Shanghai Tech WriterTechnical Writing, Technology, Web2.0, Google, Shanghai, China

Last night, I had a peculiar dream about visiting a Google campus in the JinQiao area. I think I was either interviewing for a job at Google or was about to start working there. All I remembered was that the Google building looked like those brown buildings located in the nice expat-area of JinQiao. I remembered thinking how lucky I was that the company was so near my home. (Note: There’s no Google campus in the JinQiao area. I am confusing NI with Google in my dream because I am very happy NI is only 5 minutes from my home.)

In my dream, I remember entering the main building and seeing a few employees hanging out around tables eating free gourmet food to their hearts’ content. (In case you didn’t know, Google provides free gourmet meals and food to all their employees.) Watching them eat made me hungry, so I sat down at one of the table and ordered a chicken cordon bleu. Just as I was about to take a bite, I woke up to the sound of fireworks.

Back to reality. . . after a week of break from Chinese New Year holiday, we started working again on Monday. Many companies are still on break, so the Riverfront Harbor canteen didn’t serve lunch yesterday or today. (Not exactly gourmet food either. . .) We had to bring our own lunch or order lunch from food delivery vendors, which was nice because that saved us 15-20 minutes from walking to/from the canteen. Today, my lunch came just a few minutes before noon and I was done eating by 12:15! I went back to my cube and did my usual post-meal mental-break from work. I read some geeky stuff from my Google Reader feed!

One particular article about the Jing Project really caught my attention, and I spent a good rest of the lunch break exploring this slick new tool. Basically, Jing Project is a tool to capture images, record video, and share them instantly. The part that interests me the most is the video capture feature. I’ve heard about various software and tools that can capture screen videos, but none that are free. For the time being, Jing Project is free and available for everyone to use. I’m not sure how long that will last, but at least, I had the opportunity to try the tool. It took me about 5 minutes to learn and use the tool. It was so easy to use! I love it! This tool could really redefine a new way of writing creating documentation!

What exactly is video capture and why is that important in the field of technical writing?

Well, documentation is all about explaining how to use a product to an end-user. Whether the product is an Apple iPhone, a Canon IXUS 860, a Lexus SC 430 , a Vita-Mix 5000, or a Magellan GPS system, almost every product comes with documentation. This is where I come in. My job as a technical writer is to know the ins and outs of these products and write the documentation. Well . . . actually, the products I write about at NI aren’t as exciting as the above mentioned, but I’m not complaining. I like learning new things, sharing information, and imparting knowledge. That’s why I love reading about technical/geeky stuff. I also started Productivity Forum at work as a means for everyone to share anything useful/neat/cool/interesting that might be of benefit to another. My biggest push is to get people to demonstrate something in 5 minutes that would otherwise take at least half an hour to write/email/document.

We are technical writers after all, so what’s the big deal about writing another tutorial, how-to, or documentation? For one thing, I’m very much a visual and a kinesthetic learner. I learn best when I’m looking at the actual “thing” and touching it. I’m not sure what learning style reading is considered to be, but if I had a choice between watching a how-to video versus reading a documentation, I’d totally choose the video! I am curious to know what other people would choose. I presume many people would prefer the video too, but I may be wrong.

Documentation 3.0!

Regardless, this Jing Project tool is interesting because the video capture feature allows you to capture whatever is on your computer screen, in motion! Typically, technical writers use the print screen key on their keyboard to take screenshots of their computer to include in the documentation. This Jing Project tool goes five steps further by capturing the entire animation AND has the option to add voice narration! Essentially, you can video capture a 10-steps tutorial in less than two minutes without having to write a single word! And for end-users like me who would much prefer watching an interactive tutorial, I’d be able to learn something new in two minutes that would otherwise take me maybe 10-15 minutes to read and figure out what I’m supposed to do! What a grand new way to learn things!

So the question that boggles my mind is why most documentation is still in its archaic written form, of which most are written in the language of Jargon?

Come on and implement this new generation of documentation already! What is this called, Documentation 3.0? (1.0 are the ones written by the developers and 2.0 are the ones written by technical writers like me)

Innovation: The 80/20 Rule

By the way, this post is getting really long and I haven’t even gotten to the part that talks about innovation, as mentioned in the title!

So back to my dream about interviewing with (or working at) Google. I read Google’s profile from Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For and learned that one of Google’s most prominent philosophy is their belief in innovation. Okay, maybe that wasn’t the exact words used but basically, every employee can utilize 20% of their time (that’s one work day per week!!) to work on whatever projects they want! To me, that translates to creativity and innovation! If I had the time to explore and learn new things at a luxury pace as part of my job, I’d be full of brilliant new ideas! (Creativity is one of my strengths, if only I had more time to tap into it!)

Today, I had more than half an hour left of my lunch break. Even though I was behind on my schedule and really should have worked on my project, I leisurely read a few articles and that really paid off! The Jing Project gave me some great ideas on some of the things I could do with my project. I plan to share the tool in the next Productivity Forum and spend more time thinking about how to bring about Documentation 3.0!

Now if only NI also can prescribe to the 80/20 work philosophy!

By the way, the real definition of the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, is that 80 percent of outcomes come from 20 percent of inputs. In other words, of the things you do during your day, only 20 percent really matter. That’s the story of every technical writer’s life! There will be more people reading this post, written in one evening, then all the people who will open the documentation that I’ve been working on for the past few weeks.

What’s the Big Deal With Jing Again?

No more words. Just watch!