If you think content production is complex now, wait until it starts converging with content from other departments or groups. Or when users, dissatisfied with the quality of the documentation provided, start their own DIY documentation project—and it ranks higher in the Google rankings than your own support site.

If you’re being asked to use your content in more than one way, you might be at the stage where the “more” part includes methods or technologies you’re not really familiar with. Maybe content re-use means syndication or collaborative creation with other departments or divisions, or incorporating content from other sites or user-generated content. It could mean figuring how to build community or provide better support or get better feedback.

Maybe “more” means creating or incorporating help from the technical side, sharing the content in a knowledge base, putting it on the Web, maybe with automatic updates, and adopting XML, perhaps figuring out how the new DITA standard works for you in all of this.

No matter what your situation, you’re in the position where you’re supposed to figure out the XML stuff and the Web stuff and the quality stuff and the stuff around RSS feeds and copyright, how it all fits together, and why you need any of it, anyhow. After all, if you’ve even tried to coordinate content creation between departments, or track the effectiveness of email marketing campaigns, or just share content between a CMS and LMS, you’ll recognize how hard it is to find two systems that “play nice” together, let alone get an entire corporate strategy in place. It’s easy to get overwhelmed.

Where is your next content coming from? Are you thinking about your next content strategy? Call it content management meets Web 2.0, content convergence and integration, or simply staying ahead of the curve. Hear some of the trends taking the industry by storm.

What does it take to be successful as a technical communicator? Often we focus on skills and abilities. There is always so much more to learn! But there is another set of factors that are equally important. This interactive session focuses on the relationships, attitudes, and actions that can make all the difference. You will have an opportunity to think about your own experiences and discover ideas to help you move in the direction you want.

Linda Urban has been a technical communicator for over 25 years. When she thinks about what has mattered most when it comes to finding and keeping work, it boils down to these principles:

First: Do good work. Write well. Understand your audiences, and write for them. Know your company’s goals and priorities, and keep them in mind. Care about quality and pay attention to detail.

Second: Build your network. Not the calculated “get out there, meet other people, and exchange information” kind of network, but the day-to-day kind that comes as you work with people and build relationships. Your base for networking is created whenever you work with people. People will remember when you were reliable, when they enjoyed working with you, when you helped them out of a tight spot, when you shared your expertise. They will also remember when you didn’t. Strive to have the kind of interactions you want them to remember.

Third: Keep learning. Build your skills, learn new and better methods, and pursue what interests you.

Fourth: Make a contribution. How you choose to contribute will depend on your interests, skills, personality, and time. Be guided by what you enjoy and what gives you satisfaction. Your niche may be participating in a professional organization such as STC, ISTC, or SIGDOC, it may be a special project at work, it may be mentoring friends who show an interest in what you do, or it may be presenting at conferences such as this one. You may be in front of the room, presenting, or behind the scenes. Don’t worry if you don’t like to be in the spotlight. You do not have to be out front to be a valued resource.

Social media is being used every day by numerous people throughout the world. Business is starting to take heed of this emerging method of communication. Social media is rapidly becoming a strong method of marketing, allowing customers and companies to engage in a dialog (instead of the standard company-to-customer methods).

Established technical communicators can learn about the various social media, their benefits and drawback, how they are currently being used, and how they are changing the face of communication. Attendees will also learn how some companies are using social media for internal communication, how this is a burgeoning method of clear communication, and how it creates a dialog between all levels of employees, from executives to managers to staff. Attendees will learn how technical communicators can help facilitate this type of communication to the benefit of their colleagues and their companies.

Agile programming methodologies such as XP and Scrum are well-known for freeing engineers’ productivity. Less well publicized is the confusion that technical communicators can feel when first faced with this new way of working. In an Agile environment, you may not be able to rely on extensive design documents or specifications. You may suddenly become much more accountable for your time and your actions, and to a larger number of people. Release schedules may become much shorter than you are used to. At times, it can be hard to figure out exactly where documentation fits into the picture.

Whether you and your team are facing the immanent arrival of Agile development or are struggling to adjust to it, this presentation will help you look at Agile clearly and find your place in it. You will learn the basic tenets of one particular Agile methodology, called Scrum, and explore proven strategies for the following:

• Gathering essential information in new ways
• Coping with frequent releases
• Building your self-management skills
• Managing day-to-day interactions with your development team
• Maintaining relationships within the documentation team