Looking to 2012

By Carol Lawless

Wow! It’s hard to believe the new year is upon us already! Your local council has been as busy as elves to fill your STC stockings over the holiday season and into 2012.

First, we’re delighted to welcome our newest volunteers – Ann, Sian and Dwight.

We finalized our budget and submitted it to head office for approval in October. We still retain a working bank balance but continue to strive to keep our books balanced, through careful scrutiny (thanks, Jim) and watching for opportunities to produce some income. Specifically we’re looking for sponsorships for events and scholarships. If your company might be interested, contact our Vice-President, Rob Cundari.

We’ve decided not to renew our partnership with Communitech. While we hope to re-connect with this unique organization in the future, the timing wasn’t quite right. We have, however, started another initiative with the Accelerator Centre. Watch this blog for more details, but it’s an exciting opportunity for senior writers to mentor and consult with entrepreneurs who operate under the Centre’s aegis.

Our two competitions are under way. The Publication Competition is looking for your entries by the middle of January. If not quite ready but you’re planning to enter this prestigious event send us the webform entry early to let us know you’ll be submitting an entry. It’s on the stc-soc.org website.

We’re also ramping up for our student awards competition. It’s open to all Ontario, post-secondary students. With a $1000 scholarship on the line, we’re expecting another good crop of student entries.
Council has also been working to put together our spring workshop.

We’re expecting two days of top-notch learning at the end of April. We’re still in the planning stages but we will have three or four separate workshops on different topics. There will be lots of flexibility, if you can’t manage two days away from your office. It’s always a great opportunity to upgrade your skills and a very reasonable cost. And, with no long-distance travel required! Pencil in April 26 and 27, now. We’ll let you know speakers and topics, soon.

For education events, we’re planning for Tom Johnson to join us in January via the web. He’ll be delivering a lunchtime talk on organizing help content for “findability”. In February, we’ll have Joe Welinske present “Write More, Write Less: Embracing the value of crafted words and image”.

Outside of the local chapter, the Canadian Chapter delegates continue to discuss items of interest to Canadian technical writers. Their biggest initiative is a Canadian Salary Survey.

Remember, we’re always looking for volunteers, so contact us if you’d like to become involved with other technical writers in the area. There’s lots of work to do this year!

Travelling to see a different chapter

By Gwyneth Evans

Membership has its privileges™. OK, so that saying belongs to a credit card company (American Express), but regarding STC membership privileges the spirit of that message is 100% true. One under-exercised privilege is the right to meet up. Meet up with your own chapter! And meet up with local and international chapters!

Recently, I travelled to see what was up at a nearby STC-Toronto membership social event. Like our own STC-SOC chapter events, it was advertised on-line, open to members and non-members, and hosted at a central location in the region - in this case a Milestones restaurant on the subway line and by a highway. After our group of 10 did introductions and ordered a brunch feast, conversation began to flow.

Technical communicators are an interesting group. We enjoy terms like “context of use”, “progressive disclosure”, the problem of “findability” and might use expressions like, “That’s Madcap!”, “I grow my own wiki,” and "Darwin Information Typing Architecture" while debating the future of fine print and internet media as we know them. The STC Toronto council and members did not disappoint. Conversation addressed the place for documentation in mobile application spaces, the finer points of automatic and manual indexing techniques, new CAD and DITA tooling, the managing of it all and more.

Regionally specific topics including talk of local STC events, goings-on in the city of Toronto, mayoral views on public libraries versus the right of the individual to literacy resources, the likelihood and date of a first snowfall or ski season all came up. We found we all could relate to the globally available STC education webinars: Technical Communicator in a Business Process Model World, Organizing Help Content, Document standard for Technical Publications, held high hopes for successful completion of work and wrap-up of documentation projects before the December holidays whether Hanukah, Kwanza, Festivus or Christmas, and hey… the pancakes – they were good. By the time our brunch meet-up was done, I had discovered that while our STC members come from different chapters, we all do and have a lot in common.

Successes & Lessons learned:
Travelling to regional STC events is energizing, is encouraged, leads to new relationships and new ideas to bring back to your chapter. You might, like I did, discover a funny, but good, understanding that under the STC umbrella, wherever you go, you will be welcome within a community that speaks your language.

So, keep your membership up to date, enjoy meeting up with your membership and when you do travel, bring your STC membership card – Don’t leave home without us. ™

See: Upcoming STC-SOC events
Let us know: Share your STC meet-up story
Been away? Renew your membership

Pub Night at The Firkin

by Fei Min Lorente, President

Who says technical communication is boring? The Southwestern Ontario Chapter got the year off to a fantastic start by meeting at The Firkin during Okoberfest. Completely informal, the attendees were free to talk about business, or not. Most of the council was there, so it was a great opportunity to meet the people who are planning your events and spending your money.

Welcome to the new recruits who came out that evening and volunteered to help the chapter:

• Ann Garniss will be helping with Education Days, which are our annual workshops.
• Sian Waterfield will be helping with competitions.
• Dwight Baer will be helping with the Heidi Thiessen Memorial Award (the student award competition).

We had an enthusiastic response to this social get-together, and we'll plan more of these in the future. Thanks to Rob Cundari who had this great idea and who did the organizing.

Isn't that interesting? President Fei Min Lorente listens
intently to the conversation over chicken fingers and fries.



I can visualize all kinds of things while I'm wearing this hat.
Jim Bousquet, Treasurer



Everyone's happy during Oktoberfest, especially with a drink and that hat.
Veronica Kutt from Front Runner Training and Rob Cundari, Vice-President.



These nachos require serious consideration.
(left to right) Ann Garniss, Education Manager assistant;
Ilmar Kutt, Front Runner Training, and Debbie Kerr, Past President



What do you really think about the virtues of Irish stout vs. a winter porter?
Sian Waterfield, Competitions Manager assistant, and Nancy Halverson, Competition Manager

Digital Futures: Technical Communication in the Digital Age

by Fei Min Lorente, President

Ken Coates, Dean of Arts at the University of Waterloo, was the guest speaker at the 2011 Annual General Meeting for the Southwestern Ontario Chapter of the STC. He discussed technical communication’s future in the digital age – where are we headed, and how will we fit with the new trends.

The effects of the Internet on worldwide communication have been hard to predict, but several decades after its inception, we’ve observed a deleterious effect on reading and writing. We spend more time skimming a search engine's results or a web page than actually reading. When we do read a web page, we find it usually provides a superficial treatment of the subject because writers know that it’s hard to read a lengthy article online (often on a small screen like a smart phone), and readers have low expectations. Lack of publishing rigour leads to incorrect grammar and articles that are typically written for a grade five level.

Most of the writing done now is in the form of emails, text messages, or tweets. Even university level exams are moving away from essays and long answers and moving towards multiple choice because they are machine readable.  Between the reduction of book reading and the rise of writing for the Internet, writing skills are in decline.

In the meantime, the fastest growing economies are in non-English speaking countries, such as China, India, South Korea, and Germany. Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Finland lead the way in digital media. They are learning English as a matter of course; as a result, they can harvest information from the English websites. About 350 million people in China are learning English, while very few North Americans or Europeans are learning Mandarin or Japanese. These countries are rapidly gaining a huge advantage over North America.

Emerging countries have embraced the digital revolution on a scale that is hard for us to imagine. The University of Waterloo started a digital media campus in Stratford this year. The masters program can accommodate up to 20 students. Compare with China—they built a digital media campus that can accommodate 425 000 students. The digital economy has shifted to Asia.

Asian students have to compete for the relatively few spots available in universities. In the international workplace their graduates have many advantages over ours: multilingual ability, better work ethic, competitiveness. One advantage we still have is that the English that they are learning is not very good.

Our educational institutions are part of the problem. Schools require less book reading and expect more Internet research. As a result, students get used to finding simplistic information about a subject. Furthermore, schools provide little instruction on basic writing skills, and few opportunities to learn and become proficient in a second language. Students with short attention spans are accommodated by the curriculum.

As a consequence of the digital age, the audience that technical communicators are writing for has changed. Readers expect to find information faster, and when they do find it, they expect it to be simple and easy to understand. With the global economy, our readers are a more multicultural group. Many readers understand English as a second language, and might be reluctant to ask questions when they don't understand something.

Digital media will continue to grow at a rapid pace, and as technology matures, the majority of workers in the field will shift from technology makers to technology users. We can already see that content is growing in importance. This enables communicators like us to find new career opportunities. See Michael J. Totten’s blog (http://pajamasmedia.com/michaeltotten/) for an example of some of the best freelance journalism, and he doesn’t have to sell anything to a media company. He makes enough money from his blog to travel to the areas that he is reporting about.

Dean Coates' advice to us was to learn another language if you have the chance. Instant translation is still at least 25 years away. If you can’t learn another language, at least try to understand other cultures so that you can write for a global audience. Our ability to write properly and organize material to explain a complex technology will be a rare talent in the future. It will be up to us to maintain the art and science of good communication.

He recommended reading Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku. This book will give you an inkling of the social ramifications of communication in a digital age.

Shortly after Dean Coates’ presentation, I came across two other related items of interest:

·        See guest post on Tom Johnson’s Idratherbewriting blog, http://idratherbewriting.com/2011/06/15/technical-writing-in-china/ about “Technical Writing in China” by Ivan Walsh

·        Listen to the interview on Spark, a CBC program hosted by Nora Young. Author Cyrus Farivar talks about his book The Internet of Elsewhere: http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2011/06/full-interview-cyrus-farivar-on-the-internet-of-elsewhere/. It examines the internet experience in four very diverse societies: Iran, Senegal, Estonia and South Korea.

Dean Coates’ presentation and these other sources are signs that we have to start looking beyond our own language and culture to see the future of digital communication.

Southwestern Ontario Chapter Second Annual General Meeting

by Carol Lawless, Secretary

Another year wrapped up and while we didn’t pop the champagne or launch into Auld Lang Syne, we did have good friends, old and new, and good cheer. The Huether Hotel’s Boardroom was the scene of our second Annual General Meeting (AGM) on June 12, 2011. We welcomed Ken Coates, our guest speaker who is the Dean of Arts from the University of Waterloo, enjoyed a good meal and participated in some excellent networking conversations. And of course, conducted the official business that’s crucial to any non-profit organization.

The evening’s sponsor was Technically Write Consulting Ltd. Thank you for paying the balance of our food and drink bill!

Our outgoing President, Fei Min Lorente, recapped the year. We had a successful ten months with our core offerings (education evenings, webinars, workshops and competitions). But we also had an innovative year. We:

• offered several education evenings by webinar. For our members who live too far to drive in for an evening, this offers a chance to be involved in the chapter.
• opened our student award competition to all post secondary schools in Ontario.
• hit social networking, using LinkedIn and Twitter as well as the new STC website to move towards two-way communications.
• introduced the participation contest.
• leveraged our partnership with Communitech.

Looking ahead to the future, we need to provide a venue where members and non-members are more excited to participate. To that end, we will be doing a survey later this summer to find out what you think we need for a vibrant chapter and what would fulfill your needs. Some ideas we floated informally were more relaxed networking evenings, pub-style, to complement our education evenings.

Our chapter is working with other Canadian and International chapters to support one another with ideas and resources. The Canadian chapters, specifically, are working on a Canadian salary survey and are looking to revive the Canadian Issues SIG.

For the official business we had a quorum – enough members were present to vote and elect the board of directors for 2011-2012. We began by reading and approving the 2010 minutes. Treasurer, Jim Bousquet presented a view of the audited financial statement for 2010. All members are entitled to see the financial statement, which they can obtain from the treasurer. The members accepted the report unanimously and also agree to retain the auditors for the 2011 statements.

The election of officers yielded the following results (all were elected unanimously):

• President: Fei Min Lorente

• Treasurer: Jim Bousquet

• Secretary: Carol Lawless

While the president can (under our bylaws) serve for a maximum of two consecutive terms, she may run for a third term at the request of the membership. Since there were no other nominations put forward for President, Fei Min graciously agreed to stay for a third year. Rob Cundari was appointed as Vice-president. We wish him well as he learns the ropes! Thanks to both of you for stepping up to keep our chapter alive and vibrant.

Fei Min presented several awards – She announced the participation contest winners:

• third place (150 points): Carrie Warner won $50

• second place (150 points): Ursula McCloy won $100

• first place (200 points): Tricia Ward won $250



Jim presents a cheque to Ursula, the happy second place winner in the Participation Contest







Jim presents a cheque to Tricia, the happy first place winner in the Participation Contest



Debbie Kerr receiving her award from Fei Min Lorente

Debbie Kerr officially received her Distinguished Chapter Service Award. Debbie was unable to attend the March awards night to receive this well deserved recognition for her huge contributions to the chapter. We were delighted that she could receive it at the AGM.

And finally Fei Min thanked the council members for their dedication this year:

Absent: Gwyneth, Elaine, Patrice, Tracey, Heather, Sam

Sylvia - liaison with Fanshawe College and University of Western Ontario, and liaison with London Word Fest in 2012

Ursula - Employment Manager

Nancy - Competitions Manager and Hospitality Manager

Rob -Membership Manager

Debbie - Past President and jack of all trades

Jim - Treasurer

Carol - Secretary

Fei Min - President

And finally, a special thank you to all our families for their support and understanding.

Our chapter is run by volunteers and we are always looking for new faces around the table. Your input and help are essential for an energetic and exciting chapter. Volunteering is a great way to build your portfolio, learn new skills, and impress people. If you’re interested, we’d love to have you on board! Specifically we’re looking for people to fill the roles of webmaster and education manager.

We are taking a break from events for the summer, but we look forward to seeing you again in September. In the meantime, stay in touch. There are so many ways...

Awards Night 2011

Why read about it when you can watch it? Here's the video, thanks to ExpoTube, our partner in communication.

If you want to know how you can become an award-winner, see the requirements on our website for the awards that were handed out that night:

• Distinguished Chapter Service Award--Debbie Kerr was our winner this year. She couldn't make it to Awards Night, so she received her award at the Annual General Meeting.
• The Summit Award--Ursula McCloy wrote about her award-winning experience on this blog; see Reaching the Summit (Part One) and Reaching the Summit (Part Two).
• Technical Publications Competition--a team from Manulife won an award of Excellence for their entry; congratulations to Meaghan Campbell, Lori Jamieson and Christa Ptatschek!
• Heidi Thiessen Memorial Award for students--see Student Award Winners for more information about this year's winning entries.

Maybe you'll be in the picture next year!

Reaching the STC Summit (Part Two)

By Ursula McCloy

Main Entrance to the Convention Centre

Monday -- Day 1

Sessions started on Monday, and I have to say I was disappointed. I musta picked the wrong topics or something, but they were all so general I couldn't find anything useful to take away. Everyone was going on about DITA, single sourcing, social media, Web 2.0, and Agile development. Well. If you don't happen to be able to completely re-invent your work environment, most of that is useless. I write SDK documentation for a niche market. There ain't no hashtag for it, and I don't think there ever should be. There is no point in single sourcing something that only gets used in one place anyways. And there's no way you can write a cute little task topic for the hairy situations our customers use our software for.

Entrance to the Vendor Showcase

But I loved the vendor showcase. I'm in the market for a new help authoring tool, and have been pondering the best option for over a year. This was my opportunity to corner their reps and ask all the questions that are relevant to me. And they listen! Little ol' me who only needs to buy three licenses -- they listen to what I'm saying as if I was outfitting a team of hundreds! I've got two private discussions lined up for when I get back, to see how two different pieces of software can be used in a new workflow.

End of day wrapped up with a get-together at a pub, with a strong Canadian presence and a younger (ahem) demographic. The pub had 14 kinds of their home-brew on tap, which made it an excellent opportunity to network. Nuff said :). I've never been to Sacramento either, so I really enjoyed the downtown core where the conference was located - a blend of old & new architecture, civic art, beautiful gardens, restaurants, pedestrian ways, and so on. I wonder if all the STC summits are so happily situated?



Tribute to the Pony Express in Old Sacramento



State Building



The Peace Garden, full of roses and writings from children about peace

Tuesday Day 2

About face. The sessions today were AWESOME. Lots of new concepts I could directly apply to current work: better ways to map requirements to user design; faceted navigation to assemble documentation pieces into content that is applicable for the situation; ways to start planning content strategy; better ways to estimate projects work.

Beyond that, there were thought stretching times. At a meeting for one of my SIGs (Information Design & Architecture), we had a heated discussion about the difference between the architecture of information, content strategy, and visual design, and how they relate to one another. Another session where Michael Priestly (godfather of DITA; he actually presented DITA at our chapter meeting about 4 years ago, waaaay before any publishing tool supported it) demonstrated their new, open source, online content delivery system.

There were also ideas that I could take back to others at my company: for the S&M team (that's Sales & Marketing in case you're getting any ideas about my workplace), ways to manage content and analyze our website; for my team's Product Manager, ways to identify and prioritize real user goals (not just the ones we dream up).

Wednesday Day 3

Where'd the time go? The last day went by in a blur of sessions. Learned to duck out of ones that just didn't live up to their descriptions or were too general for my liking. Some speakers are insightful enough you just go see them, even though the topic seems like it has nothing to do with your work. Sometimes there would be three sessions I was interested in running simultaneously, so I'd have to make a tough choice. But with summit registration, you now get access to all recorded sessions (speaker audio and screen capture), so there's a way to catch the ones you missed. I'm also super excited about sharing the best sessions with my team mates back home. Maybe we'll listen to one a week over lunch, and talk about the ideas it presents and the changes we can make as a team.

Spent more time talking to people, between sessions, finding how they handled the topics we had just listened to (or were about to listen to) at their companies where they were stuck, where they had made a change, what kind of transition they were in, how their work environment differed from mine. Yeah, I know you're supposed to network for personal career development, but really it felt more like finding someone with a common interest or hobby, and getting right into it with them. It's like a club with a secret handshake. Where's the best fishing hole? The best place to buy lures? The biggest fish you caught? What technique did you use? The tacit understanding of what it takes to go out for hours and sit in a boat, to produce a single edible specimen.

Convention Centre Ceiling

Then, in a flash the Summit is all done. The last session is over, suitcases are packed and wheeled away, my mind is full of ideas and innovation. On the long flight home to reality, I pondered what things I can try to implement right away, and what will just percolate in the back in my mind until an opportunity arises. At work, I've bored all the non-writers with details of the DITA methodology, and peaked some interest in distributing our documentation more dynamically through our website. Maybe I can get something to change after all!