September 2010

Inside this issue:

• President’s Corner
• The View from Number Two
• If you Missed Our August Meeting
• STC’s Annual Gift for Teaching
• Future Technical Communicators Kick Off a New Year
• Get Active, Get Recognized, Show Off
• In the National Spotlight
• Upcoming STC Webinars
• From the Editor’s Desk

President’s Corner

by Dalton Hooper
Orlando Chapter President

When is Value not Valuable?

Several years ago, the United States Postal Service (USPS) began offering Priority Mail 2-3 day service. According to USPS’s advertising campaign of the time, the Priority Mail service offered an expedited process designed to get your letter-size package delivered anywhere in the country within 2-3 business days for $3.00. While $3.00 was significantly more than the typical cost of sending a first class letter, the first class process offered no guarantee of an arrival date.

Around this time, I had occasion to be in California on a week-long business trip. When I checked into my hotel room on the first night, a Sunday, I realized that I had left a vital document at my home in Florida. While I didn’t require the document on the first day of my business trip, I would definitely need to have it before I returned home on Friday. I knew that a regular 29-cent first class stamp (this was 1991!) would probably get the document across the country to me by the end of the week, I couldn’t take the chance. I decided it would be worth the $3.00 to send it via the new Priority Mail 2-3 day option.

On Monday morning, my wife went to the local post office in Deltona, Florida, paid the $3.00 fee, and sent my document  addressed to me at my hotel in California by means of the new Priority Mail 2-3 day service. It should have arrived on either Wednesday (day 2) or Thursday (day 3). It didn’t.

On Friday morning, I found a toll-free “800” customer service number for the USPS. I called them demanding to know why my package had not yet arrived. Their answer was astounding to me.

I was told that the Priority Mail 2-3 day service was not a guaranteed service. Furthermore, since my package was not being tracked, they could offer no estimate as to when it would arrive. I asked what I thought was the obvious question: “If Priority Mail 2-3 day service doesn’t necessarily get my package delivered in 2-3 days, then why did I pay a premium for it?”

“Because mail sent via the Priority Mail service is handled using a different process which increases the likelihood of it arriving within the 2-3 day time frame”, she said.

“How do I know that’s true?”, I asked.

The customer service representative seemed puzzled by my inability to understand the value of the service and its benefit to me. It was clear to her as a USPS employee familiar with the inner routing processes involved in delivering the mail that the additional charge was worth it. From my perspective however, the results were the same as if I had simply used a 29-cent stamp.

Because of this incident, I created a sign that I kept hanging in my office for many years. It read,

“Your product has no value until the customer perceives it.”

I referred to my sign on many occasions through the years to keep me grounded. It reminded me that value is in the mind of the beholder. The customer defines value – not the supplier.

Who are the Customers of the Orlando Chapter STC?

If you’ve visited our Orlando Chapter web site recently (www.stc-orlando.org) you may have noticed something new – my picture and a welcome message. This is the first step in our “What can we do for you today?” campaign. It is directed at our current and future customers – Orlando area technical communicators. As you know, an overwhelming majority of the Orlando area technical communicators do not belong to the STC in general and the Orlando Chapter in particular. This can be a result of many different factors, a few of which may include the following.

1. They are not aware of STC’s existence.

2. They are aware of STC, but do not know there is a local chapter.

3. They are aware of the STC Orlando Chapter, but do not feel we have any value to offer them.

While those of us who are already members of STC and the Orlando Chapter understand the value of our membership, it is not necessarily perceived by our customers. This challenge is at the heart of our “What can we do for you today?” campaign. We need to ask this question of our friends and co-workers who are also technical communicators, but not STC members. Ask them what they would perceive as value from us. Relay their answers to me or any member of the administrative council. We have no value to them until they perceive it.

P.S.: In case you are wondering, my package did not arrive at the hotel in California until four days after I had returned to Florida.

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The View from Number Two

by Debra Johnson
Orlando Chapter Vice President

Well, Washlines XVI – Dallas is over and what a huge success.  What an amazing group of presenters. Our members presented on a host of subjects ranging from Content Management to  Motivating without authority to Visual Explanations for writers just to name a few.

Since last month, I have had the opportunity to speak to many wonderful and brilliant people in my quest to find interesting and informative topics of discussion for our Chapter meetings.

Here is the lineup for September and October meetings so far:

September 21, 2010: Elizabeth Holubek, Senior Business Analyst

Elizabeth and I work closely together at Wyndham Vacation Ownership a division of Wyndham Worldwide Hotels, and Resorts. She specializes in Business Analysis and Business Process Modeling (BPM). She is currently working on building a BPM discipline at WVO.  She will explain how BPM allows business and technology to communicate more collaboratively and develop software that supports an ever-changing business model. Elizabeth has over 12 years of experience working on multi-million dollar IT software projects in Finance, Banking, Pharmaceutical, and Hospitality industries with companies such as: AOL, Target, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Celgene, Expedia, Starwood, and Wyndham.

Elizabeth’s presentation will cover:

• The role of a business analyst
• Business Analysis skills technical writers already possess
• Comparing and contrasting the skills of a business analyst and those of a technical writer
• The value a business analyst brings to an organization
• Describing the various ways you can use the skills you already possess as a technical writer, in the area of business analysis if you are looking for a new challenge

October 19, 2010: Traci Wilbanks, Senior Technical Writer – MEDai an Elsevier company.

Traci will talk about how she documents things such as:

• Real-time evidence-based medicine guideline compliance monitoring
• Accurate identification and stratification of high-risk/high-cost patients
• Identification of patients at risk for readmission and hospital acquired infections
• Physician and facility profiling
• Identification of population-risk drivers and potential mitigation strategies
• Actuarial and underwriting support
• Retrospective outcomes analysis

Next month I will tell you more about Traci as a writer, as well as, what’s on the agenda for Nov, and Dec

See ya next month!

P.S. See you September 21, 2010 at 6:30 pm at the Winter Park Convention Center.  Bring someone with you!!!

If you Missed our August Meeting…

by Kit Kittrell

…you missed a host of interesting mini-presentations based off the informative presentations given at this year’s National STC Conference in Dallas, Texas. Washlines, our annual recap of the National Conference, allows members of the Orlando chapter to see just what’s going on at our national conference – and this year, Washlines XVI, included a Dallas theme!

September 21st, STC Gift for Teaching

by Michael Wilson
Public Relations

At the September STC Orlando meeting, we will be collecting school supplies – new and gently used – to donate.  These items can range from crayons to company stationery.  Additionally, we will be collecting money if you are interesting in donating that way.  A Gift for Teaching (AGFT) is a non-profit organization that helps students and classrooms through collecting school supplies.

What started as a way to recycle unwanted or surplus supplies from businesses has grown into tri-county-wide operation that distributes more than $39,000 worth of school supplies and incentives daily for free. With “Free Stores” in each of the counties they serve, AGFT is able to get free school supplies into the hands of our community’s highest-need schools and classrooms.   AFGT provides necessary tools to students who otherwise would have none while making sure teachers don’t have to spend their own money.

Join us this month for a presentation from Elizabeth Holubek, Senior Business Analyst. Her presentation will include a discussion of  the role of a business analyst, business analysis skills technical writers already possess, comparing and contrasting the skills of a business analyst and those of a technical writer, the value a business analyst brings to an organization, and describing the various ways you can use the skills you already. We look forward to a great turnout this month. We hope that will lead to a substantial philanthropic effort.

Future Technical Communicators Kick Off a New Season

Future Technical Communicators is a registered student organization at the University of Central Florida. While not affiliated with the Society for Technical Communication, we have a rich history of working closely with the Orlando Chapter of STC.

As we have done in the past, this year we focus on offering classes and workshops. UCF offers classes that teach collaboration and writing skills to enable us to become excellent technical writers. Unfortunately, this focus does not teach us very much about the ever-changing technology that we will also need to be familiar with in order to enter the work-force. FTC hopes to meet this need through our organization.

Our first workshop/meeting is on the use of Sharepoint as a collaboration tool. This software is frequently used in groups, to check documents in and out as they are being worked on (to ensure that only one person works on each document at a time).

If you or anyone you know is interested in presenting for our small group of students, please contact our officers at ftc@bacaworld.com .

Get Active, Get Recognized, Show Off

by W.C. Wiese

They come in pepper, yellow, seafoam green, and powder blue. They come in forest green, black, and artillery red. And there are maybe 175 in the whole wide world. What are they? Highly prized Orlando Chapter STC Active Member shirts!

To reward the members who powered the chapter to a fifth STC Chapter of Distinction recognition, Membership Chairman David Coverston recognized 17 Orlando Active Members at the year-end banquet in June. Receiving distinctive pepper-colored polo shirts were David Coverston, Michele Damron, Alex Garcia, Dan Heath, Erika Higgins, Dalton Hooper, Dana Hratko, Jon Kessler, Karen Lane, Terry Leach, Gail Lippincott, Kelli Pharo, Cindy Skawinski, Dan Voss, W.C. Wiese, and Michael Wilson.

For 10 years, the Orlando Chapter has recognized members who are consistent in their attendance and help make the chapter a success. These distinctive leadership shirts cannot be bought, only earned. They set our membership apart at STC conferences and in the workplace. (After years of envy, several other chapters have copied us and begun their own active membership programs in the past 4 years.)

As the points table shows, you earn points every month you attend a meeting, put on the program, attend an Administrative Council meeting, or serve as a judge or mentor.

Activity	Point Value
Attend Chapter Meeting	1
Chairman/Officer	0.5 for office 0.5 for attending AdCo!
Present a Program	2
Visit Class or Other Chapter	1
Be a Mentor/Month	1
Be a Judge/Month	1
Sponsor a Orlando New Member	1

You must earn 14 points to earn a 2011 Active Member shirt. But it will be worth it!

The shirt lets our members celebrate chapter pride in the workplace whenever they choose to wear it. It sends a positive message to employers, clients, and co-workers: I am committed to my profession and committed to self-development. I am a member of STC!

Will you be an active member? We’ll keep score in upcoming issues of Memo to Members!

In the National Spotlight

by Kit Kittrell
Newsletter Editor

STC’s Live Web Seminars Give Members a Chance to Share their Strengths

Every member to STC has knowledge to share – Roger Renteria and Greg Koch, two STC members of the local Albuquerque, NM chapter recently reinvented their presentation from the 2009 Altanta National Conference on September 8, 2010 with a nationally advertised STC Live Web Seminar, Revisiting the Benefits and Pitfalls of Social Networking Sites.

We spoke with the presenters about their experiences during this process. Both Roger and Greg have long been users of social networking sites, including Facebook, and over the years each has “cultivated an online presence… that included friends in my age group.”  So, when it became time to consider how they could contribute to the STC body of knowledge, their intimate understanding of social networking was a natural choice.

The presentation came about because “many businesses and organizations were turning to social networking sites as a new place for marketing to a large audience.” Greg and Roger realized their experiences with social networking could help professionals in the field out there, who  “have had bad luck using these sites because they weren’t aware of the potential downfalls associated with them. Yet, as Roger notes, “the next greatest push for professionals in our field is to fully embrace computer communications as an extension of their desk and office environment.” So an idea was born to give an in-depth primer to success in social networking; “we think that the benefits outweigh the risks, only if people are aware and take better care of their online presence.”

Because of the relevance of the topic, Greg and Roger were invited to present an online STC Live Seminar, with updated content for the year 2010. “We had to update our slides to reflect the most current information that is out there about social networking sites. A lot has changed since we presented in 2009, but the core functions of social networking sites haven’t changed. Most of the changes were privacy features and new features that were not there a year ago.”

Roger and Greg, having presented at both the National Conference and, using InterCall, the current STC Webinar, felt there were some key differences to the formats which STC members may consider when preparing to share their knowledge across the professional association. Roger mentioned that with a larger group of 60 attendees, “it was clearly harder to stay focused …because I had to pay attention to my body language, eye contact, and voice. During the webinar, I had the comfort of …my notes and [could] send chat messages to the attendees via the program we presented in. Greg and I also had the ability to send instant messages between our speaking turns to discuss some of the questions that were asked by the attendees in the chat window. We wouldn’t have that ability to converse if we were presenting at the conference.”

Yet, presenting via a webinar is clearly a more technically complicated task, especially with these presenters being located nearly across the country from one another. “We had to work between two time zones and several thousand miles apart.” Using all aspects of current web communication technology, including instant messaging, video/voice chat, texting, email, and PowerPoint, the web seminar required much preparation; “we rehearsed our presentation three times using Skype. It was the closest that we could mimic the software that the webinar was being hosted on.”

Ultimately, the presentation was a marked success for both STC professionals, and Roger added “this experience has brought me some great opportunities in the profession of technical communication. I believe that getting out there is the best step to make stronger professional connections with others.”

If you missed Greg and Roger’s presentation, check out our online Archive for currently available presentations from Live Seminars and our 2010 National Conference.

Roger Renteria recently graduated from New Mexico Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Technical Communication. His interests are in visual design and rhetoric. He was the editor-in-chief of the college student newspaper for two years prior to interning at the university’s Public Information Office. He is currently the Secretary for the New Mexico Kachina STC Chapter and is looking forward to the next opportunity to share his skills and talent.

Greg Koch is currently attending Rochester Institute of Technology pursuing a masters degree in information technology. He graduated from New Mexico Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Technical Communication in May 2009. He presented on twitter aggregators at the STC Annual Summit in 2010. He served as the president of the STC Trinitite Student Chapter and was the lead web developer and designer for New Mexico Tech. He currently works for MS Networks in Rochester.

Upcoming STC Webinars, September 2010

STC has released the full schedule of webinars for September 2010. To view the entire listing, as well as the collection of archived webinars available for viewing 24/7, check out the STC website. From there, you can click on “View Description and Speaker Biography” to learn more details about each webinar and the presenter.

Wednesday, 15 September | Members $79; Nonmembers $149; Student Member $29
1:00–2:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Reading Patterns for Expert and Lower Literacy Readers: Implications for Content Design
Presented by Kathryn Summers

Everyone knows how hard it is to convert skim/browsing behavior to actual, engaged reading of online information. But what if you’re facing the added barrier of users who don’t read well or who have low English proficiency, and who come to your content with added reluctance? Learn about content design strategies (from recent eye-tracking research) that help convert skimming to reading for both expert and non-expert readers. Understanding how people read and navigate page content can improve our ability to provide usable content that is accessible for those who don’t read well—an audience that can include the 50 percent of U.S. adults who read at the 8th grade level or below, older users, or ESL speakers.

Learning objectives:

• Applying insights from observed reading behaviors to common page layouts.
• Knowing when additional user research might be necessary for a particular project.
• Recognizing characteristic reading behaviors for key audiences.

Kathryn Summers an associate professor at the University of Baltimore, does eye-tracking research on making information easier for people with lower literacy skills or low English proficiency to find, navigate, and read on the web. Earlier work included working with colleagues on a three-year grant from NSF to develop an intergenerational design team with faculty, graduate students, and children. The SIAT KidsTeam, in collaboration with a team at the University of Maryland’s Human Computer Interaction Lab, helped to design interfaces for the International Children’s Digital Library. Kathryn also directs the graduate program in interaction design and information architecture at the University of Baltimore, and directs the school’s User Research Lab. The lab supports research activities for faculty, students, and local businesses.

Wednesday, 22 September | Members $79; Nonmembers $149; Student Member $29
1:00–2:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Change: Proving the Mettle of Leadership
Presented by Alyssa Fox

Technical communication is a changing industry in which there is much discussion about how we must do more than just write documentation. We must show our value by expanding beyond writing manuals and converting online help. Changes your technical communication team might be facing could include the following:

• documenting products in a new way
• moving to structured documentation
• converting to new tools
• expanding beyond writing to usability help and product design

Most people are naturally resistant to change, especially when they can’t see how the change impacts them positively. This presentation describes how you can lead change in your organization by showing others the benefits and successfully implementing the change in a forward-thinking and powerful way.

Main topics to be addressed include:

• Determining when a change is needed
• Understanding the eight-step process for leading change
• Implementing change across your team or organization
• Learning from the successes and failures of the presenter in specific examples of leading change:
  • Implementation of targeted documentation on an information development team
  • Implementation of standardized processes in an engineering organization

Alyssa Fox is an information development manager for an enterprise software company in Houston, Texas. Her background includes over 10 years of experience in technical communication. Alyssa regularly speaks at STC and Project Management Institute conferences. She blogs at www.leadershipwithstyle.com, where she discusses topics related to management, leadership, and communication.

Wednesday, 29 September | Members $79; Nonmembers $149; Student Member $29
1:00–2:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Getting Your Documentation Project Off the Ground Running
Presented by Nicky Bleiel

In this session, you’ll learn how to quickly size up a software application to develop your project architecture, then use a predefined topic structure to create content. These skills and guidelines will substantially reduce your “time to writing,” as well as writing time. Result: your project completed faster, with less rework.

In this session, you’ll learn how to quickly size up a software application to develop your project architecture, then use a predefined topic structure to create content. These skills and guidelines will substantially reduce your “time to writing,” as well as writing time. Result: your project completed faster, with less rework.

The webinar will discuss the seven stages of software documentation projects, software development methodologies, teams, internal standards, determining deliverables, project and topic architectures, using a book paradigm versus a topic paradigm, and more.

Nicky Bleiel is the lead information developer for Doc-To-Help. She has 16 years of experience in technical communication, writing and designing information for software products in the documentation, media, industrial automation, simulation, and pharmaceutical industries. She is a Director of STC and has presented talks at STC’s annual meeting, as well as many regional conferences and chapter meetings. She has also presented at WritersUA, tcworld, LavaCon, and DocTrain on many topics, including embedded help, tools and technologies, user assistance design, single sourcing, wikis, Web 2.0, and convergence technical communication. Her articles include, “Bringing Help to the ForeFront: Strategies to Increase Usability of Your Software User Assistance and Your Product” in STC’s Intercom magazine, “Laying the Foundations for Success” in ISTC’s Communicator, “Technical Communication Departments = Higher Profits!” in TechCom Manager, and “Convergence Technical Communication: Strategies for Incorporating Web 2.0” in The Content Wrangler.

Thursday, 30 September | Members $79; Nonmembers $149; Student Member $29
1:00–2:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Managing Documentation Projects in a Collaborative World
Presented by Larry Kunz

Two trends—community-based authoring and Agile—are revamping the way we manage documentation projects. What does this mean for you?

Managing documentation projects has changed little over the last few decades. We’re used to long development cycles in which we gather information from disparate parts of the enterprise to create static documentation products. The traditional methods, however, are being upended by community-based authoring and Agile.

We’re discovering the best practices for dealing with these new trends. Fortunately, they share much in common. Content strategy emerges as an important new discipline.

If you’re a project manager, you’ll receive information to help you stay current. If you’re not a manager, you’ll gain better insight into the documentation process—insight that you’ll need in a world where more and more practitioners are moving away from the traditional corporate environment and many are working independently in “lone writer” situations.

Learning objectives:

• Understand how the process of managing documentation projects has changed recently and how it will continue to change.
• Articulate the role of the content strategist.
• Identify similarities in the best practices for dealing with for community-based authoring and Agile.
• Understand how a technical communicator can take advantage of the Agile process to become more closely integrated with the product development team.

Larry Kunz is a project manager and information architect with Systems Documentation, Inc. (SDI) Global Solutions in Durham, NC. In over 30 years as a writer, manager, and planner he has experienced the transition from book-based documentation to today’s integrated delivery of information from a wide range of sources using different formats and media.

Larry has managed and provided content for technical communication and marketing projects. He holds a Masters certificate in project management from George Washington University and teaches a course titled “Managing the Information Development Process” in the technical communication certification program at Duke University. He is an STC Fellow and in 2010 received the STC President’s Award for heading up the Society’s strategic planning effort.

Wednesday, 6 October | Members $79; Nonmembers $149; Student Member $29
1:00–2:00 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Business Continuity Planning for Technical Writers
Presented by Corin Caliendo

Business Continuity (BC) planning—the process of planning for the recovery of critical business functions and systems after a disaster—is a discipline where technical writers can use their skills to provide additional value. This session covers the following topics: the major components of a BC plan; tools used to determine the structure of the plan; how to test, audit, and maintain the plan; and how to make the case for BC planning.

Corin Caliendo has been a technical writer for various telecommunications and healthcare software firms for over a decade. She is currently a principal technical writer at NaviNet, Inc., where she has been working on the company’s business continuity plan for the past several years as well as other traditional technical writing projects. Caliendo has had training in business continuity planning and hopes to become a certified business continuity planner in 2010.

From the Editor’s Desk

by Kit Kittrell
Newsletter Editor

Storing Away the White Shoes

This past weekend we celebrated Labor Day, marking the end of the summer and the beginning of  Football season! Long observed as an annual weekend of respite from work, Labor Day was originally implemented to celebrate the strength and morale of the trade and labor organizations. Nowadays, we dedicate Labor Day to the social and economic achievements that improve the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country.

In this respect, the STC represents all that makes a Labor Day celebration significant. Our organization is dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practice of technical communication, and for the companies we work for, this pursuit indeed is an important achievement. So, as you look back at your Labor Day celebration photos and videos commemorating yet another year of well-deserved vacation, put your feet up for the strength and prosperity you’ve added at your work place, and to our professional association!

As always, we can’t do this  without you! Contributions to the newsletter are always appreciated. If you are interested in contributing, please e-mail us at newsletter@stc-orlando.org.