tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-195264 2010-02-12T15:36:12-06:00 On the trail of clarity, beauty, efficiency, and universal design in technical communication. TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8342085d553ef0120a8941f2d970b 2010-02-12T15:36:12-06:00 2010-02-12T15:36:12-06:00

I agreed to be interviewed by a student in a technical communication course, and here are my answers to her: What is technical communication, in your own words? It's the job of transferring knowledge, offering instruction, and building understanding of...

Mary Connor tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8342085d553ef01287796a7ee970c 2010-02-12T15:19:29-06:00 2010-02-12T15:19:29-06:00

This Saturday, my 4th grade daughter competed in the qualifying competition for her region's FIRST LEGO League, the LEGO robotics organization that blends science, programming, and technology into a compelling team sport. I felt sad that she'd put in all...

Mary Connor tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8342085d553ef0120a6610858970b 2009-11-07T18:14:50-06:00 2009-11-07T18:15:06-06:00

Here is a summary of the advice from the interview, Pimping out your Facebook Page, in which Building43 gets help from Caitlin O’Farrell, the program manager for consumer marketing at Facebook. Tips: Optimize the profile image: 200 wide x 600...

Mary Connor tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8342085d553ef0120a698891c970c 2009-10-30T22:43:53-05:00 2009-10-31T22:29:01-05:00

Testing and correcting accessibility problems throughout the development process is all about tools. Here are tips I've collected: Support the fewest back versions of JAWS you can: just as with browsers, supporting earlier versions makes development infinitely harder. Current version...

Mary Connor tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8342085d553ef0120a5b1ed3c970b 2009-10-01T13:28:47-05:00 2009-10-01T13:28:47-05:00

October 29, 2009 is the 6th annual InnoTech Austin event, held at the Austin Convention Center. It's a one-day blast of talks, demonstrations, summits, and expo, which is a steal at $35. With its focus on innovation, this conference is...

Mary Connor tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8342085d553ef0120a5dfb0c5970c 2009-09-21T17:53:52-05:00 2009-09-21T17:53:52-05:00

Last week I attended, on behalf of STC Austin, the first of three seminars in the Austin Membership Organization Leadership Series, the goal of which is to bring together Austin area member-based organizations for mutual help in sharing strategy, cost-savings,...

Mary Connor tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8342085d553ef0120a55d9d2c970b 2009-09-09T13:58:12-05:00 2009-09-09T13:58:38-05:00

Last night Alan Porter explained to STC Austin "Why Tech Writers Shouldn't Be Writers". Much of it focused on the use of comics for technical communication, but not comics in the sense of "humorous drawings" -- rather, comics as sequential...

Mary Connor tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8342085d553ef0120a5592dc3970b 2009-09-08T16:26:21-05:00 2009-09-08T16:26:21-05:00

I attended a local seminar today, "Accelerate your business with SharePoint Server", to learn more about SharePoint's capabilities as a potential collaborative authoring platform (now that there's a third-party tool, Syrinx SharePoint Connector, that can export Author-it content directly to...

Mary Connor tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8342085d553ef0120a558b089970b 2009-09-08T14:05:35-05:00 2009-09-08T14:05:35-05:00

Since I didn't get to attend Agile2009 in Chicago last month, I'm glad for this trip report: http://blog.outsystems.com/aboutagility/2009/08/agile2009-trip-report.html These are the take-aways I'm noodling about: Agile is live: Most that were just studying it from the sidelines are now hip-deep...

Mary Connor tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8342085d553ef0120a51d285c970b 2009-08-25T16:29:21-05:00 2010-03-12T11:35:46-06:00

Worth reading is an article recently posted on InfoQ, called The Current Direction of Agile. Jon gives an overview of how Lean philosophies are influencing agile methodologies, toward a tighter, sprier, lighter process. These are the lean approaches that interested...

Mary Connor