"Daniel,
The value that any team member adds to a project is realized in terms of improved market share, improved margins, or reduced costs. The direct effect of any person's work on those things can be very hard to measure, but if project…"
Technical Writing World
The social network for technical communicators
Mark Baker's Discussions
Cubicle-Friendly Videos?
Started this discussion. Last reply by Mike Phillips Aug 2, 2011. 3 Replies 1 Like
Obviously, videos are one of the hottest topics in technical communications today. But there is one issue with videos in technical content that I don't see being discussed. How do you make…Continue
How many books are you in the middle of?
Started this discussion. Last reply by Eddie VanArsdall Jul 6, 2011. 7 Replies 0 Likes
Slightly off topic, I suppose, but it is a holiday weekend and the middle of summer -- days made for reading -- and I have a pile of books with bookmarks somewhere between the covers. It's not a…Continue
10 jobs that make people happy -- Guess what's number 10!
Started this discussion. Last reply by Craig Cardimon Jul 8, 2011. 4 Replies 3 Likes
http://lifewise.canoe.ca/Investopedia/2011/05/03/18097326.html Who hear feels almost as happy as a dental hygienist?Continue
Tags: happiness
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Mark Baker commented on Daniel Archer's blog post Technical Writing Capabilities and Offerings - for internal customersMark Baker replied to Amelia Marchant's discussion Podcasting in Technical Writing"Amelia,
Most of tech writing is about help -- people getting stuck and needing to find information to get them unstuck. Podcasting is a type of journalism, a regular series of recordings on a topic of interest. It isn't a help format. Few…"
Mark Baker commented on Tammy Butcher's blog post The Value of Documentation and Help when Support is Free"Hi Chris,
That makes sense. If there are career development options and people can graduate from the help desk to other roles then they have every motivation to help reduce support call volume. One place I worked rotated people on the services team…"
Mark Baker commented on Tammy Butcher's blog post The Value of Documentation and Help when Support is Free"Chris, I think this points to something really important that we all have to face up to. The likelihood of users checking our help, reading our docs, or using our navigation scheme is almost never based on the quality of our help, our docs, or our…"
Mark Baker commented on Tammy Butcher's blog post The Value of Documentation and Help when Support is Free"Chastin, I think it is very different to move user behavior in this regard. The problem is that their choice of whether to phone support without looking at the docs is not likely based on the experience of your docs alone, but on their overall…"
Mark Baker replied to Sharon O'Neill's discussion Developing online help in Unix"A wiki would work form the POV of editing on a UNIX platform, and provide ease of use for the developers. The question is, what does "online help" mean in this context? A wiki will certainly let you put help online, but I won't…"
Mark Baker commented on Tammy Butcher's blog post The Value of Documentation and Help when Support is Free"The first thing most people do when they need help (after asking the person in the next cubicle) is to Google for the answer (or, it now seems, ask their Facebook friends). We are all learning that we are more likely to find answers on Google than…"
Mark Baker left a comment for Mark Baker"I definitely see the connection. He and I are very much arguing the same thing, if from a slightly different vantage point. Thanks for pointing it out!"
Milan Davidović left a comment for Mark Baker"This article struck me as having something tangentially in common with your notion of "every page is page one".
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2012/03/01/digital-disorder-losing-the-signal-of-priority-and-selection/
I don't know…"
Mark Baker replied to Gursheesh's discussion How important is to give an "Objective" i the beginning of a document?"If the Objective is not clear from the title, people will not read the document. If the objective is clear from the title, people will not read the Objective section."
Mark Baker replied to Tiffany Shoemaker's discussion Survey Questions for our customers"Tiffany,
I would express the same kinds of reservations as Richard, and I would add this: by and large users don't actually care about the layout or format of the documentation. What they care about are:
Can they find the information they want…"
Mark Baker replied to Thomas Mauser's discussion Estimating a Writing Project"Hi Tom,
It definitely varies. There are averages that may provide rough guidance over a sufficiently large project or a number of projects, but for a single project those averages may be useless. Indeed, an organization's internal metrics based…"
Mark Baker replied to Daniel Berman's discussion Receiving feedback on Online Help"Once, long ago, I worked for an Apple dealer and the local Apple office decided to bring people together from all the local Apple dealers in the area and create a forum where they could exchange information and help each other out. The meeting where…"
Mark Baker replied to Daniel Berman's discussion Receiving feedback on Online Help"Richard, I agree that there are a great many important issues to figure out with this model. We an in our infancy in this in many ways. Of course, companies have been creating communities or users for years with everything from user conferences to…"
Mark Baker replied to Daniel Berman's discussion Receiving feedback on Online Help"Sarah,
I agree it is an issue. I suspect that it may strike writers as a bigger issue than it is for readers. Forums have been like this forever, and they still thrive. But there is still definitely a balance to be struck here. I just think we would…"
Mark Baker replied to Daniel Berman's discussion Receiving feedback on Online Help"Sarah,
I agree that comments are the best way to go. Comments reward the person who posts them and assists other readers who read them.
What interest me in you post is this phrase: "and ideally we should incorporate useful information from the…"
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Comment Wall (2 comments)
- At 2:36pm on March 1, 2012, Milan Davidović said…
This article struck me as having something tangentially in common with your notion of "every page is page one".
I don't know if you'll perceive a connection, but perhaps it'll at least be of interest.
--Milan
- At 3:16pm on March 1, 2012, Mark Baker said…
I definitely see the connection. He and I are very much arguing the same thing, if from a slightly different vantage point. Thanks for pointing it out!
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