WritersUA Conference | Session Information

The Google Chrome Comic & Visual Communication	Monday
Scott McCloud	9:15 - 10:15am
The opening session of the conference features a visit with Scott McCloud. Scott created the comic book which describes the technical aspects of Google's Chrome browser. He'll talk about the challenges of communicating technical information in a startlingly unique way. The development of the Chrome comic was a very involved process. The content was developed by Scott based on video-taped interviews he conducted with software engineers. From these interviews he tried to visualize the process they were describing and come up with ways to condense the information into manageable chunks. After editing the text for length and narrative, Scott sketched the visuals. Beyond the work with Chrome, Scott will discuss the value of comics in mission critical situations, the business of story-telling, and how comics offer a unique way of expressing a message that is interesting and entertaining.

A Painless Introduction to Structured Authoring	Monday
Dave Gash, HyperTrain dot Com	10:45am - 12:00pm
Ah, WYSIWYG, we hardly knew ye. Today, many writers must give up visual control of their content and work within fixed, often restrictive, environments in the name of "Structured Authoring". But why is this, and what's in it for the authors? This session lays out the basics of Structured Authoring and examines its benefits, requirements, and pitfalls to give you a clear grasp of concepts and techniques before you dive into tools and technologies. Specifically, we'll look at the advantages Structured Authoring can bring to individual authors, writing teams, and companies, so you'll soon think of Structured Authoring as your new best friend! — YOU WILL LEARN — The rationale and concepts behind Structured Authoring Strategies and processes that support Structured Authoring How Semantic Markup and Structured Authoring fit together How to get started with Structured Authoring

Topic-Based Authoring	Monday
Char James-Tanny, JTF Associates, Inc.	3:30 - 4:45pm
When WinHelp first appeared, a "topic" was a chapter from a printed book (and Help files like Microsoft's Help Authoring Guide weren't very helpful). This soon changed as topics became more concrete and were crafted around a single purpose: answering a specific question. When WinHelp 4 was introduced, Cheryl Lockett Zubak and Mary Deaton described a number of topic types: task, context, reference, navigation, lookup, definition, and more. As authoring tools developed and matured, the overall concept of the (published) topic remained the same. But how we build those topics has changed. We use static content, variables, snippets, and widgets, and more. We often work as part of a team, which requires more work so that topics have the same "voice". And many are starting to use DITA, which requires base topic types for validation: generic, concept, task, and reference topics. — YOU WILL LEARN — About the different topic types and when to use them How to craft topics when using variables, snippets, static content, and other elements How to analyze existing content - tips for writing modular topics to gain maximum reuse

Using a Wiki with Modular and Conditionally Publishable Content	Tuesday
Rahul Mehrotra, Agilent Technologies Inc	1:00 - 2:15pm
Take a look at a Wiki-based, real-life content management system that is used to collect, organize, and optimize software documentation for multiple versions of eight different products. It has over 150,000+ pages of version-controlled online help and manuals. Come hear about how simply it was implemented, the choices and mistakes we've experimented with, and what we've learned about the real-life limitations of chunking, conditionals, single-sourcing, and other such techniques. You may never want to go back to the way we were. — YOU WILL LEARN — How a wiki can be set up for collaborative authoring How books can be chunked into topic-based wiki content How wiki content can be structured for single sourcing How a wiki can be organized for content management and version control

Using Simple Pictures to Communicate Complex Ideas	Tuesday
Donna Safco, Mudpuddle creations	2:45 - 4:00pm
Everyone can draw lines, circles and squares, but are you aware how powerful these simple visuals can be when trying to define learning problems and explain effective solutions? In this hands-on session, participants will explore how to use Visual Thinking to solve learning problems. We’ll use napkins and markers, and create a series of simple drawings that will help us communicate how the great things we are learning at the conference can be applied to real-life issues. Visually thinking a problem can uncover the most effective way to connect the content with the learner. SMEs will be able to explain information in ways designers understand. Designers will be able to show developers exactly what they imagine. Managers and clients will be convinced that the extra time and/or budget is valuable. Participants will leave this session with a personal understanding of the potential of Visual Thinking and confidence in their ability to draw pictures that communicate.

Double Scoop Case Studies • Theme: "Editing"	Wednesday
This time slot features two separate case studies by two different speakers with a common theme.	8:30 - 9:45 am
Using Content Models to Increase the Effectiveness of Your Content Richard Carey, Microsoft
Why write to a content model? Richard Carey, a Senior Technical Editor at Microsoft, explains how Content Modeling can help you provide your customers with a consistent, solution-oriented experience and can help you plan and write more effective documentation. For customers, structured content models can increase the discoverability, relevance, and consistency of your content, increasing customer satisfaction with both the content and the supported products. For writers, the use of content models can help you clarify the target audience and bring a tighter focus to the solutions you want to deliver.
Assessing the Value of Editing and Its Effect on Your Company's Bottom Line Craig Liebendorfer, Microsoft
Companies–and those in charge of headcount–tend to view editing as a cost center. After all, aren't editors simply people who press F7, check spelling and grammar, and then return to their knitting projects? And can't monkeys do that? To answer in order, no and no. As a content publishing professional, you know that great editing contributes to excellent content. How, though, can you quantify the value of editing and its impact on your company's bottom line? In this session you will learn how you can determine the monetary returns of editing and how to explain to those up the food chain why editing is essential to your company's success. Not only writers who have editors, but also writers who are their own editors can benefit from this session. — YOU WILL LEARN — How consistent terminology and judicious editing can reduce localization costs How editing can reduce customer support costs How editing can help safeguard corporate credibility, thereby affecting the corporate bottom line The steps editors can take every day to protect their company from costly legal issues

Better Knowledge-Base Articles for Complex Troubleshooting	Wednesday
Dave Farkas, University of Washington	10:00 - 11:15am
Computer users often experience frustration and failure when they employ KB articles to troubleshoot challenging computer problems. The following guidelines can improve the effectiveness of KB articles: Write meaningful, symptom-focused titles. Carefully scope the problem into the optimum number of separate KB articles. Look broadly for ways to reduce the difficulty of the user's experience. Pay attention to the tone of the article. Require reasonable consistency from one KB article to the next. Provide decision-points within individual articles. When feasible, implement a wizard-like interface. When feasible, provide remote support. Offer brute-force shortcuts as an alternative to time-consuming procedures. Allow users to choose a solution pathway based on their personal priorities. Provide context information such as article id number, last revision, and products the article applies to. Solicit feedback from users; allow the user community to contribute KB content. — YOU WILL LEARN — How KB articles differ from standard task-oriented computer procedures The special challenges in developing troubleshooting content Ways to improve the KB support interface Ways to improve individual articles in the KB

What If the Reader Can't Read?	Wednesday
Tony Self, HyperWrite Pty Ltd	10:00 - 11:15am
A fresh generation of readers is entering the workforce; readers who predominantly read onscreen, who prefer text messaging to phone calls, who have a different attitude to copyright and privacy, and whose reading concentration span is far less than any earlier generation. New strategies for communicating user assistance information to this generation of readers will be necessary if we are going to be effective technical communicators. It's not just the "young folk", either. According to some studies, an individual's reading habits change with exposure to the Web. People gravitate towards skimming information horizontally (reading snippets of text from different sources) rather than in-depth, vertical reading. And readers are becoming impatient. Readers have an increasingly positive attitude towards peer-generated collaborative content, and this suggests that people searching for assistance will prefer to "google" through "unofficial" sources of assistance rather than drill down through the "official". One study has shown that such readers move on to another page if they can't find the information after reading just 15 words. This session will discuss these issues, and investigate whether technical communicators should be making some difficult decisions about the form of our communication efforts. — YOU WILL LEARN — The reading abilities and literacy of the audience for our user assistance is changing Literacy in English no longer means the ability to read English University graduates are now unused to reading "traditional" long pieces of text Language now serves the purpose of speed and social interaction Peer-generated collaborative content is now seen as legitimate and authoritative Creating user assistance and training material using different media may play to the strengths of new readers We need to re-think our approach to user assistance, documentation and training

Lessons Learned in Corporate Blogging	Wednesday
Lindsey Robbins, Blackbaud Inc.	1:30 - 2:45pm
This session examines the corporate blogging environment and how to benefit from establishing your personal identity alongside your company brand. We'll discuss the benefits of blogging for the user assistance specialist as well as the challenges of writing for your company. We'll examine audience analysis, social media efforts, and SEO and what they can mean for your user assistance team. The session will provide examples of my work authoring three corporate blogs and include details on the benefits realized thus far. — YOU WILL LEARN — How to use social media to promote your blog How to create ongoing conversations with users and peers Best practices for group blogging Best practices for individual blogging Personal benefits of choosing to blog Value of blogging for corporate transparency

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