7 Ways to Keep Up With Trends
Two facts: we have to try and keep up with all the changes in IT, and we don’t have much time, if any, to do so. What can you do? Here are some ideas. They’ve been working well for me. Hopefully they will for you as well.
Blogs
Bloggers are out there in the trenches: finding information, presenting information about trends, explaining things and providing tips on various subjects. It’s always worth your time to review blogs. A good resource to find them is:
In fact, there’s probably an Alltop page for any topic you’d like to view. Just select your topic of choice and go from there. I’ve included some for different topics in my lists of links on this blog.
You can also make a customized myAlltop page and put your favorite blogs all in one place.
Also, check Ivan Walsh’s list of tech writing blogs. He also includes international writing considerations, so that’s something not to miss.
All hail Twitter! I can’t survive without it. I use it for work, primarily. I prefer to follow feeds that are packed with information and links to articles, or those that pass on information. It’s great to follow people that focus on a particular topic; their expertise comes through, as they have reviewed materials and chosen what they think matters most. So, I see it as expert advice delivered daily to my door. It saves so much time; I needn’t search high and low for information. An expert has done that already. All I need to do is review what they’ve posted. And boy, have they ever posted excellent information.
Twitter is my starting point for the day. It’s my morning paper, so to speak, and is a great way to jumpstart the synapses each morning. I enjoy perusing the articles and information that is posted.
eServer Technical Communication Library
Hello! This is a HUGE database packed with timely, thought-provoking articles. It is updated regularly. It’s a must-visit resource. I’ve signed up for their RSS feed , and try to check it each day, if possible. If unable to, I check it whenever I can. Sign up for the feed. Go there, go there, go there – and go there regularly.
There are a number of writing and other IT groups you can sign up for. Actually, there’s probably a group for just about any topic you can think of. I’ve got some listed on my profile, but there are plenty of others out there. Join some groups, follow the discussions, and perhaps chime in once in a while. You can set it so you get daily or weekly digests of discussions sent directly to your e-mail address.
Websites
Surely you’ll find websites you’ll want to peruse from time to time for information. Mashable is one that comes to mind offhand. It’s an excellent resource. Also, the W3C site is a good site to review periodically. No doubt, there are sites that one should visit periodically, at least. Plenty to see out there on the Internet, is there not?
Mailing Lists
Of course, there are always good ‘ol mailing lists. No explanation required, I believe.
RSS Feeds
This is, of course, another way to follow your favorite blogs and other items. It’s nice to have these in your back pocket.
…………………………….
That’s all I can think of at the moment. However, as you can see, there are ways to quickly review quite a bit of information for many topics. Happy reading!
Minimal Procedure Content: Reasoning
The procedure I wrote about creating a Twitter list uses abbreviated content. This post describes the reasoning behind and decisions made in writing the topic.
Title
Instead of using this:
Create a Twitter List
I opt for this construction:
Twitter List: Create
Reasons
It puts the topic first. You don’t have to dig through the content to get to it. For scanning, you can see immediately that it’s about Twitter lists. If there were an alphabetical list of “creating” topics, where would you find this? I know the training has always been to start topics with an action. However, I think it’s OK to break that rule.
I believe this construction would also lend itself to XML more easily. Twitter could be a tag and database record, as could Lists and Create. From a database design standpoint and rules of normalization, it would be better to have a “Twitter” record that could be referenced and reused more easily. It would make it easier to create tables, build queries, and add programming features to accompanying XSL files. If you have an XML tag/database record that contains just a topic title (e.g., Create a Twitter List) you may have problems down the road. Your database won’t scale very easily.
Also, it provides a way to automatically sort. As an example, I’ve made up some titles to show how it might work
Twitter Feeds: Block
Twitter Feeds: Follow
Twitter Feeds: Unfollow
Twitter Lists: Create
Twitter Lists: Edit
Twitter Lists: Delete
Facebook Pages: Create
Facebook Privacy Settings: Edit
In a sample table of contents (TOC) for Twitter:
Feeds
Follow
Unfollow
Block
Lists
Create
Edit
Delete
Traditional construction (both in title and TOC)
Block a Twitter Follower
Unfollow a Twitter Feed
Create a Twitter List
Delete a Twitter List
Edit a Twitter List
Create a Facebook Page
Edit Facebook Privacy Settings
Content
The audience I’m writing to is tech-saavy individuals that already know how to use Twitter. Any general usage procedures would be covered elsewhere. Content is abbreviated as much as possible, written with mobile devices and small screens in mind.
As I’m planning to include a short video showing this, I also don’t believe it’s necessary to go into as much detail in the written procedure. For example, step 2 mentions a “box at the top of the page (if visible).”
During testing, I closed the box, and was unable to reopen it. Rather than writing a long sentence or two explaining that, I just chose to put in “(if visible)” to quickly note it. Then, in the video, I can discuss it more. Commentary can be provided in a video that would just clutter a written procedure. I see the written procedure and video as a pair. Each has its own purpose.
Video
The video I’ll be adding won’t be fancy or long. I don’t think it’s necessary in this case. There will be times when it’s important to plan out and make thorough, polished presentations and tutorials, but perhaps they don’t all need to be. Allow for something quick to be made, tossed up on a server somewhere, and available right away. I believe we can make some quickly that do not have to be completely polished. Today, speed is increasingly important, as are budget considerations. I think it’s time for doc departments to let go a little. Determine when it’s OK to just get something out fast and when to go the distance and make a full presentation. Times have changed. Does it always have to be perfect?
More
Twitter List: Create
Use the Twitter list feature to categorize feeds of those you follow. Like putting files into separate folders, you can put feeds into different lists.
You can:
- Add a feed to multiple lists
- Create lists before adding feeds, or as you add feeds to existing lists
- Create public feeds for all to see or private ones for yourself
- Follow lists as well as individual feeds
Create a list before adding feeds
1. Open your Home page.
2. Use one option:
– List box at top of page (if visible): Create a New List
– Lists item in right navigation bar: New List
Box displays:
Create a new list
3. Name:
– Start with a letter
– Include letters, numbers, hyphen (-), and underscore (_), but no spaces (it adds hyphens)
– Maximum length: 80 characters
4. Public (for all) or Private (for yourself: just applies to the list, not your entire feed if that is public)
5. Create List
6. Add feeds by using Follow feeds (quickest) or searching.
Add Follow feeds to a list
1. Open your Following or Followers list.
2. Find a feed that you want to list.
3. Click the list icon for that feed.
4. Select one or more lists to which to add the feed.
If you want to make a new list to which to add the feed, click Create List and make a new one.
5. Click outside the box to close the list box.
The list is added to the Lists section of the navigation bar. If it’s not visible, click View All.