Alan Brandon

Just before the holidays I finished some editing work on a book called Passion in the Wind, which is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and from the author, Alan Leduc. The title might sound like a bad romance novel, but the book tells the true story of Alan’s 23000 mile ride around North America on a motorcycle.

With my editing credit, I’ve been having fun searching on my name at Amazon and BN.com. The project itself was familiar work for me. Alan has a background in industrial engineering, so his writing has a lot of the precision and technical detail that I’m used to seeing in my technical publications endeavors. But with my and co-editor Barb Smith’s help, Alan’s story hopefully reflects the adventure and excitement of his actual ride.

Two motorcycle riders, one age 68 and the other age 60, ride 23,000+ miles, with over 2700 miles of the most notorious gravel roads in North America, circumnavigating the United States and Canada in 48 days.

Mike Kneebone, President of Iron Butt Association, says:

In the world of motor-sports, challenges are often measured in miles. Whether it is the Daytona 500 or the IBA SaddleSore 1000, miles count. Miles are simple to measure and everyone can relate to them.

Alan and Tim’s ride has miles, so many in fact that the mere mention overshadows everything else. More than 23,000 miles in 48 days to the very far corners of the U.S.A. and Canada – many motorcyclists who have ridden around the world have traveled fewer.

But as impressive as they are, the miles covered are not what make this ride epic. It is the reach to the remote areas of Canada and Alaska. Their adventure takes them to places far removed from civilization, far away from any reasonable person’s comfort zone. Being prepared to face a freezing cold night on the side of a desolate road with a broken motorcycle — or worse, a broken leg — with help hundreds of miles away, takes a unique outlook on life.

Many riders will never reach the likes of Goose Bay, Inuvik or Prudhoe Bay, but to do so in one ride, to reach the far corners of North America’s arctic regions down isolated, dangerous dirt roads filled with swarms of blood-sucking mosquitoes, while the clock is running redefines the meaning of extraordinary. Alan’s strict engineering sense and Tim’s resourceful easy going nature are a rare combination that works as it takes a bit of both to complete this epic ride. Their intense mile-eating story of the ultimate circumnavigation of the U.S.A. and Canada should encourage all of us to seek out an adventure to make the most of the wonderful gift of life.

…And the answer is not 4G.

I have spent most of my career writing about telecommunications including networking, telephony, and cellular/radio. When I started in the tech writing biz cellular standards were at 2G. Next came 3G. Then came something AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon claim is 4G but isn’t.

Doug Aamoth at Time’s Techland explains it very well in this video:

Basically AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon are marketing the fourth generation of their networks, but those networks don’t meet the definition of 4G according to the ITU-R.

(Am I the only one who sees “ITU” and thinks “Oh, the CCITT”? Probably. Also ETSI, CEPT, ….)

With the combination of responsive web design, modern content tools such as Madcap Flare, and the proliferation of mobile internet devices for viewing content, it has become so much easier for technical communicators to design and create documentation that meets the need of their audience when — and where — they users need it.

While the leading-edge examples get the buzz in tech comms circles, I think the majority of user docs are still designed according to concepts and practices from five or ten years ago. That is, they still have at their heart a WinHelp or even paper baseline for the design and content decisions.

Many old-school technical communicators have an “architecture mindset” as Ethan Marcotte describes in his post on A List Apart:

English architect Christopher Wren once quipped that his chosen field “aims for Eternity,” … Unlike the web, which often feels like aiming for next week, architecture is a discipline very much defined by its permanence. … Creative decisions quite literally shape a physical space, defining the way in which people move through its confines for decades or even centuries.

For each separate viewing experience — paper, online help, web, mobile — designers would (and often still do) create a new architecture for delivering the content. But now the tools and support to truly separate the content from its delivery are widely available.

Not all technical communicators want to work this way. It’s different, and possibly scary. As Scriptorium’s Sarah O’Keefe keenly notes:

Technical communication is in the midst of a huge transition from a craft/artisan model to an engineering model.

But I think most professional technical communicators welcome the new technology, and the new opportunities to deliver information in better ways. As responsive design, flexible content tools, and mobile delivery truly hit the mainstream, they will bring a huge, positive change to the way user documentation is created and delivered.

I’m impressed so far with the redesign of the Boston Globe website. The new layout is clean and easy to use, but best of all it now features responsive design so that the page display adapts to whatever device you view it on. I have only casually browsed the site so far, but I have tried it on my notebook, smartphone, and color ebook reader. (OK, that’s a ThinkPad, Droid Incredible, and Nook Color.) The stories are easy to find and follow on all devices, and site performance seems good (unlike the old boston.com sluggishness).

I currently subscribe to home delivery of the Sunday Boston Globe, and every time the paper is wet, missing, or late I think seriously about canceling. However, access to the new online Globe is now included with the subscription. I think this new redesign may be enough to keep me subscribed.