“Beyond the Bleeding Edge” is Back and Looking for Proposals

Guest post by Neil Perlin

Sometime between now and May, might you…

…develop an online document conditionalized to be viewed on a desktop PC and an iPhone?

…create a document containing dynamically customizable content?

…create a hybrid document?

…perform a hard-dollar cost-justification of your documentation group’s work?

…or do something else that’s bleeding edge, and applicable to technical communication?

Many technical communicators are hard-put to keep up with the daily grind, let alone have time to look into emerging technologies. “Beyond the Bleeding Edge,” which debuted at the 1999 annual conference, addresses this by presenting summaries of technologies and methodologies that are too new or unusual to make it into traditional Summit sessions. After a three-year hiatus, “Beyond the Bleeding Edge” is back and looking for presenters for the Tech Comm Summit in Dallas.

Is there a technology or methodology that you’d like to discuss?  It can be:

• New—Are you creating online help that can change its contents depending on the outside air temperature? 
• Existing, but fairly new to technical communicators—like physical context-sensitivity for mobile devices.

 To be accepted, a “Bleeding Edge” topic must be fairly new as of early 2010.  A “Bleeding Edge” presentation should be: 

• Short—You’ll have about 20 minutes to cover your topic and take questions.
• Informal—Attendees prefer handouts but this is at your discretion.
• Level-appropriate—You can cover a topic at whatever technical level you consider necessary as long as you warn attendees what to expect.

If you enjoy new topics and like to discuss them, we want to hear from you. Send your proposals to Neil Perlin, Hyper/Word Services, nperlin@nperlin.cnc.net or 978-657-5464, by 19 March 2010. There are only three slots this year, on Wednesday, 5 May from 8:00-9:15 AM.  Slots fill up quickly, so don’t delay!