All posts by Michael Meyer

Our August 2010 Meeting: 101 Ways to Impress With Your Writing and Speaking

Meetings, STC NorthBay Blog

We in the technical documentation community are skilled writers and speakers. True. And we never need to revisit basic principles, and never ever get contentious over language. Not so true. This makes life fun.

At our August 2010 meeting, Arlene Miller, author of The Best Little Grammar Book Ever!, came with a short list of grammar questions, and not surprisingly there was a spirited discussion about the answers. Despite what we have learned in school and over the years, there is always room for analyzing the best way to say something — and sometimes for deciding whether to say it at all.

In keeping with the spirit of the evening, Arlene will be monitoring our new Grammar forum. Try this resource when you bump into a language challenge you would like to resolve, or just want to add expertise to the conversation.

Our July 2010 Meeting: A Tour of Virtual Worlds and How They Impact Technical Communicators

Authoring applications, Conferences, Meetings, STC NorthBay Blog, Uncategorized

In this online-only event, Mike Ziegenhagen shared his growing expertise–and most of all his enthusiasm–ror the expanding sector of virtual world applications. Many are by now aware of Second Life, but Mike documented an application from Forterra Systems called OLIVE ™, an “online interactive virtual environment” that offers the security sorely lacking in the standard, free version of Second Life (OLIVE can be seen as “Second Life in business suit”). His experience with the team was also a great opportunity to work with both artists and actors, to achieve the best possible renderings and life-like actions of the avatars. Verisimilitude is more and more critical to success. Mike also gave a brief tour of Blue Mars, a 3D social networking application, based on high-definition game technology, that is definitely worth exploring.

There are additional applications for hosting secure virtual meetings: Venuegen can be “rented” for under $100/mo. for ten people or so, and 3DXplorer offers an enterprise beta version. Both are browser based. Also, Second Life Work offers an application-based approach for those willing to buy.

Why bother? It turns out that business are seeing the advantages to hosting so-called hybrid events and conferences. Participants who want to meet in meatspace continue to do so, while those distributed around the world appreciate the advantages of entering the virtual world. Indeed, perpetual virtual environments are turning out to be profit centers. Not only that, but they can be really fun (as long as you don’t get lost in layers of consciousness, Inception-style, so to speak. It is actually not all that hard to get lost. But fortune favors the brave and the curious. With increasing bandwidth and video processing power for less and less money, it it not inconceivable to see virtual meeting places become more and more common. They can be used to unite family members, and they provide unique opportunities for training. STC is rumored to have a group (more detail to be provided when it is available), and you can always check out NPR’s Science Friday Second Life.

Next steps?

  • Do some research.
  • Explore some sites.
  • Download Second Life viewer and take if for a ride.
  • Get a good headset.
  • Have some fun.

    • The NorthBay Chapter is looking forward to playing around with this new medium, so stay tuned and let us know if you want to test the virtual waters. It is almost as if the spirit of the early days of computing were back again.

    Our June 2010 Meeting: Creating a Knowledge Base using MadCap Flare and Madcap Feedback Server

    Authoring applications, Meetings, STC NorthBay Blog, , ,

    Wendy Bidwell had long planned to present at our chapter but was now in Florida.  Would she accept our offer to present remotely using Acrobat Connect? Indeed, she took the plunge and all went very well, becoming our first formal telepresenter.  The commute and parking were much easier, despite the late hours for her.

    Her theme: How to use MadCap Flare in conjunction with MadCap Feedback Server to manage data in association with an online help project–improving communication among writers, customers, and employees.  So-called “out-of-the-box” applications just weren’t doing it, but Flare provided a great way to manage a knowledge base, while making it easy to export content to a variety of target output formats. Combining MadCap Flare with a Feedback Server to create a company knowledge base provides improved, interactive communication among writers, customers, and employees.

    Users can add comments and rate topics, and writers can analyze user searches. This provides the same kind of valuable information one would have to obtain from talking to customers and support personnel and conducting usability studies.

    For detailed instructions on installing and configuring MadCap Flare and MadCap Feedback Server in this context, see Wendy’s document. Other servers are also supported.