by Kevin Cuddihy on 20 January 2012
Like any new technology, mobile has its share of confusing new jargon and concepts. Getting them wrong may be harmless … or it might lead to buying the wrong tool, hiring the wrong person, or going off in the wrong strategic direction. Get the introduction you need with the live Web seminar Introduction to the Mobile Ecology, presented by Neil Perlin on Tuesday, 24 January, from 9:00-10:00 PM EST (GMT-5).
This webinar provides an overview of the main concepts and terms in the mobile world. First, it discusses rationales for going mobile at all. It then discusses the types of mobile outputs—native apps, web apps, and ebooks—and pros and cons of each type, and then explains what an “app” is. The webinar then discusses authoring tools, focusing on those familiar to technical communicators but introducing some useful ones from outside the tech comm world. Finally, the presenter discusses design, planning, and management issues for mobile on its own and integrated into a larger tech comm environment.
by Kevin Cuddihy on 18 January 2012
We sadly share the news that Janis Hocker, former STC President (1987–1988), passed away last week. Janis was a longtime member of STC and gained the rank of Fellow in addition to becoming President. We reprint below the obituary notice written and shared by her husband, Joe, and offer our condolences to her family.
Janis Raymond Hocker, beloved wife and mother, passed away peacefully on 14 January 2012 surrounded by her loving family—husband Joseph, daughter Haley, and son and daughter-in-law Harrison and Gabriela. She was preceded in death by her father, mother, and brother: Harry Raymond, Dorothy Raymond, and Ronn Raymond.
Texas would never be quite the same after Janis was born in Houston at St. Joseph’s Hospital on 10 June 1948. Everything she did had a unique Janis quality to it, like combining English and mathematics to graduate with a double major from the University of Houston. She was never afraid of taking on a challenge, working as a geophysical analyst when secretaries were the only other women in research centers of major oil companies. Clear-eyed and logical, she could whip any organization into shape, as a manager in a gas company, as national president of the Society for Technical Communication, or as president of the PTO of her children’s school. But Janis did it with such humor that everyone followed with delight.
The humor, that’s what everyone will miss the most. No one but Janis could transform a traumatic experience with chemotherapy in rural Indonesia into a hilarious email about adjusting to and loving life in a different culture. No one else could take a dull subject like technical writing and turn it into two days of improvisational comedy while teaching engineers to write. She could make friends laugh hysterically with her jokes and stories.
She fought the cancer that ultimately took her life with grace, with courage, and, always, with humor. She accomplished much professionally, but it is her children who are the greatest evidence of her strength of character and immense ability to love.
Her friends and family know she is in heaven but cannot help grieving their own loss of this real Texas woman. Hers was a good life, well led.
Visitation with the family will be held at the Settegast-Kopf Funeral Home at 15015 SW Freeway, Sugar Land, Texas, from 5:00–8:00 PM on Friday, 20 January 2012. A memorial service will be held at the Sugar Grove Church of Christ on 11:00 AM Saturday, 21 January 2012.
by Kevin Cuddihy on 16 January 2012
Learn how to get ideas into print and into the hands of readers through the new and ever-growing technology of electronic and self-publishing. Join Ruth E. Thaler-Carter as she presents the live Web seminar Getting Yourself Into Print on Wednesday, 18 January, from 1:0o-2:00 PM EST (GMT-5).
The world of self- and electronic publishing is expanding constantly, offering technical communicators an exciting opportunity to put their own words and experiences—or the publishing projects of their employers and clients—into print. Whether you have a novel, poem, or manual in your soul, today you can get it into print and in the hands of readers. Tech writers and editors who want to move into publishing their own or their employers’ work will find out why and how to publish their own technical or non-technical work, identify markets for their own writing work, and figure out the technology behind electronic and self-publishing.
by Kevin Cuddihy on 13 January 2012
by Kevin Cuddihy on 13 January 2012
The first webinar in our new timeslot debuts next week, 9:00 PM EST (GMT-5) on Tuesdays. This new time is meant to accommodate U.S. members who aren’t able to take these sessions during the workday, as well as some of our international members (especially Asia and the Pacific) for whom it would be the next morning. And don’t forget, all currently scheduled webinars are only $59, down from $79, through the end of January. Register for any webinar on the STC site by 31 January and save.
So join STC on Tuesday, 17 January, for The Art of the Demo, presented by Robert Rhyne Armstrong from 9:00-10:00 PM EST (GMT-5). Did you know that the success of your demonstration can be determined in the first minute? This webinar walks you through how to prepare software, your system, and yourself to give the best possible demonstration for your audience. After this webinar, you’ll know how to prepare for, organize, and deliver a demonstration, including how to take into account audience-based factors in your planning. Tell the story the right way!
by Kevin Cuddihy on 11 January 2012
This blog post is the first in new series for STC’s Notebook, A Community Affair, by the Community Affairs Committee. It discusses how your community can use the Community Achievement Award application as a planning tool. The Community Achievement Award recognizes a SIG, professional chapter, or student chapter’s outstanding accomplishments. The guidelines, applications, and samples can be found on the STC website. In addition, a recorded webinar that covers how to fill out the application is posted online. If you have any questions about the award, please contact Tom Barnett, CAA Chair, or Lloyd Tucker, STC Deputy Executive Director.
The CAA applications for 2011 are due 23 January, but the information posted on the CAA webpage can be used to plan out your Community’s 2012 activities, as discussed below.
Guest Post by Ray Gallon, CAC communications lead
The deadlines for the Community Achievement Awards (CAAs) are almost upon us, and I hope many of you who are community leaders are busy filling out the forms showing how you have achieved Merit, Excellence and Distinction during the past year.
What may not be so obvious, however, is how those of us who are not filling out such a form at this time for 2011 can use the guidelines to help us run, and improve, our chapters. I’m a chapter president, myself, and my own chapter, the France chapter, won a Community of Excellence award in 2008. If I go to the new CAA Guidelines page, and open the geographical community checklist, I can still find pointers that will help me improve the way my chapter runs.
[click to continue…]
by Kevin Cuddihy on 9 January 2012
Wish you had more time to deeply understand customer reasoning? Join Indi Young and STC for the live Web seminar Mental Model Diagrams: Supportive Content for Specific Folks and get the understanding you need.
Mental model diagrams provide a clear roadmap of where to invest your energies and where you shouldn’t. Derive information architecture, head off arguments, and get everyone on the same page. Stretch your limited resources by building the diagram over time, depending on core behaviors that will last decades.
Note: All webinars are on sale for $59, down from $79, through the end of January. Register for any currently scheduled webinar and save!
by Kevin Cuddihy on 6 January 2012
Information Week has an article about how social media changes technical communication, written by an author who recently presented to the STC Palm Beaches Chapter.
Proof that editing matters: the BBC quotes a man who states that businesses in the U.K. are losing millions of pounds in online revenue due to poor spelling.
The blog disambiguity takes a look at user experience versus customer experience.
Userfocus lists 20 things you can do this year to improve your user’s experience.
And finally, MindTouch has compiled a list of techcomm and content strategy’s top 400 most influential folks, and many STC members and communities are included—with @stc_org ranked number five overall. See the full list on the MindTouch blog and on their Twitter account. They also listed the top ten in a variety of other categories, so check it all out to see if you’re included! And for those of you just starting on Twitter, following those 400 would be a great beginning. Just click on the link above and then “Follow this List.”
by Kevin Cuddihy on 6 January 2012
Guest post by Nicky Bleiel, STC Director at Large
Community leaders, please note that the deadline for Community Achievement Award applications is Monday, 23 January.
The Community Achievement Award recognizes a SIG, professional chapter, or student chapter’s outstanding accomplishments. The guidelines and applications can be found on the STC website. In addition, a recorded webinar that covers how to fill out the application is posted online.
The CAAs are presented at the STC Summit and are a great opportunity to showcase your community’s work! The award levels are Merit, Excellence, and Distinction, and from those honorees the “Most Improved Community” and the “Community of the Year” are chosen and recognized.
If you have any questions, please contact Tom Barnett, CAA Chair, or Lloyd Tucker, STC Deputy Executive Director
by Kevin Cuddihy on 6 January 2012
Intercom magazine has been honored with the Bronze award in the category of Monthly Professional Society Magazine in Association TRENDS’ 2011 All-Media Contest. It was one of more than 450 entries in the association publications contest, and STC’s entry was bested only by entries from the much-larger Society for Human Resource Management and American Society of Association Executives.
“I am so pleased that Intercom has won a second media award this year, proving that hard work pays off,” said editor Elizabeth Pohland. “Thanks are due to all the authors and members who contributed content to the magazine in 2011, and to the STC staff members, who provide support and assist with all forms of media and communications to members.”
The TRENDS All Media Contest is an annual competition held exclusively for associations, recognizing the most creative and effective communication vehicles developed in the industry over the prior year. The 2011 competition included more than 450 entries in 22 categories of association communications.
See the full list of winners on the Association TRENDS website.
