Much has been said already about how great it is to work “in the cloud.” I don’t think there’s anyone left who hasn’t experienced the greatness of Dropbox or a shared Google Doc.

So where does that leave the technical writer? We technical writers and documentation managers are long used to our love affair and possessive tendencies towards our “files” and our proprietary authoring software. A huge part of what gave us value was the relative obscurity of what we do. Transforming huge swaths of knowledge and information into books, with endless links and ToCs that update and indexes that contain links. One customer even went so far as to call what we do, “knowledge geek magic.”

What will happen if we take all of that away and author in simple tools that were built for everyone to use easily in the cloud? If anyone can log into our software, collaborate, review, comment and critique, will our processes fall apart? Will the magic be revealed as a fake? Will we be replaced by knowledge engineering robots?

I don’t think so.

I recently had a conversation with someone about how the profession of technical writing, which was practically unheard of 20+ years ago, has grown and blossomed in recent years and will only continue to grow. Why? Because years ago, everyone knew how to use a telephone - just plug into the jack and dial. There were hardly any consumer electronic devices that were not self explanatory. Remember your first microwave? Here is a picture of the one I grew up with:

(Hey, I just realized the keypad looks remarkably similar to the touch screen on my new Samsung Galaxy phone!)

Your old microwave probably had a start button and a dial or selection option to set the time. If it was really advanced, you might have had the option to select your power as well. But it definitely did not have a popcorn button, frozen entrée button, or delayed start and auto-cook options. My first microwave’s instructions could have easily been written by the temp answering the phones. But documentation for today’s and tomorrow's consumer products and enterprise technologies require an understanding and knowledge not only of “how stuff works” but also why.  Here's Corning's idea of what your future will look like: 

If you “know” something to be true, why on earth would you question it? Because sometimes the things we know to be tried and true turn out not to be. Here’s a really good example:  you “know” that kids need a summer vacation so they can take a breather and – of course – go to camp! But historically, kids were given a break to do neither of these things, but rather because they were needed around the farm to help out with the summer harvest. This was fine when the majority of the world was working the land, but in the 21st century, we need a new paradigm. Today, more and more charter schools are reporting success with year-round schooling that includes shorter breaks throughout the year. The key to success here is to constantly be questioning, reevaluating and throwing out old assumptions. 

The same applies to technical writing. Why are we still producing PDFs and even 1600 page printed manuals in volumes when we know that today’s users learn best from online help, wikis, videos and graphics? We need to present information in the way that people will use it, absorb it and remember it. This Jay Leno video illustrates perfectly what happens when you present material the wrong way to your target audience:

Do you really think these people were never taught where the Panama Canal is? Or what countries share a border with the U.S.? Of course they were! But not in a way that they were able to absorb and then recall the information. Our challenge in 2011 and beyond is to figure it out and implement it for our end users before our documents are as irrelevant as an “underwater bridge.”