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Connecting permaculture and documentation with Liz Argall

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Manage episode 490893186 series 2568080
Content provided by KnowledgeOwl and Kate Mueller. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by KnowledgeOwl and Kate Mueller or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

🎓 Our host, Kate Mueller, is teaching a 4-session Information Architecture Master Class that starts on September 16th!

🎧 TNBTW listeners can use the coupon code "NOTBORING" during checkout to save 40% off the list price!

🔗 Read more info and sign up: thenotboringtechwriter.com/learning


In this episode, I’m talking with Liz Argall, a writer I connected with at Write the Docs Portland 2025. We talk about working on open source projects, developing good qualitative metrics, her work with a permaculture nonprofit in Uganda, and the ways that being interviewed by a technical writer can make hidden expertise shine.

Liz and I presented in the same Lightning Talk session at Write the Docs Portland 2025 and subsequently discovered a shared love for spreadsheet tools, qualitative metrics, and permaculture. We discuss her work on Project Aria, a combination of hardware, software, and data collection geared toward solving the problems that augmented reality will need to address. Liz stresses the point of writing for poorly informed and/or sleep-deprived audiences. We also discuss the importance of qualitative metrics and some of Liz’s favorite qualitative metrics that help capture the story of the documentation, including impact and saving engineers’ and SMEs’ time.

Liz also tells us about her involvement with Ngombor Community Development Alliance, a non-profit focusing on permaculture development in the West Nile region of Uganda. We also discuss how sometimes just showing up for something–including showing up to work on your docs–has far more impact than we realize.

About Liz Argall:

Liz Argall creates empowering documentation and processes; where you need it, when you need it.

She’s a technical writer, program manager, author, and trainer who delivers humanizing, data informed, accessible, and technically complex projects for a range of organizations, from Fortune 500 companies to a community development organization in Uganda.

In a past life, she was a professional artist talent scout and she’s still a professional member of SFWA (now called the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association). She’s a graduate of Clarion Writers Workshop, has been critiqued by multiple New York Times best selling authors, and has critiqued the stories of multiple award winning authors, which is a long way of saying that she likes to give a good portfolio critique!

Resources discussed in this episode:


Contact The Not-Boring Tech Writer team:

We love hearing your ideas for episode topics, guests, or general feedback:

Join the discussion by replying on Bluesky
Contact Kate Mueller:

Contact Liz Argall:


Contact KnowledgeOwl:

  continue reading

58 episodes

Artwork
iconShare
 
Manage episode 490893186 series 2568080
Content provided by KnowledgeOwl and Kate Mueller. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by KnowledgeOwl and Kate Mueller or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

🎓 Our host, Kate Mueller, is teaching a 4-session Information Architecture Master Class that starts on September 16th!

🎧 TNBTW listeners can use the coupon code "NOTBORING" during checkout to save 40% off the list price!

🔗 Read more info and sign up: thenotboringtechwriter.com/learning


In this episode, I’m talking with Liz Argall, a writer I connected with at Write the Docs Portland 2025. We talk about working on open source projects, developing good qualitative metrics, her work with a permaculture nonprofit in Uganda, and the ways that being interviewed by a technical writer can make hidden expertise shine.

Liz and I presented in the same Lightning Talk session at Write the Docs Portland 2025 and subsequently discovered a shared love for spreadsheet tools, qualitative metrics, and permaculture. We discuss her work on Project Aria, a combination of hardware, software, and data collection geared toward solving the problems that augmented reality will need to address. Liz stresses the point of writing for poorly informed and/or sleep-deprived audiences. We also discuss the importance of qualitative metrics and some of Liz’s favorite qualitative metrics that help capture the story of the documentation, including impact and saving engineers’ and SMEs’ time.

Liz also tells us about her involvement with Ngombor Community Development Alliance, a non-profit focusing on permaculture development in the West Nile region of Uganda. We also discuss how sometimes just showing up for something–including showing up to work on your docs–has far more impact than we realize.

About Liz Argall:

Liz Argall creates empowering documentation and processes; where you need it, when you need it.

She’s a technical writer, program manager, author, and trainer who delivers humanizing, data informed, accessible, and technically complex projects for a range of organizations, from Fortune 500 companies to a community development organization in Uganda.

In a past life, she was a professional artist talent scout and she’s still a professional member of SFWA (now called the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association). She’s a graduate of Clarion Writers Workshop, has been critiqued by multiple New York Times best selling authors, and has critiqued the stories of multiple award winning authors, which is a long way of saying that she likes to give a good portfolio critique!

Resources discussed in this episode:


Contact The Not-Boring Tech Writer team:

We love hearing your ideas for episode topics, guests, or general feedback:

Join the discussion by replying on Bluesky
Contact Kate Mueller:

Contact Liz Argall:


Contact KnowledgeOwl:

  continue reading

58 episodes

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