It’s finally happened; Adobe has jumped on the cloud-computing craze that has taken over the cyberworld! For the price of $50 per month, you can access the Adobe Creative Cloud. Similar to Dropbox, Adobe has created cloud services where users can “explore, create, publish, and share their work.”

Personally, I think adding cloud computing services to their brand will make Adobe a more valuable player among their competition. Cloud services are hot in many industries and being utilized across the enterprise. From technical writing to online security services and tech junkies, the cloud can be used by anyone for anything!

Do you think Adobe’s transition to the creative cloud will help to make the brand more marketable? Will you be using their creative cloud services? Comment below and tell us your thoughts!

WritersUA just published the results of their 2011 Skills and Technologies Survey. This annual survey is one of the best ways I know of to “take the pulse” of the user assistance, technical writing, technical documentation fields. WritersUA typically receives hundreds of responses (460 this year). The analysis is in three sections: Skills, Technologies, and Platforms. The data are presented in a clear, concise form. Each of the pages presents a summary of the top findings and then drills down into the details.

In the Skills are, expertise with authoring tools topped the charts with 85% of respondents, followed by writing procedures at 81%, and project planning at 75%.

On the Technologies side, PDF was rated at the top with 81% and browser-based help came in a close second at 80%. Web / intranet content came in a distant third with 67%.

For Platforms, there is no surprise that Windows leads with 97%, with World Wide Web far behind in second at 69%, and Intranet/extranet ever farther back with 47%.

For anyone who makes their living as a technical writer, technical communicator, or user assistance professional, the WritersUA 2011 Skills and Technologies Survey should be a must read. It can be equally informative for hiring and supervising managers who need to better understand the current state of the technical communications industry.

“Repurposing content” has been a buzzword in technical documentation for at least 10 years, maybe more. Anne Gentile, the author of Just Write Click, one of the best technical writing blogs out there is, recently wrote a great blog post called “Repurposing and Reinventing Content“. In the post she talks about an Austin, TX-based family that operates a website called Animated Knots created an iPhone App to show how to tie knots. Anne also mentions an article in The Statesman, a local Austin newspaper, about the Grogono family. Speaking as someone who flunked out of Boy Scouts and has been challenged on more than one occasion in securing a harness for rock climbing, I read both articles with enthusiasm. However, what was of most interest to me as a technical communicator were Anne’s observations about the family’s success, specifically that the App was persona-based and had tremendous visual appeal. While some of these lessons aren’t directly applicable to technical documentation, there are lessons to be learned and applied. I, for one, enjoyed reading.