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.
Technical Publications Competition--a team from Manulife won an award of Excellence for their entry; congratulations to Meaghan Campbell, Lori Jamieson and Christa Ptatschek!
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!
It's strange being a newbie again. I've been a tech writer and an STC member for over 13 years (or is it 14?), and normally I feel a bit weathered around the edges. But I've never made it to a summit, so it was a brand new experience for me. I've been wondering for a few years - why, oh why, did I not go in '97 when it was in Toronto? So I was pretty excited to get the opportunity to attend: hoping to learn a bit, network with the people who I know by name but not in person, and spend a few nights in a quiet hotel room, sans enfants.
Sunday - Day 0
Leadership Day isn't strictly part of the education portion of the summit. Instead, it's time for the community leaders (SIGs, chapters, special committees) to talk STC shop: what the society is doing, what it's changing, what it's looking for feedback on. After the requisite intros, awards, and thank-yous (yawn), we got right down to work. The burning question this year is what can STC do to serve its communities and individual members better? What do people want from the STC?
The day was a series of progressions, so I picked some of the topics that seemed most relevant for our chapter.
Competition: Discussed how they're improving the evaluation forms. Last year, they threw away the old checklists, since what people find most valuable are the actual reviewer comments. But they are hoping to improve the forms this year so they're less work for the reviewers to fill out. Wonder if that will mean less review comments in general?
Virtual marketing of your community: I'm suspicious of stuff like this, since I don't have time to moon about on Facebook and tweet about what I had for lunch. But the main point was whatever method you use to communicate with your members, make a plan for the year, stick to it, and be consistent. So whether your channel is a newsletter, a Facebook page, or a mailing list, you've got to know when you need to communicate something, communicate it at the same time, and in the same way. You need to make message consumption simpler by making it as easy to digest as possible.
Problems/successes faced by geographic communities: Lack of participation in chapter events concerns everyone, particularly when members are polled and say that is what they value. What to do about decreasing attendance? Virtual seminars (either entirely remote, or live webcasts of an actual meeting), moving locations, planned communication about events are ways to encourage people to come out. Or just do stuff together. Like go to movies, hikes, baseball games, the pub. There is a general feel that we need to re-establish the community aspect of a chapter.
How can we recruit, support, and maintain volunteers in a virtual environment? Bodily presence at events isn't always possible, so how can we harness people to help out remotely, and how do we outline terms of engagement? For example, what is an appropriate time period for people to respond to an email, before they've missed the window of opportunity? Answer: 1 business day or less. I think that's pretty true for work too.
Leaders and Attendees Mixing It Up at the Community Reception
Finally, we wrapped up with a demo and Q&A session about the MySTC networking site its features, the planned enhancements, and so on. I think it's neat that our local chapter can have its own group; maybe we can have a forum where we can ask for advice, voice opinions, and get to connect with people in our own area? So scratch my above comment about mooning about on Facebook -- I've already signed up, connected with a bunch of people I met at the conference, and am looking forward to some collaborative inspiration.
This new feature will change the way technical communicators interact online. Combining the knowledge-sharing capabilities of a professional network with the interactivity and user experience of a social network, My STC is an important platform for networking, collaboration, communication, community management, and more.
We’ve worked hard to ensure that the interface is simple enough to be intuitive while still incorporating the tools and resources that will provide the greatest value possible. We’ve involved community leaders from STC chapters and SIGs in our pre-release site testing, and their feedback has helped shape our efforts in refining the interface and determining which features are top priorities for STC members.
To experience the My STC Network, please visit www.stc.org. (Because of DNS propagation, it may take some time before you see the updated site. This depends on your ISP. However, over the next few hours, the site new site should be available to all users.)
To log in, just enter your existing STC username and password. You can do this by clicking on the “Site Access” link at the top right-hand side of the page or by clicking on the “My STC” tab on the navigation bar.
Once you’re inside, you’ll have the opportunity to personalize your user experience. You can edit your profile, add personal information, upload an image or video, create or view events, and begin participating in discussions. If you’re a member of an STC chapter or SIG, you’ll be automatically added to the corresponding discussion groups when you sign in. If you’re not a member of an STC community, you can participate in open discussion groups or start your own.
With this new platform, STC can also invite any STC.org visitor to register for the website, providing the opportunity for nonmembers to purchase education offerings, publications, and other STC services. These accounts will also allow nonmembers to gain limited access to the My STC Network, where they will be able to participate in designated nonmember groups and view or join open community groups. (A group’s status as “open” or “private” is determined by the administrator; in the case of STC communities, usually the president or manager.) If you’re considering inviting a technical communicator you know to join STC, this is a great way to get them involved.
We’ve prepared a video tutorial that explains the new features of STC.org. If you’d prefer a walkthrough before signing in or need some help finding your way around, please have a look at the following instructional video:http://youtu.be/WDo99UUhj9s.
We’ve taken great care to make this new platform as user-friendly as possible. If you should happen to encounter any problems, however, please let us know. You can leave feedback using the “Feedback” tab on every page of the site. This will take you to Get Satisfaction (separate login required), a tool we’re using to aggregate and address site issues and suggestions.
We hope you enjoy these new Web tools developed to enhance collaboration, networking, and knowledge sharing among professionals in the field of technical communication. We look forward to seeing you online.
Reprinted from STC's Notebook Feed by Kevin Cuddihy on 12 May 2011
This list provides a place to discuss any topic that might be of interest to a technical communicator. You do not have to be a chapter member to join this list. If you want to join, send an email request to mailmaster@stc-soc.org.
The chapter will publicize events related to technical communication on this list. Some of the events are ones our chapter is offering, while others are offered by other chapters, organizations and companies. While events offered outside of our chapter might be very worthwhile, we can only endorse those that our chapter offers. The STC Southwestern Ontario chapter does not receive any remuneration for advertising these events; this is simply a public service to our community.
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Keep in mind that this venue is for discussion and sharing information. Alternate points of view are encouraged, and participants should keep an open mind.
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Repeated violations of these guidelines will result in your removal from this Discussion List.
The Heidi Thiessen Memorial Award was officially named in 2000, although the award itself was established years before that.
The Southwestern Ontario Chapter of the STC created this award to keep her memory and legacy alive. Beyond her involvement as an active member of our chapter, Heidi was influential in hiring new graduates, and she mentored many students and young writers. Through her work at the University of Waterloo Centre for Professional Writing, and later at Storm Technical Communications, many co-op students gained valuable work experience in a supportive environment. Unfortunately, Heidi passed away from breast cancer while she was still in her 30s.
Requirements for Submission
To apply for this award, students had to meet the following requirements:
- Attend a college or university full time - Be in second year or higher in their program - Have a minimum of a 75% average (official transcript required) - Write a letter describing how their writing skills have improved with experience - Submit two writing samples to demonstrate their technical writing skills (for example, reports, newsletter articles, and essays).
General Comments
This is the first year that we made the Heidi Thiessen award available to all college and university students in Ontario who are in their second year of study. Previously the award was restricted to the University of Guelph, University of Waterloo, and Wilfrid Laurier University. It was also previously restricted to 3rd and 4th year students. These changes are definitely reflected in the winning entries. Two of the winners are in their second year of study, and all of them would not have met the requirements for this award in the past.
1st Place – Josh Wellstood
4th year student at McMaster University (Electrical Engineering Management Program)
His Letter
The following sentence captures an important concept about technical communication:
“I have worked significantly to develop key communication skills to effectively explain technically detailed material in a manner that a person without a background in the subject can understand.”
Submission Titles (Topics)
- Analysis of the SLN-Aecon Field Change Notice Process for Bruce ‘A’ Restart Balance of Plant Project
- Arc Flash Hazards: Causes, Calculations and Controls
Comments
While the titles seem complex, the well-written text and great use of graphics within these submissions made the information easy to understand. In addition to content, the information was laid out well with useful headings and groupings of information. These are truly impressive entries and very worthy of their 1st place finish.
2nd Place – Daniel Pinelli
2nd year student at McMaster University (Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering)
His Letter
Daniel’s cover letter was very strong. In fact he started with a definition of communication:
“Communication. A skill that is immensely important in the fields of science and engineering and yet is rarely given the emphasis it deserves in academic study.”
Submission Titles (Topics)
·Propeller Selection
·ECCS Work Term Report for a company that is a component repair shop for the aerospace industry. His main task during his work term was the improvement of the thermal spray process.
Comments
Daniel made good use of flowcharts to illustrate processes with corresponding explanations and formulas. He also provided good descriptions of elements before providing more details. He did an excellent job of presenting his goals and then following those goals with examples of how they were met. He also included examples of problems and solutions.
3rd Place – Daniel Dulcin
2nd year student at Lakehead University (Honours Bachelor of Science in Biology)
His Letter
The following is a quotation in Daniel’s letter:
“I am determined to strive for excellence in my written work and have already registered for two writing classes this summer that are not requirements in my degree.”
Submission Titles (Topics)
The following articles were written as part of the SPARK program at Lakehead University. The SPARK program conveys to the public the importance and significance of local research. Daniel wrote two such articles:
·Mussel Man (Note: Since you cannot see the spelling, it refers to the one in the Clam family.)
·Evolution: An Evolving Science
Comments
Daniel’s two submissions demonstrate that technical documentation can be easy to read, even by people not educated on the topic. It also shows that the length of the document is not necessarily reflect the quality of the writing. If you can say the same thing with fewer words then you should be commended. Daniel has demonstrated that he knows his audience and recognizes how much content that audience can grasp, and how much time that audience will spend to read an article.
Don’t miss our upcoming and exciting Education Days 2011!Pamela Kostur of Parallax Communications will be with us to lead an exploration of modular content design and reuse.Fernando Santiago MBA PMP CSM, with 20+ years of project management experience and certified Scrum Master Certification, will share his perspective on how to integrate and adapt Agile project management practices to documentation requirements.
Modular content design approaches break content into a larger volume of smaller reusable information units supported by storage, meta-data and relationship management techniques. Regardless the project management approach or size of an organization, content-reuse generally reduces content duplication and increases accuracy and consistency across libraries while enabling dynamic and flexible development of multiple deliverables from content sub-units.
Agile project management practices increase the number of completed prototypes along an iterative development path.These practices are also characterized by increased stakeholder and client engagement so as to increase likelihood of customer acceptance of the final product.Documentation practices can be partially or fully adapted to the Agile model.Learning the key concepts and gaining practical experience can help you minimize common project risks:excess production overhead, discarded prototype work, and tight deadlines. By leveraging the gains of this approach and being part of the critical project path, you will achieve improved requirements, status reporting, teamwork and communication.
Both modular content design and Agile practices, have gained recognition in recent years and are quickly becoming standard practice.
Learn the terminology, concepts and practices of each process now and become a documentation leader capable of managing the critical documentation project path.
This one-day introductory training course will provide you with a solid understanding of the core knowledge, terminology and concepts that define the Agile project management approach. A comparison of various project approaches highlights the key differentiators of Agile methods, and the implications within product development environments on communications, documentation and other related processes.
Hands-on exercises done in small groups provide practical preparation for applying the communication methods and concepts with a combination of basic tools, including Excel.You will become comfortable defining user-stories, as well as creating and sizing a project work item backlog.You will become confident defining "Done!" in the context of your project, be able to articulate project work velocity, plan work iterations, and generate tasks from backlogs and communicate the status of iterations using accumulated data. By the end of the course, you will be able to establish scrum procedures, a project backlog, a burndown chart, and have practical experience executing basic project iterations.
This course is intended for beginners or those with some previous knowledge or experience with Agile practices.
Modular content design approaches break content into a larger volume of smaller reusable information units requiring storage, meta-data and relationship management techniques. Regardless of the project management approach or size of an organization, content-reuse generally reduces content duplication and increases accuracy and consistency across libraries while enabling dynamic and flexible development of multiple deliverables from content sub-units.
In this course you will learn the key terminology and concepts related to modular documentation design.You will then learn how to analyze content, plan and structure content deliverables and the reusable content modules that will be required to satisfy the independent and collective deliverable requirements.Lastly, you will learn how to apply structure to the writing within the modules to maximize the clarity, accuracy and consistency of the module content which can be integrated with and used alongside writing guidelines.
This course is suitable for technical communicators with varying amounts of experience, from novice to well-seasoned.
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