This document discusses information quality and its impact on translation costs and time to market. It notes that as writing has become more distributed and global, information quality has suffered, leading to increased translation costs of up to 30% compared to what is needed. It advocates for quality management principles like standards, metrics, and quality built into early stages to reduce these costs and help businesses do more with less.
Manage Your Messaging with Machine-Assisted Editing and Large Scale Sentence-...Scott Abel
Presented by Kent Taylor at Documentation and Training West, May 6-9, 2008 Vancouver, BC
Maintaining a reasonable level of quality and consistency across all of the content that gets into your customers’ hands has always been difficult to manage. It used to be possible when the majority of the content was written by groups of professional writers, and edited by professional editors. And generally distributed in only one language - English.
Today, however, your customers get content from all manner of sources that used to be only for internal consumption, where quality and consistency was less important. And in today’s Global Economy, chances are that much of the customer facing content is translated, and distributed in more than one language, or at least to a large population of non-native speakers. This is where quality and consistency really pay off.
Using meaning-based natural language processing software, we’ve analyzed Translation Memories, Software UI Strings from very large systems, and large corpora of assorted customer facing content. And, we’ve found that nearly every set of content that we look at contains 15% to 25% redundancy, or more.
A minor irritant to a native speaker, a bigger irritant for a non-native speaker or poor reader, and a major irritant for your CFO. Every one of those variants was translated in some cases to 30+ target languages. On the average, this kind of linguistic redundancy adds 20% to the cost of translation. Put another way, if you currently translate to five languages, and could eliminate this redundancy in your source, your savings would be great enough to translate to an additional language, and open up a new market.
This presentation will discuss these and other relevant content quality issues in depth, suggest ways to deal effectively with them, and present real-world examples of companies that have ‘been there, done that.
This document introduces adopting agile practices in enterprises. It discusses challenges with traditional waterfall approaches and benefits of agile like adapting to changes and prioritizing working software. The document outlines the agile manifesto's values and compares project fit with different organization types. It provides tips for selling agile internally and common mistakes like making waterfall promises or not incorporating feedback. Overall, it advocates for agile when the right team and project are chosen and management is supportive.
This document provides an overview of how to write an effective proposal. It discusses the key elements that should be included in a proposal such as an executive summary, statement of need, project description, organization details, budget analysis, and terms and conditions. The document also provides tips for writing each of these elements and common mistakes to avoid. It emphasizes defining the problem and solution, being concise, and tailoring the proposal to the specific client and project requirements.
Scoping and Estimating WordPress Projects as an AgencyJohn Giaconia
WordCamp Los Angeles 2016. Scoping and Estimating WordPress Projects as an Agency. Presentation video available here: http://wordpress.tv/2016/09/25/john-j-giaconia-and-kara-hansen-scoping-and-estimating-wordpress-projects-as-an-agency/
Scoping and Estimating WordPress Projects as an AgencyKara Hansen
The document provides an overview of how to scope, estimate, and manage WordPress projects as an agency. It discusses the importance of understanding scope through discovery, estimating projects by breaking work into discrete tasks, and managing customer expectations through clear communication and documentation of assumptions. Continuous improvement is emphasized through retrospective reviews of past projects to refine processes.
In these past few years, agile methods became a vital part in the software development process, but are they really applicable for all types of projects and team sizes?
A while ago, our company changed the way we approach project development because the team noticed that standard SCRUM-ish methods aren't fully compatible for us, so we developed our own, modified version of agile. In this talk, I will showcase how powerful this approach is and how you can use it to find problems, and eventually resolve them.
Competing in today's business environment is a tough challenge, especially for small to medium-sized company. That's why our Development Center designed to satisfy your specific requirements. Contact us we offer the best solutions in one-stop services. Also to bring the best suited talented and professional individuals for your businesses or company.
For more information email us at: sales.e@easycom.co.jp. Thank you!
2023-Pubcon Pro Austin - Navigating Egos Red Tape and Conflicting Priorities ...Keith Goode
No one doubts that business leadership is difficult. With the shifting landscapes of national and regional economies, fluctuating interest rates and their effects on consumer spending, supply chain issues, etc. being able to make quick decisions and shift a business’ focus are vital skills nowadays.
But how do shifting priorities affect SEOs and their ability to address elements like:
- Addressing Technical Debt
- Project Prioritization with other teams
- SEO industry updates and changes in the SERPs
- Creatively and compellingly meeting the needs of the users
- Promoting content and gaining equity
One consistent issue that in-house SEOs face, regardless of organization, is gaining the funding and priority they need in order to do their best work. From tool costs to development resources, there's always a shortage. How can we overcome these challenges? How can we avoid them to begin with?
In this session at Pubcon Pro 2023 in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, September 21, Keith Goode first addresses executives and corporate decision-makers and then SEOs, who are on the front lines of their organizations.
Manage Your Messaging with Machine-Assisted Editing and Large Scale Sentence-...Scott Abel
Presented by Kent Taylor at Documentation and Training West, May 6-9, 2008 Vancouver, BC
Maintaining a reasonable level of quality and consistency across all of the content that gets into your customers’ hands has always been difficult to manage. It used to be possible when the majority of the content was written by groups of professional writers, and edited by professional editors. And generally distributed in only one language - English.
Today, however, your customers get content from all manner of sources that used to be only for internal consumption, where quality and consistency was less important. And in today’s Global Economy, chances are that much of the customer facing content is translated, and distributed in more than one language, or at least to a large population of non-native speakers. This is where quality and consistency really pay off.
Using meaning-based natural language processing software, we’ve analyzed Translation Memories, Software UI Strings from very large systems, and large corpora of assorted customer facing content. And, we’ve found that nearly every set of content that we look at contains 15% to 25% redundancy, or more.
A minor irritant to a native speaker, a bigger irritant for a non-native speaker or poor reader, and a major irritant for your CFO. Every one of those variants was translated in some cases to 30+ target languages. On the average, this kind of linguistic redundancy adds 20% to the cost of translation. Put another way, if you currently translate to five languages, and could eliminate this redundancy in your source, your savings would be great enough to translate to an additional language, and open up a new market.
This presentation will discuss these and other relevant content quality issues in depth, suggest ways to deal effectively with them, and present real-world examples of companies that have ‘been there, done that.
This document introduces adopting agile practices in enterprises. It discusses challenges with traditional waterfall approaches and benefits of agile like adapting to changes and prioritizing working software. The document outlines the agile manifesto's values and compares project fit with different organization types. It provides tips for selling agile internally and common mistakes like making waterfall promises or not incorporating feedback. Overall, it advocates for agile when the right team and project are chosen and management is supportive.
This document provides an overview of how to write an effective proposal. It discusses the key elements that should be included in a proposal such as an executive summary, statement of need, project description, organization details, budget analysis, and terms and conditions. The document also provides tips for writing each of these elements and common mistakes to avoid. It emphasizes defining the problem and solution, being concise, and tailoring the proposal to the specific client and project requirements.
Scoping and Estimating WordPress Projects as an AgencyJohn Giaconia
WordCamp Los Angeles 2016. Scoping and Estimating WordPress Projects as an Agency. Presentation video available here: http://wordpress.tv/2016/09/25/john-j-giaconia-and-kara-hansen-scoping-and-estimating-wordpress-projects-as-an-agency/
Scoping and Estimating WordPress Projects as an AgencyKara Hansen
The document provides an overview of how to scope, estimate, and manage WordPress projects as an agency. It discusses the importance of understanding scope through discovery, estimating projects by breaking work into discrete tasks, and managing customer expectations through clear communication and documentation of assumptions. Continuous improvement is emphasized through retrospective reviews of past projects to refine processes.
In these past few years, agile methods became a vital part in the software development process, but are they really applicable for all types of projects and team sizes?
A while ago, our company changed the way we approach project development because the team noticed that standard SCRUM-ish methods aren't fully compatible for us, so we developed our own, modified version of agile. In this talk, I will showcase how powerful this approach is and how you can use it to find problems, and eventually resolve them.
Competing in today's business environment is a tough challenge, especially for small to medium-sized company. That's why our Development Center designed to satisfy your specific requirements. Contact us we offer the best solutions in one-stop services. Also to bring the best suited talented and professional individuals for your businesses or company.
For more information email us at: sales.e@easycom.co.jp. Thank you!
2023-Pubcon Pro Austin - Navigating Egos Red Tape and Conflicting Priorities ...Keith Goode
No one doubts that business leadership is difficult. With the shifting landscapes of national and regional economies, fluctuating interest rates and their effects on consumer spending, supply chain issues, etc. being able to make quick decisions and shift a business’ focus are vital skills nowadays.
But how do shifting priorities affect SEOs and their ability to address elements like:
- Addressing Technical Debt
- Project Prioritization with other teams
- SEO industry updates and changes in the SERPs
- Creatively and compellingly meeting the needs of the users
- Promoting content and gaining equity
One consistent issue that in-house SEOs face, regardless of organization, is gaining the funding and priority they need in order to do their best work. From tool costs to development resources, there's always a shortage. How can we overcome these challenges? How can we avoid them to begin with?
In this session at Pubcon Pro 2023 in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, September 21, Keith Goode first addresses executives and corporate decision-makers and then SEOs, who are on the front lines of their organizations.
Webinar - How to set pay ranges in the context of pay transparency legislationPayScale, Inc.
Join Payscale’s Chief Product Evangelist, Ruth Thomas; VP of Compensation Services, Kim Taylor; and Senior Corporate Attorney-Employment, Lulu Seikaly as they discuss how to approach and set salary ranges in the context of increased pay transparency.
Make sure your office relocation is successfulDeclan Hare
The document provides guidance on relocating an office. It discusses building a relocation team, creating a detailed budget and project plan, picking a new office space, planning the office layout, moving IT systems, communicating the move to stakeholders, and physically moving to the new office. The document emphasizes starting relocation planning early, appointing an experienced project leader, and involving all relevant departments to ensure a smooth transition.
Imprint Résumés was formed by Jackie White and Christine Robinson to provide professional resume writing services. They offer packages tailored to experience level that include a consultation, draft resume, and minor edits. Their services help job seekers showcase their skills and abilities to employers through keyword-rich resumes and cover letters formatted for applicant tracking systems. Client testimonials praise Imprint Résumés for helping them secure more interviews and job offers.
Estimates or #NoEstimates by Enes PelkoBosnia Agile
Do we need estimates? Are the estimates abused so much that they became unusable? There is a new emerging movement behind #NoEstimates that thinks so. But is it for anyone and in any situation?
This document provides guidance on creating an effective proposal. It emphasizes including an executive summary to clearly state your understanding of the client's needs. Key components discussed are the budget, timeline, exclusions/limitations, and evaluations. The document stresses customizing the proposal to each client rather than copying others, and guarding your intellectual property while providing initial recommendations. It also recommends including your expertise, experience, capabilities, case studies as evidence of past success, and references to help sell your abilities.
This document outlines Jeff Sing's approach to establishing a quality roadmap through quarterly service delivery reviews. It discusses collecting the right data to understand quality trends, showcasing data during reviews to facilitate discussions, and iterating on initiatives based on review outcomes. The goal is to use a data-driven approach and collaborative discussions to continuously measure and improve how well an organization fulfills its customers' needs.
Questions to Ask Before Selecting a Global Payroll Provider gives you the framework you need when choosing a global payroll provider. What are the fundamental expectations you should have of a vendor? Which features and add-ons yield ROI?
Resume writing services prices and processMandy Fard
https://www.market-connections.net
Resume writing Prices and Resume writing Process for job seekers nationwide and worldwide. Providing resume help, career coaching, LinkedIn profile writing, and professional resume writing services based in California.
Agile Contracting in the Second Decade of AgilitySimon Bennett
The Benefits of Agile Software Development are often completely crushed by the weight of Traditional Outsourcing Contracts and Negotiations. Now that we are well into the Second Decade of Agile Methods, it's time to start repeating more of the benefits.
The document provides guidance on writing successful business cases that can obtain approval and funding. It emphasizes that business cases should be measurable and backed by evidence. Key points include:
- Business cases should justify a project's value, risks, priorities and benefits in a concise yet informative manner (typically 2-3 pages).
- They must demonstrate how the project aligns with organizational strategy and quantify expected financial and non-financial impacts such as increased revenue, cost savings, risk reductions and compliance gains.
- Assumptions should be supported by facts and benefits must be measurable both during and after project implementation through key performance indicators.
- High-quality business cases will consider alternative options, include input from finance and procurement
The document discusses the pros and cons of a career as a management consultant. It outlines some key challenges such as dealing with client pressures, competition, and contract negotiations. It also reviews the lifestyle demands of frequent travel and learning new skills. While consulting provides variety, exposure to new technologies, and skill development, it also carries risks such as unstable income and intense competition for contracts and assignments. The document advises assessing one's competencies, skills, and commitments to determine if a consulting career is the right fit.
This document discusses using SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers) to help standardize the new product launch process. It describes the key phases of opportunity assessment, initiation, approval, setup, and sales process. Conducting a 30-minute SIPOC evaluation during opportunity assessment helps understand capability, capacity, and cost risks before approving a project. An in-depth SIPOC is then evolved during initiation. Communication of details during each phase using SIPOC helps ensure a smooth new product launch.
Key Note - DoSE Berlin - Qualitative Risk ManagementDavid Anderson
This document summarizes a presentation on qualitative risk management and using a Lean approach with Kanban. The presentation argues that qualitative techniques for assessing and prioritizing risk are often faster, cheaper, and better than quantitative techniques. It provides an example of how Kanban systems can qualitatively assess the cost of delay for different types of work using function sketches to categorize risk rather than attempting precise calculations. This qualitative approach helps limit waste and dysfunction that can occur when trying to precisely quantify risk in complex work with many uncertainties.
The document discusses the challenges and opportunities of a career as a consultant. It outlines key competencies needed, including business and technology skills. It also addresses lifestyle factors like travel requirements and commitment levels. The document notes both advantages like exposure to new technologies and pitfalls such as intense competition and pressure from clients.
This document provides tips for proposal managers to keep from losing their cool during the busy summer proposal season. It discusses having a process-oriented mindset rather than focusing on opportunities. It then offers advice on critical checkpoints like bid decisions, proposal kickoffs, and color team reviews. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of proposal planning, establishing roles and schedules, and using color teams to review and improve draft proposals before submission. The overall message is that taking time for planning and review can help reduce stress and result in stronger proposals.
Organizational Settings in Public RelationsBrett Atwood
Learn more about the structure and relationship of public relations to organizations in the U.S. This slideshow was prepared by Brett Atwood (clinical associate professor at Washington State University).
TechNet Webcast: Thrive Live! Create A Personal Marketing Plan For Career Suc...Microsoft TechNet
This document provides tips for creating a personal marketing plan for career success, including enhancing skills through training, communicating value to employers, and writing an effective resume. It emphasizes thinking differently about one's career after a job loss, focusing on accomplishments rather than just responsibilities. The resume should highlight quantifiable results and achievements in a reverse chronological format of up to two pages. Developing marketing materials, researching opportunities, and networking are important steps to find a new role that matches one's skills and interests.
Social media guru and technical communication expert Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler, explores how content technologies, content standards, social networks, location awareness, user-generated content, mobile communication, augmented reality, information visualization, and advanced communication techniques can help technical communicators better serve their customers, identify failure points, and spot opportunities for growth.
Move Over Text: Video Documentation Meets DITAScott Abel
Technical communicators have been recombining small chunks of text to create multiple deliverables for years. But, as consumer expectations shift away from text-only content and toward video training and documentation, shouldn\'t we be creating and delivering multiple video deliverables? And, if video documentation is the wave of the future, can we use our existing content standards to make it happen? The answer is "Yes!" Attend this presentation to learn how one organization is creating and repurposing small video segments to create multiple video documentation sets using the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA).
Webinar - How to set pay ranges in the context of pay transparency legislationPayScale, Inc.
Join Payscale’s Chief Product Evangelist, Ruth Thomas; VP of Compensation Services, Kim Taylor; and Senior Corporate Attorney-Employment, Lulu Seikaly as they discuss how to approach and set salary ranges in the context of increased pay transparency.
Make sure your office relocation is successfulDeclan Hare
The document provides guidance on relocating an office. It discusses building a relocation team, creating a detailed budget and project plan, picking a new office space, planning the office layout, moving IT systems, communicating the move to stakeholders, and physically moving to the new office. The document emphasizes starting relocation planning early, appointing an experienced project leader, and involving all relevant departments to ensure a smooth transition.
Imprint Résumés was formed by Jackie White and Christine Robinson to provide professional resume writing services. They offer packages tailored to experience level that include a consultation, draft resume, and minor edits. Their services help job seekers showcase their skills and abilities to employers through keyword-rich resumes and cover letters formatted for applicant tracking systems. Client testimonials praise Imprint Résumés for helping them secure more interviews and job offers.
Estimates or #NoEstimates by Enes PelkoBosnia Agile
Do we need estimates? Are the estimates abused so much that they became unusable? There is a new emerging movement behind #NoEstimates that thinks so. But is it for anyone and in any situation?
This document provides guidance on creating an effective proposal. It emphasizes including an executive summary to clearly state your understanding of the client's needs. Key components discussed are the budget, timeline, exclusions/limitations, and evaluations. The document stresses customizing the proposal to each client rather than copying others, and guarding your intellectual property while providing initial recommendations. It also recommends including your expertise, experience, capabilities, case studies as evidence of past success, and references to help sell your abilities.
This document outlines Jeff Sing's approach to establishing a quality roadmap through quarterly service delivery reviews. It discusses collecting the right data to understand quality trends, showcasing data during reviews to facilitate discussions, and iterating on initiatives based on review outcomes. The goal is to use a data-driven approach and collaborative discussions to continuously measure and improve how well an organization fulfills its customers' needs.
Questions to Ask Before Selecting a Global Payroll Provider gives you the framework you need when choosing a global payroll provider. What are the fundamental expectations you should have of a vendor? Which features and add-ons yield ROI?
Resume writing services prices and processMandy Fard
https://www.market-connections.net
Resume writing Prices and Resume writing Process for job seekers nationwide and worldwide. Providing resume help, career coaching, LinkedIn profile writing, and professional resume writing services based in California.
Agile Contracting in the Second Decade of AgilitySimon Bennett
The Benefits of Agile Software Development are often completely crushed by the weight of Traditional Outsourcing Contracts and Negotiations. Now that we are well into the Second Decade of Agile Methods, it's time to start repeating more of the benefits.
The document provides guidance on writing successful business cases that can obtain approval and funding. It emphasizes that business cases should be measurable and backed by evidence. Key points include:
- Business cases should justify a project's value, risks, priorities and benefits in a concise yet informative manner (typically 2-3 pages).
- They must demonstrate how the project aligns with organizational strategy and quantify expected financial and non-financial impacts such as increased revenue, cost savings, risk reductions and compliance gains.
- Assumptions should be supported by facts and benefits must be measurable both during and after project implementation through key performance indicators.
- High-quality business cases will consider alternative options, include input from finance and procurement
The document discusses the pros and cons of a career as a management consultant. It outlines some key challenges such as dealing with client pressures, competition, and contract negotiations. It also reviews the lifestyle demands of frequent travel and learning new skills. While consulting provides variety, exposure to new technologies, and skill development, it also carries risks such as unstable income and intense competition for contracts and assignments. The document advises assessing one's competencies, skills, and commitments to determine if a consulting career is the right fit.
This document discusses using SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers) to help standardize the new product launch process. It describes the key phases of opportunity assessment, initiation, approval, setup, and sales process. Conducting a 30-minute SIPOC evaluation during opportunity assessment helps understand capability, capacity, and cost risks before approving a project. An in-depth SIPOC is then evolved during initiation. Communication of details during each phase using SIPOC helps ensure a smooth new product launch.
Key Note - DoSE Berlin - Qualitative Risk ManagementDavid Anderson
This document summarizes a presentation on qualitative risk management and using a Lean approach with Kanban. The presentation argues that qualitative techniques for assessing and prioritizing risk are often faster, cheaper, and better than quantitative techniques. It provides an example of how Kanban systems can qualitatively assess the cost of delay for different types of work using function sketches to categorize risk rather than attempting precise calculations. This qualitative approach helps limit waste and dysfunction that can occur when trying to precisely quantify risk in complex work with many uncertainties.
The document discusses the challenges and opportunities of a career as a consultant. It outlines key competencies needed, including business and technology skills. It also addresses lifestyle factors like travel requirements and commitment levels. The document notes both advantages like exposure to new technologies and pitfalls such as intense competition and pressure from clients.
This document provides tips for proposal managers to keep from losing their cool during the busy summer proposal season. It discusses having a process-oriented mindset rather than focusing on opportunities. It then offers advice on critical checkpoints like bid decisions, proposal kickoffs, and color team reviews. Finally, it emphasizes the importance of proposal planning, establishing roles and schedules, and using color teams to review and improve draft proposals before submission. The overall message is that taking time for planning and review can help reduce stress and result in stronger proposals.
Organizational Settings in Public RelationsBrett Atwood
Learn more about the structure and relationship of public relations to organizations in the U.S. This slideshow was prepared by Brett Atwood (clinical associate professor at Washington State University).
TechNet Webcast: Thrive Live! Create A Personal Marketing Plan For Career Suc...Microsoft TechNet
This document provides tips for creating a personal marketing plan for career success, including enhancing skills through training, communicating value to employers, and writing an effective resume. It emphasizes thinking differently about one's career after a job loss, focusing on accomplishments rather than just responsibilities. The resume should highlight quantifiable results and achievements in a reverse chronological format of up to two pages. Developing marketing materials, researching opportunities, and networking are important steps to find a new role that matches one's skills and interests.
Social media guru and technical communication expert Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler, explores how content technologies, content standards, social networks, location awareness, user-generated content, mobile communication, augmented reality, information visualization, and advanced communication techniques can help technical communicators better serve their customers, identify failure points, and spot opportunities for growth.
Move Over Text: Video Documentation Meets DITAScott Abel
Technical communicators have been recombining small chunks of text to create multiple deliverables for years. But, as consumer expectations shift away from text-only content and toward video training and documentation, shouldn\'t we be creating and delivering multiple video deliverables? And, if video documentation is the wave of the future, can we use our existing content standards to make it happen? The answer is "Yes!" Attend this presentation to learn how one organization is creating and repurposing small video segments to create multiple video documentation sets using the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA).
Twitter Who Cares What You\'re Doing Right Now, AnywayScott Abel
Twitter. It\'s everywhere. Newscasters mention it. Political analysts point to its influence. Marketers use it to get messages out. Journalists and bloggers use it for research. Regular folks use it to keep up with their friends, family, and co-workers. And, people of all types use it for entertainment, research, and education. But, Twitter is more than all of these things combined. It\'s a revolution in content publishing and its changing forever -- or at least for now -- how we communicate what\'s important to us to those who want to know.
Intelligent content. It sounds so futuristic, and yet, it\'s not. This session will showcase examples of intelligent content found both on the world wide web and in private and government organizations today. Discover several innovative and useful examples that leverage the power of content to provide improved service, lower transaction costs, and reduce effort.
Presented in Palm Springs, CA at Intelligent Content 2009: http://www.intelligentcontent2009.com
Authoring and Publishing with XMetaL and DITAScott Abel
- The document provides an overview of using XMetaL software to author content using the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA).
- It discusses key DITA concepts like elements, attributes, and structured authoring and how to work with topics, sections, images and tables in XMetaL.
- The course aims to teach participants how to effectively author and structure content using DITA and take full advantage of features in XMetaL like cross-references, conditional text and reuse of content.
Comparing DITA Support in XMetaL and FrameMakerScott Abel
The document compares DITA support in FrameMaker and XMetaL. FrameMaker is better for print/PDF output and has WYSIWYG authoring, while XMetaL is better for DITA authoring and output-neutral formatting. Neither tool is a clear winner, and the best choice depends on priorities like print needs, author control level, and specialization requirements. The presenter provides an overview of key features in each tool for authoring, output generation, cross-references, and more.
Success Factors for DITA Adoption with XMetaL: Best Practices and FundamentalsScott Abel
Adopting structured authoring and content management requires managing change across the entire organization. Key factors for success include aligning with business needs, creating an implementation roadmap, mapping content to audience needs, updating processes and procedures, revising staffing models, and creating a plan to handle legacy documentation. Pilot projects allow testing changes in a limited scope before full adoption.
Blogzilla: Why Blogs Are The Monster In The Business Closet: You Are No Longe...Scott Abel
This document is a blog that discusses various topics related to online marketing and web presence. It provides tips on search engine optimization, building an effective website, using blogs and content management systems, engaging customers online, and maintaining a consistent online brand message. The blog emphasizes the importance of search engines, customer focus, frequent updates, and community engagement.
The Changing Face of TechComm and the Society for Technical CommunicationScott Abel
The technical communication landscape is changing rapidly. New tools,
techniques, expectations and opportunities are making it necessary to
expand the definition of what a technical communicator does and the
Society for Technical Communication is at the forefront of
communicating these changes to government and industry. Susan Burton,
Executive Director of the Society of Technical Communication (STC)
will discuss efforts to broaden the definition used by the U.S.
government Bureau of Labor Statistics to describe technical
communicators and the work they do. She
The Truth about Content: Learning from the Past in order to Succeed in the Fu...Scott Abel
This presentation will throw a spotlight onto the single most common,
and most serious, reason why Content Management projects fail. In a
nutshell, too many projects become so focused on the technology they
want to deploy that they forget about what matters most - the content
and the people who use it. Real-life case studies will be used to
illustrate this problem. The optimism of the audience will be rebuilt
by introducing a proven solution to this issue with this being a call
to move the focus of CM project towards Content Oriented Architectures.
The most common mistake found in content management projects is rather
surprising. The reason most CM projects falter is that the project
team, and frequently its stakeholders, become unduly enamored with
some piece of technology and assume, or hope, that one or two
applications will erase all of the challenges surrounding the
creation, management, reuse and delivery of content. When a particular
collection of applications fail to deliver on the expectations, the
usual response is to insert even more applications. With each new
application that is introduced, a number of connectors and patches are
also added so that one tool can work with the others that are already
in place. This continues until, with seeming inevitability, these
projects crumble under the weight of growing system complexity. These
projects fail, in short, because, in becoming fixated on technology,
they essentially forget about their content.
This presentation will use a number of project cases studies, some
older and some exceedingly current, to illustrate the downward path
that most CM projects follow. While this might sound ominous, this
journey will actually arrive at a hopeful conclusion. If CM projects
place content at the center of their solution designs, adopting in
effect a Content Oriented Architecture (COA), it becomes possible for
projects to use technology, even exploit it, in ways that emphasize
helping authors, publishers and content users. Under this model, the
quality and usefulness of the content assets becomes the overriding
focus and where automation is introduced it is to either further
improve the quality of the content or to reduce the cost and effort
needed to achieve the desired results. Examples of successful projects
will be used to prove that Content Oriented Architectures are not
really new and that they do deliver results that endure over time.
Content Oriented Architectures: Putting Content at the Center of CM ProjectsScott Abel
Presented by Joe Gollner at Documentation and Training East, October
The most common mistake found in content management projects is rather
surprising. The reason most CM projects falter is that the project
team, and frequently its stakeholders, become unduly enamored with
some piece of technology and assume, or hope, that one or two
applications will erase all of the challenges surrounding the
creation, management, reuse and delivery of content. When a particular
collection of applications fail to deliver on the expectations, the
usual response is to insert even more applications. With each new
application that is introduced, a number of connectors and patches are
also added so that one tool can work with the others that are already
in place. This continues until, with seeming inevitability, these
projects crumble under the weight of growing system complexity. These
projects fail, in short, because, in becoming fixated on technology,
they essentially forget about their content.
This presentation will use a number of project cases studies, some
older and some exceedingly current, to illustrate the downward path
that most CM projects follow. While this might sound ominous, this
journey will actually arrive at a hopeful conclusion. If CM projects
place content at the center of their solution designs, adopting in
effect a Content Oriented Architecture (COA), it becomes possible for
projects to use technology, even exploit it, in ways that emphasize
helping authors, publishers and content users. Under this model, the
quality and usefulness of the content assets becomes the overriding
focus and where automation is introduced it is to either further
improve the quality of the content or to reduce the cost and effort
needed to achieve the desired results. Examples of successful projects
will be used to prove that Content Oriented Architectures are not
really new and that they do deliver results that endure over time.
Modular Content Projects: One Size DOES NOT Fit AllScott Abel
Presented by Steve Manning at Documentation and Training East, October
29-November 1 in Burlington, MA.
Modular Content Projects: One Size DOES NOT Fit All
Making the move to modular content involves more than repeatedly
chanting
Navigating the Vendor Maze: Understanding XML Authoring Tools and Content Man...Scott Abel
Presented by Steve Manning at Documentation and Training East, October
29-November 1, 2008 in Burlington, MA.
It can be tough to work through the volumes of software vendor
marketing and know exactly what products offer. What are the product
strengths? What are the weaknesses? They say the tools
Writing, Clear and Simple - Document Testing: The Missing StepScott Abel
Testing documents is an important final step to ensure they meet their goals. Common testing methods include protocol testing, focus groups, and usability testing, which provide qualitative feedback by observing readers. Control studies provide quantitative data by comparing responses to original and revised versions. While not all documents require testing, high-impact documents distributed to many readers should be tested to prevent problems and ensure the message is clear.
Theory of Constraints and Project Management: Challenging the Dominant ParadigmScott Abel
This document discusses challenges with traditional project management and introduces an alternative approach based on the Theory of Constraints (TOC). The TOC focuses on identifying the critical constraint in a project, exploiting its capacity, and protecting throughput with buffers. This contrasts with traditional methods that emphasize task completion and resource utilization. Adopting TOC principles like critical chain scheduling and throughput metrics can help projects deliver benefits more quickly and resolve common problems like late completion.
[Case Study] - Nuclear Power, DITA and FrameMaker: The How's and Why'sScott Abel
Presented by Thomas Aldous at Documentation and Training East 2008,
October 29-November 1 in Burlington, MA.
This session is for anyone that is interested in learning how to
manage a transition to Specialized DITA including Content Management
Systems, Editors and Publishing Server issues and resolutions. As a
added bonus, we will also convert an Word Document To Specialized DITA
and edit the content is FrameMaker 8. There will be a question and
answer period at the end of the session for both technical and project
management issues.
We Eat Our Own Dog Food: Three Companies in the World of Localization Technol...Scott Abel
Presented by Richard Sikes at Documentation and Training East 2008 in
Burlington, MA - October 29-November 1, 2008.
Translation and Localization are intrinsically pragmatic endeavours.
They also require a good deal of human effort that can be aided by
technology. Numerous companies have developed solutions to help
themselves, then realized that they were onto a good thing, so they
have productized their proprietary solutions for more generalized
usage. Well-known localization expert Richard Sikes will paint the
background and evolution of three such stories, featuring products for
visual software localization, translation workflow, and translation
business management, and showing how they are used today.
PASSOLO is a leading software technology for visual software
localization. Used worldwide to create software products in many
languages, PASSOLO is itself available in several languages. Pass
Engineering, a wholly owned subsidiary of SDL International, has
automated PASSOLO so as to use itself recursively to build alternate
language versions.
At Nero, the manufacturer of popular media creation software that is
available in many languages, the localization management team sought,
and failed to find, a workflow system to connect Nero
Sustainable XML for Publishing Applications: DITA Makes It PossibleScott Abel
Presented by Eliot Kimber at Documentation and Training East 2008,
October 29-November 1, 2008 in Burlington, MA.
XML applications for publishers have largely failed to realize the
full potential inherent in the technology. While larger publishers
could make the investment necessary to realize significant return on
the use of XML technology, smaller enterprises simply could not, for a
number of reasons, but fundamentally because the startup costs and
ongoing costs of ownership were simply too high. The DITA standard
fundamentally changes the equation, bringing several unique features
that, together, serve to lower both the startup cost and ongoing
costs, making the use of XML for publishers much more affordable than
it ever has before. At the same time, advances in supporting
technologies important to Publishers, such as improved support for XML
in Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office, powerful new XML search
and retrieval systems such as MarkLogic, and a new generation of lower-
cost XML editors, as serve to make the use of XML for Publishing
applications more attractive than it ever has been before.
Keynote: The Next Generation Home Digital ExperienceScott Abel
The document discusses the shift towards a mobile and connected internet driven by ubiquitous connectivity and consumer devices. It notes that we are moving from a PC-centric internet to a "beyond PC" internet driven by over 70 billion connected devices by 2020. The emerging connected generation is always online through their mobile devices, driving new forms of user generated content and social networking. The mobile internet represents a new open computing platform that will be crucial for innovation if it remains open for diverse devices, standards, and services.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
Removing Uninteresting Bytes in Software FuzzingAftab Hussain
Imagine a world where software fuzzing, the process of mutating bytes in test seeds to uncover hidden and erroneous program behaviors, becomes faster and more effective. A lot depends on the initial seeds, which can significantly dictate the trajectory of a fuzzing campaign, particularly in terms of how long it takes to uncover interesting behaviour in your code. We introduce DIAR, a technique designed to speedup fuzzing campaigns by pinpointing and eliminating those uninteresting bytes in the seeds. Picture this: instead of wasting valuable resources on meaningless mutations in large, bloated seeds, DIAR removes the unnecessary bytes, streamlining the entire process.
In this work, we equipped AFL, a popular fuzzer, with DIAR and examined two critical Linux libraries -- Libxml's xmllint, a tool for parsing xml documents, and Binutil's readelf, an essential debugging and security analysis command-line tool used to display detailed information about ELF (Executable and Linkable Format). Our preliminary results show that AFL+DIAR does not only discover new paths more quickly but also achieves higher coverage overall. This work thus showcases how starting with lean and optimized seeds can lead to faster, more comprehensive fuzzing campaigns -- and DIAR helps you find such seeds.
- These are slides of the talk given at IEEE International Conference on Software Testing Verification and Validation Workshop, ICSTW 2022.
Enchancing adoption of Open Source Libraries. A case study on Albumentations.AIVladimir Iglovikov, Ph.D.
Presented by Vladimir Iglovikov:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/iglovikov/
- https://x.com/viglovikov
- https://www.instagram.com/ternaus/
This presentation delves into the journey of Albumentations.ai, a highly successful open-source library for data augmentation.
Created out of a necessity for superior performance in Kaggle competitions, Albumentations has grown to become a widely used tool among data scientists and machine learning practitioners.
This case study covers various aspects, including:
People: The contributors and community that have supported Albumentations.
Metrics: The success indicators such as downloads, daily active users, GitHub stars, and financial contributions.
Challenges: The hurdles in monetizing open-source projects and measuring user engagement.
Development Practices: Best practices for creating, maintaining, and scaling open-source libraries, including code hygiene, CI/CD, and fast iteration.
Community Building: Strategies for making adoption easy, iterating quickly, and fostering a vibrant, engaged community.
Marketing: Both online and offline marketing tactics, focusing on real, impactful interactions and collaborations.
Mental Health: Maintaining balance and not feeling pressured by user demands.
Key insights include the importance of automation, making the adoption process seamless, and leveraging offline interactions for marketing. The presentation also emphasizes the need for continuous small improvements and building a friendly, inclusive community that contributes to the project's growth.
Vladimir Iglovikov brings his extensive experience as a Kaggle Grandmaster, ex-Staff ML Engineer at Lyft, sharing valuable lessons and practical advice for anyone looking to enhance the adoption of their open-source projects.
Explore more about Albumentations and join the community at:
GitHub: https://github.com/albumentations-team/albumentations
Website: https://albumentations.ai/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/100504475
Twitter: https://x.com/albumentations
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 6DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 6. In this session, we will cover Test Automation with generative AI and Open AI.
UiPath Test Automation with generative AI and Open AI webinar offers an in-depth exploration of leveraging cutting-edge technologies for test automation within the UiPath platform. Attendees will delve into the integration of generative AI, a test automation solution, with Open AI advanced natural language processing capabilities.
Throughout the session, participants will discover how this synergy empowers testers to automate repetitive tasks, enhance testing accuracy, and expedite the software testing life cycle. Topics covered include the seamless integration process, practical use cases, and the benefits of harnessing AI-driven automation for UiPath testing initiatives. By attending this webinar, testers, and automation professionals can gain valuable insights into harnessing the power of AI to optimize their test automation workflows within the UiPath ecosystem, ultimately driving efficiency and quality in software development processes.
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into integrating generative AI.
2. Understanding how this integration enhances test automation within the UiPath platform
3. Practical demonstrations
4. Exploration of real-world use cases illustrating the benefits of AI-driven test automation for UiPath
Topics covered:
What is generative AI
Test Automation with generative AI and Open AI.
UiPath integration with generative AI
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Full-RAG: A modern architecture for hyper-personalizationZilliz
Mike Del Balso, CEO & Co-Founder at Tecton, presents "Full RAG," a novel approach to AI recommendation systems, aiming to push beyond the limitations of traditional models through a deep integration of contextual insights and real-time data, leveraging the Retrieval-Augmented Generation architecture. This talk will outline Full RAG's potential to significantly enhance personalization, address engineering challenges such as data management and model training, and introduce data enrichment with reranking as a key solution. Attendees will gain crucial insights into the importance of hyperpersonalization in AI, the capabilities of Full RAG for advanced personalization, and strategies for managing complex data integrations for deploying cutting-edge AI solutions.
zkStudyClub - Reef: Fast Succinct Non-Interactive Zero-Knowledge Regex ProofsAlex Pruden
This paper presents Reef, a system for generating publicly verifiable succinct non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs that a committed document matches or does not match a regular expression. We describe applications such as proving the strength of passwords, the provenance of email despite redactions, the validity of oblivious DNS queries, and the existence of mutations in DNA. Reef supports the Perl Compatible Regular Expression syntax, including wildcards, alternation, ranges, capture groups, Kleene star, negations, and lookarounds. Reef introduces a new type of automata, Skipping Alternating Finite Automata (SAFA), that skips irrelevant parts of a document when producing proofs without undermining soundness, and instantiates SAFA with a lookup argument. Our experimental evaluation confirms that Reef can generate proofs for documents with 32M characters; the proofs are small and cheap to verify (under a second).
Paper: https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1886
Observability Concepts EVERY Developer Should Know -- DeveloperWeek Europe.pdfPaige Cruz
Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.
While the dev and ops silo continues to crumble….many organizations still relegate monitoring & observability as the purview of ops, infra and SRE teams. This is a mistake - achieving a highly observable system requires collaboration up and down the stack.
I, a former op, would like to extend an invitation to all application developers to join the observability party will share these foundational concepts to build on:
Dr. Sean Tan, Head of Data Science, Changi Airport Group
Discover how Changi Airport Group (CAG) leverages graph technologies and generative AI to revolutionize their search capabilities. This session delves into the unique search needs of CAG’s diverse passengers and customers, showcasing how graph data structures enhance the accuracy and relevance of AI-generated search results, mitigating the risk of “hallucinations” and improving the overall customer journey.
GridMate - End to end testing is a critical piece to ensure quality and avoid...ThomasParaiso2
End to end testing is a critical piece to ensure quality and avoid regressions. In this session, we share our journey building an E2E testing pipeline for GridMate components (LWC and Aura) using Cypress, JSForce, FakerJS…
In his public lecture, Christian Timmerer provides insights into the fascinating history of video streaming, starting from its humble beginnings before YouTube to the groundbreaking technologies that now dominate platforms like Netflix and ORF ON. Timmerer also presents provocative contributions of his own that have significantly influenced the industry. He concludes by looking at future challenges and invites the audience to join in a discussion.
Pushing the limits of ePRTC: 100ns holdover for 100 daysAdtran
At WSTS 2024, Alon Stern explored the topic of parametric holdover and explained how recent research findings can be implemented in real-world PNT networks to achieve 100 nanoseconds of accuracy for up to 100 days.
Communications Mining Series - Zero to Hero - Session 1DianaGray10
This session provides introduction to UiPath Communication Mining, importance and platform overview. You will acquire a good understand of the phases in Communication Mining as we go over the platform with you. Topics covered:
• Communication Mining Overview
• Why is it important?
• How can it help today’s business and the benefits
• Phases in Communication Mining
• Demo on Platform overview
• Q/A
Unlock the Future of Search with MongoDB Atlas_ Vector Search Unleashed.pdfMalak Abu Hammad
Discover how MongoDB Atlas and vector search technology can revolutionize your application's search capabilities. This comprehensive presentation covers:
* What is Vector Search?
* Importance and benefits of vector search
* Practical use cases across various industries
* Step-by-step implementation guide
* Live demos with code snippets
* Enhancing LLM capabilities with vector search
* Best practices and optimization strategies
Perfect for developers, AI enthusiasts, and tech leaders. Learn how to leverage MongoDB Atlas to deliver highly relevant, context-aware search results, transforming your data retrieval process. Stay ahead in tech innovation and maximize the potential of your applications.
#MongoDB #VectorSearch #AI #SemanticSearch #TechInnovation #DataScience #LLM #MachineLearning #SearchTechnology
Elizabeth Buie - Older adults: Are we really designing for our future selves?
It
1. It’s What’s Between the
Tags that Counts
Control Information Quality to reduce
translation cost and time to market
Andrew Bredenkamp (standing in for Kent Taylor)
CEO - acrolinx
2. Overview
• Abbreviated History
• The Result - Global Information Quality and Cost Issues
• Quality Management Principles
• Information Quality
• Information Quality Management Tools
• Q&A
3. The Drivers
Technology
• Analog → Digital
• Internet
Philosophy
• US only → Global
• Collaborative Scheduling → Market-driven deadlines
• Quality at any cost → Do more with less
4. What’s going on?
• Independent writing groups g interconnected, distributed teams
• Print g digital media (CD, Web, Help)
• Unstructured authoring g structured authoring
• Monolithic “documents” g topic-based writing (supporting reuse and
repurposing)
• feature-oriented g task-oriented
• “Writing + Translation” g global information development (also on-demand)
• “Product development + documentation” g coherent “user experience”
5. The Result:
Process Change
The way it was …
• Collect Source Material
• Write Draft -> Edit Draft -> Review Draft
• Write Final -> Edit Final -> Review/QA Final
• Produce Master -> QA Master
• Reproduce – QC (Statistical Sampling)
• Distribute
The way it is …
• Write -> Hit RETURN -> Global Distribution
6. And quality? What quality?
• Paper or web style guides are not consistently used
• Terminology is in the wrong place
• Reuse is not granular enough
• Risks and costs of quality are not appreciated
• 5-10% of global content is under QA
• 25-35% of content (including translation memory content) is redundant
• Every new language costs ≈ 30% more than it needs to...
• ... but that’s where the growth is!
7. So what can we do about it?
• Manage Quality
• Create content with quality built in. Information Quality Management consists
of three key components:
• Best practice writing standards (spelling, grammar, style)
• Terminology (technology and branding)
• Intelligent Reuse (consistent wording)
8. The Bottom Line Part 1:
Doing more with less costs more!
• We’ve effectively applied technology to increase volume and
speed of information development, production, and distribution,
but ...
• Information Quality has suffered, and the costs associated with
poor quality increase daily
• Translations cost more than necessary, and may slow your globalization
strategy
• Non-native speakers have difficulty reading your English content, and are
less likely buy your products
• Misinterpretations of your content can lead to increased support costs,
accidents, and/or litigation.
• Every shortcut taken in authoring adds a corresponding cost -
multiplied 5, 10, 15 … 30 times or more - in
translation/localization.
9. The Results - Readability
Case Study:
• In one 1,100,000-word software manual set:
• 15% of words were simply not needed
• “We suggest that you use…” > “Use”
• Translation: $40,000 per language
• Production: ~330 pages less (~$66) per copy (~ $66,000)
• 30% of sentences were at a graduate-school reading level
• 50% of sentences were at a college reading level or higher
• 85% of sentences were at a high-school reading level or higher
11. Content reuse (how not to)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA012303211033.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291875
12. ... and this:
Please enter start date before or equal to the end date. The Status End Date is either earlier than the Start Date
Please enter a start date earlier than or the same as the end date. of the Assignment or later than its End Date.
Please enter an end date that is later than the start date.
Please enter an actual start date earlier than the actual end date.
Date To must be later than or equal to Date From.
The Start Date cannot exceed the End Date.
The Date To must be later than the Date Received.
The End Date cannot precede the Start Date.
The actual end date must be on or after the actual start date.
End Date must be later than Start Date.
End date should be greater than start date.
End date must be equal to or later than the start date.
End Date cannot be before the Start Date.
The end date must be later than or the same as the start date.
The start date must be prior to the end date.
End Time must be later than the Start Time.
You entered a start date later than the end date.
The valid grade's end date must be later than or equal to its start date.
Ending range must be later or the same as starting range
Please enter an End Date that is later than or the same as the Start Date.
Please enter a new start date later than the original end date.
Competence end date has to be later than or equal to the start date.
The ending date must be later than or the same as the
The start date cannot be later than the end date.
beginning date.
The appraisal end date must be later than or equal to appraisal start date.
The date to has to be later than or equal to date from.
The Effective start date cannot be later than the Effective end date.
End Date must be greater than Start Date.
Date from cannot be later than date to.
You cannot enter an "End Date" that is before your "Start Date."
The start date must be on or before the end date.
End Date must be greater than or equal to Start Date.
The Start Date cannot be after the End Date.
Please enter a start date that is before the end date.
Your end date must be after your start date.
The end date you enter must be between the grade's start and
The end date cannot be before the start date.
end dates.
Start date must be before end date.
The start date you enter must be between the grade's start and
Your start date must be before your end date.
end dates.
Enter a Start
The projected end date must be on or after the projected start
date.
The Period start date cannot be later than the Period end date.
13. The Result – Translation Issues
Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a
good time. (In a Rome laundry)
Please fasten seatbelt to prepare for crash. (Tokyo Taxi)
Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give
it to the guard on duty.
(at a Budapest zoo)
Caution: Blade Extremely Sharp! Keep out of children. (Multipurpose
Knife Instructions)
Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar. (In a Norwegian
cocktail lounge)
Drop your trousers here for the best results.
(Thai Dry Cleaner)
14. Product Information Ecosystem
Marketing
& Pre-sales Technical
Documentation
Market “In-product”
Analysis Technical Information
Specifications Regulatory
Information
Partner/OEM
Information Support
Knowledgebase
Training FAQ
Material
17. The Bottom Line Part 2:
Quality doesn’t cost – it pays!
• Translatability/Readability
• High Quality content costs up to 30% less to translate
• Quality content is easier for non-native speakers to read
• Call deferrals
• Consistent terminology and style better indexing better search
better self-help fewer calls
• Product liability risk management
• Certifiable quality manageable risk
• Internal process efficiencies and cost savings
• Less rework
• Less copy editing
• Cleaner handoffs between process tasks
• Less “friction”: fewer Writer/Editor/SME “debates”
18. Getting Started…
General Quality Management Principles
• Formal, documented Standards and processes
• Metrics Driven
• Real-time feedback to process participants (QA)
• Test results/reports at process gates (QC)
• Quality built-in from the beginning
• Focus on continuous quality improvement
19. Definition…
Technical Information Quality
• Key criteria:
• Compliant with relevant standards and guides
• Correct (grammar and spelling)
• Consistent (style, terminology)
• Concise
• Result:
• Easier to read and understand
• Easier , quicker, and less costly to translate
20. Pop Quiz!
• Do you have Information Quality Standards?
• Do you monitor, measure, and track conformance to these Standards?
• Do you provide meaningful, actionable, real-time quality feedback to
Writers and Editors?
• Do you collect Quality metrics consistently and objectively?
• Are Information Quality metrics collected on every information product
you deliver?
• Can you conclusively demonstrate Quality improvements?
• Can you tie time and cost reductions directly to Information Quality
improvements?
• Is your CFO happy with current translation/localization costs?
22. acrolinx - the company
• World leader in Information Quality Assurance (we invented it )
• Spin-off from German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
• Technology under development since 1997 (since 2002 as acrolinx)
• Users in 25 countries, checking around millions words a month
23. Some of our customers
Software Life Sciences Communications Industrial Technology
Adobe Dräger AlcatelLucent DAF Bosch
Autodesk GE Cisco HOMAG Embraer
CA Medtronic Huawei John Deere KonicaMinolta
EMC Siemens Motorola MAN Philips
IBM SonyEricsson SEW Eurodrive
SAS Institute Siemens
Leica
Symantec
GeoSystems
25. acrocheck Writer/Editor Interface
on-demand checking and guidance
• acrocheck toolbar
• Color-coded flags
(like spell check on
steroids!) an delay
Style
Terminology
New term
Spelling
Grammar
• Auto-fix
• Suggestions and
examples
• New term harvesting and
control
26. acrocheck Information Quality Status
Report - I
Settings and Result Overview ▼show | hide
Status Results
Spelling 2 Results
Grammar 3 Results
Style 18 Results
Terminology 11 Results
New Terms
Administrative Information ▼show | hide
User Name kent
License ID Acrolinx Internal / kent
file://C:/Documents and Settings/Kent Taylor/My
File Name Documents/Acrolinx/sampleDocs/Word/Topspin 360
Quick Start-Reuse.doc
Rule Set Demo
File format application/word
Document language English
Checking scope 618 word(s) / 77 sentence(s)
Date and time of check Sat Sep 22 07:16:48 MDT 2007
Version information Plug-in : 3.1.0 (build : 384) / Server : 3.5.0 (build : 1622)
Resources standard : 3.5.0 (build: 139 / 2007-09-10)
Term banks used Switches
Checking status (score: 138)
27. acrocheck Content Quality Status
Report - II
Result - Spelling ▼show | hide
Word Count Suggestion Context
One managment workstation, such as a PC running
managment 1 management
terminal-emulation software
chais
chases
chasms
chasis 1 The chasis cable kit (included)
chassis
phasis
Phasis
Result - Grammar ▼show | hide
Summary
a_an_distinction 1
avoid_duplicates 1
wrong_sequence_of_words 1
Details
a_an_distinction
Install a additional switch blade: → Install an additional switch blade:
avoid_duplicates
Tighten the screws to the on the left and right- Tighten the screws on the left and right-hand sides of
→
hand sides of the IB switch card. the IB switch card.
Tighten the screws to the left and right-hand sides of
the IB switch card.
28. acrocheck Project Management Report
metrics and reporting I
• Summary
metrics for
entire project
• Customer
definable
scores,
weightings and
thresholds
• Overall scores
can be used to
optimize
workflow
29. acrocheck Project Management Report
metrics and reporting II
• Summary report
for each metric
category
• Color-coded
status indicators
• XML or Database
storage
• Active links to
individual reports
and document
files
30. Content Quality Management
A Real-World Example
Excerpt from a Best Practices Presentation, 2006
• Savings of as much as $1M in a year so far
• Projected savings of $3M per year for the next 5 years
• Translation costs for MT projects cut by 50%
• Time to market for MT projects cut by 50%
• 40% reuse of content
• 75% reuse for localization
32. The role of quality management
• By defining and deploying (a.k.a. enforcing) standards:
• All information in the product works together
(coherent product information)
• The customer knows what you do
(consistent branding)
• Costs of going to (new) markets is manageable
(reduced localization costs)
33. Return on Investment
• Reduced product liability risk
‣ Certifiable and documented quality
• Reduced support and maintenance costs
‣ Coherent after-sales information
• Reduced costs of entering new markets
‣ Translation costs reduced by 20-30%
34. Questions?
More Information:
www.acrolinx.com
US Contact: Kent Taylor
970.921.3700 | kent@acrolinx.com
European Contact: Oliver Collmann
+49 (30) 288 84 83 41 | oliver@acrolinx.com
35. Intelligent Reuse (consistent wording)
• What’s wrong with “fuzzy” reuse?
• ... Fuzzy matching is great for translation!
• Fuzzy matching for authors doesn’t work because writing is not translation:
• Translation memory-based solutions:
• Cannot present focussed suggestions to users
• Does nothing for quality
• Does not reduce redundancy
36. Reusing TMs with fuzzy matching
• Writer types:
• WARNING: Switch power off only when the fan has stopped
• a fuzzy matching will offer:
• WARNING: Switch power on only when the fan has stopped
• WARNING: Switch power off before the fan has stopped
• but will not find:
• WARNING: Disconnect power only when the fan has stopped
• WARNING: Never switch the power off until the fan has stopped
• WARNING: Do not power down until the fan has stopped
• WARNING: You must wait until the fan has completely stopped before
switching off the power
38. acrolinx IQ Intelligent Reuse™
• Reuse for writers needs to:
• Maintain or improve quality
✓All suggestions are validated (and reliable for non-native speakers)
• Bring no significant overhead:
✓Typically there is only one suggestion
• Really reduce redundancy:
✓Linguistic search algorithms offer high precision
• No more overhead than spell checking
40. Overview
• Who we are? acrolinx the company
• What we do? Information Quality Management
• The problem
• The solution
• The acrolinx Advantage
• Return on Investment
• Demos
41. The future of documentation
• The notion of “technical documentation” will start to disappear in the next 5-10
years
• ... to be replaced by “(product) information development”
• The notion of “source language” and “target language” will continue to erode
• Information development will increasingly become part of product
development
42. The role of documentation
• Merging of “in-product information” and “documentation”
• Konica-Minolta: product calls the service engineer before it needs
maintenance
• John Deere: combine harvester with 15 servers, internet access, GPS
controlled
• Siemens Medical: Synchronized console and maintenance information
• ... all products are becoming like software (actually they were all along)
44. Best practice writing standards
Spelling Grammar “Style”
Server-based for lower Custom-built component for
Off the shelf writing standards
maintenance of custom dictionaries technical writers.
Integrated with terminology TÜV Certified
Support for non-native authors
management ASD STE Compliant
Specifically designed for technical
Can be easily adapted for specific Different standards can be set for
information (only shows genuine
applications (UI messages) different types of information
spelling errors)
Integrated with other checking Easily and quickly customizable to
Highly customizable
components meet customer needs
46. Intelligent Reuse™
Building your Reuse Repository
acrolinx IQ Server
Terminology Writing
Standards
Intelligent Grammar
Reuse &
Spelling
Content / Translation Reuse
repository Repository
Clusters
micro-clustering the cat sat on the mat
The dog sat on the rug the cat sat on the carpet
The elk sat on the moss The cat slept on the sofa
The moose sat on the elk
review and release
the cat sat on the mat
this is a sentence you can’t read
Fish swam in the blue water
The fish swam in the green water
The fish swam in the red sea.
the cat sat on the mat
Another small test snippet
the cat sat on the mat
redundancy and quality
This is the same as the other one.
the cat sat on the malt
The cat ate on the mat
the cat sat on the doormat
the cat sat on the mat
filters
the cat sat on the mat.
the cat sat on the mat
The cat sat on the mat
More useless data points
the cat sat on the mat
47. Raising your corporate IQ
• best-practice writing standards
• spelling & grammar
• terminology
• intelligent reuse (write once, use many times)
• coming soon...
• Smart indexing assistant (the secret problem)
• “Markup Checker” (for example: UI strings)
• Link checker
• Translation QA