October Meeting: Social Media Truth or Dare

Join us on October 14th as our "Truth or Dare" series takes on Social Media, an area some technical communicators have engaged enthusiastically, some view as a necessary evil, and many still wonder, "what's the point?"

This meeting features a panel of local social media experts who will tackle social media, what works, what doesn't, and what - exactly - is the point.

For more information about the panel, location, and registration, visit our website.

Photoshop is Online

Adobe Photoshop Express is online, and it's free. Upload, edit, and store your photos. Share your pictures or transfer to Flickr.com. And did I mention you can upload and share via mobile phone?

Learning Resources Barometer in Uncertain Times

The Masie Center updated their Learning Resources Barometer for March with 500+ responses. It provides hints on where to focus your marketing calls or what new skills to learn.

What is UP: number of elearning modules; webinars; social learning communities; user content

What is DOWN: spending on consultants; face to face classes

Web-based collaboration tools

Pete Hybert and Dottie Soelke are Chicago area consultants who put together a comparison table of common web based collaboration tools for an upcoming ISPI presentation in Orlando. They look at the online functions and capabilities of calendars, schedulers, file sharing/storage, online meetings, and project management tools.

Top 100 Tools for Learning

Dr. Jason S. Wrench has posted a list of the top 100 tools for learning based on research from The Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies in Oct 2008.

Learning Technology Products 2009

Brandon-Hall Research has a new and FREE report on all the current software products used to produce and display content for training and education.

Corporate Blogging Discussion Available on TalkShoe

A panel of social media experts will discuss corporate blogging and the power of the medium at the next STC Indiana chapter meeting. You can listen to a live broadcast or access an audio podcast afterwards on TalkShoe.com.

Visit http://www.stc-indiana.org/ for details.

What runs but never gets tired?

A river. And, apparently, Tom Johnson.

At the STC conference last week, I had the good fortune of chatting with Tom over the topic of marketing vs. influencing. Neither of us cares much for the term marketing when it comes to promoting oneself in the workplace. This could be related to the word, our personalities, or where we work, or all of the above. We do seem to agree that in our positions, we prefer the more subtle role (responsibility?) of influencing decisions and activities regarding design, workflow, architecture, communication strategies, content, and so on.

Outside the office, though, Tom has a much greater influence, for he's doing more to promote our profession, and us as professionals and individuals, then he probably realizes.

Today, for example, he unleashed WriterRiver.com, a social news site for technical communicators, where you can submit news stories. On this river of news, you can also vote to float or sink a story. Most excellent.

This new site complements growing suite of other technical communication resources, such as the I'd Rather Be Writing blog, Tech Writer Voices podcasts, WordPress QuickStart Guide, and Tech Writer Blog Directory.

Yay! Presents!

The good folks at TechSmith are giving away previous versions of SnagIt and Camtasia for free. After you install the free version of the software, you have the option of upgrading to the current version for half price (the TechSmith site currently lists Camtasia 5.0 for $299 and SnagIt 8.2 for $39.95).

Camtasia - record, edit, and share screen videos
Download Camtasia 3.1.2 here, and register the software here.

SnagIt - capture, annotate, and edit screen shots
Download SnagIt 7.2 here, and register the software here.

Thanks to Productivity Portfolio for this tip.