Links of Note: Top Trends and Predictions for 2010
It’s Jan. 31st already, and that new year feeling is fading fast, which reminds me of my favorite line from Shelley:
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
But while we are still in the season of resolutions and predictions, I’m providing below a list of Top Trends posts, which will shape my reading and likely my blog posts, in the coming months.
So, what’s your top technology or business prediction for the new year?
And have you decided yet how to pronounce 2010? Is it ”twenty ten,” or “two thousand ten”?
Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty officially weighs in that either pronunciation is correct, though both she and the Associated Press have made the same style decision, to call this year “twenty ten.”
I’m not sure if I’m just very formal or being contrary, but I find myself more often saying, “two thousand ten.”
Enough with New Year’s and winter thoughts. Just 48 more days, until Spring. Onward.
Technology and Web Trends
From TechCrunch: Ten Technologies That Will Rock 2010
ReadWriteWeb’s Top 5 Web Trends of 2009
From WebWorker Daily: Where Will We Be at the End of the Next Decade?
From iMedia Connection: Emerging platforms you should bookmark (or forget about) in 2010
Technical Communication Trends
From the Technical Communication Center (by Larry Kunz): Technical Communication Trends in the 2010s
From the Scriptorium Publishing Blog: 2010 predictions for technical communication
From the Cherryleaf Technical Authors Blog: Ten trends in technical communication for 2010 and beyond
From the I’d Rather Be Writing Blog: Top Trends in Technical Communication
Inbound and Online Marketing Trends
From the HubSpot Blog: Must-Read Inbound Marketing Predictions and Resolutions for the New Year
From eMarketer: 12 Digital Marketing Predictions for 2010
From Search Engine Land: The Big List: 2010 Marketing Predictions & Resolutions
Content Management Trends
From CMS Watch: 2010 Content Technology Predictions
Online Learning Trends
From the Social Media in Learning Blog: More (social media) predictions for 2010
Search Trends
From WebPro News: Search Trends for 2010 and Beyond
From the Skipease Blog: Five Google Search Trends for 2010
From the SEOmozBlog: 8 Predictions for SEO in 2010
Social Media Trends
From Jeremiah Owyang’s Web Strategy Blog: Slides: Four Social Media Trends for Business in 2010
From Social Media Today: Five Social Media Predictions for 2010
Personal Branding Trends
From MarketingProfs: Personal Branding Predictions: Top 10 for 2010
Related Links
Getting to Know You: A Quick Poll
“Getting to Know You/ Getting to Know All About You/ Getting to Like You/ Getting to Hope You Like Me…” Richard Rodgers, “The King and I”
In the spirit of Darren Rowse’s How to Be a More Relational Blogger [Tips for New and Established Bloggers], and my new years’s resolution to participate more in the blogging community (both on and off my blog), I launched a survey yesterday, wanting to learn more about the folks who are dropping by. I got a pretty decent number of views on this post (of course, that’s relative for a new blogger), and one poll response (thanks especially to that respondent)…which brings me to today’s follow-up to yesterday’s poll, where I’m trying to butter you up just a bit, so you feel more inclined to respond…:-) I think there are about seventy regular visitors here, or maybe only the same ten who keep returning each day…(I’m not sure I’m analyzing the stats correctly…) Anyway, whomever you are, whether that’s 70 or 10 folks [I like to think it's 70]…thank you for your continued interest! :-) Welcome also to first-time visitors…
Sometimes, you return readers unmask yourselves, usually when I least expect it, via the occasional comment, or even mentioning my blog in-person, when we randomly meet—which reminds me a bit of Battlestar Galactica. “How?”— you might ask. A good question.
Well, I was a regular fan of the new Battlestar Galactica series (yes, a bit in touch with my inner-geek there, but a lot of us were on that one…it was such a sexy, smart show!)…and whenever someone reveals that s/he has been reading my blog, I feel like one of the Final Five has been revealed from that show’s last season or two (you remember…the human Cylons that stood on the staircase landing in the dream foyer, with their identities disguised in white light, or were they just wearing phantom-like sheets? ok, you don’t remember…well, never mind…let’s move on…)
A private person by nature, I never had any strong urge to leave footprints on the web, until I recently caught the blogging bug…so, if you’re more of a lurker-type than an online contributor, believe me, you’re in good company here, up until very recently. But coming up on a year blogging, I still can’t help wondering a little bit about who you are…are you technical writers? are you marketers? are you writers who have done both? are you more trainer-types? are you in leadership roles, in the trenches, or consultant types? people I’ve worked with? are you working? unemployed? in transition? are you using social media? …are you interested in the more inspirational posts on social media for good? Are you by any chance, mainly my hubby and kids? (For awhile there, unknown to me, my youngest daughter used to view my About Peg Mulligan page multiple times a day to pump me up…It worked, btw.)
Sometimes, I think that maybe my daughter has enlisted the entire first grade class to do the same each day…But if that’s the case, thank you, too! (“Hi, Honey! “Hi, Kids!”…) I’ll take my readers, wherever I find them, very gratefully.
Knowing even this high-level information would help me with the topics I select. (…so please don’t be surprised if Miley Cyrus or Ashley Tisdale rank higher in my topic selection next week, if my theory proves true.) Regardless, I think having that mental picture of who visits here would help me to write a bit more conversationally, and with greater focus.
So in the quick poll below, please let me know a bit about your reasons for visiting this blog. (If more than one reason applies, please select the best reason.) In the free text option, also feel free to add any reasons I might have overlooked. Or in the comments, I’d love to know what types of posts you like the most, or answer any questions you might have, possibly about this first year of blogging, especially if you are a beginner blogger as well.
Understanding my audience is the purpose of this survey. That’s one of the first rules of technical communication, marketing communication, training, UI, or any product development. I kick myself for not asking sooner.
All feedback is anonymous and really appreciated.
–Peg
Photo Credit, di_the_huntress
Related Links
2010: A DITA Odyssey (free webcasts, sponsored by Scriptorium Publishing)
Yesterday (1/19), I attended an excellent free webcast, Dita Features in Madcap Flare, sponsored by Scriptorium Publishing, on how MadCap Flare supports DITA constructs.
Scriptorium’s Overall Assessement of DITA Support in Flare, Version 5
- Flare, Version 5 provides a way to create web-based help output.
- Flare, Version 5 provides good support for DITA components (content references, DITA maps, etc.)
- Exporting Flare content to DITA can be problematic.
- Round-tripping (DITA to Flare to DITA or Flare to DITA to Flare) is not supported in this version.
There’s still time to register for webcasts on how these additional tools support DITA-based information.
- On February 16, Simon Bate will demonstrate the DITA features in the oXygen XML editor.
- On March 16, Scott Prentice of Leximation will demonstrate how the DITA-FMx plugin works with
FrameMaker 9.
As an added bonus, attendees can win a free license of the tool shown during each demo. For more information about these sessions and to register, visit Scriptorium Publishing’s events page.
If there are other topics you’d like to see covered in later free webcasts, please send suggestions to training@scriptorium.com.
Related Links





