Standards – either in the XML sense or simply communication best practices –help grow, accelerate and “professionalise” an industry. Would construction be without material standards for width and strengths, or certification for specific skills? How could we have transportation without standards for traffic and processes? Standards are what help ad-hoc processes become enterprise-class, and scale beyond our expectations.
Technical communication is in an era of rapid, disruptive and revolutionary change. The true nature of the challenge is understood by a few, and pros and cons of potential solutions by even fewer. The future therefore will require that we work together to exchange knowledge as best we can to help each other hit the many moving targets. We must do this because our old techniques and processes just can’t keep up, and no one organisation has the time or funds to re-invent every solution on their own. Standards help an organisation with little funds tackle larger challenges, and larger organisations implement profound change with reduced risk. The alternative is potentially getting left behind as the industry and community rush forward.
Tata AIG General Insurance Company - Insurer Innovation Award 2024
[soap Keynote] The Freedom to Grow: how standards facilitate the techcomm industry [Noz Urbina]
1. The Freedom to Grow
How Standards in
Communication Facilitate
Our Industry
b.noz.urbina@gmail.com
@nozurbina
lessworkmoreflow.blogspot.com
@nozurbina
14. How we create meaning
We compare each individual situation…
… with personal past experience…
… by matching [patterns]
Mental models
• Semi-consciously selected, incomplete images
• What (we think) we understand of the world
• How we face the world: Options? Solutions?
Confidence?
Kai Weber, bit.ly/kai_meaning
@nozurbina
Urbina Consulting
40. The Right List
•
•
•
•
Right content
Business
User
Right format
CS Needs
Goals
Right language
Right time
A unified content strategy is key to
achieving shared goals.
@nozurbina
Urbina Consulting
41. Take-Aways
• Don't think about your year at the expense of
your career
• We are responsible for the whole customer
experience
• We have to collaborate
• Structuring content gives it agility
• You’re not making “it”, you’re making “them”
You’re not just at the soap! conference, you ARE
the soap! conference!
@nozurbina
Urbina Consulting
42. THANK YOU!
Q&A?
@nozurbina / @thecsbook
thecontentstrategybook.com
@nozurbina
Yes, we have
copies here
Urbina Consulting
Notas del editor
Standards = Consistency = Community
5 IN / 45 min left
CONTENTAccurate, consistent in message and appropriate in voice, in the locale-specific variant that users want, tailored to their information needs, relevant to the task at hand. Often dynamically published and able to be assembled and remixed by the user.FORMAT Convenient and fit for purpose (web page, print, PDF, interactive text-to-speech system, etc.)LANG Appropriate for each user profile and in the chosen language or language variant of the audience.TIMEAppropriate to the stage in a process or level of expertise, point of engagement in the sales cycle, or other parameters that define the user’s particular need.
Your content needs to go to more places than ever before
Add labels:RealityGenerated
Add arrows:VideoSpeechInteractionContent
10 IN / 40 min leftStandards
In short a standard is very simple: agree what you’re going to do, and then do it so there are no surprises. Standards facilitate information exchange. Without them, both humans and machines lack a shared way of communicatingLearning/Tin Can APIRSSHTMLTwitterCalendar format.In Mike Hamilton’s presentation we heard about the ‘bad old days’ when there weren’t enough standards around display of HTML, it was rendered in all sorts of different ways
Break out of organic or cottage industry process into enterprise class!Roger WollstadtAttribShareAlikehttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Volkswagen_Assembly_Line_in_Wolfsburg_%281960%29.jpg
This is Lego by the way. In communication projects...people fear standards because they take away creativity. fear I’m going to try to address laterStandards actually allow people to not be second guessing and overanalysing the unimportant, and focus on the import: creating great content. Instead of tweaking fonts and page breaks, we’re focusing on users and their needs.Big resistors are passionate about their jobs. If you can win them over to join the party they can become your biggest supports and advocates.
Standards are how we signal each otherConvey meaning with very little informationThey become semi-conscious meaningful models of a concept that we refer to almost instinctively
20 IN / 30 MIN LEFTOur mental models of content are going out of dateUser expectations are driven by the world they live in, not (just) what we publish to them
It’s all about CONSISTENCYDesignWordsTermsDelivery
It’s all about CONSISTENCYDesignWordsTermsDelivery
It’s all about CONSISTENCYDesignWordsTermsDelivery
It’s all about CONSISTENCYDesignWordsTermsDelivery
It’s all about CONSISTENCYDesignWordsTermsDelivery
It’s all about CONSISTENCYDesignWordsTermsDelivery
It’s all about CONSISTENCYDesignWordsTermsDelivery
It’s all about CONSISTENCYDesignWordsTermsDelivery
It’s all about CONSISTENCYDesignWordsTermsDelivery
25 IN / 25 MIN LEFTIt’s all about CONSISTENCYDesign, Words, Terms, DeliveryADOBE CONNECT speakers vs. presenters
And lend credibilityBoss like itEasier to introduce people to a standard, clearly defined way of working instead of a home-baked, very proprietary system.Cheaper more robust tools easier
All these guys can do this because they share a common baseline. The equipment the skills the safety procedures the regulations, the location. It’s having all this regularity that lets us come together to share, teach each other and enjoyWe’re all here today to see what the others are doing. I use the term ‘cross-polinate’ a lot, which is taking the seeds of excellence from one situation and planting them in another
30 IN / 20 MIN LEFTPeople to get drunk with DITA community is something I’m part ofVery supportivePeople now putting ‘DITA skills required’ on job applications. Participation in the community is a good way to build your brand, network and professional opportunities.
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45 IN / 5 LEFTVariant and configuration management