Hyperviews Online

STC has posted a preview of the 2007 annual conference at http://www.stc-cdx.org/node/414. There are Institutes in content management, localization, knowledge management, information design and architecture, and Web 2.0.

The conference takes place May 13 - 16, 2007 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Online SIG Education Lead Tom Johnson is aggregating podcasts on the STC Suncoast Chapter site: http://www.stc-suncoast.org/podcastfeed Included are many podcasts by technical communicators, and podcasts from the Four Lakes chatper of STC.

by Bill Thomas, Senior Member, Rocky Mountain Chapter, November, 2006

Since I first joined STC in 1974, there have been discussions of whether Technical Communication is a profession and whether certification for technical communicators would be a good idea. There have been roundtables, articles, recommendations, and hallway discussions in companies, chapter meetings, and presentations at STC conferences.

 With the STC re-vitalization and transformation initiative, there has been renewed interest in certification and a new task force has been formed to look into answers. (more…)

Cheryl Landes, Senior Member of the Boston Chapter, presented “Figuring Out What to Learn” at a recent meeting of the Boston Chapter’s Consulting and Independent Contracting SIG (CIC SIG). The handout is available for download from Hyerviews Online. This program includes tips on how to decide whether to learn something, and how to acquire the needed skills and knowledge. Cheryl provides ideas and her interviews with several leaders in technical communication.

Online SIG Education Lead Tom Johnson publishes educational podcasts continually at http://techwritervoices.com/. There is a link in the sidebar of Hyperviews Online. These podcasts include educational programs and interviews.

November 1-30 2006. 4-week online course “Creating Website Indexes,” Continuing Education program of Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science.
http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/continuinged/workshops/online.shtml#indexes

by Marcia Poulsen, member, Central New York chapter and Online SIG

The feedback I’ve received on my presentation, originally posted on this site Aug. 5, has inspired me to revise it. The updated version is entitled “The Three Core Topic Types: Concept, Task, Reference” (PPT, 4.5 MB).

Thanks to all who contributed thoughts.

This is a presentation made by Ian Koss to the Suncoast Chapter in Tampa, Florida, on August 3, 2006, posted by chapter president Tom Johnson.

Ian Koss is founder of Ink19, which was at one time one of the largest free music magazines in the U.S. His team began publishing in the early 90s in the traditional print medium, but changed to an online format as the Internet emerged. In this 40 minute podcast, Ian explains how the online medium required their writers to rethink and restructure their writing.

Ian talks about such topics as the transience of print versus the permanence of content online, attention spans, online structure and layout, metadata, search engine optimization, semantic markup, single-sourcing and XML, readership anonymity, tracking users, profitability, banner ads, linking, designing for a range, milisecond judgment, the sense of incompleteness, and unpredictability.

The file is 16 megs. I recommend that you download it to your computer by right-clicking the Download link (yes, the small one on the bottom right) and selecting Save Target As. In Firefox, just click the file and download it using the Download Manager.

You can then drag the file into your MP3 player and listen to it wherever you may be — driving, working out, waiting in line or anyplace you choose.

Listen Now:

 Writing for the Online World: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (256)

Please note: based on the comments, Marcia Poulsen has revised the presentation we published here. The revision has been posted: http://stc-on.org/online/topics/content-management/2006/08/19/topic-types/ 

Online SIG member Marcia Poulsen presented “The Three Topic Types — Concept, Tasks, and Reference — and How to Use them Effectively: Borrowing Best Practices from DITA” for the August 3 Central New York chapter meeting. The Online SIG has posted the slides.

It’s our goal to publish a chapter meeting each month, and to podcast as many of those as possible. (more…)