Firehead

I’ve been thinking a lot about what this new year – and new decade – hold in store for technical communications, small businesses, recruitment, me…

I’ve been reading some good posts in the niche area of Technical Communications. In fact, they are so thorough, that I don’t feel like messing with their content – I just have a few tweeks to make every here and there. Those might have to do with different circumstances.

The first read I would suggest is the blogger of Tech Comms extraordinaire, Tom Johnson, “I Find that You’re Very Central and Visible… Responding to Reader Questions”.  Yes, the guy who came to talk about blogging at our Transalpine STC conference in Vienna all the way from Salt Lake City last June. When someone asks his advice, he freely gives it.

These are the eleven items in his Top Ten:

• 1. Collaborative authoring.
• 2. Social media.
• 3. Hybrid technical writers.
• 4. Globalization.
• 5. Multimedia.
• 6. Single sourcing.
• 7. DITA.
• 8. Content strategy.
• 9. The Cloud.
• 10. User-generated content.
• 11. Intelligent Content.

Ellis Pratt of Cherry Leaf gives a more European perspective on the trends he expects to see for the year 2010 and beyond in his post “Ten Trends in Technical Communications for 2010 and Beyond“. (As it happens, Ellis was also a presenter at the same conference – and spoke about trends in the industry. A very enlightening presentation.) It’s true – I have a soft spot for Ellis because I like the way he writes.

These are Ellis’ picks:

• 1. The battle between the “Engineering” and “Craft” schools of thought within technical communication will come to some sort of resolution.
• 2. The rise of content analysis.
• 3. More Web-based content and Web Analytics.
• 4. The rise of User Generated Content and the networked manual.
• 5. More collaborative and conversational authoring.
• 6. Better searching and navigation.
• 7. Greater use of multimedia.
• 8. The return of specialised job functions.
• 9. More location based content.
• 10. Innovation will bring User Assistance back in to fashion.

So, it’s pretty clear that the way forward is going to global, collaborative, strategised and demand immediate feedback. Single sourcing isn’t new, but it will be a foundation requirement to move forward. Users will have more of a say in the way their information is structured because of the conversational element of Web 2.0 – they will be on the scene to demand it.

 The scene is changing, but I think the fundamentals are still there. It’s just that the “fundamentals” aren’t enough to keep your job anymore. The field is expanding to encompass more elements of communication and, happily, more consideration of users’ needs. I think it’s fascinating to watch the directions the new technology and business considerations are taking us – I personally believe these changes are positive and good. We live in exciting times!