WritePoint Staff Blog

“No one can know, at this stage, whether the reports coming from Twitter posts is accurate but they are certainly chilling.”

It certainly matters whether they are accurate. #iranelection is basically a frenzied echo chamber of the unconfirmed and unconfirmable. Plus a lot of posturing – a bunch of Yanks wearing green in solidarity – yeah, that will really help.

Very nice.

If wording is so critical, how come there is a spelling mistake in your blog? “If it is, include it. If it isn’t, than don’t.” Huh?

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Great idea, but will this work over the long run?

The following sentence appears in your section on writing resumes, and the importance of spelling.
“If it is, include it. If it isn’t, than don’t.”

That’s exactly what it was meant for, that and anything else that people choose to use it for.

If what people are tweeting isn’t to your taste, don’t follow them. Simple?

I’m not saying I disagree by the way, a lot of Twitter is just noise and offers no value (my own included at times). But it was the same when blogging started, the value was low and over time those that offer value rise to the top.

Isn’t that why it’s called the Social Web?

Thanks for your comments, Gordon. I agree – this is what social media was created for – sharing our daily lives. However, just as there are norms within every other avenue of communication, I believe there should be norms in Twitter as well. It isn’t meant as a communication device between two individuals – it creates too much noise…better to use email. It isn’t meant as a device meant to replace blogging or websites.

As I’ve written previously and in seminars I have presented, each application or medium has its strengths. Don’t use a blog as a website; don’t use a website as a blog. If you have important, static information, sharing it only in Twitter is a waste. Rather – post it to a website or a blog and then tweet the link.

Twitter’s strength is its dynamic nature. My only point in this post is that just because you can post dynamically, doesn’t mean you should. While I am personally thrilled for @Sara and @ev, I will think her labor was a private event to be shared with friends. Certainly, an announcement after the event – or even – “hey, going to the hospital, think good thoughts” is more than appropriate, but beyond that it just got too detailed for what I would consider the norms.

Likewise, I don’t think people should be tweeting about changing their kids diapers or that they have to go to the bathroom, or that they need a shower.

This is more a list of suggestions. You are very correct that those who offer value rise to the top. Unlike blogging, which often involves more planning and thinking than Twitter posts, tweeting is often done “at the moment.” My point remains – even if you do it “for this second” – consider if this is something you really feel offers value. If it does, post, blog, tweet.

Thanks again for the comment.

Paula

I actually halfway live-posted my l&d on facebook – updated contraction frequency until I got to the point I had to go to the hospital, and when my husband got back from the hospital, he posted pics of the baby. It let my close friends be all excited with me without bugging me. (though, to be honest, nothing was posted between “going to the hospital” and “has a new baby boy”)

As for bodily functions, yeah, really don’t tweet that, cuz ewww.

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No one argues over whose oppression wins the high score, who has a right to exist, or whether my existence is a bad thing. ,

January 23, 2008, PETA posted a press pet product release accusing one of Petsmart’s largest vendors, Rainbow World Exotics, of regarding and pet product cruelty to animals.] Videotape provided by an undercover PETA member who infiltrated the facility as an employee shows small animals apparently treated cruelly and neglected. The more serious allegations included laypersons (not vets) neutering pet product animals with unsafe provisions, live animals thrown in the trash, loose animals killed intentionally, and sick animals killed or red to die with no veterinarian interaction attempted. After these allegations PetSmart launched an investigation which reported discovering pet product no serious wrongdoing by Rainbow, although they agreed that a neutering which was videotaped did not meet their or veterinary standards.]. PETA is filing complaints with the USDA and pursuing criminal charges with the county of Hamilton, where Rainbow World exotics is located.

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I definitely remember Topo Gigio. I loved that little mouse.
In fact, the reason I am seeing this blog now is because something triggered a memory, and I went looking for info. and a photo. The search led me here. Thanks.

A very good survey for Tech Comm Managers as well as Upper Managers of companies looking to implement a DITA solution.

It would have been perfect if it had a paragraph dedicated to DITA localization. There are comments about the fact that DITA localization saved a company 60% on their localization budget, but I wonder what DTP process they must have had before DITA… I would be curious to know how people handle DITA localization and how tight is the connection between the CMS and the localization tool.

You say you got 137 responses. Can you provide more information about how you promoted the survey and how many people where asked to complete the survey.

Paul

@Michel Farhi-Chevillard
Hi Michel,

Thank you for your comments! I like your suggestion regarding localization. DTP can require too much efforts indeed. For example, we are working with a client that translates documentation to 7 languages. They are sending a Word document to their translation agency and receive the translation with all styles messed up. It’s taking them (no DITA is used so far) about 6-7 hours just to reformat just one document.

6-7 hours per document times 7 languages times number of updates per year and we are getting to enormous waste of time.

So yes, I agree, sharing experience about using DITA for localization is a great topic. Probably this can be a subject for our next survey.

Thanks!
Alex

@Paul Trotter
Hi Paul,

We announced the survey in the following mailing lists, forums, and social networks:
* Yahoo groups:
– dita-users
– framemaker-dita
– HATT
– Techshoret (the Israeli group for technical communicators)

* The Content Wrangler groups:
– DITA in XMetaL
– DITA and Content Management
– DITA for Help
– The Content Wrangler forum

* LinkedIn groups:
– DITA Awareness Group
– The Content Wrangler Community

Alex

I agree that fir translation control, especially for multiple languages, the typesetting form needs to be separate from the structure, hence XML is well suited. I would be interested to know if people using DITA are translating using internal tools or external services and if so are they sending out XML/DITA data or some other structure. Just curious

Great information! I would also be interested in learning how people other than technical writers are using DITA (i.e. for producing content other than product documentation), and what challenges they face.

Adam

Welcome home, Ezriel!

Congratulations and good luck in your new position!

Ezriel – we are so happy to have you home! Welcome back. We know you’ll do great things here! To everyone else – stay tuned for some really great courses and events in the coming weeks and months!

Thanks for sharing this with us, Andy! I just wonder if this plugin can be used to covert Word documents to FrameMaker. Did you try this? E.g, what happens when you open a Word doc in FrameMaker? If the Word styles survive, then probably the plugin can be used to map Word styles to the desired FrameMaker formats?