Today’s Web 2.0: Crushing Inboxes Everywhere

LB, this is for you… The clock started ticking when I SMS’d you so you realize how quickly someone can aggregate thoughts and collaborate with others.

I’m posting this real time to show an example of how quick and easy it is to update content. Below the fold, begin to realize how you can kill your email strings forever with a blog…

Web 2.0 The machine is using… us

Start with this… Best five minute summary around.

The single most important thing to remember is that once your content within XML is able to be repurposed virtually anywhere. 

Yes, watch the movie - it’s about four minutes long or so, and explains much better than my writing can.

After you’ve finished this, here are some of the best points from my last year’s research.

If a tech writer can, through the use of a simple devblog, keep everyone informed and stop the email forwarding that plagues software development, all will start off on the right foot.

Each of my clients has access 24/7 to the latest tasks accomplished. Change requests are posted as comments, which keeps everyone on their toes.

Using these techniques I’ve discovered makes things get done faster, better, and people save money. It’s a crazy concept, but I’m pushing collaboration and techniques to move us beyond stifling bureaucratic logjams found so often within corporations.

First

Read Company blogging 101, a simple guide to starting to blog without shooting yourself in the foot.

DevBlog Collaboration | Your Internal Process Holy Grail

Using these techniques I’ve discovered makes things get done faster, better, and people save money. It’s a crazy concept, but I’m pushing collaboration and techniques to move us beyond stifling bureaucratic logjams found so often within corporations.

With the expectation of your audience changing into a more interactive view, the Help Authoring you’re performing will start shifting towards a more nimble creation. I’m envisioning a Workflow Collaboration that will blend review of the documentation within a blog.

There’s a sweet spot between the user familiarity of an email and the openness and collaboration capabilities of a wiki; I tend to use a DevBlog instead. DevBlogs, or development-based blogging, has an adoption rate of about 60% of my client base and allow remote collaboration and concept review.

Second

From Adobe and MadCap’s Cold War: Who’s the Superpower Today?:

Ann Gentle has a complementary article about corporate conversations which IMO, is a critical application for this tool.

Imagine the Technical Support staff having a Web 2.0 window into documentation, becoming empowered to review the docs as they are published and implement troubleshooting into a software workflow.

Here’s yet another great article from Just Write Click >> Technical writers and conversations:

I had an “ah ha” moment at SXSW Interactive, when one of the social media metrics panelists Rohit Bhargava said he sees three areas or channels for measurable conversations - Public Relations, Marketing (Sales), and Customer Support.

For me, those three categories crystallized this connection: where our role as tech pubs is strongest in an organization, that’s where we might start successful conversations.

… Tech support seems the best alignment for many companies, as Charles Jeter’s follow-up points out. Tech publications that drive down support costs are another area where value proof lies.

Ann, you’re on a great thread with the conversations bit. Getting corporate cultures to open up and use Web 2.0 smartly is critical to their success against their competition.

Third

From Web 2.0 - MadCap Feedback is the KISS principle at work…:

Of course the magic behind any server based help file all happens behind the scenes in the user statistics just like Adobe RoboHelp Server, you get to know what people are looking at so you can focus your resources on restructuring those hot spots.

Additionally, your engineering team knows where best to look at fixing the GUI issues they may be guessing at.

Fourth

Simple Instructions Work Best and Sell Products

Just an example of what a short video can do to inform and instruct. Embedded in a blog, it’s simply more hyperlinked content.