Scott Nesbitt of DMN Communications, a technical communications and consulting services firm based in Toronto, attended my presentations at DocTrain West and reviewed them on his blog:

Mader said wikis give collaboration context — you’re making changes based on the context of what someone wrote or edited, and not in a pristine copy of a file. This decreases misunderstandings, and increases communication. You’re not working in isolation but everything is out in the open (in the wiki comments/revision history).

The key message was that a wiki helps move a project forward through that collaboration and communication.

He also mentions my point about the benefit of using a wiki to capture relevant knowledge during regular workflow instead of after the fact:

In a documentation documentation project, Mader suggested writing about a feature or function while it’s being developed. This puts the information in context and keeps it fresh. Writing becomes part of the development flow and isn’t rushed to meet a deadline. You get better, more complete documentation.

DocTrain West 2008 takes place this week at the Marriott Pinnacle Downtown in Vancouver, B.C.

I’ll be presenting on How to wow your publisher by writing a book using a wiki today (5/8) from 1-2PM in Point Grey Room.

I’ll show you how I used a wiki to write my new book, Wikipatterns: A Practical Guide to Improving Productivity and Collaboration in Your Organization, and demonstrate how you can use this same approach to make writing more fun and efficient, keep your editor and publisher happy, and get your manuscript done faster!

And I’ll have a few copies of my book to give away during the presentation, so don’t miss it!

DocTrain West 2008 takes place this week at the Marriott Pinnacle Downtown in Vancouver, B.C.

Anne Gentle and I will be presenting Wiki Roundtripping? Structured Authoring? How Do They Co-Exist? today (5/7) from 2-3PM in Point Grey Room.

I’ll be presenting on how to Grow Your Wiki today (5/7) from 11:30AM-12:30PM in Dundarave Room, and How to wow your publisher by writing a book using a wiki tomorrow (5/8) from 1-2PM in Point Grey Room .

Don’t forget the Unconference tonight at 6:30!

Michael Krigsman mentions 5 reasons why IT is perceived to operate so slowly in organizations, from an opinion piece Bruce Stewart wrote in Computerworld:

1. A focus on big projects. In every case, the whole structure of the IT organization — from project offices to approval processes — is geared for large projects that last a year or longer.
2. Hostility toward new ways of doing things. These IT organizations won’t invest in and experiment with new tools, approaches and methods until there is a project “worthy” of them. [Read more]

RecentChangesCamp 2008 takes places this week in the San Francisco Bay Area. Although I can’t make it since I’ll be in Vancouver for DocTrain West, it’s a great conference where you get to set the agenda, make great connections with follow wiki users & community organizers, and discuss the topics that are most relevant to your work.

Here are details from the RecentChangesCamp 2008 web site: [Read more]