Communication
Times
The STC Toronto
Chapter Newsletter
March/April
2007
Articles
To contribute an article to the newsletter for
consideration, please contact our editor at newsletter@stctoronto.org
or reply to this email. |
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STC Toronto Member Profiles: Bernard Aschwanden
An interview with Bernard Aschwanden, the Vice President of
the Toronto chapter of the Society for Technical Communication
(STC), the chapter Competition Manager, and the Director of
Technology and Publishing Architecture for Bright Path
Solutions.
Read the
article |
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STC Meeting Report - January 2007 - Susan Webb
Given that more and more technical communication work is
now contract or part-time, most of us are regularly on the
lookout for a job. Think you are already an expert job hunter?
Read on! Jack Molisani is the president of ProSpring Staffing
(www.prospring.net), a California-based recruitment agency for
technical writers and other professionals.
Read the
article |
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Seneca's TECC Program - Part Two - Mark Bronny
After contributing the first section of my interview with
Jim Maloney of Seneca's Technical Communication program in the
last newsletter, I was pleased to receive a few follow-up
e-mails from other applicants who showed interest in learning
more about the program.
Read the
article |
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Sub-Zero Response - Barry Clegg
Back in the 1980s, IBM commissioned research into the
importance of how quickly a computer responded to the user's
instructions. It turned out that productivity rose
significantly when response time was below one second.
People's concentration remained uninterrupted, it seemed,
whereas at two seconds or more the mind was apt to lose focus.
IBM were happy with the findings, which had already been
suggested to them by the intuition of their Marketing
managers.
Read the
article |
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Content and Convergence: Another move away from
content silos - Rahel Bailie
When technical communicators think of content management,
our minds naturally go to the world of structured authoring
and XML content management. If someone were to map out the
direction of structured authoring over the last couple of
decades, it would be a relatively simple path, from DocBook
SGML to DocBook XML to DITA XML, with a few detours along the
way for specialized DTDs (such as S1000D, used for aircraft
maintenance).
Read the
article |
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International Standards: WG 2 Meets in Seoul City -
Richard Hodgkinson
Richard Hodgkinson, Convenor of Working Group 2 (Software
and Systems Documentation), reports back from Korea.
Read the
article |
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A
Writer's World: The Da Vinci XML Code - Andrew Brooke
As information developers whose job it is to seek and
document the truth, we should always be skeptical when a novel
claims to be based on the truth. Yet such is the central claim
of Dan Brown's best seller, The Da Vinci Code.
Read the
article |
STC Toronto Meeting - Tuesday, Apr. 10, 2007 -
7PM
 Chicken Soup
for the Tech Writer's Soul
Do you want to double
your income? Do you want win friends and influence people? Do
you want to know where the real fountain of youth is hidden?
If you do, then don't go to this lecture, because we won't be
discussing any of these things! Instead, Andrew Brooke will
share his hilarious observations about technical writing and
its place in our world. If you enjoy Andrew’s Writer's
World column, then this is an event not to be missed –
just look at these celebrity endorsements:
"Andrew
Brooke is a man who knows how to spell 'STC'."
Prime
Minister Steven Harper
"Even zo I have bin dead vor
over fifty yars, I zink dat Andrew ist un very gut
spheaker!"
Albert Einstein
"Will you guys
please stop calling me for an endorsement?!"
Bill
Gates
About the Speaker
Andrew Brooke (abrooke@whitehilltech.com)
is a senior technical writer at Whitehill Technologies, and
also the Newsletter Manager and Membership Manager for the
Toronto STC chapter. He is the author of the provocative Writer's
World column for the Toronto chapter newsletter, where
he has explored such topics as "info-terrorism", The Matrix,
and time travel, all from a technical communicator’s
perspective.
View general meeting
information. |
Quote of the Month
"Television has raised writing to a new
low."
Samuel Goldwyn
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| This newsletter is sponsored by the:
 Seneca College of Applied
Arts & Technology
Technical Communication Co-op
Graduate Certificate Program
What makes our
students great candidates for your company?
They
offer:
Top calibre, effective writing and communication
skills
The ability to understand and explain how things work
An affinity for technology
The skills needed to make a valuable contribution to your
organization
Academic credentials in sciences, technology, humanities
and the arts
What students learn:
Students further develop professional writing skills
To design user-friendly information and documentation for
every industry from software development, banking and
engineering to telecommunications and health
To produce reference manuals, templates, on line help
files, web pages, instructional and procedural documents as
well as marketing materials
Skills on the latest industry technology (Adobe
FrameMaker)
Our educational partners:
Join the list
of satisfied industry leaders who regularly work with us to
hire our co-op students:
Leitch Technology - RIM - Open
Text - Siemens Milltronics- CSA Group - Cybermation - CIBC -
IFDS - ScotiaBank
What is Co-operative
Education:
Co-operative Education works as a three-way
educational partnership with Seneca, you and the
student.
Our goals are to provide skilled, enthusiastic
and productive employees to meet your specific needs, and to
give our students maximum opportunity to apply classroom
studies in meaningful work placements.
Find out
more:
Yvonne Gilbert
416.491.5050, ext. 3764
Yvonne.Gilbert@senecac.on.ca
Visit Seneca's TECC
website |
About STC TorontoThe STC Toronto Chapter was
founded in 1959 (then the Society of Technical Writers) and is the
largest chapter in Canada. Monthly meetings are held throughout the
year to discuss all aspects of technical communication, and to
provide valuable networking opportunities. For meeting information,
see the meetings page of the Toronto STC website. About
this NewsletterThis newsletter is produced by the STC
Toronto Chapter and is sent to all registered members. (Special
thanks to Milan Davidovic for providing editing
assistance.) If you have any comments or article ideas,
please email newsletter@stctoronto.org. Our
mailing list comes directly from the STC, so if you want to receive
the newsletter at another address, you will need to login to their
members
profile section and update your information. The STC Toronto
Chapter will not share nor sell our address list and will only email
information we believe is useful and relevant to our
members. About the STCThe Society for Technical
Communication (STC) is an organization dedicated to
advancing the art and science of technical communication. It is the
largest organization of its type in the world. Its 25,000 members
include technical writers and editors, content and information
developers, documentation specialists, technical illustrators,
instructional designers, academics, information architects,
usability and human factors professionals, visual designers, Web
designers and developers, and translators - anyone who makes
technical information available to those who need it.
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