Anne Gentle, author of Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, will be reading from her book at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) at 12:30 on Tuesday, March 16.

From the description at SXSWi:
This book brings together the worlds of technical communication and social media. It shows how technical communicators can effectively use social media, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Updated — 9/21/2009

More reviews have come in for Anne Gentle’s Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation. Here are a few highlights:

“This is a very important book. Not reading it is like sticking your head in the sand and waiting for your career to dissipate into oblivion. Your community needs you.”– Craig Haiss, Full [...]

Early reviews have been coming in for Anne Gentle’s Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, and the response has been positive. Here are links to the first few:

Jeff’s Open Source Resource: Book Review: Conversation and Community, by Anne Gentle from Jeff “Jefro” Osier-Mixon
Palimpsest: Let the conversation begin from Sarah O’Keefe
Future Changes: Book Review: [...]

Anne Gentle’s new book, Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, is now available, so we took the opportunity to interview Anne about the impact of Social Media on technical communicators.

What is Social Media and the social web? How do blogs and wikis fit into this area of the web?

I think the general trend [...]

Here is the front cover art for Conversation and Community, designed by Patrick Davison. Both Anne and I are very pleased with both the cover art and the interior design of the book. And, in keeping with Anne’s commitment to Creative Commons Licensing, the pictures used in the cover are both under Creative Commons licensing [...]

Over the last week, I’ve been reviewing drafts of Anne Gentle’s new book, Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation. I think it is going to be an important book that will help connect the dots between Web 2.0, aka the “Social Web,” and documentation.
Reading her book brought me to a revelation that, while [...]

Curious about social web? Wondering how you can use the social web to build a conversation with your customers and a community of interest around your products or services? Anne Gentle’s new book, Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, will help you understand the social web and will teach you techniques and best [...]