Analyzing Your Deliverables:
Developing th Optimal
D l i the O ti l
Documentation Library
(in a Web 2.0 World)
Nicky Bl i l
Ni k Bleiel
Senior Information Developer
ComponentOne
DocTrain Life Sciences 2008
Indianapolis, IN
June 26, 2008

What we ll discuss
we’ll
• Analysis
y
• Deliverables
• Traditional
• Web 2.0
• Putting it all together
• What’s on the horizon?
What s

Bottom Line
What it’s all about …
• Giving customers what they need
•Bl
Balancing customer needs and company needs
i d d d
• Driving the deliverables

PRODUCT ANALYSIS

Product Analysis
y
• How is the product delivered?
p
• What is your software development
process?
• What are the current library deliverables?

User Wants and Needs
Your • How they work
audience • Where they work
• Skill level
• Preferences

User Wants and Needs
How to find • Interview
out – Customer Support
– Q/A
– Training
– Power Users
• Read customer forum
• Site visits
• Surveys

Company Needs
Your • Corporate Expectations
audience • Corporate Image
• Corporate Philosophy
• Proprietary Concerns
• Regulatory Concerns

Company Needs
How to find • Talk to
out – Product Mgmt.
– Marketing
• Look at Intranet
– Blueprints
– Road Maps
– Requirements
q
• Don’t forget IT

Knowledge Management
and Reuse
• Investigate – discover sources of
information
• Find out what can be reused and shared
• Let others know what you have available
• Drive knowledge management
• Encourage consistency

LIBRARY DELIVERABLES

User Assistance Matrix
• Matrix that covers all deliverables we will
discuss. Includes:
• Deliverable
• Explanation/Details
El ti /D t il
• Features
• Things to think about
• Will reference as we go along
g g

Popular UA Technologies
Source: 2007 WritersUA Skills and
Technologies Survey
http://www.writersua.com/surveys/skillstec
h07/skillstech_techs.htm

The Traditional
Characteristics
• Comprehensive
• Controlled
• Defined Organization/Structure
• Taxonomy
• Content Authors – One to Many

The Traditional
• Manuals
• Online Help
• Embedded Help
p

Brief History/Future of Online Help
y p
• 1988: QuickHelp
p
• Help for MS-DOS; Helpmake.exe
• No HATs
• 1990: WinHelp
• RTF/Microsoft Help Compiler
• Si l
Single-sourcing b
i born; fi t HAT released
first HATs l d
• 1997: HTML Help
• Microsoft HTML Help Workshop released
• HTML Help the new standard/Browser-based Help
introduced

Brief History/Future of Online Help
y
• 2001
• Help 2.0 engine released, but only for integration with
Microsoft Visual Studio.
• 2003
• Announcement that Help 2.0 will not be released as a
platform; Longhorn Help may be released in future
future.
• 2005
• Security fix affects .chm files on a network.
• Announcement that Vista Help engine (formerly
Longhorn Help) will not be released. Now named AP
Help (Assistance Platform)
Platform).

Brief History/Future of Online Help
Notable facts about AP Help
(originally announced 2003):
• Uses XML (AML) markup
• The “Assistance Escalation Path
Assistance Path”
Well designed UI
A it
Assistance Di
Directly i UI
tl in
Help Pane and Help Center
User Community y
Your Product Support Center
What s
What’s next?? Update on new Help initiatives.
initiatives

The Traditional
• Job Aids
• Websites /Intranets
• Knowledgebases
g

Traditional/Web 2.0 Transitional
• Customer Forums
• Demonstration Videos

MATRIX REVIEW:
THE TRADITIONAL/TRANSITIONAL

Web 2.0 — Descriptions
“Harnessing collective intelligence”
g g
— Tim O’Reilly, O’Reilly Media
“The living web”
“The active web”
“The read/write web”
—Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia

Web 2.0
Characteristics
• Not Comprehensive
• Not Controlled
• Organic
Organization/Structure
• Folksonomy
• Content Users –
Many to M
M t Many
• “Crowdsourcing”

Web 2.0
Includes:
• Wikis
• Podcasts
• Blogs
• Widgets/Gadgets
g g
• Social Networks
… and combinations of all the above

Web 2.0
20
Not everyone contributes equally –
y q y
• Creators (18%)
• Critics (25%)
( )
• Spectators (48%)
But all are important.
p
From Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by
Social Technologies by Li and Bernoff

Wikis
Websites that can be
edited by anyone
• Allow synchronous
collaboration
• Great for building
Communities of
Practice (COPs)
( )
• Keeper of the
“Group Memory”
•EExcellent for internal
ll t f i t l
knowledge
management

EXAMPLES

Wikis
Wiki drawbacks
• Learning curve
• Maliciousness
• Adoption
For those who prefer it, Twiki is a structured
Wiki.
See www.wikimatrix.org for list of wiki tools

Podcasts
Downloadable audio files
• Informal; can be very useful for
certain audiences
• Very easy to create/inexpensive
y y p
• Can be used to deliver training
• Can post to iTunes (Technology:
Software How To category) as free
downloads.
• Keywords in podcast title will
increase findability
findability.

EXAMPLES

Podcasts
Challenges
g
• May not work for your audience
• Generating material frequently
g q y
• Gathering talent

Blogs
Originally “weblogs” or online
g y g
diaries
• Can increase Search Engine
Optimization
O ti i ti (SEO) for your
f
company/ product
• Can be used to promote/educate Blog & Comments = a
customers about product features Conversation. Listening
required.
• Management can blog to
employees
l
Have something to say…
be ready for feedback.

EXAMPLES

Widgets/Gadgets
g g
Mini-apps
pp
• Updated weather, etc.
• Used on
webpages/social
networking profiles
• Can be used to
broadcast any
information

EXAMPLES

Social Networks
Interactive communities that
share interests/information
The usual suspects:
• MySpace.com, Facebook.com,
LinkedIn.com
News b k
N bookmarking:
ki
• Reddit.com, Digg.com, Fark.com,
Mixx.com
Website bookmarking:
• Stumbleupon.com, Del.icio.us.com
Blog bookmarking:
• Technorati.com
Th ti

EXAMPLES

Social Networks
Let’s look at some
trends/statistics…
trends/statistics
• What’s in it for your
y
company?
• What is the audience
a dience
interested in?

RSS Feeds
RSS Feeds drive
Web 2.0
• Really Simple Syndication
• Makes it possible for users
to receive a notice every
time information is updated.
• RSS Aggregators gather
feeds and make information
easier to keep track of.
- Google Reader
- Bloglines
• Makes Web 2.0 a “push”
rather than a “pull” system
pull system.

MATRIX REVIEW:
WEB 2.0
20

Incorporating Web 2.0
with Traditional
•IIssues
• Pitfalls
• GAINS ( (can b substantial)
be b i l)

Web 3.0
What is it?
Many definitions
• Th “Semantic Web”
The “S ti W b”
― Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World
Wide Web
One definition you will like…

OPTIMIZING YOUR LIBRARY

Best Practices
• Analyze often
• Know your audience
• Keep up with trends
• Tie Traditional/Web 2.0 efforts together
Traditional
• Single Sourcing
• St t i Information
Structuring I f ti
• Continuous Publishing
Web 2.0
• Encourage Communities of Practice
• Explore non-doc goals, such as SEO
non doc
• Gather champions/product evangelists

Tips and Tricks
• Post Videos on YouTube
• Post Podcasts on iTunes
• Post Presentations on Slideshare.net
• Post PDFs (etc.) on Scribd.com
• Embed all on your website, blog, etc. (code
provided)

Putting It All Together
g g
• Have solid (traditional) UA as a foundation
( )
• Supplement as is logical
• If Web 2.0 initiatives embraced, monitor and
nurture
– You are the expert; don’t ignore it
– Goals beyond doc
– Use Google Alerts to follow your industry

IN CONCLUSION …

You are not alone
ALL Information professions are
p
changing…
• Journalism
• Public Relations
• Marketing

A final thought
g
This is EXTREME continuous publishing …
Your “b k” will never b fi i h d! :-)
Y “book” ill be finished! )

MORE INFORMATION …
ARTICLES, BOOKS,
ARTICLES BOOKS CONFERENCES

More Information
Books
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by
Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh
Bernoff
Wikipatterns b St
Wiki tt by Stewart Mader
tM d
Website: wikipatterns.com; Blog: ikiw.org
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes g
Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony D.
Williams
The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by
Barry Schwartz
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

More Information
Articles
STC Intercom Web 2.0 issue Sept/Oct. 2007
http://www.stc.org/intercom/index.0910.2007.asp
The Wisdom of the Chaperones by Chris Wilson
Slate.com htt //
Sl t http://www.slate.com/id/2184487
lt /id/2184487
What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business
Models for the Next Generation of Software
by Tim O’Reilly
O Reilly
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/200
5/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
What do you want from Social Media?
Socialmediatrader.com
http://socialmediatrader.com/what-do-you-want-from-
social-media/

More Information
10 Best Intranets of 2008 (Jakob Nielsen)
( )
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/intranet_design.html
Web 2.0 Neglecting Good Design
(
(Jakob Nielsen/BBC) )
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6653119.stm
5 Uses for a Wiki at Work (Chris Brogan)
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/5 uses for a wiki at
http://www lifehack org/articles/technology/5-uses-for-a-wiki-at-
work.html
SharePoint: Wiki While You Work (Mauro Cardarelli)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc162514.aspx
http://technet microsoft com/en us/magazine/cc162514 aspx
Company Blogging 101 (Matt Cutts)
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/company-blogging-101/

More Information
The Content Wrangler Community
g y
http://thecontentwrangler.ning.com/
Id
I’d Rather Be Writing blog (includes TechWriter
Voices podcasts)
http://www.idratherbewriting.com/

Conferences
Web 2.0 Summit
http://www.web2summit.com/
WikiSym – International Symposium on Wikis
http://www.wikisym.org/ws2008/index.php/Main_
Page
SOBCon – Biz School for Bloggers
http://www.sobevent.com/
http://www sobevent com/

Questions
Contact information:
Nicky Bl i l
Ni k Bleiel
ComponentOne
Pittsburgh, PA
nickyb@componentone.com
nickyb@componentone com
www.componentone.com
Blog “Technical Communication Camp
Technical Camp”
http://blogs.componentone.com/CS/blogs/techcamp/default.asp
x
Podcast on T h Writer Voices/Interview with Tom Johnson
Pd t Tech W it V i /I t i ith T Jh
Analyzing Your Users and Needs Before Creating help
Deliverables