Whew!We’re putting a bow on our 2009.2 release and prepping it to roll out next week.  ePublisher 2009.2 includes support for FrameMaker 9 and a new wiki format, Atlassian’s Confluence.  We’re a bit delayed from our original ship date of 2009-06-30.  This was caused first by our Q1 slip implementing our new contract licensing service.  That has been going very well, though there is a bit of FUD out there which we are working to correct.  The second cause for the delay involves our documentation.  Hooray!Why the heck would I be happy about a documentation delay? (more…)

I’ve just returned to life at WebWorks.com after spending the past five days taking in SxSW Interactive. SxSW Interactive brings together an eclectic mix of doers, thinkers, and users.  How many conferences have you experienced where the attendees and presenters include Sci-Fi authors, journalists, psychiatrists, psychologists, marketers, designers, coders, and gamers?  People were as likely to talk about coding websites with Ruby on Rails as they were to opine the death of newspapers in the Age of Twitter.Looking back, I came away from SxSWi understanding that everyone attending was on a quest to create emotional connections.  More than a few vendors present were literally banking on this fact.  People want to feel connected.  People want community. (more…)

Video Link: “Big Picture”My daughter Kalyani is an amazing person. Smart, strong-willed, and just about the greatest Second Grader you’ll ever meet. She does, however, possess one less than endearing trait. Kalyani can be an absolute nightmare when things don’t go her way. More exactly, Kalyani has trouble when the “Real World” doesn’t match the “Big Picture” she has envisioned.It isn’t that Kayani’s “Big Picture” is wrong or impossible to achieve. Nope. The problem is that Kalyani never bothers to communicate her “Big Picture” to the rest of us. She just starts “doing stuff”. This does not go over well with her brother when said “Big Picture” involves his Legos and his train set.At RoundUp, I had this dawning realization… (more…)