About the Bloggers

This blog came as a result of two friends who knew they had a lot of experience working in the world of knowledge management. We worked together for a few years to discover we are both very media & communications savvy and full of brilliant ideas.  And then we got the chance to drive a customer feedback initiative within the company we were both working at. What an experience.

So who are we? Read on and find out:

Jon Druker

I am a knowledge manager at a big software company. I have worked in the field of technical communications for over a decade, in translation, localization, authoring and most recently, leading a team of authors. But it’s so much more than that.  From recruiting to organizing to leading projects, I have been gathering experience on how to listen to my customers. It’s what communicating is all about. Not just choosing the right words but also listening to what’s being said and evaluating it and using it to make things better.

I also speak French German and English, which has helped me get a better perspective on the world. And it made me better appreciate listening to the words that are used in communication and it has helped me decode feedback.

And to keep my creative juices flowing, I also cartoon. This let’s my wild side out and gives me some exposure on the web too, especially using Web 2.0 tools.

Dan Knopoff

I am a communications consultant and am in the process of creating my own virtual communications agency (that, or have someone in a larger company throw money at me, whichever comes first).

While I have been “majoring” in technical communications for the last 12 years, I have a  broad communications background that runs from marketing to association management, from public relations to tradeshows. From advertising to design. I have written sales copy for lapping machines (they make things ultra smooth); newsletters for spot coolers;  managed communications projects with 5 authors and 3 translators in 4 countries; and personally delivered 2,000 pages of documentation for a software release.

Being unilingual (I am not proud of this but I am after all, an American) and working in a large multinational company (which is where Jon and I met) made me more conscious of word choice. To always think about multiple languages even when I only spoke one. This made feedback much more personal and immediate. I always had to be sure that the people with whom I was working understood what I was writing and saying for every email and every conversation.

I still think in these terms today. From the bottom line, feeedback means can the audience or customer hear what I am saying. And if so, how can I use communications as a tool to solve the current set of corporate challenges.