Author Archives: Don

Recently I came across an exceptional persuasive video in which the presenter explains a complex perceptual issue in user experience with astounding clarity. I like the way the presenter, Johnny Lee, thinks. If only my writing could be this clear … Continue reading →

At the recent LavaCon 2012 Conference on Digital Media and Content Strategies, Michael Boses and I presented a session on “How to Deliver the Wrong Content to the Wrong Person at the Wrong Time.” For my part, I showed a … Continue reading →

Do specialties make a difference in our careers as writers? That’s what popular blogger Tom Johnson muses about in his personal summary of last week’s LavaCon 2012 Conference (Specializing in the Next Big Thing: A Few Lingering Thoughts from Lavacon). … Continue reading →

My wife Kathy is a first grade teacher. Working from my office at home, she often catches up on email about situations at her school. While doing her email recently, she asked me about the difference between “unstructured” and “nonstructured,” … Continue reading →

A quick search showed I’m hardly the first person to wonder how to pronounce some of the emerging Portmanteau words of the technology era. The word I had in mind was “favicon,” a blend of “favorite” as in URL and … Continue reading →

Do you remember Jon Bosak’s famous quip from the late ’90′s article XML, Java, and the future of the Web? The context was about XML “giving Java something to do.” It was meant to characterize the benefits of processing semantic XML … Continue reading →

Reading about technology isn’t always easy. Few writers can pare down an issue to its essentials and then use common experiences to re-explain it with new relevance. For me, that clarity as a writer comes only after countless revisions, so … Continue reading →

Are writers’ jobs about to be lost to computers? Could IBM’s Watson become the next Pulitzer Prize winner?  It seems likely, according to some related articles making the rounds in content strategy forums:

This blog has gotten quite a rest as I’ve been putting my “thoughts into code” with a complete redesign and expansion of the expeDITA open source intelligent content framework. Along with that I  have been engaged in some interesting work on:

I’m pleased to announce that Michael Boses of Quark XML Author fame will join me in co-presenting a pre-conference workshop on Sunday, 13 November 2011. lavacon.org/sessions/seven-steps-to-dita-adoption-across-the-enterprise If you are in Austin and can’t swing attending the whole conference, there is … Continue reading →