5D Writing: workshop for ALGIM Web Symposium

ALGIM (Association of Local Government Information Management) 2010 Web Symposium is on 3-4 May in Wellington.

Alice and I are preparing a workshop for the Symposium, and thought we'd share our concept of 5D writing with you. All will become clear on the day!

5D Writing: Transport your staff from filing cabinets to the 5th dimension

Unlike words on paper, web words do not stay in one place: they operate in five dimensions.

Today, staff have an obvious responsibility to make information accessible, usable and above all findable.

We’ll whisk you through the five dimensions of web content on a trip from silverfish to wormholes. We'll show examples of local government web content to inspire and explain. We distil the demands of content writing into a few core skills with maximum impact, shrinking the distance from filing cabinets to hyperspace. Stop your web content from vanishing into a black hole, gain support for your web project, and win time for your real work instead of patching up badly written web content.

Every day we talk with web managers who face these kinds of problems. We're always looking for a new angle to help content authors too, because some struggle!

We have a soft spot for web managers and content authors working for local and regional authorities. The public has high expectations which the authorities are legally bound to deliver, but some have tiny budgets.

ALGIM will present the results and rankings of its annual web audit at the Web Symposium. This is always a highlight. The websites of the 85 local authorities throughout New Zealand are audited against established government web guidelines. The aim is to raise awareness and standards of online service.

We're looking forward to the Symposium, where we'll learn heaps and hope to offer some useful solutions.

Image of the 5th dimension from http://www.debate.org/