Archive for November, 2008

submitted by Elaine Lanni
DocTrain East, Oct 29 – Nov 1, 2008 – Susan Burton, STC.
“The Changing Face of TechComm and the Society for Technical Communication”

Susan Burton, the executive director of the STC, was quite the dynamic speaker. She began by explaining that, although she’s not very technical herself, she appreciates that technical writers are out there to assist those who are technically challenged.

While in Kampala, Uganda, a few years ago, working for a nonprofit, she took the time to sit down with a homeless man who had a regular spot outside the gates of her hotel. He shared his history with her. Orphaned at a young age, he was forced to quit school because he could not afford the tuition. However, he proudly exclaimed to her that he had managed to learn how to use a computer — by having only a manual to read!

Shortly after becoming the director of STC, Susan discovered that the deadline to change an official “job description” for the US government’s Bureau of Labor had recently expired. With the assistance of a friend with government experience, she succeeded in acquiring an extension and began her work to redefine the profession of Technical Writer. Part of this effort involved consulting with the European Union. In doing so she learned about the German association, Tekom, that has 50,000 members and oversees the technical writing profession in that country. By law German companies are required to have a prescribed number of technical writers. This ensures consistency in documentation and accuracy, thus reducing risk where consumer safety is involved.

As a result of Susan’s efforts, the US Bureau of Labor has added safety implications to this job description and moved it out of a grouping that included journalists, weathermen and poets! They are considering putting us into a classification that is a new field. Here’s the current definition and the proposed definition.

Current definition of Technical Writer: Write technical materials, such as equipment manuals, appendices, or operating and maintenance instructions. May assist in layout work.

Recommended Definition: Develop and design instructional and informational tools needed to assure safe, easy, proper and complete use of technical goods and services. Combine multi-media knowledge and strong communication skills with technical expertise to educate across the entire spectrum of users’ abilities, technical experience, and visual and auditory capabilities.

This effort is just one of the 5 strategic goals of the STC. Here’s a synopsis of the other four.

• Communicate the Value. This is done through the STC publications and website.

• Improve the Practice. Through the annual STC conferences, our society provides an opportunity to network and learn. The upcoming STC Summit is in Atlanta, GA, May 3-6, 2009. There will be more than 100 sessions organized in seven tracks, and certification programs will be available. Additionally, we should all take advantage of STC’s live web seminars that are only $79 per site – not per person!

• Expand Our Partnerships. The STC has formed partnerships with numerous organizations such as The Content Wrangler, INTECOM, WritersUA, Writing Assistance and more.

• Ensure the Viability of the Organization. Says John Hedtke, STC Fellow, “Active Membership in STC is your best insurance policy against unemployment.” Some benefits of STC membership include a 14-day advance look at new job postings online, access to salary databases, and discounts on software purchases.

Thanks to free tickets provided by Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler, Elaine was able to attend Documentation and Training (DocTrain) East. She submitted two reports on the event.

Funny that sunglasses were the first item on my “to pack” list as I prepared to drive the 371 miles from Macedon, NY to Burlington, Massachusetts. It rained for about 360 of those miles! Headed to DocTrain East in Burlington, MA, from Oct 29 – Nov 1, 2008, I was looking forward to mingling with others in my field and learning about the latest technology.

In addition to two days of promising seminars, I had the opportunity to receive hands-on training for the software that I use daily at my job. A platinum sponsor, Author-it provided two full days of workshops as well as demonstrations of new features and a peek at functionality on the horizon.

Day 1 included 6 hours of Author-it training by an Kendra Carter, an engaging professional trainer who has been with Author-it since its inception in 2001. We were a varied group, consisting of users, prospective buyers who were evaluating content management systems, to a reseller, and a publisher who translated documentation using Author-it for global markets.

Meanwhile, other conference attendees had their choice of MadCap Flare presentations, Adobe FrameMaker training, and a session on publishing with Xmetal and DITA, just to name a few.

Day 2 began early with keynote speaker, Albert Chu. Chu is VP of Marketing & Alliances for Access™, the “world’s leading provider of software solutions for mobile and for beyond the PC.” He displayed several graphs that illustrated how the Japanese, and a number of developing countries, use their cell phones very differently than we do in this country. They access the internet via mobile devices more than twice as often as we do. He gave us a view into what may soon become the norm for global cell phone users – not just making calls and accessing the internet, but watching TV, paying for purchases, and zipping through the highway tollboths with a flash of our phones. (Can you say 3G and 4G?)

Random thought from keynote on advancing technology: You now have another reason to take care of yourself and live a long life! Every minute 13 hours of YouTube video are uploaded. To watch all of the video already posted will take you 412 years!

Tuesday evening was spent in the vendor ballroom where a bar was set up and tasty hors d’oeuvres were passed while folks and vendors mingled. I met a number of STC members from the midwest and we exchanged stories and challenges of our chapters. Their membership is so spread out that they have held program meetings online – and yearly they strive to find a locale for their conference that is within an hour’s drive for everyone.

The remainder of day two and day three offered a plethora of seminar choices. Out of 39 possible sessions, I noted that seven had DITA in the title. No wait, there were eight; one session left “DITA” out of the title and description. Ok, I know what DITA stands for (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) – and that it’s open source, and appeals to publishers who want XML-based solutions. Don’t know too much more about it, nor do I think that it’s the answer for everyone’s documentation needs. I shall stop here, lest I take on the label of “DITA hater,” as one fellow from the audience did. He expressed to the presenter that he’s “heard a lot about it over the last five years, but doesn’t know anyone who is using it.” Hmm, I see a need for a more detailed presentation, such as a detailed use case.

The common thread among the sessions was content reuse and its value in effecting consistency in outputs. If departments can share a content management system, the user manual’s procedure will be the same as the training material will be the same as the customer support department’s reference material. “When architected well, this happens seamlessly.”

To learn about “Content Convergence: Trends in the Creation, Production, and Maintenance of Technical Content,” I attended a presentation by Rahel Anne Bailie. She provided a real-life example of what can go wrong if you don’t reuse content. A US company produced a wasp spray that had varying instructions for use – depending if you were looking at the paper instructions or the can itself. Sure enough someone followed the incorrect instructions and was injured. The fact that the directions available to consumers was inconsistent fueled the lawsuit. Maybe it’s better to be consistent – even if you’re incorrectly consistent!

Rahel demonstrated a great example of content convergence in the web site called “Tripit.” Here you can have your travel information collected by simply sending them your confirming emails (for flights, hotel reservations, car rentals) to produce a personalized itinerary. Connect it to your Facebook or LinkedIn account and find out if your best friend Sally Ann may be in Vegas when you are!

A seminar of note for me was led by Char James-Tanney. Char owns a web site that provides assistance to anyone wanting to compare help authoring tools. She invites vendors to provide information on their software, which is then available for a customized comparison that the user configures from her site. Check it out if you’re so inclined. HAT-Matrix.com

To brush up on method of testing technical documentation I met Roy Jacobsen who presented “Document Testing: The Missing Step in Creating Effective Documents.” How many of us are so pressured to get documentation out the door that we don’t test it the way that it should be? He discussed the value in testing as well as four methods: prototype, focus group, usability and control studies testing.

One track that I didn’t visit, but seemed to have been covered thoroughly, was Localization and Translation. These sessions covered topics about effectively reaching and communicating with foreign markets, as well as translating user documentation.

Visit for more details on these presentations.

All in all this was a very worthwhile conference for me, and the Marriott was a great venue. The food was excellent and the staff was very professional. Scott Able took a poll after the last session to see if everyone was happy with the Marriott. The answer was positive, so most likely DocTrain East will return to Burlington, MA in 2009! Thank you to The Content Wrangler, his helpful and gracious staff and all the sponsors and speakers for making this event so enjoyable!

DocTrain East is one of several conferences every year devoted to content management and technical communication.

Ben Woelk, Rochester Chapter member and co-Program Manager, has given good advice in his article in the University News section of the RIT web site. Read his article on safe online shopping for the holidays: “Watch out for Good Ol’ Scammer Claus” before you type your credit card number into that online form.

Have you published an article or letter to the editor? Started a blog? Changed jobs, gotten a promotion, or retired? Your Rochester Chapter friends want to know! Send details to Kat Nagel, Proof Sheet editor, or ask her for a temporary Proof Sheet login and write it up yourself.

recommended by the STC Marketing SIG

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