The January 28, 2010 edition of the XML Press Newsletter is now available at:

XML Press January 2010 Newsletter

Contents:

• Anne Gentle and Alan Porter Nominated for Social Media Awards
• XML Press at WritersUA and STC
• Kindle Edition of Managing Writers

The <oXygen/> XML Editor has become one of the most capable and popular XML editors available. XML Press is pleased to be the publisher for the printed edition of the User Manual for the <oXygen/> XML Editor Version 11.

This publication contains the full contents of the user manual as authored by SyncRO Soft Ltd., the developers of <oXygen/>, in a convenient printed form. This edition is current with Version 11.1 of <oXygen/>.

Now available at: Barnes & Noble  Amazon.com

The December 21, 2009 edition of the XML Press Newsletter is now available at:

XML Press December 2009 Newsletter

Contents:

• Managing Writers e-Book sample chapter available now
• <oXygen/> XML Editor Version 11 User Manual
• Conversation and Community Reviews

To celebrate the upcoming (January, 2010) eBook release of Managing Writers: A Real-World Guide to Managing Technical Documentation, we are releasing a free sample chapter in ePub, Mobi, and PDF formats.

The sample chapter, “Measurement and Metrics,” discusses the impact of measurement on employee performance, strategies for dealing with metrics, and practical suggestions for managers. As a bonus, the eBook contains the complete glossary and bibliography for the book.

The eBook is available in three formats, ePub, Mobi, and PDF:

• Sample chapter in ePub
• Sample chapter in Mobi
• Sample chapter in PDF

Please feel free to give this sample to anyone. We just ask that you keep the copyright and legal notices unchanged in any copy you distribute.

Best wishes for a safe, joyous, and relaxing Holiday Season and a Happy New Year. We’ll be back with more great publications next year.

Richard Hamilton
Publisher, XML Press

Seth Godin just published an excellent post titled, Is it too late to catch up? In it, he outlines a strategy for companies that have let the web and social media completely pass them by. In truth, I can’t imagine there are too many companies that are in this boat, but that doesn’t matter, his suggestions are worth a look no matter what your situation is.

I particularly like his last two points:

• Don’t have any meetings about your web strategy. Just do stuff. First you have to fail, then you can improve.
• Refuse to cede the work to consultants. You don’t outsource your drill press or your bookkeeping or your product design. If you’re going to catch up, you must (all of you) get good at this, and you only accomplish that by doing it.

Ultimately, your web presence and your interactions in social media must be part of the fabric of your organization’s culture. You cannot outsource your culture, nor can you build it by “strategizing.” It needs to come from the way you approach your business and from your day-to-day actions. Anything else will be false and will be perceived as false by your customers. Godin’s post provides a clear, specific path to creating an authentic, useful web and social media presence.

I would add one more point to Godin’s list, courtesy of Anne Gentle, author of Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation:

• Listen: Use Google Alerts, twitter search, etc., to find out what people are saying about your company and to discover existing communities of interest around your company and products. Then, before you participate in any way, listen to what is being said. That way, as you begin to participate, you will know what the style is for that community and how you can best interact with it.

Alan J. Porter, author of the forthcoming book, WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit, has just published an article titled, Wikis in the workplace: a practical introduction at ars technica. Here is the beginning of the article.

When times get tough and belts get tight, one of the first things many companies do is [...]

Seth Godin’s latest post, Hammer time, makes a point that has been bugging me for weeks. Companies, en masse, are selecting the marketing hammer to approach social media, and in large part are ignoring the most common, non-personal use of social media, namely solving problems and getting questions answered.

If you want to select a hammer [...]

I keep a Google alert set for “social media.” It is without a doubt the most active of all my alerts. I’ve seen everything from headlines about how Fort Hood soldiers are using social media in the aftermath of the tragedy there, to a book review of Yes We Did – An Inside Look at [...]

The official ballot to approve DocBook V5.0 as an OASIS standard closed on October 31st, and the standard was approved with a healthy margin.

Congratulations to Norm Walsh for driving the process and keeping the rest of us on the Technical Committee focused and moving in the right direction. His contribution to DocBook in general and [...]

XML Press author Zarella Rendon has written an article titled: DITA Specialization Overview. If you’ve ever wondered what DITA Specialization is all about, this will get you started.

The article is a preview of Rendon’s forthcoming book, DITA Specialization, due for publication early in 2010.

Read the DITA Specialization Overview.