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hi this is Tom Johnson from I'd rather be writing. We're at the
STC summit and I'm talking with Anne Gentle and Janet Swisher.
these two are from austin
so I wanted to ask them how they would compare the south by southwest interactive conference
that's held in austin
with the STC summit
and the reason I wanted them to compare is to find out if
technical communicators are are behind the times in terms of
web development, interactive kind of stuff
and so on
Anne, at this year's SXSW you got to do a reading of your book
the Social Web for Documentation, at this conference
How would you compare that
demographic with the this conference Yes.
I've been to the SXSW Interactive conference four times in the last six seven years
it has grown and changed so much in
I think in the last year there was a lot more crossover - content strategy was a huge theme
Content curation was a huge theme. There were people I knew from STC at the
conference that I got to hang out with
at south by southwest that have never been there before
little bit of a game changer and also being speaker there it is it's a wonderful feeling
because
part of that see a nice up by some less is that it's very community oriented very and
grassroots effort its
and that's okay not risen comparing it says he sees some of the business
and associations
annual conference of this kind of very formal very traditional very
very limited scope
all these sort of ceremonial ties that they have had in the past and so it's it's hard to compare
the two
there's a lot of energy at both and
those have been a lot of the signs you in interacting with his I really
I think in part of that is is on us to keep pushing the bar keep asking for more
keep looking for more interaction out of our content
well as a mention to you that before we started time
I haven't been to the south and southwest interactive conference in that over ten years
to come
and so back when I went to a it was a much smaller conference maybe and more similar
in scale to the current STC conferences and
hundreds of people there and thousands of people
for some the southwest is now thousands of people and a years even
you know there was I was you know I didn't go to the conference this year and I'm not
going to
one of the parties that a vendor was sponsoring and
when I went to face the case there were five thousand people since you have signed up for
the party
%uh so I I generally avoided in recent years also because
south by southwest interactive
tends to have much more of a web focus and just in recent years I haven't
the employer and a web of oriented position
but I do think with the current shift towards
focus on content strategy
it does it is becoming more relevant for technical communicators and
%uh people who watch you
become more aware of of this types of
cutting edge topics and and technologies
it also has somewhat of a difference here because there's a lot of the is the south
and southwest on
panel discussions and getting a set of
experts are giving topic together and you get to watch their conversation
and I think that it's just a a different experience
going into a room and having one expert talk
at you for an hour
you know which he can can be very valuable and can get a lot out of it but they're they're
just different types of conference experiences
let's come back to the web question okay because you said is a very wet focused conference
but I think that so many things now are
moving towards the west
that's really where everything is moving ceasing tech and yet sometimes and sessions here the
SEC
let me talk about whether things are changing results
I see people sit frantically taking notes on concepts that are like a web one
oh one
do you think technical communicators arcana behind the times when it comes to web trends
and development and and
involvement
I think that really depends on the %uh industry and company that people are again and if you're
and they you know a hardware hard context
company you may not the house
all that much need for the middle where of the west
%uh a so it depends on your contacts
every basically every company now has has to have the web presents and so yes we do
need to become aware of it but it's not surprising to me
that some people
just haven't had to think about it
any thoughts
I mean I think today
the communicators have to be invited see the large table of corporate when communications
and
we have a content offering and we're not always and able to position ourselves or
prove our value and discuss an easy on the web alongside all the stuff that are using actively
working confidence that already and people are coming under whatever or brain and related
times and you know I was I myself was in a South by southwest session where and someone has a disney community
manager got a question answered by the person who is the nike community manager
Anyone who has , but it's also documented
that's it
I've found there have lately what about community activities and where do we stand and see that
bigger picture and you know it
used the Nike Plus Ipod system finds it easy to use
these easily
these issues that is also pretty well documented on the web and sending the system is what
price you're concerned
and he's your concern is what he is ours winds at of York times
it will think she can be it's a courier years since she Anne Gentle
that's just right click, and Janet's site is
Janet - it's janet swisher dot com
thanks