If you are a job seeker, come find out what these kinds of interviews are really looking for—and leave with some ideas about how to ace your next interview. This talk will also briefly review the top 5 candidate Dos and Don'ts—some of which may surprise you. If time permits, we'll even do a little role-playing.

Here is a link to Mysti's presentation: Behavioral Interviews

About the Speaker:
Mysti Berry is a lead technical writer for Salesforce.com. She has been a software technical writer for 20 years and worked in the enterprise cloud for five years. She has taught technical writing classes for UC Berkeley Extension, and given presentations at numerous STC chapter meetings. She has been trained in behavioral interview techniques and applied them rigorously in all her interviews for the last three years.

From Communication to Collaboration to Community – Content Strategies for Web, Wikis, and Workspaces

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Whether using websites, wikis or workspaces, whether planning for one-way communication, collaboration or customer communities, defining your own content strategy is crucial. Different content requires different levels of collaboration. Consider what types of content and what tools might be needed for certain audiences or activities. See examples of how different content strategies work in a Web 2.0 environment.

About the Speaker:
Paul Zimmerman is a Program Manager in the Knowledge Management and Delivery (KMD) group within Cisco's Network Software and Systems Technology Group (NSSTG). Paul is involved with Web 2.0 implementations for content delivery at Cisco. He manages the Cisco DocWiki, an externally-facing wiki of technical content. He also manages the development of online communities to work directly with customers on technical issues.

Paul has been at Cisco for over 11 years, working on a variety of technical content issues. He has produced technical information for Cisco voice products, including hardware, software, and interoperability. Paul came to Cisco after managing a technical documentation group at Lucent Technologies. Paul got his degree in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Role of Knowledge Documentation and Mapping — Implementation of a Knowledge Retention Program

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Implementation of a Knowledge Retention Program involves multiple businesses and managers within the company who have taken it as an initiative.

This presentation discusses the role of knowledge documentation and mapping and how it is essential for companies who are interested in knowledge sharing.

About the Speaker:
Ken Ball is with TechProse, a Bay Area consulting/professional services firm with over 27 years experience in documentation and technical writing with clients such as Cisco, PG&E, Applied Materials, The Gap and others.

Ken Ball and coauthor Gina Gotsill wrote Surviving the Boomer Exodus: Capturing Knowledge for Gen X and Y Employees. This book will be available in June.

Information Architecture

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

In our May meeting we learned more about information architecture -- what it is (and what is it not), and what is important to consider when developing your product's information architecture. Our speaker, Jennifer Fell, took architecture beyond "books".

What do information architects do? Why might you want one on your team? What skills do you need to be an IA? We explored why you might want to be one, and why you might NOT want to be one.

About the Speaker:
Jennifer Fell is currently an information architect and strategist at International Business Machines (IBM). Jennifer has 20 years of technical communication experience, complimented by experience managing software development teams and user interface design projects. Jennifer has been an instructor in the University of California Extension, Santa Cruz, certificate program in technical communication. She is a senior member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and a member of the Information Architecture Institute (IAI) and the Usability Professionals Association (UPA).

Technical Communication Competitions

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Each year, Touchstone, the Northern California Technical Communication Competition, provides a showcase in which to honor local technical communicators who have done outstanding work. The competition is part of a worldwide network of local STC competitions. Each local competition sends its top entries to Society-level competitions in the areas of technical (print) publications, online communication, and technical art. This annual process helps STC to fulfill its mission: to promote and further the art of technical communication.

Touchstone is well known for its high standards. The entries it sends to the Society-level competitions always do well.

The presenters have been involved with Touchstone for many years. Between them they have performed almost every function that goes into a successful competition, from promoting the competition, to gathering entries, to designing judging materials, to recruiting, training, and managing judges, to conducting the awards ceremony.

They will discuss the background and history of the competition, the competition management and judging processes, and the qualities that go into making a winning entry. Some winning entries from this year's competition will be on display.

About the Speakers:
Richard Mateosian is an STC Associate Fellow and president of the Berkeley Chapter. He is treasurer of the STC Management SIG and serves on the Community Funding Task Force led by STC Second Vice-president, Hillary Hart. Richard has written the Micro Review column for IEEE Micro since 1987.

Richard has been involved with the Touchstone competition since 1995. He managed Touchstone in 1996 and has been part of the Touchstone leadership for almost all of the succeeding years.

Patrick Lufkin is an STC Associate Fellow, past president of the San Francisco chapter, and chair of the Kenneth M. Gordon scholarship for Technical Communication. He is membership manager of the STC Management SIG and a frequent contributor to the book review section of Technical Communication, the STC Journal.

Patrick has been involved with the Touchstone competition since 1992. He has been a judge, a lead judge, a trainer of judges, and a quality control judge. He has also handled competition publicity, and in recent years, has served as competition co-chair.

Alternate Career Paths for Technical Communicators

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Have you ever thought, “I’ve been a Senior Technical Writer for years. Now what?”

In our March meeting, returning speaker Jack Molisani will explore the concept of “alternate career paths” for technical Communicators.

Topics to be addressed:

Identifying the core competencies of technical communicators
Identifying which of those core competencies are transferable to other jobs
Identifying which jobs are they transferable to (I mean, to which jobs are they are transferable :-)
Average compensation for those jobs vs. tech writing jobs
Strategies for making your move
And more

Want to shift your career path and break through the tech com salary ceiling? Don’t miss our March meeting!

About the Speaker:

Jack Molisani

Jack Molisani is an STC Associate Fellow and the owner of ProSpring Technical Staffing, a staffing agency specializing in permanent and contract technical writers www.ProSpringStaffing.com.

Jack is also the executive director of The LavaCon Conference on Professional Development: http://www.lavacon.org.

Follow Jack on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JackMolisani.

elearning 2.0

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

In his presentation on eLearning 2.0, Clark Quinn will cover the formal and informal learning roles behind social networking: blogs, wikis, discussion forums, etc.

You've heard about so-called elearning 2.0, the use of social networking tools to support informal learning, but do you know how to put it into practice? What do FaceBook and Ning have to do with business? A lot, actually. In this session we'll explore tools like blogs, wikis, and more, and consider the role they can play in organizational execution and innovation.

We are talking about knowledge management, collaboration, and more, and not only within the organization but with partners and customers. We'll look at how these tools can support formal learning, leading to better outcomes, and also how they support informal learning. Get on top of the trends, and start leveraging your organization's knowledge to perform faster and better.

About the Speaker:

Clark Quinn, Ph.D. has been innovating for business, education, government, and the not-for-profit sectors for over 30 years. He integrates creativity, cognitive science, and technology to deliver engaging and effective strategies and solutions to learning, knowledge and performance needs. Dr. Quinn has led the design of award-winning online content, educational computer games, and websites, as well as intelligent learning, mobile, and performance support systems. He has served as an executive in online and elearning initiatives, and has an international reputation as a scholar and presenter. He works on behalf of clients through Quinnovation.

What's Next? Glimpsing the Opportunity Beyond the Impasse

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

If you're feeling insecure about your professional prospects, you're in good company. The world has changed, your cheese has moved (*), and it's high time to face facts: most high-tech technical communicators have become commodities, purveyors of expensive and increasingly unvalued services.

Globalization, a shrinking economy, impatient customers, and increasingly lean, "do-more-with-less" companies are now the norm. Especially in high-tech, product quality deteriorates but users seem to care only about initial cost. Meanwhile, technical communicators have become passive and disengaged from their audience, their compensation rates are trending downward, job security has become a joke, and true professional advancement is rare. Job satisfaction is the exception rather than the rule.

What to do? Bluntly, technical communicators must create profits. If what you do doesn't make your employer or client money—lots of it, quickly, and with minimal friction (ie, effort on their part)—your future's bleak. Contrast this with the recent past, when saving companies money (for example, with online-only deliverables, single sourcing, and structured authoring) or improving customer satisfaction (for example, with more accurate, clear, complete, or accessible content) alone were sufficient hiring justifications. You now have to do all three: be profitable, efficient, and helpful.

My view is that high-tech technical communicators' best option is to apply their skills to other industries and focus on helping customers generate profits. I have some specific answers to the 'where from here' question, but the list is far from complete and I hope to catalyze (with insights, anecdotes, hope and, yes, fear) a productive discussion about how to respond to the marketplace's challenges.

(*) Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard, Sept 1998.

About the Speaker:

Andrew Davis

Andrew Davis runs Synergistech Communications, a recruiting firm that since 1995 has matched talented technical communicators with staff and contract opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Andrew is a former Technical Writer of system administration and software developer documentation for companies such as Oracle (documenting relational databases on minicomputers), IBM (UNIX hypertext authoring tools), Informix (Windows database tools), Network Equipment Technologies (PBXs and routers), and Verity (enterprise text search tools). He's well-connected in Silicon Valley's software and telecommunications documentation communities. He also recruits technical trainers and instructional designers, medical writers, and user experience (UX) professionals.

Synergistech seeks to be the ultimate transparent, trustworthy, targeted search firm. It handles only on technical communications opportunities, discloses full details about its (very modest) markup, provides detailed descriptions of its clients' requirements and preferences, and keeps applicants apprised of their current status -- the bad news as well as the good. Synergistech has a well-deserved reputation as the technical communicator's ally, so even if it can't find you the job or contract of your dreams, encourages jobseekers and hiring managers alike to read and heed the advice shared at its site, www.synergistech.com as well as to join Andrew Davis' network on LinkedIn and seek introductions.

During the recession, Synergistech has been doing only on-demand recruiting (namely 'speaking when spoken to') rather than marketing its services actively. Most of its efforts are focused on evangelizing a disruptive job-search engine called LinkUp to local employers. LinkUp only lists jobs from employers' career pages and connects companies with candidates on a pure PPC/pay-for-performance basis.

Today's Agile Documentation

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Agile development has evolved over the past several years, and so have the technical communicators who work in Agile development environments. This presentation explores recent trends in Agile, and how documentation teams at Symantec apply current Agile thinking in their day-to-day work. Some of the trends include:

More frequent deployment and testing
Less co-location
More accountability and transparency
Closer relationships with customers

In addition to providing an overview of current trends in Agile documentation, Megan Leney also presents findings from a survey of Agile documentation team members. The survey collects information on what’s working well, and which best practices contribute most to the successful integration of Symantec’s documentation teams into the Agile process.

Attend this presentation to learn tips, tricks, current trends, and best practices that can enhance your experience as a technical communicator working with Agile development teams.

About the Speaker:

Megan Leney has 15 years of experience in the software industry, and has worked as a technical communicator for 9 years. She is currently a Senior Information Developer at Symantec Corporation. Prior to joining Symantec, Megan worked for VeriSign, Inc., and Apple.

In her previous tenure at VeriSign, Megan served as an expert on Agile Documentation, leading the charge to integrate VeriSign's Documentation team into the developer-run Agile/SCRUM process. She wrote Agile documentation standards, and evangelized Agile documentation best practices to key stakeholders in the engineering organization.

Megan presented at the 2008 LavaCon Conference on Professional Development, and at the 2009 Society for Technical Communication conference. She is a member of the Silicon Valley STC Chapter.

Documentation Review: Get It Done!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Jeff Boudier and Fabrice Talbot present an interactive session. Attendees are arranged in workgroups and engage in short, practical, fun case-studies at three points in the session. We gather attendees’ documentation review experiences, identify where time and efficiency are lost, and provide tips and tricks for improving communication between team members. We present practical methods and tools that significantly improve the documentation review process. We show how we implemented these principles in the LiveTechDocs application, applying them to XML technical documentation

About the Speakers:

Fabrice Talbot is the CEO and co-founder of SF based LiveTechDocs. Fabrice had been designing CMS systems and XML technologies solutions for many years when his wife, Teresa Mulvihill, technical writer and LiveTechDocs co-founder, reported a need for tools to share and review documentation with business users efficiently. As a result, time, effort, and money was lost, which created negative feedback even though the project team was doing a great job. Fabrice began the development of LiveTechDocs in early 2007 to solve these very issues. Since then, Fabrice and Teresa have pursued their vision to make documentation review simple, fast, and accessible for everyone involved.

Jeff Boudier is the Community Manager at LiveTechDocs. Jeff is a specialist of web 2.0 technologies and human science methodologies. He thinks technology should be a facilitator, an enabler rather than an end. When joining the LiveTechDocs adventure in 2008, he saw the collaborative documentation review platform as exactly that: a tool for people to make their jobs easier and more enjoyable. He believes in the positive impact of structured collaboration and communication in the work environment in general, and in particular in technical documentation. He manages the LiveTechDocs Community, a place for documentation professionals to share and learn about all things technical writing and single sourcing.

Hand it to Them on a Platter: 7 Steps to a Successful Resume

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Joy Montgomery teaches people how to create a master file that allows them to have a very specific, targeted resume in minutes when they need it. Her book is "Hand It to 'em on a Platter."

Her idea is that generic resumes don't do the best job for people and, in fact, show a lack of interest in the specific job and a lack of respect for the time people took to describe what they wanted to know about. Creating the master file is the hard part. Using it from then on is a snap.

About the Speaker:

Joy Montgomery's background includes 20 years as a business systems analyst. She earned a bachelor's degree from San Francisco State University. Joy is a senior member of the Society for Technical Communication. She has won awards in the Northern California Technical Communication Competition. Joy participates as an NCTCC judge and on the Gordon Scholarship Committee.

Joy's business, Structural Integrity, builds business systems so people can build their businesses. Currently, Joy has developed a seminar, "Improving Productivity with Effective Communication" and a resume workshop, "Hand it to 'em on a Platter". Her book, Hand It to 'em on a Platter, developed to complement the resume workshop is being used by a ReBoot Camp for returning Veterans.

You can view Joy's Linked In profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/joymontgomery.

Grant and Proposal Writing 101

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

“Writing a successful grant proposal requires knowledge, commitment, determination, patience, teamwork, writing skills, creativity, and luck. Other than that it’s a breeze."
Steven Wilbers, Writing for Business and Pleasure

With the skills, talents, experience, and energy that technical communicators bring to complex efforts, we are uniquely suited to help grant seekers and government contractors win funding. Whether providing professional consultative services for the entire process; contracting to provide writing, editing, and production expertise; or giving pro bono time for a cause we support, grant writing is career broadening – and rewarding when you win.

In today’s economy, many organizations are seeking potential funding sources. At the same time, organizations offering grants are making fewer awards. With basic knowledge of the process and terminology of proposal and grant writing, we communicators are uniquely positioned to help our clients win.

During the presentation, Judith will review grant-seeking steps and contributions communicators make to the process. We know how to:

Interview client organizations to objectively identify and document the proposed activity requiring funding and the strengths, risks, and challenges of the grant seeking organization
Do research to locate potential funding sources; find opportunities for pre-proposal schmoozing (‘market the cause’) by the client
Draft the proposal document, consistent with all submittal instructions. The actual proposal may include organization information; situation description and need statement; work plan/specific activities; impact of activities on clients and shareholders; and a budget
Review, submit, get results; and evaluate the process

Here is a link to Judith's presentation slides: Writing Winning Grants

About the Speaker:

Professionally, Judith Herr is a recognized expert in management of proposal and grant application efforts and of technical communication projects and teams. Projects Judith has managed include proposals to win government and commercial contracts and grants; computer system design and user manuals; environmental, health, and safety assessments; curriculum development for computer use, performance improvement, and scientific/technical training. For seven years, Judith has managed her technical communication consulting business, Well Chosen Words. She has provided support to clients across diverse cultures, disciplines, and industries including information technology, public health, engineering, and manufacturing.

Believing fervently in the importance and value of "giving back," Judy actively leads and participates in community outreach and literacy projects that benefit from her expertise as a communicator, including providing pro bono services. During their spring, she accompanied 10 teens to New Orleans for a work project in Phoenix, Plaquemines Parish. While the youth were gutting and hauling, Judith got the chance to use her expertise when the Reverend Tyrone Edwards received a phone call asking if he could complete a grant application that day to receive $20,000 for equipment for the community center/trailer. Judith wrote the grant letter and it was submitted within two hours. The next afternoon she and her husband made some changes to the project’s web site – and taught a youth in the community how to update it.

An eager and continuing student, Judith has a B.A. with Special Honors in sociology and organizational development with a minor in media and communications. After traveling and working for several years, Judith completed a Masters in Public Health from Tulane University in nutrition, epidemiology, and occupational health and safety. Later, she completed graduate work at the University of New Orleans School of Business, including marketing and adult education. She is a Director of the Board and Fellow of STC. Judith gained broad experience and understanding of international affairs and cultural differences, having lived for three years in Europe and three in Southeast Asia and traveled extensively. She speaks and writes on cultural understanding and strategies for thriving when living and working away from home. Selected examples of Judith’s projects follow:

For small business client, managed winning proposals in 2005, 2006, and 2007 (the largest worth more than $38 million) to provide environmental and waste management services to NASA and other clients
For large hospital system, led large team providing internal and external communications, training, and documentation in support of system-wide roll-out of a new distributed computer system
For international garment manufacturer, developed training packages for implementation of global safety training program
Managed orchestration of presentations and briefings including coaching proposed key technical leaders for required 4-hour presentations to win government contracts

The Evolution of Tech Comm Careers: How Writers in Today’s Bay Area Workplaces Exceed Conventional Expectations about What We Do

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The stereotype still may be that technical communicators write technical manuals, period. But the reality in Bay Area workplaces is much different. Careers in our field have evolved and continue to evolve in two ways: The paths of practice and job descriptions for writers are expanded AND there are opportunities for practitioners to grow into new positions, leveraging their writing and editing proficiencies as transferable skills. This talk will share true stories of Bay Area writing professionals and the work that they do, stories that may surprise and encourage you.

About the Speaker

Since 1994, Lu Rehling has directed the Technical & Professional Writing Program at San Francisco State University, where she is a Professor in the College of Humanities. She also has over 15 years of experience in industry, as a writer, editor, manager, trainer, and consultant, including experience (during a two-year leave of absence from her academic position) as a Technical Publications Manager in Silicon Valley. She is an Associate Fellow of the STC and a former President of the San Francisco chapter.

Deeper Instructional Design

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

This presentation goes into the cognitive and emotional underpinnings behind the traditional instructional design components: introduction, concept, example, practice, summary.

Too much of eLearning is following instructional design principles by rote instead of with a real understanding of the way the brain functions and the role the instructional elements play. The evidence is clear, it’s too easy to find eLearning with a rote knowledge focus, verbose writing, boring introductions, fact recitation, useless examples, meaningless practice, and a consequent rapid atrophy of the experience. What we want is meaningful outcomes, and what we get is a painful experience to be avoided. What’s a designer to do? In this session, the instructional design elements are taken apart and connected to an understanding of how the brain works and what really works for learning. We’ll bring in the ‘emotional’ elements to paint a picture of what meaningful learning really is and how to produce it. We’ll then turn it around to produce an understanding of learning design that leads to meaningful outcomes.

About the Speaker

Clark Quinn, Ph.D. has been innovating for business, education, government, and the not-for-profit sectors for over 30 years. He integrates creativity, cognitive science, and technology to deliver engaging and effective strategies and solutions to learning, knowledge and performance needs. Dr. Quinn has led the design of award-winning online content, educational computer games, and websites, as well as intelligent learning, mobile, and performance support systems. He has served as an executive in online and elearning initiatives, and has an international reputation as a scholar and presenter. He works on behalf of clients through Quinnovation.

Using a Portfolio to Ace a Job Interview

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Jack Molisani, owner of ProSpring Technical Staffing and perennial SF STC favorite, presented a controversial yet informative session on how to create effective resumes.

In this follow-up to his dynamic "Resume Secrets that May Surprise You" presentation, Jack lead an entertaining and interactive session on how a portfolio is more than just samples of your work—it is an interviewing tool you can use to achieve the four critical steps needed to receive a job offer.

The presentation included what to put in a portfolio, how to get things to put in your portfolio, and most importantly, how to use your portfolio to ace a job interview.

About the Speaker

Jack Molisani is an STC Associate Fellow and the president of ProSpring, a staffing firm specializing in staff and contract technical writers: www.ProSpringStaffing.com.

Jack also produces the LavaCon Conference on Technical Communication and Project Management: www.lavacon.org.

Beyond the Practitioners' Lore: Reading the Research

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

You don’t need to be an academic to read a research article. Even if you don’t read every word, you can find support—and new directions—for your thinking.

As technical communicators at work (aka practitioners), we make countless decisions about document design, sentence structure, vocabulary, typology. Many of these choices we base on our education, training, corporate guides, or department policies. But many we just make up based on what feels right to us-on our “practitioners’ lore.”

Basing our work on research has always been vital to technical communication. It can ground our decisions in reality, introduce new possibilities, and enliven our style committee meetings.

This presentation explores how we can improve our work by reading research articles. Susan Becker uses as examples several guidelines from the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Style Guide for Voting System Documentation and shows how they were developed through a process of reading the research, reviewing the current accepted guidelines, and critiquing sample documents.

About the Speaker

Susan C. Becker is an Information Developer at IBM. She has worked as an independent contractor and technical communication consultant in San Francisco for over 20 years. Susan co-authored the Style Guide for Voting System Documentation for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She is a new STC Associate Fellow, past president of the San Francisco chapter, and a member of the Usability Professionals' Association (UPA). Her online and print documentation have received local STC awards.

How to Get Started with a Cross Functional Approach to Content Management – The Complete Project Lifecycle

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

The presentation focuses on the ability to use DITA (XML) to deliver to multiple outputs to improve the customer experience and gain efficiency. We will discuss the complete project lifecycle starting with persona development across functions and show you where to begin with a content management initiative.

You will learn how to:

Put together a business case and develop an ROI
Identify opportunities for optimization using a content maturity model
Audit the content, development process, and technology
Align the content development process to the product lifecycle
Analyze the audiences and build a content delivery model that aligns with their needs
Identify how DITA can support the delivery model
Build a project roadmap
Put together metrics for measuring success

About the Speaker

Joan Lasselle is Founder and President of Lasselle-Ramsay, Inc., a professional services company that develops business information and learning solutions that drive superior user experience, productivity, and change.

Lasselle-Ramsay focuses on four practice areas: content management, technical documentation, training development, and on-the-job information tools.

Since 1982, Lasselle-Ramsay has worked with major high-tech and medical device manufacturers to develop technical documentation solutions for commercial products.

Building in Quality: The Leszek Method
January 21, 2009

Documentation quality activities are often ad-hoc, observed as often in the breach as in the doing. At the same time, most technical writers are fiercely quality oriented, but too often we depend on our ability to execute perfectly instead of depending on consistent and frequent quality procedures during documentation development.

Andrea Leszek, the Director of Documentation at salesforce.com, has devised a series of processes that assume writers are not perfect. The procedures are used in an Agile environment, supporting software delivered for the web, so you can bet the processes are lightweight! These lightweight but strictly enforced processes allow writers to catch mistakes before they are delivered to the customer. And they acknowledge that none of us can be perfect 100% of the time.

This presentation will convince you that you have time for quality processes in your day to day writing life, and that there are many points in the documentation development process where quality can be double-checked in a very short period of time.

Mysti Berry will explain the shift in perspective required, present each process, and share stories about how she and nearly every writer was skeptical, but how the efficacy of the Leszek Method won them over.

About the Presenter: Mysti Berry is a Lead Technical Writer at salesforce.com, focused on the Force.com API and the Force.com AJAX Toolkit. Mysti has 18 years experience in technical writing, the last three spent on the API.

Mysti earned a BA in linguistics from University of California Santa Cruz and an MFA from University of San Francisco. She teaches technical writing courses at University of California Berkeley Extension.

Quick, cheap, and insightful: Usability testing in the wild

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

It's not clear when “quick and dirty” became a dirty phrase in the usability world. There are those who believe that usability testing must be scientific, and that takes time and money—luxuries not often available to many development projects.

However, it doesn't have to be that way. Useful insights can come just by having the chance to talk with and observe participants in the most informal of settings, such as cafés, trade shows, and the company cafeteria. It's possible to get valid, useful results without the time-consuming expense of traditional testing methods.

In this presentation, usability testing expert Dana Chisnell will break down the process of collecting user research data, exploring the must-haves, the nice-to-haves, and the certainly-can-do-withouts.

This presentation is perfect for those who have never conducted a usability test. And if you've spent time coming up with your own quick-and-dirty techniques, be prepared to share your experiences.

About the presenter: Dana Chisnell is an independent usability consultant and user researcher who founded UsabilityWorks in San Francisco, CA. She has been doing usability research, user interface design, and technical communications consulting and development since 1982.

Dana Chisnell Dana took part in her first usability test in 1983 while she was working as a research assistant at the Document Design Center. It was on a mainframe office system developed by IBM. Since then, she has worked with hundreds of study participants, for dozens of clients, to learn about design issues in software, hardware, web sites, online services, games, and ballots (and probably other things that are better forgotten about).

She has helped companies like Yahoo!, Intuit, AARP, Wells Fargo, E*TRADE, Sun Microsystems, and RLG (now OCLC) perform usability tests and other user research to inform and improve the designs of their products and services.

Dana’s colleagues consider her an expert in usability issues for older adults and plain language. (She says she’s still learning.) Lately, she has been working on issues related to ballot design and usability and accessibility in voting.

She's an STC Fellow and a long-time member of the Usability Professional's Association and ACM SIGCHI.

Resume Secrets that Might Surprise You

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Jack Molisani, owner of ProSpring Technical Staffing and perennial SF STC favorite, will present a controversial yet informative session on how to create effective resumes:

“For years I've resisted speaking about resumes, thinking that everything that could possibly be said has already been covered. But after seeing candidate after candidate rejected by employers based on what they had (and didn't have) in their resumes, I realize it's time for me to step up and share what I've observed over the years: Resume secrets that might surprise you.”

Have you ever submitted a resume for a job but weren't called for an interview? Don't miss our October meeting!

About the presenter: Jack Molisani started his career in the Space Division of the United States Air Force, and is currently the president of ProSpring Technical Staffing, an employment agency specializing in project managers and technical writers: www.ProspringStaffing.com. Jack also produces The LavaCon Conference on Advanced Technical Communication and Project Management. The seventh annual LavaCon will be held October 25–28, in New Orleans, LA: www.lavacon.org.

Paths to Success: Networking and Contributing

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

What does it take to be successful as a technical communicator? Often we focus on skills and abilities. There is always so much more to learn! But there is another set of factors that are equally important.

This interactive session focuses on the relationships, attitudes, and actions that can make all the difference. You will have an opportunity to think about your own experiences and discover ideas to help you move in the direction you want.

Linda Urban has been a technical communicator for over 25 years. When she thinks about what has mattered most when it comes to finding and keeping work, it boils down to these principles:

First: Do good work. Write well. Understand your audiences, and write for them. Know your company’s goals and priorities, and keep them in mind. Care about quality and pay attention to detail.

Second: Build your network. Not the calculated “get out there, meet other people, and exchange information” kind of network, but the day-to-day kind that comes as you work with people and build relationships. Your base for networking is created whenever you work with people. People will remember when you were reliable, when they enjoyed working with you, when you helped them out of a tight spot, when you shared your expertise. They will also remember when you didn't. Strive to have the kind of interactions you want them to remember.

Third: Keep learning. Build your skills, learn new and better methods, and pursue what interests you.

Fourth: Make a contribution. How you choose to contribute will depend on your interests, skills, personality, and time. Be guided by what you enjoy and what gives you satisfaction. Your niche may be participating in a professional organization such as STC, ISTC, or SIGDOC, it may be a special project at work, it may be mentoring friends who show an interest in what you do, or it may be presenting at conferences such as this one. You may be in front of the room, presenting, or behind the scenes. Don’t worry if you don’t like to be in the spotlight. You do not have to be out front to be a valued resource.

About the presenter: Linda Urban has over 25 years experience in technical communication. As a consultant, Linda works on training solutions, software and hardware documentation, online help systems, and product usability. She focuses on developing solutions that meet user needs and company goals, and her work has received local and international Society for Technical Communication (STC) awards.

Linda works with writers and teams to improve the quality of their documentation and training, focusing on both usefulness and usability. She also teaches courses in technical communication at the UC Berkeley Extension and UC Santa Cruz Extension.

Her website is http://www.urbancreations.com.

Writing within an Agile Development Environment

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Two years ago, salesforce.com switched from the traditional “waterfall” software development model to an agile development methodology using Scrum.

This has had quite an effect on how technical writers work at salesforce.com, as an agile development methodology requires several product iterations, open collaboration, and adaptability throughout the product release-cycle, whereas traditional software development operates on a strict, linear schedule that usually produces one iteration of a product.

Gavin Austin will discuss the challenges and benefits of writing in an agile development environment and share strategies that have helped writers at salesforce.com succeed in producing high-quality documentation in a fast-paced development environment.

About the presenter: Gavin Austin is a Staff Technical Writer at salesforce.com, the worldwide leader in on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) services.

Gavin has worked at salesforce.com for the past four years, writing online help, release notes, tip sheets, implementation guides, API development guides and programming language reference guides. Previously, he has written, edited, and produced technical documentation for Citadon, Borland, IDG Books, and the University of California Santa Barbara.

Writing for a Global Audience—Best Practices and Case Studies

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

What can you do to give a company every incentive to hire you? From When writing for a global audience, technical communicators can impact both the quality of the customer experience and the eventual cost of localization. Tim Bombosch of Lasselle-Ramsay Information Development Services will share best practices and results from actual projects. Topics for discussion include determining what content to deliver to your global audience, writing best practices, techniques for lowering localization costs, and metrics for measuring success.

About the presenter: Tim Bombosch is a Project Management Professional with over 10 years experience in technical communications. He works as a project manager for Lasselle-Ramsay Information Development Services, where his clients include Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Micron, Siemens, Beckman Coulter, Iridex, the US Mint, and Plantronics.

Tim speaks extensively about project management, technical communications, and Web 2.0. Before joining Lasselle-Ramsay, he worked at Mindjet Corp, Sygate Technologies, IBM, WebMD, and Kaiser Permanente.

Tim is an active leader in the STC, having served as president and program manager of STC-SF and as secretary of the Management SIG. He is also an active member of the Project Management Institute. Before entering his current profession, he taught literature, philosophy, and media studies at Stanford University, where he received his PhD in German Studies.

Becoming the Compelling Candidate

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

What can you do to give a company every incentive to hire you? From knowing yourself, to knowing your audience, to proactively convincing management that you are the best match, here are the steps to meet the company's needs so it will meet yours. Not only will you find better work, but you'll get more respect – and better opportunities – faster.

We'll discuss resumes, cover letters, researching, interviewing, portfolios, and negotiation as they relate to today's local job market for technical communicators. Bring your toughest questions and be prepared to participate fully.

As a former software industry Technical Writer and Publications Manager, and for the past 13 years a recruiter of Bay Area technical communicators, Andrew knows that we often fail to capitalize on our full professional potential. He also knows how we can reverse this tendency. If you're ready to make your career more fulfilling, show up and share. This one meeting will likely save you years of frustration.

About the presenter: Andrew Davis runs Synergistech Communications, a local recruiting firm for staff and contract technical communicators. Andrew is a former writer of system administration and software developer documentation for companies such as Oracle (documenting relational databases on proprietary operating systems), IBM (UNIX hypertext authoring tools), Informix (Windows database tools), Network Equipment Technologies (PBXs and routers), and Verity (enterprise text search tools). He is also a past president of the San Francisco STC.

Andrew is well-connected in Silicon Valley's software and telecommunication documentation communities, and focuses on introducing small and mid-size companies to technical communicators possessing hard-to-find technical expertise. In addition to recruiting Technical Writers, Synergistech has provided its clients with trainers, instructional designers, medical writers, and user experience (UX) professionals on both coasts.

Synergistech's web site, www.synergistech.com, contains detailed, specific advice for aspiring as well as established technical communication professionals, and includes large sections on resumes, portfolios, interviewing, contracting, compensation, and competing in today's job market. He's reachable at andrew@synergistech.com or 1-866-591-2968.

What color is your book?

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Symantec has the Yellow Book. IBM has the Red Book. Other large companies have other versions of this book type. What is this, and how do you write one? This presentation uses a real project as an example. You will learn to how plan, structure, and then write one of these books.

About Gilbert Gonzalez: Gilbert is an award-winning technical publications professional with over 19 years' experience planning, creating, editing, and updating technical documents for end-users, system administrators, and developers.

Gilbert is a Senior Information Developer at Symantec Corporation and the president of the San Francisco STC.

The Power of Personas:
A 360° Approach to Understanding Users

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Technical communicators have an increasing number of tools and approaches to choose from to deliver content to meet the needs of diverse and targeted audiences. How do we know we are meeting the needs of our audiences and delivering the right content, at the right time, in the right format?

User personas are a methodology that can help ensure the information model maps directly to the work and information use model of each user audience.

About Joan Lasselle: Joan is Founder and President of Lasselle-Ramsay, Inc., a professional services company that develops business information and learning solutions that drive superior user experience, productivity, and change.

Lasselle-Ramsay focuses on four practice areas: content management, technical documentation, training development, and on-the-job information tools.

Since 1982, Lasselle-Ramsay has worked with major high-tech and medical device manufacturers to develop technical documentation solutions for commercial products.

Radical IA: Pushing the Envelope to Move Beyond Tactics to Strategic Information Architecture

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Whether you are currently an information architect, or want to be one, the tactical aspects of IA are just one dimension of the role. Strategy is key, and in many corporate cultures it requires a radical approach to garner acceptance for the strategic dimension of the IA role.

Join Andrea Ames for a conversation about Radical IA – what it is and how to achieve it, as well as how to determine when it’s fruitless in your corporate culture. Bring lots of questions and your own experiences to enable a lively and interactive discussion!

About Andrea Ames: Andrea is a Senior Technical Staff Member and Information Experience Strategist and Architect in the Information Management division of the IBM Software Group.

Andrea has nearly 25 years of experience in technical communication, specializing in information strategy, usability, architecture, and design.

She is a Fellow and past President (2004-05) of STC, an ACM Distinguished Engineer, and a senior member of IEEE. She designed, coordinates, and teaches in the UCSC in Silicon Valley certificate program in Technical Writing and Communication.

The Pulse of Today's Job Market: 3 Inside Perspectives
Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Are you worried about the economy's downturn? Have you ever wondered what hiring managers and recruiters are really looking for? Have you ever wanted a chance to ask questions about jobs and job searches outside of a hiring process? Here's your chance to kick your job searching skills up a notch.

Three industry leaders--Andrew Davis of Synergistech Communications, Mira Wooten of Oak Hill Corporation, and Tim Bombosch of Lasselle-Ramsay Information Development Services--will share their insider perspectives with you. Susan Becker, past president of STC SF, will serve as moderator.

Whether you are currently seeking a position, or just want to prepare yourself for your next search, or are hiring for a position, this panel provides an valuable opportunity to reassess your job search skills. Following this presentation, you will be able to conduct shorter, more effective job searches--a valuable skill at any time and even more valuable in today's climate.

To make sure we address the most common questions, we invite you to send your questions in advance to Tim Bombosch at bombosch@gmail.com. During most of the evening, however, panelists will field your questions from the audience.

About Tim Bombosch: Tim Bombosch is a technical communications consultant and Project Management Professional for Lasselle-Ramsay Information Development Services. His projects range from high tech and bio tech to consumer electronics and manufacturing. Clients include Hewlett Packard, Genentech, Boston Scientific, Iridex, Beckman Coulter, the US Mint, and Plantronics.

Tim speaks and writes extensively about project management, technical communications, and Web 2.0. He is a Senior Member of the STC and serves currently the Secretary of the STC Management SIG. He is the and Program Manager of STC SF as well as its Immediate Past President. Tim has written and managed multiple award-winning documentation projects at Lasselle-Ramsay, Mindjet, Sygate Technologies, IBM, and Kaiser Permanente.

Before becoming a technical communicator and project manager, Tim taught media studies at Stanford University, where he received his PhD in German Studies.

About Andrew Davis: Andrew Davis runs Synergistech Communications, a local recruiting firm for staff and contract technical communicators. Andrew is a former writer of system administration and software developer documentation for companies such as Oracle (documenting relational databases on proprietary operating systems), IBM (UNIX hypertext authoring tools), Informix (Windows database tools), Network Equipment Technologies (PBXs and routers), and Verity (enterprise text search tools).

About Mira Wooten: Mira Wooten is the Director of Business Development at Oak Hill Corporation, a consulting company that specializes in technical content development. Mira is a gifted networker who is grounded in industry best practices. Her well-honed communication and negotiation skills help her determine client needs and balance those with the requirements of contractors and the company Oak Hill, making sure everyone wins.

She's a senior member of the STC and a certified Enterprise Content Management Practitioner, with a BS degree in Business from the University of Phoenix and a graduate certificate in Telecommunications Management from Golden Gate University. Mira writes and performs music to raise money for non-profits in the Bay Area when she's not helping her clients achieve their business goals.

An Overview of Trends, Tools, and Technologies in Software User Assistance

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

The application of technical communication skills to the development of software user assistance has grown immensely in the past twenty years. This specialization is very fulfilling and challenging and technical communicators are finding their role in the software development process to be increasingly valued.

User assistance is much more than "Help." It encompasses a wide range of skills and technologies that are combined to improve the software user's experience.

We contribute through wizards, tutorials, and web-based training.
We develop and populate knowledge bases and content management systems.
Printed manuals and their PDF equivalents are still an important element of our documentation sets.
Many of us are now embedding helpful content directly into the user interface.
We are involved with usability testing, localization, testing, quality assurance, and branding.

This presentation provides a cutting-edge overview of the latest trends in software user assistance, defines the key terminology, highlights the most important technologies, and offers predictions on future directions of our field. The seventy-five minute session should be of interest to technical communicators of all backgrounds and experience levels.

About the presenter: Joe Welinske is the president of WritersUA, formerly known as WinWriters. WritersUA is a company devoted to providing training and information for user assistance professionals.

The WritersUA/WinWriters Conference draws hundreds of attendees each year from around the world to share the latest in user assistance design and implementation. The free content on the WritersUA web site attracts over 20,000 visitors each month. The WritersUA Annual Conference will be held in Portland, Oregon, March 16-19, 2008.

Joe has been involved with software documentation development since 1984. Together with Scott Boggan and David Farkas, Joe authored two editions of the popular and pioneering book Developing Online Help for Windows. He has also taught online Help courses at the University of Washington, UC Santa Cruz, and Bellevue Community College.

Joe received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1981, and a M.S. in Adult Instructional Management from Loyola University in 1987. Joe is currently serving his second term as President of the STC Puget Sound Chapter.

Automating API Documentation

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

API Documentation is a fast-growing and highly-paid specialty in Technical Writing. As Monique Semp explains, you can write an API Reference in FrameMaker and publish it as a PDF, but such a document is difficult to maintain and unlikely to satisfy your target audience: programmers. Programmers expect online, hyperlinked reference material that's exactly in sync with the API elements (such as classes and functions).

This presentation shows how to use automated tools to generate an HTML-formatted API Reference. Monique will give us an overview of automating an API reference's production and tell us the advantages of such an approach over a manual solution such as FrameMaker-to-PDF. She will give us guidelines for choosing the right tool, and discuss concerns such as imposing coding standards and workflow changes on the engineers. She will demonstrate how this all worked when, using DoxyS, she developed an API Reference for a 700+ function ANSI C API.

About the presenter: A Senior STC member, with more than 15 years of documentation and software experience, Monique has won STC Touchstone and Berkeley competition awards of merit and excellence every year since 2001.

Monique began her career as a software engineer writing PL/M and C code for automated train control (the “people movers” in airports) and the accompanying user manuals. Her career evolved and she's been a technical writer since 2001; her first project was producing API documentation for Java-based wireless applications.

Monique has her own company, Write Quick, Inc., and provides many technical writing services, including API references, programming guides, configuration manuals, and technical processes and procedures.

What does Web 2.0 Mean for Technical Communication?

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Web 2.0 is a concept without a definition. Think of it as wikis and blogs, collective intelligence, multidirectional communication. Technology often innovates faster than businesses can adapt, and Web 2.0 is no exception. This new webscape’s challenge to technical communicators is profound:

How can technical communicators maintain complete, accurate, and easy to use documentation in an environment that is constantly evolving and invites both participation and customization?
What is the evolving role of technical communicators in this paradigm?
What technology and production issues do technical communicators face?

On a deeper level, the role of technical communicators changes most dramatically because, in a Web 2.0 world, the value and role of information changes.

Instead of an add-on expense to product development, technical communication holds all of the pieces of Web 2.0 technology together. In addition to integrating help files and PDFs into product packages or interfaces, technical communicators become deeply embedded in marketing communication, support, and e-commerce.

About the presenter: Tim Bombosch is a certified project management professional (PMP) and technical communication consultant with Lasselle-Ramsay in Mountain View, California. He is currently a project manager for information development projects. He also implements content management systems and plans strategically for the future of technical communication.

Tim has over 8 years of experience in the technical communication industry. He worked at Mindjet, Sygate Technologies (now Symantec), IBM, Web MD, and Kaiser Permanente. Before beginning his career as a technical communicator, Tim taught media studies at Stanford University, where he completed his PhD in German studies and wrote extensively about German cinema.

Tim is the immediate past president of the San Francisco STC.

What Technical Communicators Need to Know to Succeed in the Real World

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Whatever technical communicators have been doing, we've not been achieving all that well. According to studies of technical communication departments, we are not getting the work that we seek. We are not perceived as the champions of users in the organization—usability groups get that responsibility. Web and intranet sites are developed by Web developers rather than technical communicators.

The news isn't all gloom and doom—many technical communicators are finding ways to get the work we seek. What are these people successfully doing?

That’s what this interactive session explores. Specifically, it identifies the needed skills and the sales strategies that work, helps participants develop their own action plans and, in the process, helps participants seriously consider what success means.

About the presenter: Barbara A. Giammona has been a technical communicator for more than 20 years and a manager of technical communicators for more than 15. After seven years as a vice president at Morgan Stanley in New York City, she is currently the manager of corporate IT communications for McKesson Corporation.

Barbara’s article “The Future of Technical Communication: How Innovation, Technology, Information Management, and Other Forces Are Shaping the Future of the Profession,” published in Technical Communication, the Society's journal, in August 2004, was the recipient of the Frank R. Smith Award for Distinguished Technical Communication.

Barbara is an STC Associate Fellow and a member of the San Francisco STC chapter and the Orange County chapter, where she plans to relocate.

Need to Succeed presentation and handout

YouTube, Lifecasting, and You: How video affects online communication

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

With ubiquitous broadband availability, video on the Internet has undergone a revolution in the last 2 years.

Video-enabled iPods and cell phones, RSS-ready iTunes, YouTube, digital cameras and camcorders, and inexpensive data plans have all given bloggers, independent video makers, and "lifecasters" multiple outlets for sharing their views, opinions, observations, and information.

This month, Stephanie Bryant, author of Videoblogging for Dummies, presents an overview of the tools and technologies to help you decide the best methods for getting your video message out there.

About the presenter: Stephanie Bryant is a technical writer and videoblogger from Santa Cruz, California. She's the author of Videoblogging for Dummies, and has been videoblogging since May, 2005. Some of the videoblogs she's worked on include the Intellectual Property Society's videoblog. She lives on the road with her husband and their cat.

Structured Wikis for Collaboration and Content Management

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Wikis are great! But because Wiki Markup does not structure information as effectively as XML, reusing content and single sourcing can be difficult. The open-source, structured Wiki system TWiki takes important steps towards overcoming this obstacle, making adopting Wikis for technical communication more viable.

In this presentation, Phil Gochenour of CNET explores the basic functionality of TWiki and what makes it “structured.” He discusses TWiki's benefits for collaboration and some plugins and variables that extend its functionality. Phil's presentation also includes a demo of a TWiki Wiki he developed at CNET.

About the presenter: Phil Gochenour, a technical communicator in the Project and Service Management and Documentation Group at CNET Networks, is directly responsible for developing and maintaining the internal CNET Networks TWiki system.

Phil holds a PhD in comparative literature, with a specialization in media studies, from Emory University. He has taught in the media studies program of the University of Virginia as a visiting assistant professor of digital media studies, and is the author, of articles on online communities, systems theory, and the novels of Thomas Pynchon. Since 1999, Phil has been involved with online content development as a writer, editor, content strategist, and information architect.

Introduction to the Translation of Technical Documents

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

An overview of Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, and Translation: what they are and who does them, and concepts you as a Technical Writer must understand about presenting your work in other languages.

About the presenter: Daniel Doornbos took his first technical writer job in 1982 covering lubrication and maintenance of farm machinery and construction equipment at Chek-Chart, a division of Simon & Schuster (now part of Motor Information Systems).

After spending a few years as a Manager of Graphic Production, Daniel returned to writing as the Technical Publications Manager at Pinnacle Systems (now a division of Avid) documenting video editing and broadcast television products. Later, Daniel worked as a contractor for several companies, including his former employers, developing documentation for the mortgage, health care, automotive, and broadcast television industries.

Currently, Daniel is the lone writer at Promise Technology, where he develops user documentation for RAID controllers and storage subsystems. His responsibilities include localization of user documents and GUIs.

Daniel received his MBA degree from Golden Gate University and certificates in the Management of Technical Documentation and in Graphic Production from the UC Santa Cruz Extension.

From World-Weary to World-Ready: Meeting Today's Content Globalization Challenges

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Today, the need to produce content ready for all world markets is greater than ever, but localization costs are higher, too.

Much attention is focused on localization methodologies, tools like Translation Memories, and content management systems, but the biggest factor in the quality and cost of all content still is the size and quality of the source material itself.

This workshop gives technical writers and content developers tips and techniques they can implement immediately to improve content and cut localization costs significantly. The seminar also presents a business case for improving content development and reducing word counts.

About the presenter: Hans Fenstermacher is President and founder of ArchiText, a division of language service provider Translations.com (part of the TransPerfect Global Group). ArchiText provides comprehensive translation, localization, and content globalization services to Global 2000 companies.

Born in Germany, Hans speaks six languages fluently and holds degrees from Princeton University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. His 25-year career in the language and writing industries led him to create ArchiText's ABREVE® process (patent pending), a proprietary English content globalization system, designed to reduce content volume, enhance content usability, and maximize content efficiency. Hans is an Associate Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication, as well as past president of the Boston Chapter. In 2002 Hans founded the Globalization And Localization Association (GALA) and served as its first Chairman.

Presentation

The Sheer Audacity! Using the open source Audacity audio editing program to produce great podcasts. Presented by Jerry Franklin

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

What is podcasting, why is it important to me, and how can I get in on it? Jerry will answer these questions by presenting a brief overview of podcasting in the corporate world, also including a few examples of how podcasts are being used to deliver technical information.

Jerry will spend most of the presentation providing an overview and high-level tutorial on Audacity, the free audio editing software that has enabled many people both with and without technical backgrounds to engineer and produce their own podcasts.

About the presenter: Jerry Franklin is a freelance technical and marketing writer for a range of high-tech clients. Before becoming a freelancer, Jerry was the lone technical writer at Bricsnet, a small private software company in San Francisco. Prior to Bricsnet, Jerry worked at another small private software company, ZANTAZ, in Pleasanton. Prior to that, Jerry worked at PeopleSoft, where he managed content for www.peoplesoft.com before transitioning into technical writing elsewhere in the company.

Jerry became involved with podcasting when he began helping his wife build her business as a certified dog trainer. Their podcast, The Good Dog Show, may be found at www.dogworks.libsyn.com.

Jerry belongs to the STC, the IEEE Professional Communication Society, and the ACM SIGDOC. He lives in Alameda with his wife and, of course, two dogs. Contact Jerry at audacityguy@gmail.com.

A Panel Moderated by Barbara Giammona with Andrew Davis, Meryl Natchez, and Julia Cope

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The San Francisco Chapter STC celebrates its 25th anniversary with a panel of past, present, and future chapter leaders speaking on future trends in technical communication, with insights from the past.

Come enjoy a lively discussion among our panelists: past presidents Andrew Davis and Meryl Natchez, current president, Julia Cope, and new chapter member, Barbara Giammona. Find out where they think technical communication is headed in the Bay Area and hear some tales of earlier times in our chapter. Bring your questions and be prepared to add your insights.

Zero-Search-Time Documentation: An Idea Whose Time Has Come by Peter Schorer

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

In this talk, Peter Schorer, author of How to Create Zero-Search-Time Computer Documentation, will outline the ZST method for producing documentation. ZST documentation allows users to find the information they want in less than 25 seconds at least 80% of the time. The method is technology independent, and thus can be applied to the creation of online and/or paper documentation.

Even at this late date, the fields of documentation (and human factors (computer-human interface [CHI] design) do not have a simple metric for the effectiveness of their products. And yet, measurement of results is a central requirement of any technical field.

How to Use a Portfolio to Ace a Job Interview by Jack Molisani

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Have you ever interviewed for a job you wanted but didn't get?

If so, come to our June meeting and hear Jack Molisani lead an entertaining and informative session on how a portfolio is not just a sample of your work—it is an interviewing tool you can use to achieve the four critical steps needed to receive a job offer.

The presentation will include what to put in a portfolio, how to get things to put in your portfolio, and most importantly, how to use your portfolio to ace a job interview.

Jack is founder and president of ProSpring Inc., a technical communication staffing firm: www.prospring.net. He also is producing LavaCon: The Third Annual Conference on Technical Communication Management, September 25–28 in Honolulu, Hawaii: www.lavacon.org.

Network Security: Issues, Technology, and Management by Mark Kadrich

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Mark Kadrich, Senior Scientist at Sygate Technologies, will speak about fundamental issues in network security, including emerging technologies, risks, and management. His presentation begins with a discussion of network security basics and then proceeds to a discussion of regulatory compliance. The second half of the presentation will analyze state of the art security technologies and solutions, with an emphasis on how enterprises can effectively manage network security.

Writing Content for the International Audience by Michael R. Cardenas

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

If you have been involved in authoring content in just one language, let's say English for North America, you will definitely agree that it is not a
cakewalk.

So what is different about authoring content that needs to be localized
into several languages? Are there any special issues we need to take into
consideration as technical communicators?

In his presentation, Michael will explore the special needs technical
localizers face when taking your English content to other cultures and
countries.

From Tutorials to Programmer's Guides by James Bisso

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

This presentation looks at sample applications, tutorials, and other kinds of instructional code that can be leveraged to write an API programmer's guide.

ISO Auditing for Technical Communicators: An Introduction by Kathy Stanley

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Capitalize on your talent for communications by working in the ISO process.

Research and Preparation - Required for our books and help, the auditor needs to understand the business that they are measuring and prepare the right set of questions. The same analytical skills that let us read and understand an engineering spec transfer readily to understanding the ISO quality system components.

Interviewing - The interviewing skills required to develop technical
information can help us focus and control an audit. Our ability to take
notes and develop information from the responses comes in handy if you want to do ISO-related work.

Writing - Each audit requires a comprehensive report. Our ability to
communicate complex information in a simple, effective way is a natural
match for the type of writing required for an audit report.

Professional Growth and Networking - Being part of ISO will introduce you to people from all parts of the business world and different industries.

An Overview of Trends, Tools, and Technologies in Software User Assistance by Joe Welinske, President, WritersUA

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

User assistance is much more than "Help." It encompasses a wide range of skills and technologies that are combined to improve the software user's experience. We contribute through wizards, tutorials, and web-based training.

Holiday Party.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

A special holiday celebration with door prizes

The San Francisco STC is bringing the year to a rousing finale with a
special holiday party at the London Wine Bar in downtown San Francisco. The price of admission includes hors d'oeuvres and wine service for two hours. We will also have door prizes.

This will be our last meeting at the London Wine Bar. Come experience the ambience of the place we love so well one more time before we move to the Elephant and Castle.

Celebrate the end of another year. It's a great chance to renew
acquaintances with other technical communicators and to meet some new people. See details.

Information Architecture for Technical Communicators

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

How is being an "information architect" different from being a
"technical communicator"? Both consider audience needs, identify
information to be included, analyze existing content, determine
information structure and organization, and determine how to make
information "findable" for users. But for information architects, the
work often stops at describing the architecture, rather than developing
the content itself, and the deliverables may have names like site map,
wire frames, taxonomies, metadata, and controlled vocabularies. For
those who are new to IA, this may sound jargony and technical, but there are plenty of parallels in technical communication (think documentation plan, outline, sample topics, terminology list, index entries). more>>

Fitting WebWorks Publisher Into a Publications Workflow
Presenter: Steve Homer, Freelance Technical Writer

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

This session offers a brief overview of WebWorks Publisher Pro 2003 and describes how this tool fits into a publications workflow.

We will address the following questions:

How do you choose the best help authoring tool for your situation?
Are you doing “single-sourcing” if you use WebWorks?
What types of publications workflows lend themselves to single-sourcing?
What types of organizations will find single-sourcing irritating?
How does the size of your organization affect how a help authoring tool fits into your workflow?
What kinds of customizations can you make to WebWorks output?

Structured Authoring, XML and Single Sourcing: An Update
Presenter: David Knopf

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Publishing technologies are evolving rapidly. To a large degree, the workflow and tools you choose will determine how easily and effectively you can create, manage, publish, and maintain content. Structured authoring, XML, and single sourcing are spreading throughout large information development organizations. Technical content is an important asset and should be managed accordingly. In this presentation, David Knopf will address recent trends and suggest which approaches work best for today's technical publishing organizations.

Developing a Healthy Response to Stress
Presenter: Richard Pinneau

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Stress is pandemic and is seriously damaging health, productivity, and
creativity. The psychological and physiological responses of human beings under stress can be miraculously effective in the face of life-threatening physical threats but are severely maladaptive for long-term psychologically stressful conditions. Health, performance, and creativity all benefit from learning simple skills for defusing the effects of modern occupational pressures and challenges. Richard Pinneau, Ph.D., offers you some skills to begin using immediately and methods to instill them as automatic, healthy responses to stress.

Your Writing Samples Portfolio: A Personal Sales Kit & Career History
Presenter: Lu Rehling

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

A writing samples portfolio is a critical tool for career advancement. No technical communicator's resume and/or cover letter is complete without promising that the job (or promotion) seeker has a portfolio of writing samples available. Which means that every technical communicator needs to decide what to include, how to pull everything together, how to present the resulting portfolio well, and how to efficiently and effectively update it over time. Presentation Evaluation Checklist

Increase Your Job Satisfaction and Your Value to Your Company by Improving Your Project Management Skills
Presenter: Tim Bombosch PhD, PMP

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

When I ask technical communicators to describe themselves, they almost always identify their writing, tool, design or technology skills. But, when I ask them why projects succeed or fail, effective or ineffective project management practices lead the list of reasons they give.

Technical communicators have a unique set of skills to be effective
project managers. By improving your project management skills, you can advance your career, improve the quality of your work, and increase your job satisfaction. Presentation

Stay Motivated and Thrive!
Presenter: Howard Miller

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Technical Communication has changed a lot in the last few years and will continue this way. How do you stay current and continue to grow in an ever changing environment? This interactive presentation will explore how you can create the most success in your career and in your life! Howard Miller, the presenter, is a professional Life Coach who is passionate about developing and coaching people to be the best they can be. In this program Howard will combine lecture and exercises to help each person get more motivated and excited to pursue enhancing their careers. Presentation
Howard Miller: Supplying capability for action.

Non-Fatal Errors: Creating Usable, Effective Error Messages
Presenter: Emily Wilska

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

"Memory requests for some applications may be denied." "Error 404: File Not Found." "Error on page." "Invalid entry. Please check your info and resubmit." "Fatal error. Procedure aborted."

It's often easy to identify what kinds of error messages don't help users, but it can be tricky to avoid them, and even more of a challenge to create the opposite: error messages that give users a clear indication of the problem, offer information to help them fix it, and provide tips on how to avoid the same situation in the future.

In this workshop, we'll explore what makes many error messages so bad, simple steps to make them better, and how good error messages can help make technical communicators' jobs easier. In addition, we'll look at ways of communicating to managers and executives the value of good error messages-in terms of reduced support costs, happier customers, and better products. Presentation

White Papers In Your Future
Presenter: Beau Cain

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

How do white papers help managers, engineers, governments, and consumers justify decisions in today's lean economy? How do technical or marketing communications writers know what type of white paper will do the job best? (Hint: There are ten types of white papers.)

Join us for a session exploring this most versatile and misunderstood of all business and engineering document types. We'll discover the difference between a white paper and a whitewash, and learn how white papers can be excellent tools for insinuating technical publications departments into the planning phases of product development. Presentation

The Changing UI of Technical Communication: Transforming Your Career and Moving from Commodity to Strategic Contributor
Presenter: Andrea L. Ames

February 18, 2004

The economy's taken a downturn, and you know that many companies lay off cost centers, like technical publications and training, first. Perhaps you've already been laid off--or you're concerned you might be. You've heard that many companies are "offshoring" technical writing for fees as low as $5/hour--effectively commoditizing the writing and Help development skills you've relied on for years. You're ready to take the next steps in your career.

Join Andrea L. Ames for a brief look at the state of the industry and how you can progress in your career. She'll discuss the characteristics of commoditized technical writing, what you can do to contribute to product profitability and company strategy, and how you can demonstrate your additional value to your company or clients. Presentation

Re-purposing Technical Communications
Presenter: Mick Renner

January 21, 2004

As technical communicators, we have developed skills that are useful to the wider community. For example, the insight and understanding you use to create a chart for a technical manager can translate into the skills necessary for creating a chart for a traffic-control meeting, a fact sheet for your local animal shelter, or a diagram for a fundraising effort at your child's school.

We all have the power to make wider use of our knowledge and experience. By doing so, we can provide benefits for others and gain a deep sense of personal and professional satisfaction.

In this session, we'll examine the various ways we have made such contributions and suggest new ways of benefiting our communities.

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