How to Become a Better Publishing Technologist (Yes, Even You)

A technologist is someone who can use digital tools. A good technologist is someone who can use digital tools well; and a great technologist is someone who knows how to use the right tools at the right time. No matter what your job is, becoming a better technologist can save you time, increase the quality of your work, and increase your value.

In the same way that learning to properly use a hammer, screwdriver, and wrench doesn’t make you a carpenter or a plumber, it does allow you to quickly assemble furniture, hang a picture frame, and fix a leaky faucet before it becomes an expensive disaster. In an ongoing series of posts here at Publishing Perspectives, I’ll help you put together your publishing technology tool box. I’ll introduce you to a series of simple tools, explain what it is, the basics of using that tool, and then offer advanced techniques, enabling users of all levels to gain value.

What’s more, I’ll strive to help you see their potential applications. Simply knowing that you can get free hosting and have WordPress automatically installed lets you know that you can start a blog with little technical know-how. Knowing that you can link Facebook and Twitter to your blog, or that you can utilize the jQuery framework within iBooks can drastically reduce the time and cost of development for a new feature.

There are three fundamentals that can take you from an inexperienced user to a technologist, from a technologist to a good technologist and from a good technologist to a great technologist.

Read more: http://publishingperspectives.com/2013/01/how-to-become-a-better-publishing-technologist-yes-even-you/