Tech Comm Friday (March 23)

The Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day, Saturday, March 17, 2012.

Happy Friday! Another week gone by, more tech comm links for your reading pleasure:

• Some Thoughts on DITA-Based Technical Writing Metrics - Keith Schengili-Roberts takes a few minutes to opine about DITA-based documentation metrics and documentation analytics in general. 
• Subpage Titles on Wikis - Challenges, Conventions, and Compromises - Tech comm blogger extraordinaire, Tom Johnson, gives his two cents about naming conventions in wikis, which is more complicated than you might think. 
• Cognition & the Intrinsic User Experience - You may not be on a UX team, but technical communicators should care just as much about UX as they do about documentation (caring about the user experience of your documentation is even more important).
• Vote for the Future of STC - STC International elections are underway, and if you haven't voted yet, Larry Kunz doesn't want you to wait. Read why here. 
• Tech Comm 2.0: Reinventing our Relevance in the 2000s - Jack Molisani and Scott Abel are two of tech comm's biggest cheerleaders, not to mention trend setters. In STC's own Intercom, they write about how technical communicators need to change with the times and what that might look like. 

Have a great weekend, everyone. 

Tech Comm Friday (March 16)

Man, another week in the books. March is flying by. But as most of the US is spending more time outdoors enjoying this unseasonably warm weather, don't forget to look back at what's occurring in the world of tech comm. Here's your rundown of five attention-grabbing stories and resources from the past week.

• The Future of Technical Communication - Check out www.dozuki.com, a new way to make quick and easy manuals, how-to guides, or procedures. This puts documentation creation in the hands of the people, which isn't always a bad thing. After all, they're the ones performing the tasks.
  


• A set of shinies for technical documentation on a wiki - Sarah Maddox explains some simple, yet innovative, ways to make your wiki documentation that much better. She uses Confluence, but you can apply her tips to almost any wiki platform.
  


• Writers UA Conference Recaps - Lauren Hart is blogging about each day spent at the Writers UA Conference in Memphis, TN. Head on over to her blog to check out what she's learning and what we're all missing out on!
  


• Poor Documentation Formats (PDF) and the Encyclopedia Britannica - Damien Howley from MindTouch wiki software explains how the fact that Encyclopedia Britannica announced that it'll no longer print hard copies of its encyclopedias proves that print documentation is a dying form of documentation, including PDFs.
  



• Technical Writer Meme
   

And that's a wrap for this week. Have a great weekend, folks. 

Taking Flight for Summit 2012

Augh! The Summit is just over two months away. And while we can't wait to have the STC nation ascend on the greater Chicago area, we're just curious: What Chicago airport are you flying into for the Summit?

Take our survey and let us know.

If you haven't booked your flight yet, check out this Midway vs. O'Hare guide to help make your decision easier. If you've already booked your flight, let us know why you chose the airport you did in the comments. 

Tech Comm Friday (March 9)

If you're like me, you do your best to keep up with the latest and greatest in our industry, but who has the time? In an effort to make your life just a little easier, I've compiled some of the most attention-grabbing tech comm items from the interwebs in the last week. Behold:

• Worst. Name. Ever. - Andrew Brooke explores Apple's decision to name the new iPad "The New iPad" and what he thinks a technical writer's approach to this marketing conundrum (is it really that hard?!) would be.
  


• Writer's UA Salary Survey - Show me the money! Everyone's looking to pad their wallet, but in this economic climate, you're probably more concerned with keeping your job than getting a fat Christmas bonus. Check out Writer's UA Salary Survey to see how you measure up.
  


• Troubleshooters: Resistance to Knowledge Sharing - Have you ever feared that sharing your knowledge with others might make you less valuable? If so, Raymond Calbay writes about some of the common reasons people don't share knowledge and provides some trouble shooting tips to combat such fears.
  


• PDFs: Artifacts of a Digital Dark Age - The article title says it all. Michael Stewart explains why PDFs are a thing of the past, and if you're still using them, what you can do about it.
  


• A Gift From our Grammar Geeks - Lulu Blog provides a grammar refresher for those of you who might be struggling with the basics. Never refuse a reminder.
  

And that's it for this week. What did you think? Did I miss anything? Let me know your thoughts and send me your favorite articles from the last week in the comments. 

We Appreciate our Chapter Members

Becky answers an ice breaker question.

What better way to spend Leap Day than getting to know your fellow STC Members? On February 29, 2012, STC Chicago chapter members gathered at California Pizza Kitchen in Schaumburg, Il to play games and socialize. Things got off to a rousing start when President Elizabeth Burke presented a tub of 500 questions. Each member had to answer a humorous and telling question about themselves. For example, "If money were no object, what would you do in one day?" Or, "If you were hosting a special guest, who would it be and what meal would you serve them?"

Laughs filled the night as members learned a little bit more about their fellow meeting attendees.

The meeting was a nice change of pace from the traditional meeting. While the speakers and topics are always interesting, this meeting presented a chance for members to relax and socialize in an unstructured environment.

And now that March is upon us, we look forward to March's meeting: our Recognition and Awards Banquet. Hope to see you there!