Collaborative Posts: Q&A with Tom Johnson

When I was deciding on a format for my workshop, Grassroots Documentation Testing, I thought of Tom Johnson’s collaborative posts on his blog, IdRatherBeWriting.com. In collaborative posts, Tom poses a question to his readers (who include many seasoned and successful technical communicators), and they respond with advice in the comments. Here’s a link to an example collaborative post; a question about the statistical ROI of technical documentation.

He tried using a Google doc, at one point, too, but he ended up moving to the basic post-and-comment format. Here’s another example; a question about how to become a content strategist.

It’s simple, and not that different from a regular blog post. Yet it garners a large number of comments, and it feels different. He’s explicitly asking for input—the post consists entirely of the question and the request for participation. I wanted that for my workshop.

Tom answered some questions for me about his collaborative posts:

Kristi: Was there a particular inspiration for the collaborative posts? I know you’ve discussed on your blog that community-generated content is more robust than content created by one author. Was this a way of doing that on your blog?
Tom: I first started publishing collaborative posts because I didn’t have the time or energy to respond to all the questions people send me. Also, a lot of smart people out there have better answers, insights, and experience than me. It only seemed logical to open up questions to anyone who felt like they had a good answer.

Kristi: What did you think of the outcome? Was it what you expected?
Tom: It’s a fun experiment, especially if the question is controversial. Unfortunately, most people ask the same sorts of questions (how do I break into technical writing? would I be a good fit for technical writing?). It would be nice to receive some more interesting questions.

I am intrigued, though, by the idea of collaborative intelligence. A while ago, I listened to a Radiolab podcast that explored this topic in depth. The hosts explained that in the 1800s, Francis Galton, a social scientist, visited a county fair that featured a contest to guess the weight of an ox. About 800 people submitted various guesses about the weight. None of them were right. Galton asked if he could have all the slips of paper containing the guesses. Later, Galton took the average of the 800 guesses and found it to be just one pound off from the actual weight of the ox. James Surowiecki wrote about this event in his book, The Wisdom of the Crowds.

I’m convinced that there’s strong merit in collective input. Most recently, I used this idea for a question I was struggling with. Our team was trying to figure out an enterprise authoring solution that would satisfy a list of tough requirements. I opened up the question on my blog and asked for responses. Lots of people commented and provided great advice that helped us evaluate our decisions.

This is what I think is the real genius of the web. It’s not just about letting everyone publish his or her own site, or about distributing massive amounts of information. The real advance is to build on each other’s knowledge in collaborative ways and move forward with better ideas.

Kristi: Some of the posts were in response to questions you had received from readers. Did you receive any feedback about the collaborative approach from the people who asked the questions? Did they appreciate the approach?
Tom: Sometimes people provide feedback; other times they just disappear. A lot of people arrive at my site as first-timers. They have a question, perhaps they don’t find the information, so they ping me. Then they’re gone.

Kristi: What are your plans for this approach? Do you plan to keep writing collaborative posts? I know you’ve recently done a few guest posts–are there any other collaborative techniques you’d like to try on your blog?
Tom: Producing regular blog content is a real time commitment. It’s hard to keep the content flowing sometimes. I am happy to publish guest posts and collaborative posts with reader questions, as this sometimes opens me up to new perspectives and understanding, as well as keeps content flowing on my site. But I don’t mean to move in ten directions at once. My heart is in my Organizing Content series, and unfortunately I don’t receive many questions about this topic.

As a larger strategy, I think blogs can be used as research tools for writing longer works, and that’s my main goal. I’m especially interested in guest posts that will help me move in my Organizing Content direction.

Kristi: I supposed this is off topic, but I’m curious why you decided to list jobs on your site. Was this something readers were asking you for?
Tom: I almost took that down the other day to make room for Book Reviews. I only provide Jobs as a possible convenience for readers. I’m not sure anyone users it, to be honest. But given the many people who come to my site looking for information on technical writing, pointing them to indeed.com seems like another benefit.