Creating Help in the Web 2.0 Era

Traditional approaches to creating help will be with us for years, but the end is in sight.  They’ll be replaced by a Web 2.0-style of help that will keep some of today’s attributes of help but be extended by end-user provided content and technologies like wikis, mashups, community-based ratings, and others.  The result?  Increasingly flexible and web-like help systems that meet the needs of today’s users.

This presentation discusses Web 2.0 in general and its help-related attributes specifically, like user-driven content, classification by folksonomy, and disintermediation.  We’ll then look at the dark side of Web 2.0, particularly the risks of loss of control of your information, illustrated by the DIGG “riot”.  The presentation ends by discussing the components of a Web 2.0-oriented help system that can be created using many of the skills and tools possessed by today’s developers.

Neil Perlin has 28 years experience in technical communication, with 22 in training, consulting, and development for various online formats and tools including WinHelp, HTML Help, CE Help, JavaHelp, RoboHelp, ForeHelp, Flare, and many now known only in legend.  Neil is a columnist and frequent speaker for the STC, IEEE PCS, and other professional groups, a member of the STC’s Boston chapter, the creator and manager of the Beyond the Bleeding Edge stem at the STC’s annual conference from 1999 to 2006, and an Associate Fellow of the STC. 
                                                             

Neil is a Madcap Certified Instructor for Flare, and an Adobe-Certified Instructor for RoboHelp and Captivate.  He provides training, consulting, and development for online help and documentation, Flare, RoboHelp, Captivate, Mimic, XML, single-sourcing, and structured authoring through Hyper/Word Services of Tewksbury, MA.  He can be reached at nperlin@concentric.net, www.hyperword.com.