Comments on: Real-time: it’s sooooo last second

By: Your Docs: Thought about Adaptability? — 2moroDocs

Your Docs: Thought about Adaptability? — 2moroDocs — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:39:42 +0000

[...] Real-time: It’s Soooooo Last Second [...]

By: My First Procedure Written in Twitter — 2moroDocs

My First Procedure Written in Twitter — 2moroDocs — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:39:07 +0000

[...] Reasons to Write Procedures in Twitter Real time: it’s sooooo last second Lessons Learned: Procedure Written in [...]

By: Julie Norris

Julie Norris — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:06:19 +0000

Thanks for your comments here and yesterday on Twitter, Larry. This experiment turned out to be very interesting. What started as an idea to just try writing a procedure in Twitter to see how it might work escalated very quickly into a real-time writing event for me. Which was perfect. If I’m not mistaken, the second-guessing to which you refer regards fixes and additions I made following input from followers. My thought there was that all comments needed to be reviewed and, possibly, addressed. In my haste to get something out, did I miss some items? If this were a “real” event, would I need to address such input? Would I need to either add new information, or give a reason why not? That might depend on the severity of the event, I suppose.

In answering and addressing the concerns, I discovered new issues and learned a few things. So this experiment was quite the experience; I’ll be writing a new post-mortem post when I finish this note.

I’m in agreement with you about tech writers not being accustomed to writing in real-time. However, I think it’s here to stay, and that we need to start doing so. Based on what happened yesterday, I also now know that there are some issues and bugs to work out. We must adapt. This is all new, and we just have to determine methods as we go. I think it’s fascinating.

By: Larry Kunz

Larry Kunz — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:31:57 +0000

I’ve been following with interest your experiment in writing a procedure using Twitter. I see you second-guessing yourself — basically saying you’d do it a bit differently if you could do it over again. That’s completely understandable, because…..

….Most of us technical writers are NOT wired for real-time communication. Quite the opposite: we were trained on development cycles that lasted weeks or even months. There was always time to write, then go back and rewrite (and even redesign), before the final product went out the door.

With today’s Web-based media, the good news is that we can often rewrite even after the “final” product ships. The bad news is that short development cycles force us to write like a newspaper reporter. Get it down on paper. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Watch your deadline.

You’ve touched on some important stuff here. I don’t have any conclusions yet, but you’ve gotten me thinking.