The Cherryleaf Podcast

17. Training, accreditation and CPD in technical communication - interview with David Farbey

Interview with David Farbey of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators, about training, accreditation and CPD in technical communication.
We discuss:
Becoming a technical communicator is different from becoming a lawyer, doctor, developer or an accountant in that, in the UK, there is no standard career path from school. How does that affect the profession and starting a career?
What training, if any, do you need to be a technical communicator?
The ISTC's Professional Development and Recognition
Certifying technical communicators
The ISTC certified courses.
What does a undergraduate or post-graduate course offer someone?
Where does CPD fit into this?
What are we likely to see in the future with regards to training and certification?
Cherryleaf's ISTC accredited training course: https://www.cherryleaf.com/training/technical-author-basicinduction-training-course/ 
 
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ISTC website: www.istc.org.uk
David's email: education@istc.org.uk 

16. Starting a career as a Technical Author

We look at the job of a Technical Author/Technical Communicator, and how you can start your career.
 
www.istc.org.uk
Cherryleaf’s online Technical Author/technical writing course
 
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15. AI and chatbots in technical communication - A primer

It seems likely artificial intelligence (AI) and AI-driven chatbots will play a key role in helping users in the future. So what does this mean for technical communicators and for User Assistance?
Part 1 - What are chatbots?
Part 2 - Making a chatbot
Part 3 - What does this mean for technical communicators and for User Assistance?
 
About the speaker
Ellis Pratt is a Director at Cherryleaf, a technical writing services and training company based near London.
He has over 20 years of experience working in the field of documentation, has a BA in Business Studies, and is an Associate of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Ellis is contributor to two books on technical communication. He is also on the management council for the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC), the professional body for technical communicators in the UK.
Contact information
https://www.cherryleaf.com
info@cherryleaf.com
More information
Primer article - https://www.cherryleaf.com/blog/wpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/AI-and-chatbots-in-technical-communication-article.pdf
https://www.cherryleaf.com
 
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https://www.cherryleaf.com/blog
http://intelligent-information.blog/en/
http://intelligent-information.blog/en/blog/2017/07/28/from-ua-reloaded-amplify-the-intelligence-of-your-users-and-your-company/
 
https://tryolabs.com/blog/2017/01/25/building-a-chatbot-analysis--limitations-of-modern-platforms/https://chatbotsmagazine.com/which-are-the-best-intelligent-chatbots-or-ai-chatbots-available-online-cc49c0f3569dhttps://chatbotsmagazine.com/the-complete-beginner-s-guide-to-chatbots-8280b7b906cahttp://contentrules.com/computing-in-the-age-of-cognitive-systems/https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/6-trends-ai-assisted-chatbot-service-market-mila-d-antoniohttps://cloud.google.com/natural-language/https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-ai/https://aws.amazon.com/lex/https://www.slideshare.net/InfoDevWorld/engineering-content-for-bots-ai-and-marketing-automation-cruce-saundershttps://www.slideshare.net/InfoDevWorld/feeding-the-bots-preparing-product-content-for-the-intelligent-assistance-revolution-with-joe-gelb
 
Robot image https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robot-clip-art-book-covers-feJCV3-clipart.png From From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.

14. 2017 European technical communicators salary survey results

We look at the findings from the Cherryleaf survey of European technical communicators.
Cherryleaf 2017 European technical communicators survey results – Part 1
Cherryleaf 2017 European technical communicators survey results – Part 2 UK Salaries
Cherryleaf 2017 European technical communicators survey results – Part 3 Other Salaries
IT Jobswatch
Cherryleaf Blog
Cherryleaf's recruitment service
Sunsetting Stack Overflow Documentation
 
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13. How to present at a conference

Some advice on presenting at conferences. 
 
Daniel Morden storyteller
Laurence Lessig - Remix presentation
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs
 
https://www.cherryleaf.com
https://www.cherryleaf.com/blog 
Classic TV - Windmill Interlude Film

12. Delivering a digital strategy for Parliament - Interview with Rosie Hatton

The UK Parliament is one of the oldest organisations in the world. So how do you deliver a strategy to a body that has over 700 years of content? Cherryleaf's Ellis Pratt interviewed Rosie Hatton, Strategy Digital Lead at the Parliamentary Digital Service, to find out. 
 
Topics covered:
What is Parliament? 1'56"
The content Parliament creates. 3'38"
What is the PDS? 5'08"
The I AM PARLIAMENT programme. 9'00"
The PDS's digital strategy framework, its assumptions and principles. 10'18"
Having an open and agile digital culture in a traditional organisation. 13'08
Working in a continuous interative process. 20'45"
Sharing ideas with the Government Digital Service. 25'24"
Where does the PDS's content strategy fit within its digital strategy? 28'22"
Tracking the impact of changes to laws on other laws. 37'01"
The similarities between PDS and Open Source software projects. 41'55"
Crowdsourcing a digital strategy. 43'30"
Benefits management. 44'00"
How to manage and sell change. 47'50"
Links:
www.cherryleaf.com/blog
Parliamentary Digital Service blog
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Commons
https://pds.blog.parliament.uk/strategy-in-action/
http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/bicameral/parliamentary-digital-service/digital-strategy-for-parliament/
http://www.data.parliament.uk/
https://khub.net/ (knowledge hub)
 
People:
https://twitter.com/rosiehatton
https://twitter.com/ellispratt
https://twitter.com/DigiBungalow
https://twitter.com/mattstutely
https://twitter.com/digiminster
https://twitter.com/_allenemma
https://twitter.com/Rob_Greig
 

11. Technical communication news roundup July 2017

Round up of recent news in technical communications.
Links:
Cherryleaf Blog
Gregarious Mammal podcast
Gov.UK - Introducing our new product pages and technical documentation
Example of API documentation portal using MadCap Flare
Creating an API documentation portal with MadCap Flare and Swagger/OpenAPI
Take part in the Cherryleaf 2017 European salary survey
The ROI of user documentation: you could break even if you avoided 3 support calls per week 
Daniele Procida How documentation works, and how to make it work for your project PyCon 2017
Free techcomm laptop stickers
WriteLessons - online courses in technical communication
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10. Recruiting the right Technical Author

This is a recording of a webinar we did back in 2012 on recruiting the right Technical Author. 
We cover:
What are the key skills to look for in aTechnical Author?
What are the key personality traits in successful Technical Authors?
What is the salary range? 
Hiring graduates as Technical Authors
Where do you find good candidates?
Interviewing a candidate Technical Author
If you need help and advice on recruiting a Technical Author, the current salary range, and Cherryleaf's contract and recruitment services, see https://www.cherryleaf.com/recruitment_services/ or contact us via info@cherryleaf.com

9. API Documentation: the undiscovered country

Recording from UAEurope 2017 conference.
With many software developers now spending their time developing APIs, there’s an increasing demand for API documentation writers.
It's a fast changing field, with emerging information design patterns and authoring tools. It's also different from end user documentation, and this means many Technical Communicators are uncertain if and how they should migrate to these roles.
what is an API and what is API documentation?
the role of an API documentation writer, and how it differs from mainstream Technical Author roles
the skills you need as a writer of API documentation
becoming an API documentation writer.
 
 REST API documentation training course http://cherryleaf.teachable.com/p/documenting-rest-apis
 
For comments and feedback: info@cherryleaf.com
 

8. Help through AI, Help like Facebook - UAEurope 17

Reviews of two presentations at the UAEurope 17 conference.
Kristof Van Tomme (Pronovix). Software support and Artificial Intelligence.
Pawel Kowaluk (3di Poland). Knowledge Feed: Make your Online Help More Like Facebook
Interspersed with interviews from at the UAEurope 2017 conference: 
Dr Tony Self. HyperWrite
Willam van Weelden. Adobe
Mike Hamilton. MadCap Software.
 
With thanks to Matthew Ellison
http://www.uaconference.eu/
 
Interviews by Ellis Pratt, Cherryleaf
Links:
Documentation as an API – the docsbot
The T-Bot: A new Help model from Microsoft
The Impact of "Ambient Findability"
 
For comments and feedback: info@cherryleaf.com