Hard to believe the author of this is in his mid twenties. Then again, maybe that’s the perfect perspective before we all end up sucking up and selling out.

“Connections are empowering – they give you power of having a voice as an individual, the power of being able to raise issues, start discussions, and rock the status quo of your industry.  Connections allow you to shape and reshape your field from the ground up and bring forth positive change in the world around you. 

Counter to what you hear from most people, change in an industry is a good thing and is what moves things forward.

Digital mediums of expression allow you the freedom to create a following and carve out a name for yourself in your industry.  In time, if you work hard enough and share your expertise and results publicly you will get noticed.  Let your successes work for you.

Here are a few steps to take to build a name for yourself in your industry and build your personal brand (these are your action items):

Build a network for yourself using a digital communications tool such as a personal, professional blog.

Contribute content to your network frequently to establish a voice and build authority for yourself.  Write passionately and on what you know. Be genuine and take time to personally help others –this is actually one of the most rewarding aspects.

Supplement your personal network by becoming active in services like LinkedIn, Twitter, FriendFeed, etc where you can contribute to the discussion and have a voice.

Do some PR for yourself:  write by-lined articles to trade publications in your field, offer yourself up to reporters as someone to be quoted for articles, contribute to other people’s blogs.

Document all your projects in a private portfolio but ask permission to share them with the world too.  You’d be surprised how open people are to sharing successes on projects you created for them.  Rising waters lift all boats.

Go to industry events, conferences, trade shows, etc.  Speak or present at them if you can.

Be relentless, passionate and never settle for mediocrity in anything.  Never do something or commit to a project you don’t believe in.  Voice your opinions from the start if you think something will be a failure.

Conclusion

In a changing world, staying at the edge, being ultra-connected and carving out your personal brand is incredibly powerful and liberating. 

Building career security, not job security and showcasing your results/expertise is not only empowering, but it’s really a lot of fun.  You will connect with other like-minded, passionate people and help each other with projects, help each other spread ideas and make change in our world. 

It’s the difference between being average and being remarkable.

As some of you have already realized, I’m acting as a Contributing Writer for Securing Our eCity and ESET’s Threat Blog. Most topics are about cybersecurity awareness.

Online Safety

Please Rob Me: Blippy

New Facebook Privacy Controls Arrive on Wednesday

Banking Fraud? Tell me and tell me quick!

Best Facebook Security Setting Infographic: NYTimes

Apple may or may not equal security 

Cybercrime & Cyberwarfare

Carr’s Four Cyber Trends That Must Be Reversed Now

Cyber-crimefighters pwn Carders.cc

Bricking your cell phone: Mayhem on a Massive Scale 

DoD Cyber Command is officially online

Cybercrime: Illegal Seizure Applicable or Not?

Continued Malware Hijinks with Mass Webserver Compromises

Malware Injection Campaign: A Retaliation?

Geek with an edge: Gordon Snow, Asst. Dir. FBI Cyber Division

Antivirus Industry Interests

Library of Congress Acquires Entire Twitter Archive

Laughs: Redefining “Security Researcher”

Cybercrime Legislation Analysis

Debate Heating Up: Cybersecurity Act of 2010 S. 773

I’m all in favor of this concept: 

An electronic portfolio, also known as an e-portfolio or digital portfolio, is a collection of electronic evidence assembled and managed by a user, usually on the Web (also called Webfolio). Such electronic evidence may include inputted text, electronic files, images, multimedia, blog entries, and hyperlinks.

E-portfolios are both demonstrations of the user’s abilities and platforms for self-expression, and, if they are online, they can be maintained dynamically over time.

An e-portfolio can be seen as a type of learning record that provides actual evidence of achievement.

What I’ve learned is that more and more the changes of software particularly browser technology can make these obsolete over time. It actually becomes easier to keep a checklist of change management. I have four samples up at any given time – some have been up since 2003.

Interesting note: I met a new neighbor last weekend who needs a Federal contract fulfilled with a relevant accounting training I touched on seven years ago.

Flash and PDF seem to be the containers of choice. They’re always displayable regardless of which browsing technology is used – they all support the industry standard.

Charles Jeter’s ePortfolio links:

Tutorial – Completing Government Cost Accounting System Employee Timesheets (Adobe / Macromedia / Captivate / eHelp RoboDemo 2003)

Help File – Codo Software’s Laser Squad:Nemesis Tactics Guide (RoboHelp X5 FlashHelp, 2002 – 2003)

Rapid eLearning – Collaborative Blogging Overview (Articulate Studio 2009 with elements designed using GlobFX Swiff Chart Pro and Adobe Captivate, 2008)

Effective Curriculum Development – Securing Our eCity (multiple technology for Instructor Led Training, 2009 – 2010, shows results)

Corporate Blogwriting – Blogging in April on the ESET Threatblog (Microsoft Windows Live Writer / WordPress, 2010)

The following is a summary of my posts for April on ESET’s ThreatBlog. The hot topic was cyberwarfare however Facebook and personal privacy received quite a bit of attention, as well as FBI related analysis. If you’re interested you can subscribe to ESET’s Threatblog RSS feed.

Cyberwarfare series:

From Megatons to Megapings: Cyberwarfare

Cyberwarfare and Music: It’s All Tempo

Cybercrime and Cyberwarfare: Warnings Unheeded?

Kinetic Warfare vs. Cyberwarfare

Social Networking / Personal Privacy series:

Top Four Privacy Hacks/Tips/Trends Of The Week

Please do not change your password – The Boston Globe

Community Driven Privacy and Facebook: PC / Mac / iPhone Dependent?

FBI Cyber Division Warns About Social Networking

Privacy: Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Privacy: Lawsuit Alleges School Used Webcams to Lurk in Students’ Homes

Malware Sector Trends Reporting:

PDFs Exploitable?!? I’m shocked…

Facebook Newbie | Good Practices

SMishing or IMEI Phishing?

European Cybercriminal Gangs Target Middle America SMBs

Apple may or may not equal security

Legal / Criminal Minds:

Senate Bill 773: What it means for Cyber Security and Cybercrime

Spam, Bad Guys, and the Russian FSB

HR 4061: What Three Bucks buys you…

Insider Threat: Malware on your ATM

Is Net Neutrality a legit beef against Senate Bill 773?

FBI Cyber Division Describes Criminal Specialization

Geek with an edge: Gordon Snow, Asst. Dir. FBI Cyber Division

Update: links were broken, now they’re fixed!

Why eLearning should be your next skill set.

Just a few short months ago I had a podcast interview where I explained my interest in eLearning as a shift of my Technical Communication focus. Today I’ve been able to continue some of my research threads leading up to the Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) analysis, and it points towards further conclusive evidence that moving into Rapid eLearning was a well-timed and strategic move.

Having started years before with documentation and procedures in the military, I’m a firm believer in well structured TechComm. Working with the early RoboDemo / Captivate product team really showed me where instructional design and eLearning could go, and eLearning products now available like Articulate’s Studio 09 are one step beyond amazing.

I have felt for some time that continuing an eLearning track in my TechComm career would become more important in the years to come. Evidently Michael Hanley saw similar influences in the market when he wrote his post a few months ago: The Half-Life of the Knowledge Worker.

Read the rest of this entry »

Never let it be said that MadCap Software is out of touch with the Technical Communication world in these tough times. Sharon Burton posts about MadCap’s soup kitchen for Technical Communicators. This menu’s got it going on with all the trimmings and none of the cost.

If anyone has an ounce of sense and thinks they remotely might have to swat around theories, buzzwords, or best practices across the desk from a hiring manager within the next eighteen months, you really need to hit up these free webinars.That means just about everyone, including freelancers.

Come in out of the cold, pull up a chair, and listen to industry experts like Sarah O’Keefe talk about killer concepts like DITA. And listen to Neil Perlin talk about HATs to do CMS.

For FREE.

By the way, all but one are technology agnostic. For those of you not already using MadCap Flare you won’t be left out in the cold. I promise people won’t point and snicker.

Categories, times and dates below the fold. Seats are limited I’m sure, so register early.

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Could Microsoft out-Apple Adobe?

Let’s examine a few trends and remember that Apple beat its competitors in the education market twenty years ago by having a rabid fan base along with compelling intuitive software.  Microsoft Live’s community had 60 million users last time I checked. Working within the existing Live framework will be critical for any Learning Management Systems (LMS) play that Microsoft chooses to do in the future.

The eLearning potential with Microsoft’s (NASD: MSFT) current portfolio of hardware and software, part of which is the XBox brand, is gaining momentum. I’ve been discussing current instructional design trends with instructional designers, consumer media analysts, military training officers, and gamers. We’ve reached current consensus:

There are a lot of benefits to using the XBox 360 as a training / eLearning platform, primarily because of the XBox Live community.

Having solid revenue generating Intellectual Property (IP) in both hardware and software gives a strong advantage to MSFT in this space. Windows Live Mesh is self descriptive; it meshes all the services together.

How Does Live Mesh Work?

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No Jedi Mind Tricks Necessary

Whether there are corporate profits or not the Grinch, it seems, has struck twice in one calendar year for Adobe (NASD: ADBE). You heard my forecast about Adobe’s 2008 earnings here in last year’s posts and who can forget my venting in 2007 regarding Adobe’s negative user support strategy.

Now they have to cut 8% of their global workforce. Looks like the San Diego office will be shut down from the tweets I’ve read and MDowney, the Flex evangelist I was following in my Flex vs. Silverlight series is moving on as well… Good luck to everyone.

From the San Francisco Chronicle: Adobe laying off 600 employees

Adobe Systems in San Jose is laying off 600 employees and will restructure its business, the company announced Wednesday after the stock market closed.

Bottom line analysis for 2009: Adobe will survive in one form or another however all their software programs may not.

No Compelling Reason To Upgrade

Without the Vista mandatory upgrade upswing working in Adobe’s favor, I stated that this year’s sales were going to be significantly lower. I said sell short because there was no compelling reason to upgrade and people would figure they could get by just fine with last year’s model of CS3.

Panic in the streets of Bangalore… MadCap Flare Emerges

Well, ‘panic’ is not entirely fair to state about the Mumbai area after their recent security fiasco. 

Gorillas in the Mists

MadCap Software is currently pounding Adobe on the Technical Communication workflow front. According to the MadCap October press release two independent blogging polls showed MadCap Flare to be the new Gorilla in the Game, promoted up from Chimpanzee:

Flare was identified as the authoring application of choice by more than 39 percent of respondents to the surveys conducted on behalf of the HAT-Matrix.com and I’d Rather Be Writing technical communications blogs.

The surveys represent the first time that Flare, which debuted in March 2006, has seen higher customer use than any other competing solution–including legacy applications that have been on the market for more than a decade.

Add to this the 2008 recession stone skipping across the water and it means sobering trends for ADBE, losing ground on several fronts. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

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FLOSS Manuals: The OTHER FM for PDFs

Some writers truly hate Adobe Acrobat and any tool that can do the job better is worth a shot, particularly if it’s open source and easily navigated. Flossmanuals.net introduces FLOSS which does a lot of the single desktop Acrobat Pro’s job – collaboratively and open source.

Could FLOSS be the new Acrobat Pro killer?

FLOSS could bridge the gaps between Subject Matter Expert (SME) authoring of content and true documentation. For the specific purpose of supporting open source collaborative efforts this is heaven sent. Most open-source dev teams are simply not able to have those wonderful team meetings for doc review either for financial or time management purposes.

Update: Anne Gentle’s site talks about an event called a Booksprint that FlossManuals.net is doing for technical writers in support of open source programs.

I’ve been reading Janet Swisher’s review of FLOSS Manuals. She examines the pros and cons of Wiki briefly and explains the problem / solution of FLOSS definitively:

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Great article by Michael Hughes, PhD in Instructional Technology.

User books died; if they had value in that form, companies would still print them and users would buy them. Yet PDFs still hang around like pathetic home town sports fans after the team has moved to the West Coast.

Quintus in The Gladiator says “A people ought to know when they’ve been defeated.”

PDFs should get the wake-up call.

Of course the good doctor began his article stating it’s not every single PDF he hates:

Not all PDFs; that would be over the top. I just hate user manuals that are distributed as PDFs. From User Assistance: Why I Hate PDFs

Hat tip to Char James-Tanny’s Helpstuff blog where Char posts many well written tips on PDF user manuals:

If you’re going to distribute an online PDF as a user’s manual instead of one of the many appropriate online formats, then at least make it easy for your users.