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Previous Program Information |
2003/2004 Programs
Annual General Meeting
May 19, 2004
Upstairs at Loblaws, Westboro
190 Richmond Road
Food 6:30pm
Meeting 7pm
Come and discuss the highlights and lowlights of the past year and meet next year's executive!
Agenda
- Presentation of "End of Year Report". This is a quick status report on STCEO events and initiatives over the past year.
- Introduction of new executive.
- Presentation by the new executive.
May program event
Usability Testing: Who Cares?
by Alison Reynolds and Dr Jane Gregg Robberds.
May 13, 2004 (Thursday)
Canada Salon, The Embassy West Hotel (Main level).
Food at 6:30pm
Presentation begins at 7pm
Free for members and students
$5 for others
"Usability Testing: Who cares?" will be an introduction to usability testing including heuristic testing for web/document information as well as methodology for testing real users.
Alison Reynolds is the Principal Academic Staff Member/ Programme Leader in the GPID (Graduate Diploma of Information Design) program at CPIT (Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology) in New Zealand. She is coming to Baltimore in May for the STC Conference, and is stopping here in Ottawa to make this presentation before she returns.
This is an unplanned "bonus" meeting, and is a great opportunity for us to establish some links between STCEO and CPIT. For more information about the online GPID course offered by CPIT, see www.technicalcommunicationcourses.com .
April Program Event
Demonstration of the Rational Unified Process as Adapted for Developing Documentation
by Visnja Beg
|
April 22, 2004 (Thursday) RSVP Here! |
Ms. Beg will be presenting this topic at the STC Annual Conference next May in Baltimore.
The Rational Unified Process (RUP) provides guidance for developing software applications. This demonstration will explain and show how to adapt RUP for content provider practitioners to produce an essential component of software: documentation. IBM Rational Software used RUP to produce the Rational XDE product, and both applied and evolved best practices for the documentation lifecycle. The session will demonstrate the process and artifacts the IBM Rational Documentation group used in producing the Rational XDE documentation.
Currently a Manager, Information Development at IBM, Rational Software Division in Kanata, Visnja started her technical writing career in 1988. She holds an Honours B.J. from the Carleton University School of Journalism. Her many skills cover a wide spectrum from writing, to web page design, to architecting information products, to project and people management. Visnja has been an active member of the STC since 1997, and served on the executive from 1999 to 2003.
Map to Algonquin:
Room location:
February Program Event
Web Indexes and Other Navigation Aids
by Fred Brown
Mr. Brown will be presenting this topic at the STC Annual Conference next May in Baltimore.
In the session, participants will explore tools for "discovering" information within web sites: site indexes, taxonomies, thesauri, metadata, search engines and topic maps. The session will be an interactive demonstration in which we will visit different web sites, and volunteers from the audience will have the opportunity to try out the different types of navigation aids.
The meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 24 at Summerhay's Grill, 1971 Baseline Road (North East corner of Baseline and Woodroffe).
Free parking. If convenient, enter from Hakim Optical parking lot.
Refreshments will be served at 6:30, and the presentation will start at 7:00.
The meeting is free for members and students, and $5.00 for non-members. If you wish to attend, please RSVP here by February 19.
January Program Event
Writing for the Medical, Biotech, and Health Care Industries
Carolyn Brown will speak about career opportunities in the medical, biotech, and health care industries.
Monday, January 19, 2004
Algonquin College
Room A217
-Second Floor of Building A.
Directions:
Evening parking is free in lots 8, 9, and 12, and in the Visitors' lot.
Once you park you will be entering the school next to the computer store and book store (this is D building). Keep walking straight after you enter the building. You will go up and down a ramp, past the student pub, and end up at the gymnasium. Turn right and walk just past the doors leading outside. To your left will be a short corridor, and stairs up.
On the second floor, back in the main corridor turn left, and go to the end of the corridor. A217 will be on your right.
Direction signs will be posted before 6:30.
Food at 6:30 pm
Presentation at 7 pm
Free for STC members, AMWA members and students. $5 for others
Carolyn Brown manages the journal-publishing operation for the NRC Research Press. For 9 years, she was a manager and manuscript editor for the Canadian Medical Association's publications, chiefly the Canadian Medical Association Journal. She is the communications chair of the Canada Chapter of the American Medical Writers Assocation, from which vantage point she has a good view of the biomedical industry and its opportunities.
December Bash
Thursday, December 18, 6:30pm
Nepean Sportsplex, Hall E
STC Members & Students $10
Others $15
Cash bar
Dinner by Capone's Catering:
- Salad
- Lasagna & Veggies
- Dessert & Coffee
RSVP here by Dec.16, 5PM. Then call your writer pals and fill up a table of six. Relax, chat, network, schmooze, eat, drink ... & be merry!
November Program Event
Single Sourcing - Converting a large suite of FrameMaker documents to HTML
by Jennifer Bulman
| Time: Wednesday, November 19, 2003. Light Refreshments at 6:30 pm. Presentation at 7 pm. |
Cost: Free for STC members and students. $5 for others |
| Location: "Upstairs at Loblaws," College Square, Baseline & Woodroffe |
|
Details:
After the Barn Door is Closed:
Conversion to Single-Sourcing for Print and the Web in an Established Documentation Environment
How do you handle the conversion to HTML of a large documentation set, when there is a well-established print appearance, and authors who are accustomed to their current tools and the way they use them?
Citizenship and Immigration (CIC) had 252 frequently updated English and French application kits available as print documents, or on the web as PDFs. Under the policies established for Government On-Line (GOL), the kits were also required to be available online in HTML.
Jennifer Bulman will talk about the conversion to single-sourcing with Framemaker and WebWorks to:
- conserve fully formatted-for-print documents, and
- produce good HTML versions for the web, considering such questions as:
- What devices are used in Framemaker to make single-sourcing work?
- What part of the HTML conversion can you accomplish with WebWorks?
- How much HTML do you need to know?
- How do you help process change occur?
This presentation will provide writers with an understanding of some of the major steps and challenges involved in conversion and single-sourcing.
About the speaker:
Jennifer Bulman is a technical writer and trainer with over 20 years experience in knowledge transfer, information design, and usability. She is the Principal of Aurelia Consulting Services (www.aurelia.ca), incorporated in 1992.
October Program Event
Adding Marcom Writing to Your Skillset
A presentation by Penny Lange
The more skills you have, the more employable you are. In the current economy, this is even more true now than ever before.
On Tuesday, October 21, Penny Lange will talk about adding marketing communications (marcom) writing to your skillset.
- The skills you need to be a marketing writer (some are different from the skills needed by technical writers)
- Marcom culture and the general personality traits of marketing writers vs. technical documentation writers (these are different, too)
- How to test the marcom waters before plunging into the deep end
- How to convince a marcom group to give you a chance
This presentation is based on a paper presented at the 2002 International STC conference in Nashville and on the article "Reinventing Yourself as a Marcom Writer", published in the July/August 2002 issue of the international STC magazine, Intercom.
When?
Tuesday, October 21st. Light refreshments will be served at 6:30 and the presentation starts at 7 pm.
Where?
Algonquin College, Room A-150.
How much does it cost?
This event is free for STC members, AMWA members, and students. The cost is $5 for others.
Parking?
Evening parking is free in lots 8, 9, and 12, and in the Visitors' lot.
About Penny Lange
An award-winning editor who is featured in Who's Who in Canada, Penny Lange has 16 years of experience in high tech, the last 8 with her own company, Penny Lange & Associates. She specializes in creative wordplay (a.k.a. marketing communications) and in "translating" techno-babble into English. Penny has also taught courses in business communications and technical editing at the University of Ottawa and Algonquin College as well as to business clients. In 2002 she co-authored the book The View from Here, about Ottawa-area female executives.
Wine & Cheese
Dow's Lake Pavilion
Monday Sept.22, 2003
6:30 PM
The Ottawa chapter of AMWA (American Medical Writers Association) is co-hosting this event. We extend a special invitation to Algonquin technical writing students. This event is free for STC members, AMWA members, and students. The cost is $5 for others.
The membership directory will be available for pickup at the party.
Dow's Lake Pavilion is near the corner of Carling and Preston/Prince of Wales.
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