Island hopper

You probably recognize this situation: You have to write a manual, product leaflet or text for a website and you need some information about this specific topic. The information about the topic is available within the organization, but you have to gather it from different people from several departments. And they don't like you messing with their content. They want to keep control over it.

Sometimes our job as technical writer is like moving from one island to the other, building bridges and demolishing borders. If you - for instance - need to describe a product, you first travel to the island of the product developers to gather the product specifications. Next you can go to the marketing department to get some of their sales statements about the product and you might want to hop to the Service department to get the ins and outs of their servicing approach. Does this sound familiar to you?

I have found this situation in all kinds of organizations. In some cases these organizations implemented an enterprise content management system to force their employees to work together in a shared environment. Others used a workflow or case management approach. All of these measures required people to change the way they are working, forcing them to follow the rules of the newly implemented system.

So how can we create permanent and flexible access to all this information without forcing the people on these islands to work in one shared environment?
In my upcoming posts I will illustrate how a knowledge driven approach can help us gather information from subject matter experts, linking different sources of information and presenting information tailored to the needs of internal and external audiences.

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