Abstract
In today’s world, social media and social networking have been woven into the fabric of our daily lives. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and wikis have changed the way that we interact, find information, and collaborate. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, companies are vying for consumers’ attention and seeking ways to connect with those consumers in order to build lifelong relationships. Consumer-generated content has enabled consumers to have a voice in the marketplace and a means to influence and communicate with the companies that make those products. These conversations make up the dialogue of social media. With such a strong focus on consumers, companies, and marketers, it might seem as though those who are responsible for software documentation are left out in the cold. A common fear in this age of consumer-generated content is whether the need for professional writers will diminish. Both current practitioners and students will find Anne Gentle’s book Conversation and Community filled with examples that reinforce the key roles communicators play in the development and execution of a company’s social media strategy.
Whether the reader is looking for ways to introduce students to social media, create interactive technical documentation, or provide a resource for the many tools, terminology, measurement, and tactics available in social media, Conversation and Community is a valuable text. It is an easily digestible reference that highlights key information about using social media for technical documentation. Along with the many real-life examples that Gentle uses to reinforce and explain her topics, she also provides supplemental links to Internet resources for those interested in learning more.
Gentle is an experienced technical writer who started blogging in 2005 and then developed an in-depth knowledge of wikis and social media technologies through her work with the One Laptop Per Child project. She created and regularly contributes to her blog, justwriteclick.com. Her book is composed of seven chapters that guide readers through the process of not only understanding the social web but also getting started, measuring success, and keeping the communities created moving forward. Valuable resources at the end of the book include a glossary of terms, suggested reading, web resources, and two appendices that provide examples of an Internet Discourse Policy and a Creative Commons License.
In Chapter 1, Gentle discusses the sheer volume of information that we are exposed to on a weekly basis and the fact that we are moving from an information age to an interaction age (p. 13). This chapter focuses on the future of documentation, the change in expectations for documentation, the importance of searchable content, and moving content into conversation.
For the uninitiated in social media, Chapter 2 will be a welcome sight. This is where Gentle describes the concepts and tools of the social web. She explains the various social media content and tools available, such as tagging, wikis, syndicated content, and microblogging, as well as their purpose. This chapter gives the social media novice the base knowledge needed to enjoy the rest of the book. For experienced users, this chapter may seem overly basic. However, it is a great reference for students or for those in the workplace to share with new team members who are just “getting their feet wet” in social media.
Bringing technical documentation to the social web can seem like a daunting task. For those who don’t want to jump in and prefer a more modest approach, Gentle suggests a “listen, participate, share and lead approach” as a strategy for building a social media presence, which is the focus for Chapter 3 (p. 75). If a company isn’t currently involved in social media, Gentle suggests that they first explore whether their customers are interested in this type of interaction. Gentle also explains how to measure ROI (return on investment) as well as reach and influence (R and I; p. 92). In addition, Chapter 3 provides a road map in a grid format (pp.79-80) as well as tips for measuring influence.
Chapter 4 expands on the previous chapter by delving into what an online community is and is not, roles for writers, and the different types of community activities existing in today’s digital landscape. Gentle explains how real-world events such as unconferences, meetups, and book sprints create an atmosphere for collaboration off-line while enhancing the online experience through in-person interactions. There is a detailed section regarding the planning and execution of a book sprint, which is typically a weeklong collaboration of writers, with the goal of producing a book at the end of the week. The book sprint section may seem a little disconnected from the preceding chapters, but this look behind the scenes gives the reader a taste of what it takes to create an apparently effortless collaboration.
Blogs and wikis, which are very popular in the social web environment, are the topics of Chapters 5 and 6, respectively. Gentle suggests getting started by reading and commenting on blogs, choosing a blog platform, and planning how frequently updates will occur. Often, professional writers will find themselves in the position of starting a blog or a wiki as a side project until they can build a business case for creating this forum for their company and customers. The chapter provides a number of blog site examples from recognizable companies, along with screen shots to illustrate the look and feel of the blogs. The screen shots are illustrative only—they are not large enough, for example, to allow the reader to read the content on the screens, but Gentle does provide the site URLs for readers interested in a closer look at the examples.
I explored one of the blogs, ffeathers.wordpress.com, that Gentle mentions in the book. On the day that I visited the blog, the lead story happened to be an article about the completion of a recent 2-day doc sprint event. The event was similar to a book sprint, but the end deliverables were 25 user-focused quick start guides rather than a single book. It was a nice tie-in to the content in Chapter 4. I encourage readers to use the resources referenced in the book to enhance their knowledge and to see live examples of the concepts that Gentle presents.
Chapter 5 gets a little more technical when Gentle introduces the topic of wikislices. This is an interesting concept that allows practitioners to “slice” pieces of content from different wikis in order to create a new document or deliverable. This concept can be used to enhance online help systems. While the introduction of wikislices seems misplaced in this blogging chapter, it does provide a preview into the next chapter, which is focused on wikis.
Gentle writes, “Wikis encourage collaboration because they allow anyone with the right permissions to edit any web page . . .” (p. 143). Multiple authors can contribute content, expertise, and fact checking to new and/or existing content pages, creating not only a collaborative environment for content creation but also a means for keeping content fresh and updated. Chapter 6 includes three pages of practical suggestions for evaluating wikis. To prevent readers from getting overeager in pursuing a wiki, it’s important to keep in mind Jakob Nielsen’s (2006) 90/9/1 rule, an interesting statistic regarding online contributions to collaborative content, in which 90% of users will be lurkers (looking at content but not contributing), 9% will contribute once in a while, and 1% will be large contributors (para. 4). This is a sobering statistic, making it even more vital to ensure that a company’s customers want a wiki or an interactive conversation before investing the time to build the tools and recruit contributors. Like the previous chapter, Chapter 6 becomes more technical when Gentle discusses wiki round tripping and single sourcing in XML. Since a wiki may not be the right choice for some environments, Gentle offers ideas for alternatives and provides a list of questions to help practitioners look for possibilities to integrate conversation or communities into their online help content. This chapter also offers a number of examples of current wikis.
In her final chapter, Gentle addresses the topic of finding a voice in the social media sphere. She talks about authenticity and creating open and honest conversations. When contributing content within the community, telling a story can be as important as the information conveyed. That’s what community is all about. Howard Rheingold (1993), a pioneer in the development of online communities, writes that “virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace” (para. 25). It is the development of personal relationships and people working with a shared goal or interest that leads to real-world events—such as unconferences, meetups, and book sprints—that take collaboration to the next level.
In the “Preface,” Gentle suggests that Conversation and Community can be used to help “experiment with and explore social media techniques, and to analyze and interpret the results” (p. 8), and this book does indeed offer the tools to do that. There is a wealth of information presented that will be particularly useful not only to professional communicators, educators, and students but also to others who are interested in joining the conversation but are not quite sure how or where to begin.
Gentle covers a tremendous amount of material in Conversation and Community’s 242 pages. While some of the content seems repetitive when read straight through, the repetition allows readers to skip around in the book and read chapters independently, which could be particularly helpful for readers who are interested in only certain chapters or for instructors using this text in a classroom. It should be noted, however, that there are a number of grammatical errors throughout the text; these can be distracting but will hopefully be addressed in a future edition. Nonetheless, the book makes valuable connections between professional writing and social media for today’s educators, practitioners, and students. It is important to remember, however, that the social media environment is an ever-changing landscape; with that in mind, I would have liked to have seen more of a conclusion to the book with, perhaps, a nod to future trends. I hope that Anne Gentle will continue to shape and influence the field for educators, students, and practitioners via future editions of Conversation and Community.