Category Archives: Applications
Transforming Video: Non-destructively!
Video is far more than a publishing or entertainment medium. It can also be a powerful tool to record expert knowledge. Unfortunately, the video that emerges from a typical knowledge capture session is too fragmented, error-filled and poorly structured to be used directly in professional presentations or documentation. A video producer will have to make extensive (and expensive) edits to render the video clips presentable. Typically, the producer will use sophisticated software (e.g., Adobe Premiere and Apple Final Cut) to slice, dice and dramatically transform the raw material. However, conventional tools create two problems that complicate later revisions:
Posted in Applications Leave a comment
Engineers Love Writing Manuals! – Really!
You customized an ERP module with 15 new fields, 4 new screens, 5 significantly changed screens, a significantly different workflow, and an updated graphics 'theme'. It takes you about 30 min just to walk a co-worker through all of the new features and methods. Now, you're tasked to deliver end-user documentation and training materials ASAP. Your options are:
Posted in Applications Leave a comment
Industrial Mind Music
Remember the last time a manual told you to press a button and nothing happened? So you spend fifteen minutes on the phone waiting for customer service, and then you're told you just have to press it past where it starts giving pressure, but you were too afraid you'd break it? These are details it's almost impossible to capture with simple text.
Posted in Applications Leave a comment
(Nearly) Instant IT Training
You have a new software package with more menus, tools, windows and recipes than you can count (e.g., Photoshop, SAP or Eclipse), but the learning curve is steep. You open help files, close help files, leaf through outdated books, and constantly switch from one window to another. You copy and paste snippets and commands and you always seem to lose your place. Arggh.
Posted in Applications Leave a comment
Video Speaks Every Language
You have a critical, but tricky, procedure that must be followed throughout your global operation. You have vendors in China, plants in Portland and Valdosta, offices in Seoul, Stuttgart and Cairo. So far, you have relied on emails and memos, but there are clear differences in the way they are applied in different locations. Is it language? Is it local preference? Are the memos just unclear? Whatever the reason, you need to solve it. Conflicting procedures are almost worse than no procedures at all.
Posted in Applications Leave a comment
Rich Media PDFs
You've seen multimedia that you would love to use in corporate communication. Unfortunately, the corporate IT department is very security-conscious. They resist installing a new server or web application inside the firewall, and they forbid putting corporate information on outside hosts. They 'encourage' everyone use the company's secure document management system (.e.g., Lotus Notes or Microsoft Sharepoint) for all business communication. Is video out of the question?
Also posted in Processing Methods, Technology Leave a comment
Modernizing the Knowledge Supply Chain
I wrote a blog article a little while ago entitled 'Video Speaks Every Language'. I thought it made a useful point about the difficulty of transmitting technical knowledge across cultural and linguistic borders. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had seen this problem before. Then it hit me. Its just another supply chain.
Also posted in Business Issues, Technology Leave a comment
Video Speaks Every Language
Text-to-text translation is an inherently risky process. There are at least 5 distinct intellectual steps in the process of sending text-based expert knowledge to someone in a different language and culture. Each step demands the engagement of a motivated, knowledgeable expert to move the information forward to the next stage.
Two Underutilized Software Training Technologies