Recently I was asked whether I thought that social media was just a procrastinator’s paradise or if it was a constructive community for the cyberliterate. Putting aside the irony of the fact that this question was itself posted on a social networking site, I answered that it can be both, and I went on to explain why. Read more
Lies, Death, and PowerPoint
The US military were reported last week to have found out something that many of us involved in information design and technical communications have known for a very long time: over-use of PowerPoint obscures the truth rather than reveals it, and confuses an audience rather than educates it. But the reports from the military suggest that the results of misuse may actually endanger lives. Read more
Why Agile might be good for technical writers after all
Many tech writers find the whole idea of working in an Agile programming environment a bit scary. There are no specs, for heaven’s sake! However, there are surely some advantages to being a tech writer on an Agile team, if the whole team has really embraced the philosophy (and not just the terminology) of the Agile approach. Read more
Messages from the Content Strategy Forum
I spent Friday at the Content Strategy 2010 Forum (#csforum10) in Paris, which was a remarkable event for many reasons. First of all (and I am allowing my personal prejudices as a technical writer to come to the fore here) although this event was organised by members of the France Chapter and the Trans-Alpine Chapter of the STC, this wasn’t a bog-standard technical writing event at all: in fact, hardly any of the the speakers, and barely a quarter of the delegates would describe themselves as technical writers. Read more
Why I’m concerned about libel law reform
On the face of it, having a law against libel seems a sensible idea. You shouldn’t be allowed to go around damaging people’s reputation by writing things like “Mr X is an arsonist” or “Ms Y is addicted to cocaine” just because you feel like it. And if you do write or say such things, it seems fair that Mr X or Ms Y should have the right to challenge you in court and receive financial compensation from you. Read more
