Tuesday, 14 November 2006, is World Usability Day. Visit the website to sign the charter and get information on events by region. Over 210 events in 39 countries are scheduled!

While you're at the site, visit Take a Red Balloon for a Walk! And click the link to the photos on Flickr...some are priceless. (Be sure to take your camera along so that you can snap some pix of things that are...or aren't!...usable. The one I love the best is the drive-up banking machine with braille.)

For those in the Boston area, the Museum of Science is the meeting place, from 9 am to 5 pm (Museum entrance required). Take the green line to Science Park and participate in activities sponsored by the Usability Professionals' Association (Boston Chapter), BostonCHI, and Boston IA, including the Great Sock Sort, Doors to Usability, Instruction Blocks, and Remote Control superUser.

Last Wednesday (8 November 2006), Scott Abel (The Content Wrangler) posted an interview with RJ Jacquez, Adobe Product Evangelist. (Hat tip: Sean Brierly)

It's a fairly long interview that covers RoboHelp and FrameMaker, and includes sprinklings of information about Adobe Connect (formerly Adobe Breeze), DITA, and Acrobat 3D. Jacquez talks about an upgrade to Frame, saying "Our current assumption is that the next major release of FrameMaker will be in the first half of 2007, although Adobe has made no formal announcements at this point."

I found the talk about WYSIWYG interesting, as my feeling is that editors are now WYSIOP, not WYSIWYG (especially when creating online content, and even more so when we're talking about XML).

Also interesting was Jacquez's answer to a question on Quadralay's WebWorks Publisher. When asked if WWP will continue to be included with Frame, he said, "WebWorks Publisher Standard Edition ships today in FrameMaker 7.2, and it will continue to do so throughout the life of that version." Anyone else reading between the lines? ;-)

Meanwhile, the RoboHelp beta is underway. It will be interesting to see the reactions to the improvements.