Documentation as conversation webcast (recording)

Even if your documentation system does not converse with your users, your documentation can help customers talk to each other and make the connections that help them do their jobs well or learn something new as if they were in a classroom with a community for classmates. This talk describes how you can think about documentation and user assistance in a conversational way, with the help of social media technology. I'll discuss the topics in my new book, Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation. I'll describe the use of in-person Book Sprints that combine wikis and community events to gather together writers to accomplish documentation goals.

About Anne Gentle
Anne Gentle is a senior technical writer and blogger who has over ten years of experience. She started blogging for her employer at talk.bmc.com, and then moved the content to www.justwriteclick.com. Anne has acquired many interests, including structured authoring, wikis, XML models for software documentation such as DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture), blogging, online user assistance, and writing in an Agile development environment. Anne is a volunteer maintainer of the One Laptop Per Child user manual housed at FLOSS Manuals. Anne is the lead for the STC Intercom Editorial Advisory Panel to guide the editorial calendar for 2009 and 2010. She currently works as a senior technical writer at Advanced Solutions International, which provides business and membership management software for professional organizations, churches, and other non-profits including the Society for Technical Communication.

ASF file (playable in Windows Media Player, 52 MB, 57 minutes)

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