The DocMashup
One valuable instance of a Knowledge Mashup is the concept of a documentation mashup, or DocMashup—a name that brevity and convention demands. Basically, this type of knowledge mashup serves as an aggregation of content from all resource types near and far for a product or service, including the importing and updating of the traditional static documentation set for a hardware, software, or other technical, healthcare, or scientific product. The DocMashup consolidates diverse information sources from the web—real-time comments streamed from forums, independent content from blogs, images and videos hosted on the web, localized glossary entries from Wikipedia (or DBpedia if using semantic tags). The public content from the web is integrated with internal corporate or personal content from local servers or files: documentation guides, wikis, help sets, and training collateral for example. The result is a portal or centralized document linking all germane and up-to-date information while continuously keeping it current.
The DocMashup author pulls together all the disparate content and gives it context, narrative, and organization. Headers, tables, panes, links, and new content combine to form a new type of dynamic, multimedia document with streaming, real-time, semantically-relevant knowledge for a selected audience. The DocMashup can be used for traditional documentation guides and help sets, as well as replacing traditional training and professional services documentation.
The Guide by the Side
The premise behind the DocMashup is that the author no longer stands as the master of the set of all knowledge for a particular topic, product, or service. The author is the aggregator, teacher, student, researcher, collaborator, organizer, contributor, and explorer in finding content, adding content, providing context to disparate information sources, and imparting shared knowledge for the group. He or she is the guide by the side, albeit the leading guide, but not the sage on the stage pedantically feeding information and taking responsibility for all knowledge. The writer is now the director, casting director, and producer…yet still a writer and editor.
So what does it mean to no longer act as the “sage on the stage” when writing? For me, it means that the author changes perspectives from the sole generator of content and moves to a position as the information manager and producer. He or she continues to write, but also shares all the other aspects of writing with the audience: allowing access to initial research of all media types, citing research topics and experts, and capturing important information from subject matter experts. The whole writing process is now shared and published and available for scrutiny during the process.
When delivering the content, the writer gives all the captured information credence and provides context to render real knowledge to a focused audience. The DocMashup author acts as the guide in finding valuable content, not the sole builder and distributorship.
Reader Adds to the Mashup Content
Along with all other resources, the reader also adds content to the DocMashup. The writer initiates original resources and organization, but the reader is also allowed to edit and update content.
After hand off to the reader, the author can update content to meld with new versions of reader’s content. Likewise, the reader can update their comments back to the author and other members of the audience.
Where do you author and host a DocMashup?
This is a question we will experiment with and answer in detail at a later date. But suffice it to say that there is no perfect solution but many good solutions to cobble together at this time. A complete solution stands as our ultimate goal in building a DocMashup, but until then here are a few ideas:
- Author a media-rich document in MS Word, Adobe RoboHelp, Madcap Flare, or any other authoring tool and save to PDF.
- Create template for MS OneNote or Evernote and let readers add content.
- Create Adobe AIR file with media-rich XHTML and allow for comments.
- Create standard mashup using mashup platform.
- Create separate web artifacts pulled together on web page.
The basic idea here is to pull together all resources from the web and local data stores, add comments from the author and reader, and keep the content updated.
The next posting will talk more about tools, platforms, and practices to build a DocMashup. I hope to get a few comments and ideas from others engaged in information aggregation and knowledge mashups.
February 17, 2010
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Michael Hiatt · 
One Comment
Posted in: Content Strategist, DocMashup, documentation mashup, Information, Information management, Knowledge management, knowledge mashup, Mashups, technical communicator
One Response
We at Human-like are developing a very similar product which we’ve called: Knowledge Mash-up Builder.
You can see a descriptive video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmVa5ppSeio
I’ll follow coming posts eagerly
Bests
Francisco
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