I work as an information developer, and mostly I work on user and administrator guides. That means that I'm producing pages and pages of information. So, how do I reduce the number of pages being printed?

Reducing the amount of printed documentation sent to customers

Last fall, I asked: Are printed manuals a thing of the past? My iPod came with a small instructive brochure in the box, and the rest of the documentation was available online.

 BMC Software customers can  download software, instead of ordering a physical box. But customers have indicated that even when they get a physical kit, they don't need all the printed manuals. Now customers will get electronic copies of documentation, and will only get printed copies on request.

Working online instead of on paper

If you're not an information developer, you might think that all my work is always online. Of course, I do my writing on the computer. But reviews and proof reading used to take place in a mix of paper and online.

Now, almost all work is taking place online. We can do proof reading from the PDFs. I enable commenting in PDFs, so that editors and reviewers can add their comments even from Acrobat Reader. They don't have to print drafts of my guides. And as a bonus, it's easier for me to work from their online comments, because I don't have to decipher handwriting.

What are you doing?

What are you doing to reduce your environmental impact at work? I'd love to hear what else I could be doing.

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• Write 365 thank you notes in 365 days
• Exercise and declutter the house  (those should be mine, as well)
• Write and submit short stories (and related resolutions)
  

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 Often, when I look at news how technology might affect writing, I envision myself sitting at a computer, using some new software that lets me use XML tags to mark up my content, or that uses Web 2.0 to interact with my readers.

But today, I am sitting on my sofa, writing this blog entry, not on my laptop, but with pen on a piece of paper. It looks and feels like old technology, but really it's new. The pad of paper is clipped into a special board (actually, a computer, although it barely resembles one), and the pen - although it does write with ink - is sending signals to the board. The board captures what I write (or draw). After, I will upload this entry to a more traditional computer, and run the tools I typically think of as hi-tech to complete the publication process.

How else can low-tech be harnessed to meet our hi-tech needs? Do you have a favorite low-tech tool that you wish could meet your hi-tech needs?

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I read at The Content Wrangler that a new OASIS committee is being formed to explore this use of DITA. Apparently, they're looking for committee members, so if you'd like to get involved, check out the article for more information.

As a technical writer, this could be pretty cool. Imagine if all business documents were written with DITA specializations. Perhaps I could pull planning and design topics into technical documentation. People throughout the organization could pull topics from manuals into their documents.

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Some of the topics we'd like to discuss at future meetings include:

• Best practices for using various social media tools (such as blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn)
• How to attract readers to your blog
• Using social media for social activism

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I joined the mailing list, and some of us are setting up a meeting to explore the possibility of a chapter. If you're in Toronto, and want to join us, we'll be meeting:

When: Tuesday, October 23, 6:30 pm

Update: modified location

Where: Spring Rolls (Yonge & Bloor location of this restaurant, 2nd floor)

So we can adjust the reservation, please let us know you're coming by:

• Using Facebook to indicate your attendance to the event
• Using Yahoo Upcoming events to indicate your attendance to the event
• Or leaving a comment here (note that comments are moderated on this blog and do not show up immediately)
  

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Apparently, lots of people are creating specializations. It's not so surprising that companies are creating their own specializations, which allows them to use DITA in a way that better fits their needs.

What was surprising was seeing how a large number of organizations and other groups are working together to create specializations that are available for others to use. For example, there are specializations being developed for the manufacturing industry, for the pharmaceutical industry, and for learning and training.

The learning and training specialization gives me hope that information topics developed by IDD could be reused by instructional designers.

Link round-up

I checked out the links that Michael Priestley mentioned. They're a great source for more information about DITA.

• OASIS DITA Technical Committee - This is where the work behind DITA as an open standard is happening. If you're new to DITA, check out their DITA FAQ. You can find out what's happening with the DITA standard, and with the subcommittees for specializations that might become standards. And, of course, more links.
• DITA Open Toolkit - This toolkit is a free open source implementation of DITA in Java. I've heard that it's not trivial to implement, so this is probably only for those serious about trying DITA without a commercial product.
• DITA online community - This community is hosted by OASIS. It lists news and events, includes a wiki, and even tutorials. It also includes blogs about DITA.
  
• DITA Users Yahoo group - If you have questions about using DITA, this is a place to pose questions, and possibly get answers.
  
• DITA Users.org - This is a well-organized one-stop site for resources, tools, tutorials, and examples. Members get file storage space, access to the web-based XML editor DITA Storm, and other services.
  

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DITA

On October 9, I'll attend the monthly meeting of the Toronto chapter of the Society for Technical Communications (STC). Michael Priestley, will be speaking about the adoption of DITA in a wide range of contexts, and about DITA 1.1. I've heard Michael Priestley about the basics of DITA. I'm interested to find out how various organizations are adapting DITA to their needs.

Social Media Club

About a month or so ago, Ynema Magnum invited me (along with other talk.bmc bloggers) to a meeting of the Social Media Club. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend, as the meeting was in Austin, but Ynema pointed out that there are chapters of the Social Media Club all over. The Toronto chapter hasn't taken off yet, but we do have a mailing list. Robin (one of the other members of the mailing list) and I are planning a meeting later this month, to help get the Toronto chapter started. By the way, if you're in Toronto and interested in social media (such as blogging, and social networks, such as LinkedIn and Facebook), consider joining the mailing list, so that you can find out about the October and future meetings.

Advanced technical communication and project management

At the end of this month, I'll head out to New Orleans for Lavacon, the conference for advanced technical communication and project management. I'm looking forward to meeting in-person with technical communications professionals whom I've mostly dealt with on-line, and sharing great ideas on managing technical communications projects.

What about you?

If you'll be at any of these events, please do say hello. I love meeting people in the professional communications family. If these events don't work for you:

• Communicators, find out if there's an STC chapter near you, or a social media club chapter near you.
• BMC product and solution users, consider going to BMC UserWorld.
  

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I started wondering what documentation might look like on Facebook or other social media. Currently, most documentation is the equivalent of Web 1.0 - printed manuals, PDFs, online help, and other forms that present useful information, but don't allow users to reorganize the information, to add to it, or to communicate. Communications with users are typically handled separately from documentation.

What might documentation look like on the Facebook platform or other social media (Web 2.0) platforms?

What is salient about Facebook for documentation?

On your Facebook profile, information is presented in modules. These modules are typically small, although some expand to fit the content. As a user, you can control which modules to display, as well as their location on the screen.

Facebook provides space for you or others to write ("the wall"). Additionally, many of the modules provide space to add comments. Notes can be used for longer, article-length pieces of information.

How are these features relevant to documentation?

Information modules aren't new to technical writing. They're a key aspect of Content Management Systems, and have really taken off with XML and DITA. If we are using Facebook as a model, these information modules, would mostly contain small chunks of information, although some would expand for the needed content.

The user would be able to control which types of modules to display, and where to locate them on the screen.

Users would be able to annotate the documentation. These might be comments added to individual topics. If this were help on a multi-user system, each screen would have a place for messages, which could be a forum for adding tips or asking questions.

Facebook is about people; the friends displayed are part of the user's social network. For documentation, instead of friends, a list of related topics would be listed. If the list were over six, six topics would be listed, with a link to the complete list of related topics.

Can you give an example of how this might work?

On Facebook, your profile is centered around you, the user. Everything is about you and your friends. For documentation, we must find another starting point. For example, if Facebook-like documentation were provided as a help system, the starting point could be the user's screen when clicking Help.

Information modules might be available to:

• List all tasks that can be performed on the current screen (with links to more information about the tasks)
• List all tasks that include the current screen.
• Describe the purpose of key fields on the screen.
• Provide keyboard shortcuts, or other sorts of accelerators.

If you have your own vision, write it up in your blog, and leave me a comment. I'll post a round-up of the entries.

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What sort of documentation do you get with the iPod?

Recently, I finally got an iPod. Of course, as a writer, I find myself paying attention to how they provide documentation, and it gives me some ideas for documentation minimalism. Even with their simple design, Apple includes a small printed manual. More of a mini-brochure with just a few basics to get started.

You have to go online to get a more complete manual. But what a great idea! Besides not wasting paper on printing (I didn't print my copy), I have the latest version.

But even if you don't look at the manual, some of the less obvious features are displayed on the iPod where you need it. For example, a note in the Contact section provides instructions on how to load contacts if you don't synchronize with outlook. Or when I accidentally created an on-the-go play list, an additional on-the-go play list appeared and included a note explaining the feature.

 What does this mean for documenting larger products?

The iPod is a simple consumer device. Although it's a great device, it supports only limited functionality (not that I necessarily want it to do more). Does the iPod's documentation offer any suggestions to how to improve the documentation experience for products that offer greater functionality, such as BMC Remedy Service Desk?

To me, it seems like there are a few lessons that can be learned:

• In the box, include printed materials only to cover the bare minimum of what people need to know to get started. This highlights what is needed to get started, and doesn't overwhelm people with information that they need only later.
• Make the bulk of the manuals available on-line (although electronic copy included with the product distribution media might also work).
  
• Provide help where they need it. Does this mean context-sensitive help? Field-level help? Help panels embedded in the product at key points? I'm not sure.

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I don't think I'll forget how to put pen to paper. After a brief experiment with electronic note-taking, I returned to hand-written notes. His post makes me wonder, however, whether there are other skills I've forgotten, and whether they'll prove useful again. For example, when I first started using a computer to write, I had to insert all sorts of mark-up tags in the middle of my writing. There was no WYSIWIG capability on terminals, and my PC didn't even have a graphics card.

Now, of course, I can write and mark my text as bold or italic with the click of a button, and see the effects of my mark-up. Will I ever need to see tags as plain text again? It could be a useful skill to relearn for working with XML. What do you think?

Have you ever forgotten a skill and wanted to use it again?

It can also make a difference to all the people who work with me in producing documentation. Although I might be the person doing the writing, there are many people who play a role: product managers requesting new documents, subject matter experts (developers and others) providing information and reviewing documents, editors, and translators.

At times I've had discussions with subject matter experts on whether I use Microsoft Word or Adobe FrameMaker to create documents. Experts who like to write want to be able to enter their changes directly to the document - and they all have Microsoft Word. FrameMaker, however, is often the tool of choice for technical writers.

Do writers still have these discussions when they create HTML or XML documents? After all, developers often have tools fo editing HTML and XML documents. And tools shouldn't matter as much if we don't use proprietary file formats.

And what about moving to a content management system? That can change workflows for everyone who touches the document.

If you're not an information developer or technical writer, do you care what tool I'm using?

Once in a while I get to meet with customers, either in a conference call or in-person. That's a wonderful opportunity to get feedback, and also to discuss the customer's concerns. It's a real conversation - two-way conversation.

But what about my blog entries? If nobody leaves a comment, I'm back to broadcasting information (in this case, my thoughts).

Do you ever leave comments on blog entries? I do. Although, of course, not on every blog entry I read. It's a chance to enter a conversation with the author. Sometimes they reply to the comment.

If you leave comments, what makes it more likely for you to leave a comment? If you don't usually leave comments, I invite you to make an exception - please let me know why you don't leave comments.

If nobody leaves comments, perhaps I can use Technorati to check on the popularity of this blog. Feel free to add me to your favorites by clicking this button:

As a technical writer, I've become accustomed to anonymity. Plenty of people read what I write (manuals, white papers, technical bulletins, and so on), but only a few people know those are my words.

In case you haven't already read my bio, let me introduce myself. I started with BMC a couple of years ago as a technical writer. I write about products in the BMC Remedy IT Service Management (BMC Remedy ITSM) suite and solutions using those applications.

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet some customers. I came away from that meeting surprised and energized. Surprised - because some of their challenges were different from my preconceptions. Energized - because I had ideas I wanted to bring to our documentation that might enhance the customer experience. Hopefully, your experience.

I'm glad to have this opportunity to blog at BMC, because this will give me a forum where I can talk about ideas and get feedback from: customers, people in environments similar to our customers, and to others who are facing similar challenges.

Are you a customer? Are you providing IT service? I'd love to hear from you, to learn more about your challenges and what information you're seeking.