APIs, maps and apps at stc17

This week I’m attending STC Summit 2017, the annual conference of the Society for Technical Communication. This post is a summary of the session I presented.

My session was titled “A tech writer, a map, and an app”. I told the story of my odyssey into app development, and used my own journey as a way of teaching attendees about apps, APIs, code, maps, open source, and hackathons.

The slides are available on SlideShare: A tech writer, a map, and an app.

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We explored some technical details:

The nuts and bolts of a web-based application like Tech Comm on a Map: where it’s hosted, where the data is stored, the JavaScript code and the APIs that create the map and the app’s functionality.
How the app’s data is crowd sourced.
What open sourcing your code means, and why you may want to do it.
The difference between a web-based application and a mobile app. Tech Comm on a Map is available as a native Android app as well as a webapp.
The information sources that I used when developing the app.

And we examined how such a project can help develop your soft skills:

My engineering colleagues helped me kick off the development of the app, and made ongoing suggestions for refinement. The resulting interactions increased mutual understanding and respect.
Fellow technical writers all over the world help compile the data. A project like this is a good way of connecting with your peers.
Developing an app can help you better understand your subject and your audience of software engineers and other specialists.
Such a project gives you confidence in your own abilities, even if you’re just skimming the surface of code complexity.

There’s more about the app on this page: about Tech Comm on a Map.

Thanks to everyone who attended the session!