Alan Brandon

I always hoped that if I was going to be replaced by a robot, it would look something like the one in the Terminator movies. Instead, thanks to Narrative Science, I’m going to be replaced by a lowly piece of software.

Narrative Science, a software company based in Evanston, Illinois, has developed technology that “transforms data into high-quality editorial content.” Great. I thought that’s what I had been doing for the last 25 years as a technical communicator. What’s next, an iPhone app that writes Moby Dick?

Actually, Narrative Science’s software is pretty cool. It’s already being used to create sports articles based on uploaded game stats. Check out this example on GameChanger (and some background on the GameChanger and Narrative Science deal here).

Also, check out this comparison at Business Week. See if you can pick out which of the three examples was written the evil job-stealing robot Narrative Science software, and which was written by the poor beleaguered human writer.

Narrative Science is looking to expand beyond sports stories to create narratives from all sorts of structured or unstructured data. Possibilities include financial reports, real estate listings, and so on.

I don’t know how far this type of technology will go. But to be on the safe side, I think I’ll start developing skills in a backup career. Perhaps robot repair?

On Monday, May 23, I attended the Boston edition of the MadCap Software roadshow (actually, it was held in Dedham). The event is a full day of high-level training and show-and-tell about MadCap’s Flare.

MadCap founder Mike Hamilton presented, along with MadCap support guy Neil Posner. Also on hand was a famous local Neil: Flare guru Neil Perlin (I remember when Neil was a RoboHelp guru!). The presentations covered a nice mix of the latest trends in technical communications, plus new and key features of Flare. The Flare stuff never got too salesy, which I appreciated.

One of the highlights of the day for me was Mike’s CSS presentation. He gave an excellent explanation of how they work, and his handouts have become a part of my reference library.

The latest version of Flare includes a QR code generator. While this feature is very cool, I do wonder if QR codes will stick around or if they are just another fad. I have used them in several documents for a client, but I haven’t heard how successful they are in the wild. However, Neil Posner’s demonstration was top notch.

I enjoyed the MadCap Roadshow and feel like I got my money’s worth. I’m not sure it’s an event I need to attend every year (especially on my own dime) but this year, with the release of Flare 7, was a good one to catch.

Interesting post on Anne Gentle’s blog, Just Write Click, in which a technical communications student from the University of Minnesota asks:

Can Twitter really be used for documentation…?

The answer, of course, is no. Or is it? It depends on how you want to describe “documentation”.

Your customer is not going to look up CLI command using Twitter, but Anne sees some “documentation” use cases that could possibly be met with Twitter:

Sure, people are using Twitter for posting tips and tricks and … for Twitter chats…. Twitter can be used for the goals met with traditional documentation when the goals are customer support or service, engagement, adoption, research and feedback loops, …. So yes, Twitter can be used for documentation, when documentation’s goals align with some Twitter use cases.

I think most of those use cases fall under “customer support”, which is where your customers go when your documentation fails. (And “engagement” seems more like marcomm than tech comms to me.)

Twitter is closer to the telephone or radio than it is to electronic or paper publishing. And as such, it’s more suited to customer service and support, and marketing, than it is to instructional or reference documentation.

Authoring tool Flare, from MadCap Software, is one of my favorite content development applications. It’s right up there with FrameMaker, and might even take the number one spot — if I ever got a chance to use it. Flare’s popularity is growing, but I haven’t had many clients or employers that have adopted it as their authoring tool.

It used to be common for technical writers to specialize in either print or help. The growth of web publishing helped blur the lines between the two disciplines, and I think it’s safe to say that the best contemporary tech communicators have embraced the mode of creating content (you know, writing) that can be published in any number of media: print, online, desktop, and mobile. This sort of multi-channel publishing is what Madcap Flare does best.

I’m a big believer in “use it or lose it”, and I don’t want my Flare skills to atrophy so I am looking forward to attending MadCap’s Roadshow when it comes to Boston in May. I’ll post a report here after the event.