Tristan David Bishop discusses the evolution of technical communication and the importance of knowledge integration at Symantec, reflecting on the shift from static to dynamic content delivery and the impact of user-generated information. He emphasizes that technical writers must adapt by developing new skills such as topic-based writing, XML publishing, and social media proficiency to stay relevant in a rapidly changing landscape. The presentation highlights the need for companies to embrace customer feedback to improve content strategies and enhance self-service support, ultimately driving down support costs.

1. Knowledge Integration
The Future of Technical Communications
Tristan David Bishop, Senior Principal Business Analyst
July 15, 2010

2. Introduction

3. About the speaker:
Tristan David Bishop helps Symantec to deliver
"the right knowledge to the right customers at the
right time in the right language."
By integrating technical publishing best practices
with web delivery innovation, Tristan forges
solutions that optimize customer experience,
improving the corporate/customer relationship.
Tristan David Bishop,
Sr. Prin. Business Analyst
3

4. Symantec
• Operates in more than 40 countries
• FY 2009 revenue = $6.2 billion (Enterprise=$4.4b, Consumer=$1.8b)
• Over 17,500 Team Members
• Revenue by Geography:
– Americas. . . . . . . . . . . . 55%
– EMEA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30%
– APJ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15%
• Secures half of the world‟s data
• Backs up half of the world‟s data
4

5. Agenda
1 Changing Landscape
2 Knowledge Integration
3 Required Skills
4 Knowledge Integration at Symantec
5

6. The Changing
Landscape

7. The Changing Landscape
1. Mobile Communications
2. Content: Static to Dynamic
3. Topic-Based Publishing
4. Global Knowledge Requirements
5. Web-Based Support
6. User-Generated Content
7

8. Established content practices are
undergoing profound and
fundamental changes
Clarlone, Kadie and Laplante: Gilbane Group,
“Multilingual Communications as a Business Imperitive”
8

9. Mobile Communications
Source: “Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, International Telecommunications' Union, Annual Report 2008”
9

10. News: Static to Dynamic
“Every big-city newspaper in
the U.S. is either in bankruptcy
or will be in bankruptcy in the
foreseeable future ... The
newspaper industry in the U.S.
is over." - Michael Wolff, Vanity Fair, Mar
18, 2010
10

11. Navigation: Static to Dynamic
GPS will
grow to
>$70 Billion
by 2013
Handsets will
have 78%
GPS market
share by
2013
RNCOS E-Services Pvt.
Ltd, “World GPS Market
Forecast” 2/10
11

12. Directories: Static to Dynamic
• Hard-Copy Yellow
Pages will lose
39% revenue over
next five years
• Directory industry
already trained
80% of sales staff
to sell interactive
products
• Reportlinker, "Say Goodbye to
Yellow Pages", July 2008
12

13. Product Content: Static to Dynamic
“We have to become good at delivering highly
targeted, „just in time‟ information: the right
bit, at the right time, to help our reader answer
a specific question and get on with a task”
Larry Kunz, SDI – Winner STC President‟s Award, 2010
13

14. Topic-Based Publishing
• Internet caused
fundamental
change
• Past = Books;
Today = Topics
• Traditional
delivery
methods are
OBSOLETE
14

15. Poll #1
What doc delivery
methods are in use at
your org today?
a) Printed hard-copy
manuals or sheets
b) Files on a CD or DVD
(PDF, CHM, HTML)
c) Links to online web
content
Select all that apply
15

16. Time Travel
16

17. We cannot continue blindly producing
manuals. Much of what we do as
technical writers needs to change to
meet the growing reality of
communication world-wide.
Paula R. Stern, WritePoint Documentation Services
17

18. Global Knowledge Requirements
• Primary markets saturate
• Shareholders still expect
revenue growth
• Company enters new
locales
• Requires proactive global
knowledge strategy
• English = Base language
• Automated QA of English
source = maximizes MT
With apologies to Gary Larson
18

19. Web-Based Tech Support
• New labor force entrants
grew up with web access
• They expect web-based
support
• Phone-based interactions
rapidly decreasing
• Our profession is KEY to
web-based, self-service
support
• Tech Writers must
repurpose manuals as
topics for web
• Per Forrester, global
average cost support
phone interaction is $12.
Self-service average
interaction cost is $0.25
19

20. User-Generated Content
• Early web = company writes, customer reads
• Today‟s web = both write (blogs, forums, wiki)
• Tomorrow‟s web? = both write and BOTH read (round-trip)
20

21. Technical communicators must now
compete with information being
generated by the user community.
Sarah O’Keefe, Scriptorium
Publishing Services
21

22. Knowledge
Integration

23. We are entering a new era of product
content practices. Customers are
embraced as part of the content
lifecycle.
Clarlone, Kadie and Laplante: Gilbane Group,
“Multilingual Communications as a Business Imperitive”
23

24. The Knowledge Integrator
A Knowledge Integrator will
partner with other teams across the organization
to gather content
that can proactively solve customer issues,
reducing the need for incoming support calls.
24

25. Knowledge Integration
1. Gathering Content
2. Ensuring Accuracy
3. Ensuring Compliance
4. Delivering Repurposed Content
25

26. Technical writers have an opportunity
to morph into the social conduit by
which companies interact with users
Louis Marascio, LugIron Software Blog
26

27. Gathering Content
Seek key topics we didn‟t think to write
1. Review customer comments on published topics
2. Study web search results
3. Monitor Tech Support forums
4. Set up automated Keyword Alerts
27

28. 25% of Google search results
for the world‟s top 20 brands link to
user-generated content.
Aarons, Edwards, & Lanier - "Search Engine
Strategies magazine", June 2009
28

29. Ensuring Accuracy
• InfoDev must connect with Dev, QA and Support
• Build close relationships
• Arrange for rapid cross-checks by SMEs
29

30. Ensuring Brand Compliance
• Know your corporate branding requirements
• Build close relationship with Marketing/Branding
• Ensure that repurposed content is compliant
30

31. Delivering Repurposed Content
• Distribute to
target customers
– Post to online KB
for browsing
– Initiate L10n for
key topics
– Push into local
installations (Live
Update)
– Optimize for
mobile viewing
31

32. Required Skills

33. Why pursue new skills?
• Cost Cutting continues (RIFs, Outsourcing)
• We need to show measurable business value
• Become ready to step into Knowledge Integrator role
33

34. Required Skills
1. Topic-Based Writing
2. XML Publishing
3. Social Media Experience
34

35. Topic-Based Writing Skills
• Study best practices for topic-based authoring
• Learn industry-standard content models
• Study DITA core types (“concept”, “task” and “reference”)
35

36. XML Publishing Skills
• Develop XML
publishing skills
• Understand the
node hierarchy
• Data - not pages
• WYSWIG DTP =
EOL
36

37. XML has won. All major office suites
now save their documents in zipped
XML by default.
Elliotte Rusty Harold, Polytechnic
University, “XML Predictions: IBM.com”
2/5/08
37

38. Social Media Skills
A few Statistics:
• Over 50% of the world‟s
population is under 30-
years-old
• 96% of them have
joined a social network
• If Facebook were a
country it would be the
world‟s 3rd largest
(behind China and
India)
• More than 80,000
websites have
implemented Facebook
Connect since
December 2008
38

39. Social Media Skills
• Explore leading Social
Media networks
• Create basic user
profile at prominent
sites
• See new data
exchange methods in
action
• Metatags = driving the
future of our industry
– Twitter “trending topics”
– Twitter #hashtags
– Facebook “Connect”
– LinkedIn
“recommendations”
– Stumbleupon “favorites”
39

40. Poll #2
Which Knowledge
Integration skills have
you already attained?
a) Topic-based
publishing
b) XML publishing
c) Social Media
Select all that apply
40

41. Knowledge
Integration at
Symantec

42. Case Study: Symantec Backup Exec
• Market-leading Windows
data protection
• 1.5 million global
customers
• Documentation in 11
languages
42

43. BE InfoDev - Customer Survey
• 2007 – Pubs team surveyed several hundred customers
• Web search had become primary knowledge access method
The number of customers who "often"
sought information about BE via Google was 500% higher
than those who "often" sought information via the PDF manuals.
Pubs checked “Google” results, didn‟t find our PDFs first
In response, we initiated effort to modernize delivery channels
In 2008, began delivering content as stand-alone web topics

44. BEWS InfoDev – Web Topic Results
• Two years
later, BEWS
InfoDev now Backup Exec - Web Topic Hits
has 4,857
topics on the
web
• February 2010
had 1.6 million
hits
• Web topic hits
exceed PDF
manual hits by
ratio of
26 to 1
March 31, 2010

45. Symantec - Knowledge Data Flow
45

46. Knowledge Delivery in 2010
• Deploying
InQuira
Information
Manager for web
KM
• Topics will be
tracked and
scored by
usefulness
• We will receive
direct customer
feedback
• We will learn if
there are missing
topics
46

47. Global Self-Service in 2010
• We already have
translated XML
topics stored in our
CMS
• We will now deliver
them to the web
through the InQuira
KMS
• InfoDev will facilitate
self-service support
across global
markets
• We hope to drive
down incoming
support call
volumes, saving
money for the
company
47

48. Backup Exec: Knowledge Integration
• Content redeployment
effort = profound success
• Will tune our published
topics based on
customer feedback
• Can now look toward
user-generated content
– Backup Exec FAQ
– BE TekTips forum (>33k
members)
48

49. Backup Exec: Knowledge Integration
• Building customer
communities
• InfoDev can seek
out trending issues
within:
– Backup Exec blog
comments
– Backup Exec forum
discussion
– Community Feed
49

50. Conclusion

51. In Summary
• Communication has
changed forever (global
and instant)
• Our jobs will never be
the same
• We can drive value into
our companies by
becoming Knowledge
Integrators
• We‟d be wise to
proactively seek any
skills we yet need
51

52. Thank You!
Tristan David Bishop
tristan_bishop@symantec.com
(321) 696-3618
Twitter: @KnowledgeBishop
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