What is Doc Edge?
Doc Edge is a blog about today and tomorrow in the world of technical communications. I am hoping that an enthusiastic and forward-thinking blog about how to create and deliver better documentation now and in the future will excite many technical communicators who are ready to break out of the old and older way of doing things that just don't work.
My reason for starting such a discussion on a topic most people feel is a necessary evil? I don't believe documentation needs to be a necessary evil, and more over I believe it will become a major way in which technology companies differentiate themselves in a more and more commoditized technology market. Good documentation can save and make money!
The "Doc" in Doc Edge is a reference to the word "documentation," not the word "documents." The job of technical communicators who create "edgy" documentation is to fill the gap left between sensible interaction design/ideas and sensible users/readers, not to create great documents. That is to say, documents need not be part of great documentation. In fact, great documentation may be able to greatly reduce the needed number of documents (both paper and online).
The definition I will present for the word documentation in our context comes from dictionary.com:
"The organized collection of records that describe the structure, purpose, operation, maintenance, and data requirements for a computer program, operating system, or hardware device."
Notice it mentions nothing about printing or documents. In fact, the same online dictionary contains the following "jargon" definition:
"The multiple kilograms of macerated, pounded, steamed, bleached, and pressed trees that accompany most modern software or hardware products. Hackers seldom read paper documentation and (too) often resist writing it; they prefer theirs to be terse and online."
...the definition also mentions "tree-killer" and "tree-ware." Not exactly high praise for something many of us spend lots of time and money on (That's a preposition at the end of the sentence. A rebel technical writer - it goes along with the "edgy.").
I am tempted to use a more generic (and more esteemed) definition for what technical communicators do: publishing (as in technical publications). Dictionary.com defines publish as "Communication of information to the public." At the core, that is what our main goal should be. But, this definition doesn't seem to capture the work of tailoring that information to a specific audience and to a specifc purpose.
I include these words and their definitions because these are the types of things I thought about when trying to come up with a name for this blog. I thought to myself, what word captures what it is I like about what I do, and what words conjure thoughts of all the things I don't like (and want to change) about what I do. There was no perfect way to express this. Doc Edge is what I've got. It's Doc - kind of meant in the way I've tried to express here - and Edge, which indicates that the blog should talk about some interesting, provocative, edgy ideas about ... Doc (if I can think of any).
In my future posts, I will refer to "edgy docs" as docs that embody the types of things we talk about in this blog. Quickly, edgy docs are docs that people want to use, that people can easily use, and that save, make, or save and make people money. In my next Tuesday post, I will begin to talk more about the characteristics of what I call "edgy docs."
One of my goals for this blog is to develop more deeply the ideas behind Edgy Docs with the help of the Doc Edge community. Anybody out there?
My reason for starting such a discussion on a topic most people feel is a necessary evil? I don't believe documentation needs to be a necessary evil, and more over I believe it will become a major way in which technology companies differentiate themselves in a more and more commoditized technology market. Good documentation can save and make money!
The "Doc" in Doc Edge is a reference to the word "documentation," not the word "documents." The job of technical communicators who create "edgy" documentation is to fill the gap left between sensible interaction design/ideas and sensible users/readers, not to create great documents. That is to say, documents need not be part of great documentation. In fact, great documentation may be able to greatly reduce the needed number of documents (both paper and online).
The definition I will present for the word documentation in our context comes from dictionary.com:
"The organized collection of records that describe the structure, purpose, operation, maintenance, and data requirements for a computer program, operating system, or hardware device."
Notice it mentions nothing about printing or documents. In fact, the same online dictionary contains the following "jargon" definition:
"The multiple kilograms of macerated, pounded, steamed, bleached, and pressed trees that accompany most modern software or hardware products. Hackers seldom read paper documentation and (too) often resist writing it; they prefer theirs to be terse and online."
...the definition also mentions "tree-killer" and "tree-ware." Not exactly high praise for something many of us spend lots of time and money on (That's a preposition at the end of the sentence. A rebel technical writer - it goes along with the "edgy.").
I am tempted to use a more generic (and more esteemed) definition for what technical communicators do: publishing (as in technical publications). Dictionary.com defines publish as "Communication of information to the public." At the core, that is what our main goal should be. But, this definition doesn't seem to capture the work of tailoring that information to a specific audience and to a specifc purpose.
I include these words and their definitions because these are the types of things I thought about when trying to come up with a name for this blog. I thought to myself, what word captures what it is I like about what I do, and what words conjure thoughts of all the things I don't like (and want to change) about what I do. There was no perfect way to express this. Doc Edge is what I've got. It's Doc - kind of meant in the way I've tried to express here - and Edge, which indicates that the blog should talk about some interesting, provocative, edgy ideas about ... Doc (if I can think of any).
In my future posts, I will refer to "edgy docs" as docs that embody the types of things we talk about in this blog. Quickly, edgy docs are docs that people want to use, that people can easily use, and that save, make, or save and make people money. In my next Tuesday post, I will begin to talk more about the characteristics of what I call "edgy docs."
One of my goals for this blog is to develop more deeply the ideas behind Edgy Docs with the help of the Doc Edge community. Anybody out there?
posted by Pete at 7:29 PM
1 Comments:
Just thought I'd drop you a line to say I enjoy your blog. Just stumbled across it this week. Great stuff. I immediately thought you might be interested in writing about (and perhaps attending) the Documentation and Training Conference in Boston later this year. The lineup is a who's who of our industry and the topics are really interesting. I'm presenting for the first time at this event and am pretty excited about it. Anyway, it seems right up your alley.
http://www.doctrain.com/
I will keep an eye on your blog and look for opportunities to link to your blog from my blog, www.thecontentwrangler.com.
Hope to see you in Boston.
Cheers,
The Content Wrangler, Inc.
Scott Abel, Content Management Strategist
abelsp@netdirect.net
www.thecontentwrangler.com
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