Conference Program Abstracts

East Meets West: Managing the Challenges of Communication Across Cultures
Carol Barnum - Southern Polytechnic State University

There’s no need to point out the communication barriers we face in working with our international partners, hiring and outsourcing technical publications, communicating in cross-cultural project teams, and communicating with our customers. Every culture has its own way of communicating that may seem at times odd, even off-putting, because it is different from our way. When the communication is between the U.S. and Asia, the problems are compounded by deeply different cultural influences that often result in “a failure to communicate.”

Knowing something about the basis of cultural differences or “dimensions of culture” can give us a window into the mind of the person receiving our messages and the tools to craft effective messages for our Asian audience. A little bit of knowledge of the two major researchers’ work in culture studies—Hall and Hofstede—can provide instant access to communication strategies we can use to adapt our style to the situation and to decode the style used by our Asian customers and employees. In our analysis, we focus on China, using several Chinese communication samples, including email, instructions, and websites.

Delivery Methods Panel Presentation
Scott Wahl- Research In Motion, Ltd.
Dave De Yoreo- Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Charles Dowdell- The Raymond Corporation

This panel discussion looks at trends, opportunities, and challenges for making a variety of information available on mobile devices, such as smartphones and PDAs. We’ll work together to answer questions like: “What are the implications of mobile computing on information design and architecture?,” “How is mobile computing changing the way our customers expect to find and use information?,” and “What are the different approaches to making information available on mobile devices?”

Transforming Traditional Customer Documentation
Mark Poole- Nokia Siemens Networks

Although our customer surveys suggested that we were providing customer documentation to a reasonable/acceptable standard, our customers were demanding improvements. Our customers were essentially telling us the same things: make it easier to find specific information, the content is incomplete, the content is too generic, and deliver information earlier. As a result, a project was established to reevaluate our customer documentation deliverables in response to the customer feedback we were receiving.

Learn how Nokia actively engaged customers to help develop a new concept for customer documentation by moving from traditional product-oriented documentation to process-relevant content that assists users in operating their network.

A Journey to Metrics: Why, and How to Get There
Michel Uyttendaele- SWIFT SCRL

You have probably come across the management adage: "you can't manage what you can't measure". But does this apply to a documentation department? During this presentation, SWIFT will take you on a journey with a documentation department going from basically no measurements to the implementation of a scorecard based on metrics and key performance indicators. They will share some of the challenges and the rewards of this journey.

A Customer Engagement Program for Training and Documentation: A Case Study
Valerie Stoehr- UGS PLM Software

In 2006, the UGS PLM Software division of Siemens Automation and Drives launched a program of direct engagements with customers. The program’s goals included assessing whether our training and online help deliverables aligned with customer requirements. The program also sought to build knowledge about our customers and to use customer feedback to inform our strategic planning. Valerie Stoehr will present a case study describing implementation of a user-centered design methodology in a training and documentation organization.

Supporting Support
Jeff Kaminski- Ceridian Employer Services
Janet Attar- Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

The success of a content management project depends on the alignment of goals and strategies. Content management goals differ within every organization and sometimes among the various business units of an organization. Understanding the organizational goals and determining how they will affect your content management strategy is the key to success!

In this session, you will learn some of the best practices used in Ceridian’s development of over a dozen customer service knowledge bases that are used as their call center’s primary performance support tool and call tracking system.

Agile Development Panel Presentation
Beth Thomerson- BMC Software, Inc.
Brenda Horner- Platform Computing Corporation
Melody Locke- BMC Software, Inc.
Julie MacAller- Microsoft Corporation

In this brainstorming panel discussion, we’ll talk about how writers and managers cannot only learn to “feel at home” with the Agile Scrum methodology, but also to use the methodology to change and innovate how content is developed and delivered. From our days as waterfall devotees to becoming Agile aficionados, panelists will talk about our journeys, our lessons learned, and our strategies and ideas for writers and managers who are moving to this exciting new development methodology.

Cradle to Grave
Irene Hammerich- MDS Analytical Technologies

With the nature of our business at MDS- a Life Sciences company, we had to develop a clear understanding of a broad range of audiences with very diverse needs. As a result, we had to look at reuse from many levels - in both knowledge and elements/assets while staying in budget and delivering in innovative formats. Our customers, both internal and external, have information needs including “I need it now,” “I need it within a couple of minutes,” and “let me think about it and get to it later”. By tying these challenges together, the concept of Cradle to Grave Knowledge Development emerged.

Leadership Panel Presentation
Suzanne Sowinska- Microsoft Corporation
Glenn D'Amore- ADP, Inc.
Palmer Pearson- Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Rosanne Scriffignano- ADP, Inc.
Daphne Walmer- Medtronic CRM

The need for effective leaders in information development organizations is greater than ever yet we lack strong talent management programs. Faced with new challenges, an ever-changing and increasingly complex landscape, where will the next generation of leaders come from? This panel and discussion will review current challenges and opportunities for professional development of potential future leaders.

Conversing with Your Web Site Visitors
Janice (Ginny) Redish- Redish & Associates, Inc.

The authors of our conference theme book tell us that people are no longer willing to be passive recipients of information. The web is both a cause and a venue for this attitude. To be successful with our web content, we must think of each use of our web sites as a conversation started by a busy site visitor.

Whether you are writing new content or repurposing content that started elsewhere, everything you write is going to be available on the web and probably first used there. The web is a "pull technology" where impatient people come seeking just what they want in the way they want at the moment they want it. What are the implications for information-development managers? What does this mean for the future of our writers? At our banquet session, Ginny Redish will share relevant insights with some of the great examples she found as she put together her new book: Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works.

The Corporate Voice in the World of Wikis
Neville Fleet- Cisco Systems, Inc.
Michele Guthrie- Cisco Systems, Inc.
Craig Tobias- Cisco Systems, Inc.
Paul Zimmerman- Cisco Systems, Inc.

Paradigm shifts are a hot topic in technical documentation. First used by Thomas Kuhn in his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), the term has broadened to encompass new methods that people must adopt in order to effectively manage change. In a Web 2.0 world, new technologies and new ways of thinking allow us to view the internet as a tool for multi-way communication and collaborative working.

This presentation will share some of the ways we use wikis in our multi-group organization - from sharing best practices to collaborative content development. And we’ll discuss some of the potential issues as we broaden the use of this technology: Can wikis really be used to provide information to customers? Can we continue to deliver documentation as one-way from the corporation to the customer? Can we continue to focus technical writers as just content creators when everyone can potentially be a content creator or knowledge contributor?

Creating a Collaborative Environment without Losing Control
Ed Hougardy- The Boeing Company

The content management industry has seen rapid growth with the introduction of Web 2.0 technologies that have changed the way companies interact with and deliver content to their customers. Often referred to as dynamic publishing, it is about providing the right content, in the right format, to the right user. Content is no longer “one size fits all” but is rather based on user profile and preference. Timing is critical and tied directly to the bottom line. This talk will examine how the Boeing Airborne Warning and Control System technical publications group faced this challenge head on. They’ll share lessons learned along the way with regard to their writers, processes and technology.

Some of the highlights will include moving from managing 100 technical manuals to thousands of data modules, meeting complex output and branding requirements for a variety of customers, tailoring the user experience through applicability filtering, and connecting user feedback with authoring resources.

Delivering Customer-Centric Documentation with XML, DITA and CMS
Art Kedzierski- Tellabs, Inc.

In the evolving and demanding world of telecommunications, Tellabs supports telecom service providers with the design, development, and deployment of wireline, wireless, and cable solutions worldwide. But with each unique solution deployment requires knowledge transfer from engineers to field service staff to ensure a smooth system upgrade. Learn how Tellabs’ technical support team used DITA to transition to customer-centric writing, create processes for enabling subject matter experts to effectively share knowledge with technical support and field service staff, empower support and service staff with documentation unique to each customer deployment (rather than product-centric documentation), and migrate to topic-oriented authoring in a world where manuals (and the corresponding DITA Map) are used once, then discarded.

Leveraging Conditions as Metadata
Monti Lawrence- Symantec Corporation

In this session, we will explore the relationship between conditions and metadata. If you are just beginning to create a metadata strategy, chances are that useful metadata values are already being applied by writers – in the form of conditions. If your organization already has a mature strategy, discover how you can automate some metadata values through the use of conditions that writers are already applying. Learn how implementing a robust profiling or conditional processing strategy can assist in metadata implementation and automation. A robust strategy will also help you implement controlled vocabularies, enhance internal search functionality, and ensure consistency across writing teams.