Global Talk

3-5 November 2006. User Friendly 2006. Hangzhou, China.

UPA China invites you to User Friendly 2006, bringing together usability practitioners, designers and technologists from across China and internationally. Come to Hangzhou to continue the tradition of sharing, friendship and learning as experienced in Beijing (2004) and Shanghai (2005) .

The conference will be in English with Chinese translation. The program includes tutorials, plenary sessions and roundtables, as well as plenty of time to network and socialize.

16-18 October 2006. Localization World: Increasing the Value of Linguistic Assets. Montreal. Topics include deployment of translation management and terminology management, new translation technology models, web-based sharing of linguistic resources and translation management systems as training corpora for new translation systems.

27-28 October 2006. 2nd Mediterranean Editors’ and Translators’ Meeting. METM 06:  International Communication-Promising Practices. Institut Europeu de la Mediterrania, Carrer Girona 20, 08010 Barcelona, Spain. EARLY REGISTRATION REMINDER: 10 AUGUST
http://www.metmeetings.org/pagines/metm06_regis.htm Full program: http://www.metmeetings.org/pagines/metm06_program.htm  (more…)

You are encouraged to use the resources of GALA, the Globalization and Localization Association. GALA’s Career Services Center offers an online CV database and job postings. The GALA Articles Database is a growing collection of new and previously published articles on globalization, internationalization, localization and translation. Search for articles by author or category on topics such as content development, outsourcing, quality, marketing and technology. You are invited to read and post in the GALA on Technology Blog.

CSU Chico, GALA and the Localization Institute are offering the next Localization Certification program June 12 to 14, 2007. For more information, please visit the program web page.

In a June, 2006 post on Council of Program in Technical and Scientific Communication list, Ian Gabriel (ian.gabriel at btinternet.com) reported he is coordinating updates to Guidelines for Writing English-Language Technical Documentation for an International Audience published by INTECOM in 2003. This document is available on the INTECOM website under Publications/Downloads.

Ian invited comments from users, regarding two main areas of update:

• Content: Should there be more or less detail? What other topics could be useful?
• Delivery options: Is a PDF file sufficient for online and offline use? Would an online help version, such as a CHM file, be useful?

The STC UK chapter is organizing a conference in London on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 October 2006, to be held in conjunction with the fall meeting of the STC Board. The UK chapter website has details on the exciting line-up of speakers. There is also an online booking form, with early-bird discounts for STC members.

The conference is featuring a range of top-level speakers–leading names such as Sarah O’Keefe analysing the business case for XML implementation, Ian Larner of IBM telling us about DITA, James Lawrence of McAfee telling how his tech authoring team works as a business unit, Patrick Hoffmann examining the Return on Investment aspects of usability and information design. We even have the inside track on the new Windows Vista operating system.

The conference theme is “Making Cents of Making Sense: Technical Communications and Business”. Organizers report this is going to be a hard-hitting conference that will help YOU deliver good value for money within your organisation, or to your clients. Can you afford to not be there?

STC welcomes the new Korea chapter! President Paula Berger reports that in 2006, 17 Korean technical communicators attended the STC Annual Conference in Las Vegas. Shortly after, STC received the paperwork to form the Korea chapter, and it became official on July 19. During a business trip in Seoul, Paula had the pleasure of meeting with several of the Korean members.

In June, STC Immediate Past President Suzanna Laurent and Second Vice President Mark Clifford attended the Annual General Meeting of INTECOM (the International Council for Technical Communication) in the United Kingdom. Highlights of the meeting include the vote to accept STC’s application to rejoin and the appointment of STC Immediate Past President Suzanna Laurent as Vice President of INTECOM. Please watch the RSS feed from the STC website for posting of a report on the meeting. INTECOM is working on many of the same issues as STC, particularly providing more value to members. We look forward to collaborating with colleagues around the world to meet our challenges.

STC and LISA (Localization Industry Standards Association) have entered into a formal agreement that creates a framework for an exchange of membership privileges and collaboration on projects. STC will provide details soon on the benefits for STC members.