Q: Are there times when using machine learning instead of chatbots is appropriate in documentation content? If so, when?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nA: They are two different things.\u00a0 Machine learning is the ability for a computer to learn about content without specific programming.\u00a0 A chatbot is an text-based conversational interface the allows a user to “communicate” with software.\u00a0 Chatbots can have built-in machine learning capabilities as part of their programming.\u00a0 That is how they “learn” which answers are probably the best for specific questions.<\/p>\n
Q: Can we use Microcontent for Online Help too?<\/strong><\/p>\nA: Absolutely.\u00a0 We look at the blocks of content as a single fact or answer.\u00a0 That maps very well to the way that people use online help, where they are typically looking for very specific information.\u00a0 E.g., “How do I create a file?” or “What is the date format?”<\/p>\n
Q: In the example “category table” you also had info about how to improve. Does a Reference Topic like “category table” need a task type of content too? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nA: No, not always.\u00a0 There will always be some sorts of information for which you can provide “facts” in a reference topic and then be able to rely on the user’s own knowledge to use it as necessary.\u00a0 For example, you can present a reference topic detailing disk space requirements for a software product, but you probably don’t need a task topic telling them how to check available disk space.\u00a0 It will depend on what your user needs to know and what you can safely assume they already know.<\/p>\n
Q: Sounds like as a start we should add more sections inside a DITA document?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nA: Sections can work with the appropriate metadata.\u00a0 If you are planning or think you might need to feed your content to a chatbot, you will absolutely need smaller blocks of content.\u00a0 But there are other benefits as well.\u00a0 Breaking topics into smaller blocks and adding headings to those blocks makes the content much more scannable for users.<\/p>\n
Q: If I want to move to this level from unstructured content, what is the course of action suggested?<\/strong><\/p>\nA: You need to start by looking at your overall goals and develop an content strategy.\u00a0 Use that strategy to then develop content models that will allow you to capture the content that you need in the structures that you need them.\u00a0 That is ultimately the key:\u00a0 having a set of content models that will guide authors to create content while ensuring that users (whether human or machine) will get what they need.<\/p>\n
Q: It’s likely that Industry 4.0 and thus Information 4.0 is going to need content broken into smaller blocks as well. Do you think the microcontent approach you’ve outlined will work for other delivery channels. Or will each one need a different approach?<\/strong><\/p>\nA: Absolutely.\u00a0 Information 4.0 suggests maximum flexibility in content.\u00a0 We’ve seen that big chunks of content, even when limited to topic size, are still too big for many of the consuming interfaces.\u00a0 Chatbots, IoT devices, and all the other content consumers can require information in different sized packages.\u00a0 It is easier to assemble discrete blocks into a larger deliverable than it is to try and break an unstructure chunk into smaller pieces.\u00a0 Microcontent supports flexibie delivery in a way that straight, topic-base DITA can’t.<\/p>\n
Q: In your example of category table (“from topics to chat” slide), you use sections. Why are each of those sections not their own topic? For example, why not an individual topic called “Example of a category table”? Do sections give you an advantage over separating or breaking down topics further?<\/strong><\/p>\nA: You have to balance the authoring needs against publishing requirements when coming up with your content architecture.\u00a0 We prefer and recommend using topic as the smallest “unit of work.”\u00a0 That means a topic is the smallest chunk of content the we will put into workflow.\u00a0 Trying to manage all the blocks if they were managed as separate topics can become unworkable quickly.<\/p>\n
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On December 12, 2017, Steve Manning, VP of Consulting Services at Precision Content discussed the growing popularity in chatbot, voice-enabled interfaces, and AI and how these new technologies will change the way we approach content. Forbes reports that by 2020, half of all searches will be voice searches and chatbots will power 85% of all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":739,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733\/revisions\/739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.precisioncontent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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