The My STC Network is Open for Business!

Today we launched the My STC Network on STC.org.

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

The STC Southwestern Ontario Chapter’s Discussion List

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.

To post messages to the Discussion List, do one of the following:

• Email your message to stc-southwestern-ontario@googlegroups.com.
• Log onto https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/stc-southwestern-ontario with your email address as your user ID, and click the + new post (or New Topic) button

This list is moderated. Please review the Posting Guidelines below.

Posting Guidelines

When posting messages to the main mailing list, follow these guidelines:

• Ensure that posting are relevant to technical communicators. Under no circumstances can any postings include references to religion or politics.
• Respect individuals who post information. Personal attacks are not acceptable on the discussion list or during exchanges that have been taken off list.
• 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.
• Accept that we are all human. Refrain from editing other members’ posts and overcome your technical communication tendencies by refraining from reposting your message or apologizing if you make a typo unless it really changes the meaning of the sentence.

Repeated violations of these guidelines will result in your removal from this Discussion List.

Student Award Winners

About Heidi Thiessen

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 3^rd and 4^th 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

4^th 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 1^st place finish.

2^nd Place – Daniel Pinelli

2^nd 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.

3^rd Place – Daniel Dulcin

2^nd 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.

Debbie Kerr

Immediate Past President

Southwester Ontario Chapter, STC

Education Days 2011

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.

Register now! For more information, see the Education Days micro-site.

Agile approaches to documentation requirements

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.

Writing modular reusable content

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.

Gwyneth Evans

Public Relations Manager

2011 STC Director Candidates

To be eligible for voting, you need to renew your membership by February 28. Voting starts on March 9 and ends March 30.

For full election details: http://notebook.stc.org/election

Bernard Aschwanden

http://notebook.stc.org/election/bernard-aschwanden

Member Status: Senior Member

Current Community: STC Toronto

Current Professional Title: President of Publishing Smarter

Company: Publishing Smarter

Company Location (City, State, or Country): Canada

Ray Gallon

http://notebook.stc.org/election/ray-gallon

Member Status: Senior Member

Current Community: France Chapter

Current Professional Title: Global Software

Technical Information Systems Designer

Company: Carestream Dental, division of Carestream Health Inc.

Company Location (City, State, or Country): Marne La Vallée (Paris region), France
(HQ in Atlanta, GA)

Brian J. Lindgren

http://notebook.stc.org/election/brian-lindgren

Member Status: Associate Fellow

Current Community: South Carolina Midlands Chapter

Current Professional Title: Systems Analyst

Company: Imagine One Technology & Management Ltd.

Company Location (City, State, or Country): Charleston, SC (HQ in Colonial Beach, VA)

Rich Maggiani

http://notebook.stc.org/election/rich-maggiani

Member Status: Fellow

Current Community: Vermont

Current Professional Title: Communication Consultant

Company: Solari Communication

Company Location (City, State, or Country): Essex, VT

Tricia Spayer

http://notebook.stc.org/election/tricia-spayer

Member Status: Senior Member

Current Community: Northeast Ohio, all SIGs

Current Professional Title: Technical Writer/Illustrator

Company: Pressco Technology Inc.

Company Location (City, State, or Country): Solon, OH

Recording of STC Vice President Candidate Discussion

Sarah O’Keefe and Scriptorium recently held a webinar discussion with the two candidates for STC Vice President, Alan Houser and Victoria Koster-Lenhardt. If you missed the live webcast, watch this recording to get to know the candidates.


Thanks again to Sarah for hosting. Remember, the STC election opens 9 March and runs through 30 March at 4:00 PM EDT (GMT-4). You must have renewed your STC membership by 28 February in order to vote in this election. To learn more about all candidates and ask questions of the candidates, visit the STC Election site.
 
Republished from STC's Notebook Feed

Summary of the Winter Council Meetings for Southwestern Ontario

Thanks to the power of technology, council continues to meet monthly. Did you know our council members live throughout Ontario, from North Bay, to London; Paris to Toronto; Guelph to Waterloo? We alternate our meetings from virtual to in person; some people dial in monthly. Our newest volunteer, Sylvia Squair, is our new liaison in London with University of Western Ontario and Fanshaw College. Our winter has been busy with event planning topping the monthly agendas:


Education days:

We’re still finalizing instructors for our Education days this spring. We are working on the same profit sharing model we established last year. We bandied about a number of topics and finally narrowed it down to content reuse and working with agile development.

Monthly events:

We are continuing to plan for a Webinar in the months we do not have an education evening. However, we did cancel February due to lack of interest.

Awards night:

Our annual Awards night is scheduled for March 30 at the Davis Centre. We’ll be presenting the Heidi Thiessen Memorial scholarship, Publication Competition awards, Summit award (drawing will take place that night) and Distinguished Chapter Service Award. Fei Min is looking into bringing the STC Travelling Road Show to the event. The road show showcases the International Competition winners from last year.

Annual General Meeting:

In June, we’ll have our Annual General Meeting and are looking for a speaker.

Other items of interest:

• Student competition is underway. We posted notices in London, Toronto, Waterloo and Guelph. Judging will begin shortly.

• Technical publications judging was completed in conjunction with the Toronto chapter, in one day. One entry in the group will go on to the International competition. Nancy will arrange to have the certificates for our chapter winners ready for the awards night.

• We finalized and rolled out the participation game. See our website for the current leaders.

• We’ve purchased an early bird registration to the Summit (transferable) that will be awarded to one volunteer at the Awards night. The person selected is expected to attend the Leadership day, write an article on the Summit and present a seminar on their learnings.

• We discussed the best way to communicate to members and decided to use a variety of options so people can pick the one that best suits them. With that in mind, we’ve set up Linked-in and Twitter accounts.

• The STC launched their new website. In future we will be able to set up a micro-site on the site. At that point, we’ll investigate how best to tap into this.

• Communitech representatives have attended some council meetings. Avvey Peters is our new Communitech liaison.

• As of year end (2010) our chapter membership is at 73 people.

• The audit has been completed on our 2010 financial statement.

• We’re pursuing sponsorship options with Front Runner.

• STC elections are coming soon. We’ll provide election information on the Blog and website. There are several international candidates including Canada’s Bernard Aschwanden running this year.

• And last but not least, our February council meeting was completed in a record breaking sixty one minutes!

Carol Lawless
Secretary
Southwestern Ontario Chapter STC