Improving the effectiveness of information

In my previous posts I have focused on the benefits of semantic technology in documentation for end users. Semantic technology also offers a great opportunity to support the documentation creation and revision process. Semantic technology replaces a disconnected, post-hoc documentation routine with a dynamic process that is easily deployed, tested, reviewed and revised. Every relevant stakeholder can be involved in the documentation process, as users and as authors. Smart documentation builds internal engagement for the organization in the same ways that it builds external engagement in the customer base. The modular re-use and incremental revision of documentation will reduce total cost of documentation. Support all parties in the product life cycle Using semantic technology in documentation makes it possible to optimize Product Life Cycle Management: It can support all documentation processes for all parties in the product life cycle. It also enables the re-use of information an...

Digital technology has allowed the documentation process to evolve from single document-centric to single source-centric: From creating individual manuals to creating re-usable chunks of information for a series of product and document types through various channels. Figure 1. Documentation evolved from document centric to single source centric Example A manufacturer of agricultural machines needed a complete line of documentation for its new type of harvester. In a document-centric approach, this would mean having one technical writer create the user documentation, another writer create the service manual and a third create the on-line help. In the best case they would copy chapters or paragraphs from one manual to the other. All of these documentation types would need to be reviewed by hand and individually updated when the harvester’s features changed, or new rules for its safe operation were implemented. In a single source environment, multiple writers work on discrete top...

As announced on several social media, I will demonstrate how we can use semantic technology to create process-driven documentation at the STC Summit 2013 in Atlanta.  I will do this by live modeling with a semantic tool set. Now I could do this with a predefined demo set, but what's the fun of that? So I would like to invite you to send a delimited instruction - this could be a chapter from one of your manuals - by uploading it to our server. From the uploaded manuals, I will select one or more to be modeled out.  As the models in the semantic environment are instantly executable, we can watch the documentation develop, change the models and review the results in a web browser. Wouldn't it be cool to see your documentation modeled out on the large screen at the STC Summit? When: May 6th, 2:00 pm (EDT) Where:   Hanover FG, Hyatt Regency Atlanta - Track my session Level: Advanced Uploading your file   Go to http://info.beinformed.com/stc13-upload a...

Instruction manuals, users guides, and other types of documentation have always been the way manufacturers distributed the how-to information about their products to customers, as well as sales and support staff and other employees. This kind of catch-all, one-size document forces every user to sift through irrelevant information, applying their own context to find solutions to their problems. Even when they are successful, users remember the experience as painful and tedious. What if you could take each individual user by the hand and guide them through the product, showing only what is relevant in their situation, immediately answering their questions and helping them make decisions and choices? Seamlessly effective, customized support would improve the user’s experience of the product and help them to feel engaged by the product and its brand. Product and brand engagement Product and brand engagement is – a partly emotional, partly rational – process of forming an attachment...

When I introduced my topic "Using semantic technology to create process-driven documentation" in the technical communicators group, I received some feedback referring to semantic tagging. While semantic technology offers us great possibilities to make our information accessible, it can easily lead to maintenance problems when not handled in the proper way. Using RDF, RDF Schema, XML or other specialized meta-data languages, it is – for someone who knows and understands these languages - relatively easy to set up a system that can lead to the desired situation. And as long as the meta-data is used in a consistent way, everything seems to work out fine. But as departments and teams change, the repository of used taxonomies and tags may become unavailable. When the organization rolls out new products, or changes its mission, new content may render today’s schema a relic. Example: eRDF mark-up for a decision about an upgrade Using any form of code or specialized me...