While out traipsing around the Northeastern corner of Washington state last week and through yesterday, in and out of cell coverage, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was included in a list of Most Influential Technical Communication Bloggers that was compiled by MindTouch. I’m back home today, so can now write about it properly.
I truly am honored and appreciative to be included on the list. Those don’t seem like strong enough words to explain this, so here’s an entire post about it. There’s a bit of a story with this blog of mine, which makes this listing even more amazing to me.
The main reason I started my blog was to keep working after an accident. To help my recovery along. To keep thinking, analyzing, coding, designing, and writing. To stay in the game and keep my hand on changes in the industry. For I’ve long seen that there are massive changes underway, and I’m most passionate about integrating these changes and excited about their effect on documentation. Blogs provide an excellent format in which to discuss such topics.
Fast forward to a little over a year later, and I find myself on this amazing list of bloggers from around the world. Wow.
The goal of my blog is to raise these most important topics that face us in the industry. My hope is to get everyone thinking about the changes and how they can work them into their docs. My concern when I started this was that changes aren’t being made as quickly as they should. I still worry about that. Tech writing as an industry moves too slow for me sometimes. I’d love to see it move at real-time speed. That is needed, because the world is already at that fast-moving point. My concern is that you don’t just get behind these days when trying to keep up with change. You get exponentially behind, and may never ever catch up. All the blogs are pointing out all these needed changes and providing a means to discuss, analyze, and bring them to the forefront. So review the blogs on MindTouch’s list and Honorable Mentions. Take a look at the SDI blog as well (sdicorp.com). Read any others you come across. There’s never been a more important, watershed time in our industry. We need everyone to be thinking about it all, making sense of it, and providing some direction.
If you have thoughts, ideas, and opinions of your own to share, by all means start blogging! I wrote a post about my 1-year anniversary of my blog that outlines how I started and how it evolved over the past year in case that helps. Just be prepared for a lot of work. Blogs don’t just happen. Twitter feeds don’t just appear. Developing an online presence takes incredible, dedicated effort. Every day, every week. I’ve been out a week, and know I have much catch-up to do. The effort is worth it, though. Definitely worth it. If you don’t have time to devote to this just yet, then leave a comment periodically on a blog post. Set up a Twitter account and use the #techcomm hashtag once in a while. Add a note on Facebook pages. Make your voice heard. We need everyone’s thoughts and ideas.
…………………..
So here I am today writing about a most incredible event in my life. What started as an important tool in my recovery has evolved into inclusion on a list with very impressive bloggers from everywhere. Like finishing my tri a few weeks ago, this is sweet. I’m feeling like I’m really, finally back. As it happens, I’m number 16 on the list, which I think is perfect. Sweet 16!
Thank you very much to everyone that has followed me for reading along, commenting, and participating in discussions and my Twitter experiments. You’re an integral part of all this, and have made my online presence what it is. I’ll do my best to continue providing information you may find useful. I also have more changes planned for my blog, so please stay tuned!
To Mark Fidelman and MindTouch: thank you for reviewing and analyzing my blog in the first place, and for adding me to your list. It means more to me than you can possibly imagine.
Larry Kunz says
Congratulations, Julie, and thanks for the shout-out to the SDI blog.
You’re right when you say that it takes day-in-day-out effort to establish an online presence. But the benefits — what you learn, how you broaden your perspective, and especially the people you meet — are well worth it.
Ellen Feaheny says
Extremely passionate entry – nice.
Tech writers are definitely an intense bunch – because they get so intimate with the content – how can you not be!
And all the more reason the industry needs to move fast-forward and out of old ways and styles, into new tools, and collaboration methods, and most importantly enabled strategic communications champions in organizations – inside and out.
Sarah Maddox says
Hallo Julie,
What a lovely post! Congratulations on being one of the most influential tech comms bloggers! I feel honored to be on the list too, and I thinknnit was a great idea from MindTouch to compile the list. It certainly got us all talking.
We are in a very exciting time for technical documentation at the moment. You’ve hit the nail on the head there. For me, one of the most exciting things about blogging and tweeting and such, is how very generous everyone is with their time and ideas. I’ve learned so much from other bloggers, and got so many new ideas from people who comment on my blog. It’s hard to think of doing my job without that extra inspiration now.
Cheers
Sarah
Anne Gentle says
Sweet post! I can so identify. I had a run in with the blunt end of a pinata bat last year that really had me wondering if I could keep up my blog. And then I found that I was still compelled to write, still wanting to connect with like minds, and raring to go. I used to take my eyesight for granted but don’t do that any more. I don’t take my blog for granted either but I am fully aware of the work it takes. The sharing of ideas, enthusiasm, and the right email or the right recognition at the right time it all worthwhile. Congratulations!
Julie Norris says
Thanks very much, everyone. I appreciate the congratulatory sentiments and nice comments.
Larry – I’m glad to be able to follow you through Twitter and your blog. That’s definitely been a benefit! It’s all worth it, for sure.
Ellen – I’m with you! Let’s move on from the old ways. I think that people can have much impact in their own companies as well. If you have more thoughts on how to move forward, let us all know –
Sarah – Congratulations to you as well. I’ve enjoyed chatting with you through varied social media outlets and following the work you and your company have been doing with regard to new ways of creating docs. Keep us all posted! To be able to be in contact with people around the world is such a gift, IMO. It’s great to have all these options for sharing and learning available at our disposal.
Anne – Sorry to hear about your injury! I’m so glad it’s working out OK and hasn’t stopped you from your important blogging. Congratulations to you as well for your inclusion on the list –
Gordon says
Congrats on being listed (I’m still trying to get my head around it as well!).
Great post too, the pace at which the bulk of the tech comms industry moves is slow, largely because of the personality types which many of the technical writers have (which makes them ideal for the job, not so great when things need to change quickly).
Converting all this talk into action is a hard thing but it does seem there are plenty of us willing to try!
Julie Norris says
Thanks, Gordon. Congratulations to you, too! Hopefully with everyone talking about needed changes and finding examples, things can move forward a bit. I hope so!