Information on Diane's Role
Q6: Profile your current specific role.
A: Currently my time is split between writing and training. I have been fortunate to be involved in many aspects of both, including writing and editing technical books, teaching, course development, creating recordings for self-paced e-learning courses, e-learning management, and project management.
Q7: In your current role, what are the biggest challenges, and their solutions? How does this relate to business?
A: I think one of the biggest challenges for all of us is keeping up with the rapid changes in technologies. I try to read as much as I can, attend conferences, and talk to others in the industry.
Specific to my current role, a big challenge is thinking of ways to explain often difficult topics in a way that they will be understood. I've found that using analogies helps keeps people's interest, and gives them a different view of a topic.
Getting the facts straight is another challenge - there is a lot of "misinformation" out there! I have learnt to question, or to test the facts myself.
Q8: Please share a story (something surprising, unexpected, amazing, or humorous) from your work?
A: One thing that I find amazing is that I've never actually met any of the people that I've worked with at Cisco Press ... and I've been working with some of them, including the Executive Editor of my current book, since 1998! Our work is done electronically (with only the occasional phone call); we're using the network to write about networks.