make their doc teams sing their praises louder than Vikings sending heros off to Valhalla.

For small companies who have data silos and have a need for single sourcing that data, FrameMaker, Word, and RoboHelp content can all be aggregated with MadPak. That’s if you’re planning on spending less money later on by having all the information in one place.

For Wiki proponents, read my article How Wikipedia Works (Or Doesn’t) | Can Corporations Use Wikis? because the quoted Harvard Business School professors do the Wiki adoption point much better justice than I could in one or two paragraphs.

Back in 2003 I trained Dave Mozealous in RoboDemo, (now Captivate) but he might have known more than me from his coursework prior to joining eHelp… Welcome Dave.

From Dave Mozealous’ Interesting Yahoo eLearning article:

An MIT initiative called “OpenCourseWare” makes virtually all the school’s courses available online for free — lecture notes, readings, tests and often video lectures. Strang’s Math 18.06 course is among the most popular, with visitors downloading his lectures more than 1.3 million times since June alone.

Strang’s classroom is the world.

Learning as we have known it has been disrupted by technology…. There are a lot of ways to interpret this, but mainly… the cost of getting an education has been punctured by disruptive technology. The cost of a diploma, however… is still on the upswing. ;-(

PS: Articulate’s CTO Arlyn Asch used to be the Director of Engineering at eHelp. Small world for all of us old eHelp’ers.

Continued from How This Savvy Techie Downloaded His First Virus

I got lucky. Others have had direct attacks on their sites after a trojan is installed which sniffs their passwords. I’ve got two adware programs which are a nusiance, but right now they’re isolated and cannot get out. I’ll kill them later today as I have time, and find a program that works on them better than the ones I’ve already owned.

Read the rest of this entry »

Why is the SEC interested in Adobe’s Corporate Authenticity and RoboHelp?

In the same manner as Ikea’s technical writing is nearly wordless I’m just going to post this picture of the Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC) accessing my site’s Is RoboHelp Dead… Again?!? article and the Corporate Authenticity category this week and let the audience decide its importance.

Talk amongst yourselves…

Vivek Jain, [Group Product Manager] I’m sure it’s nothing to be worried about. The SEC doesn’t have jurisdiction in Bangalore, India.

Is this for real?!? Afraid so…

If anyone wants it I’ll email the .xps directly to you if you feel the need to validate this. I think I have a server log also. (unsure if it included January in my December one). By the way, checking my site today, I found overlooked someone else logging on from a government web site in Washington. I’ll keep that to myself for the moment.

PS: According to my stats I was crunching before that virus hit my system the Is RoboHelp Dead… Again?!? article is the top linked-to article of 2007.

Just make the online Microsoft Download Center out of Silverlight. They have to download it to get their Product updates…

Oen blog, Beyond the Curtains states in its article MS To Push Silverlight Via Redesigned Microsoft.com:

It’s a desperate move, there’s no doubt about it. While Microsoft will no doubt be making an alternative HTML interface available for a mixture of legal and practical purposes, switching Microsoft.com over to Silverlight is a sure-fire way to get that attention…. and depending on how it’s both marketed and carried out, it could be what it takes to make developers start taking Silverlight seriously.