2005
November
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April
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2004
December
November
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June
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2003
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June
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2002
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2001
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January
November 2005
The November, 2005 meeting featured Ron Sova, who discussed the topic of usability.
So what exactly is usability? How does it affect our lives and how does it affect the lives of our customers (end users)? This discussion will explore usability as a discipline and how it relates to us as professionals. We will be talking about why usability is important for the customer of our product (or website) and why it is important to our managers and the company bottom line.
Most importantly we will discuss the methods by which we can incorporate usability principles in our work, even if management has not completely signed off on the concept.
There will be time throughout the talk for questions and discussion on the real world impact of usability on technical communicators and how they can make an impact on the end product.
Ron has 11 years of experience in usability engineering. He specializes in information design, information visualization, and interaction design. He also has extensive experience in the areas of contextual inquiry, usability testing, prototype testing and evaluation. Ron has developed and taught classes in GUI Design, Application Design and Graphic Design Tools & Methods.
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October 2005
October’s meeting featured certified Adobe expert, technical trainer, and author, Bernard Aschwanden.
In this engaging presentation, Bernard will demonstrate how FrameMaker 7.2 works with XML. An overview of the process and the various people and tools required will be explained so that attendees will have a deeper understanding of the benefits of structuring AND the hurdles that need to be overcome. Participants are invited to ask questions throughout the presentation and Bernard will be available for a more in-depth question and answer session after the presentation. In addition, there will be a drawing for a free copy of the book "Advanced FrameMaker," which will be given away to one attendee.
A recognized publishing technologies expert, Bernard Aschwanden presents at conferences and events across Europe and North America. Bernard is an Adobe Certified Expert, a Certified Technical Trainer and the author of numerous publications on publishing and single sourcing including Advanced FrameMaker, published by TIPS Publishing. A dynamic and entertaining speaker, he tailors his presentations to the audience and welcomes participation. The founder of Publishing Smarter (http://www.publishingsmarter.com/), an active, senior member of the Society for Technical Communication, and past president of the Computer Trainers Network, Bernard has helped hundreds of companies implement successful publishing solutions. Bernard is focused on publishing better, publishing faster and publishing smarter.
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September 2005
It's that time of year again! Time to start off the season with our annual STC Wisconsin Chapter kickoff cruise. Please join us on Tuesday, September 13, 2005, at 5:45 P.M. for our kickoff cruise and networking meeting on the Milwaukee Maiden!
This will be a two-hour cruise (not the Gilligan's Island type) with hors d'oevres and wine for your enjoyment. Boarding Time is 5:45 P.M. Departure Time is 6:00 P.M.
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June 2005
JTuesday, June 14, 2005, at the MSOE Alumni center: June&rsquos meeting will feature a recap of the 2004-2005 year and brainstorming for how to make STC-Wisconsin bigger and better for all of our membership in 2005-2006. Please join us for good company, topical discussions, and an open forum on how we can better serve you.
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May 2005
Our next STC chapter meeting will take place on Wednesday, May 18 at the Midway (Best Western) Hotel in Brookfield. We hope you&rsquoll join us. And while you&rsquore marking the date in your calendar, also mark our June meeting (Tuesday June 14), at which we&rsquoll celebrate the season past, welcome in the new board, discuss programs and workshops for next term, and have some great give-aways.
Topic:
Web Content Management Planning: A Comparison of Open Source and De Novo Options
Description:
Planning and resourcing a web project can be an arduous task, especially in a distributed authoring environment. In this presentation, Monte Kendrick examines the content management options available to development teams and content providers, including open source CMS, off-the-shelf commercial solutions, and custom built applications. Monte will examine both the technologies and the processes that must be considered when planning and implementing the web project.
Speaker bio:
Monte Kendrick is the president of Pixelogiq Data Systems, LLC, a technology and security consulting firm in Madison, Wisconsin. Monte has earned the title of Systems Security Certified Practictioner from the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium. He holds a masters degree from Ohio State, a computer security certificate from Stanford University, and is currently studying computer forensics through the Southeast Cybercrime Institute at Kennesaw State University.
Although much of his recent efforts have focused upon information security, he views web development and management among his core skills. Monte has hand coded over 200 web sites since 1995 and is proficient in XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript. While working for Promega Corporation, he developed the eNotes online journal, served as an intranet section editor, and helped to develop databased and XML-based applications.
Monte is a Microsoft Certified Professional on the Windows XP platform, and holds eight additional IT certifications. He is a member of the International Webmasters Association (HTML Writers Guild), the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants, the Information Systems Security Association, the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Security and Privacy, and the Association for Computing Machinery Security and Audit Control interest group. He also holds a Master CIW Designer designation from Prosoft, which recognizes proficiency in site design and e-commerce.
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April 2005
The next STC Milwaukee meeting is Tuesday, April 12 at the MSOE Alumni Partnership Center in downtown Milwaukee.
Topic:
Showcasing Southeastern Wisconsin Technical Communicators.
This is a joint trade show with WORDS, allowing you and your organization to exhibit your user manuals, online help, quick reference cards, e-learning modules, and other materials to your colleagues in the industry. This is a terrific way to network, find out what others are doing, and learn more about the possibilities for your own work!
The meeting is a joint meeting with WORDS (Wisconsin Organization for Documentation Specialists).
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March 2005
Wednesday, March 9
Midway (Best Western)Lodge in Brookfield.
I Have to Write Something for E-Learning? But I Don't Know Anything About E-Learning!
You've written lots of technical documents -- SOPs, user manuals, and quickstart guides. Now you're faced with creating training material. Not just training material, but e-learning material. Before the panic sets in, let a few training veterans help guide you through the jungle of online learning.
Our presenters for this evening are all active members of the training community and have many years of experience and education in the adult learning field.
**Mary Cutting**
Since 1997 Mary has been pursuing her passion for teaching adults. Her background in adult learning and education includes traditional instructor-led training; distance e-learning (both synchronous and asynchronous), needs assessment, curriculum development, results evaluation, and business return analysis. She has worked as a corporate trainer for Alterra Healthcare and Oncontact Software. As a corporate training and education consultant, Mary now identifies, produces, and presents effective learning solutions to a number of clients in Wisconsin and New York.
Mary has a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is currently pursuing her masters in e-learning education from Jones University in Boulder, Colorado
**Cathy Dunham**
Cathy has been an advanced Microsoft Office instructor and software consultant since 1994. Her expert-level certification as a Microsoft Office Specialist is Microsoft's highest user certification. While working for Allied Computer Group, Entre PC Solutions, and All Saints Healthcare, she was routinely awarded for outstanding customer service.
Cathy is currently pursuing her BS degree in Marketing Business to Business and is a member of the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. She hopes to combine her marketing degree with her skills in graphics, software (databases), and web design to work in a related marketing research or communications position.
**Kathy Rockteacher**
Kathy is the Computer Education Specialist for ProHealth Care, Inc. in Waukesha. She develops instructional programs and provides instructor-led software training for an employee base of 5,000 people. Kathy has a strong interest in the dynamics of adult learning and works closely with the E-Learning team leader on ProHealth Care's online instructional projects. She is working on transitioning a number of instructor-led training programs to the online environment.
Kathy has a B.S. in Education and Business, is a Certified Technical Trainer, and is currently completing the Graduate Certificate program at Capella U in Designing Online Instruction
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February 2005
Tuesday, February 8
MSOE Alumni Partnership Center
Topics in Technical Communication Education--Trends and Projects, presented by three panelists:
Dick Gage, the Gateway Technical College Racine Campus General Education Department Chair for Communications, Languages, and Technical Communications. He has taught at Gateway for 23 years. Two years after he was hired by Gateway, he designed and implemented a 12-credit certificate in technical writing, and three years latter, he designed, implemented, and received state approval for the 67-credit Associates of Applied Science Degree in Technical Communications for Gateway.
Dick has been the lead instructor for the Technical Communication program ever since. Prior to his employment with Gateway, Dick was the Marketing and Technical Communications Manger for McGraw-Edison (currently Cooper Power Systems) in South Milwaukee. Before employment with McGraw-Edison, he was the Senior Technical Writer for electronic test equipment at Snap-on Tools in Kenosha. Dick is married and has four married children.
Dr. Katherine Wikoff is the program director for the technical communication degree at Milwaukee School of Engineering. Her Ph.D. is in English with a concentration in rhetoric and composition studies.
Rebekka Andersen is a second-year doctoral student in Professional Writing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). Her research interests and emphases include technical editing, visual rhetoric, knowledge and content management, and business communications. She completed her Master's Degree in Composition, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication in 2002 at Eastern Washington University, where she also taught composition and technical communication courses. Before enrolling at UWM, she taught technical and professional writing and editing at Washington State University as an adjunct instructor.
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December 2004
Tuesday, Dec. 14, we'll be having our annual STC holiday soiree and networking gathering. The event will take place at Shaker's, at 422 S. 2nd Street, starting at 6 p.m. More details will follow closer to the actual date, but get it on your calendar now! The food and ambience are both great at Shaker's, and it's sure to be a festive event.
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November 2004
Wednesday, November 10
Building the Right Web Site for your Clients
Brennan Stehling
Brennan is a developer specializing in Java and .NET technologies. His expertise lies in identifying issues and creating solutions to allow businesses to improve their process and idenify improved methodologies and techniques to streamline daily overhead. He is driven to keep businesses moving forward and to become more cost effective.
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October 2004
The Business of Tech Comm: Tools, Trends, and Bridging the Value Gap And The STC Transformation
Jim Romano, Prisma International
STC-Wisconsin, Oct. 12, 2004
Our profession suffers from what might be called a “value gap,” the difference between the value that we produce as technical communicators, and the perceived value of its worth by employers and senior managers.
As a result, many of us feel undervalued and underrespected, even though the work we manage and produce is more complex and “valuable” than ever. We have new tools and means of measuring value, including Six Sigma-level metrics to gauge and track our value; yet, turning that into a business case for increased salaries or budgets remains elusive.
Jim’s presentation will focus first on defining and describing tech comm’s value gap. He will then provide concrete strategies for bridging it in our everyday work life, and will explore how to define, measure, and communicate the value of the technical communication work we produce, as well as enumerate some trends and strategies for remaining viable in our fast-evolving profession.
Finally, Jim will describe some of the ways STC is transforming itself in order to support its membership in these changing times, and answer questions about the STC Transformation Team’s work.
Jim Romano is Director-Sponsor for Region 6, as well as President and CEO of Prisma International, a global business communication firm located in Minneapolis. At Prisma, Jim’s work has encompassed most tasks and positions, including translator, project manager, account supervisor, editor, diplomat, peace keeper, coffee maker, plumber, and a few others. The common thread running throughout is the commitment to a global view of technical communication that starts with the end user and works backward to figure out how to meet their needs within the client’s parameters of budget, schedule, and quality.
Jim has been an active STC member since the early 1990s, and has served in the Twin Cities Chapter as Program Manager, Conference Manager, Vice President, and President. He also serves on the advisory board of the technical communication program of the University of Wisconsin-Stout, and works closely with their STC student chapter. In addition, he is an active participant in several translation and localization professional organizations (LISA, Upper Midwest Translators and Interpreters Association), as well as associations in the medical regulatory and financial fields, all connected under the umbrella of technical communication.
A resident of Minneapolis, Jim’s degrees are in linguistics and languages: a B.A. and M.A. from Columbia University, and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.
Jim may be reached at jromano@prisma.com.
Don't miss this Friday's deadline for signing up for our June 9 STC chapter meeting. The topic is "Protect Your PC 101: As Taught Through the Eyes of a Self-Taught PC Paranoaic (noun: person afflicted with paranoia)." Diane Newbury, of Newbury Consulting, will share what she has learned about how to protect her computer and its contents. She’ll talk about firewalls, antivirus software, spam filters, and more! Bring your questions!
The May 4, 2004 STC meeting featured a presentation on Proposal Writing by Professor Patrick Jung, at the MSOE Alumni center. Even if you are not currently using proposal writing in your job, proposal writing is one of the hot topics in our field right now. As the field of technical publication progresses, our job duties are sure to begin to include the art of proposal writing.
April’s meeting featured a panel of experts from Ken Cook Co. discussing graphic design as it relates to technical communication.
The four featured sub-topics are:
1. What makes a "good" technical publication? - using graphic elements for increased usability and improved navigation
2. How to properly plan a document based on distribution method: Web, print, or electronic. Different considerations for resolution, output, file size, illustration vs. photograph, etc.
3. Before and after examples: What customers originally had for product documentation, what Ken Cook Co. did to improve some of these.
4. What are some of the different types of graphics software applications? What are the benefits, limitations of each?.
STC 50th Anniversary celebration
Join us in celebrating STC's 50 th anniversary! The party will be held on the evening of Wednesday, March 10, in the Alumni Partnership Center at MSOE. There will be a buffet dinner followed by cake and ice cream, a presentation by several former and current office-holders, several drawings, and a guaranteed festive atmosphere. As part of the celebration, we will be offering $5 off the normal cost of a chapter meeting, and $5 off the cost for any nonmember guest you bring. RSVP by Friday March 5 (see below).
Agenda:
Former President Ken Cook will talk about the history of STC
Current Regional Director Michelle Berkes will discuss present-day STC goals and activities
Former President Mollye Barrett will present a view of the future of technical communication.
Location:
MSOE Alumni Partnership Center
Joint meeting with WORDS and MilwauCHI
Date: Wednesday February 11
Special guest speaker:
Whitney Quesenbery, internationally recognized usability expert and STC
luminary
Topic:
Personas: Bringing 'Users' Alive
Summary:
Personas are the missing link uniting product features, user interface,
documentation, and even marketing to create highly usable products. They
help us communicate what we know about the people who use our products
in an engaging, efficient way. And, they let us get beyond statistics
to a portrait of users that helps us use this information to make design
decisions.
Personas are an increasingly popular way to encapsulate and share user research - a low-cost, high impact way to make users come alive for the entire team. In this interactive presentation, Whitney Quesenbery will present the basics of creating and using personas, and look at what they add to the audience analysis toolkit.
Speaker:
Whitney Quesenbery is a user interface designer and usability professional
who has been entranced by personas and their power to guide the design
process. She is on the board of the Usability Professionals' Association,
and is the past-manager for the STC Usability SIG. She can be found at
Whitney Interactive Design, or on the web at www.wqusability.com
Topic:
Small-Scale Content Management Strategies
Summary:
Tools and information design strategies for content
management within your own work or within small organizations like your
work team. Using these tools and techniques, you can learn to cheaply
and efficiently control, manage, and reuse information with powerful,
scalable systems.
Date:
Tuesday, January 13th
About the Speaker:
Dave Clark is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
He teaches courses in Knowledge Management, Information Architecture,
Document Design, and the Rhetoric of Technology. His research interests
are in knowledge and content management and in community engagement and
outreach.
Topic:
Holiday Gathering
Where:
Paddy's Pub, 2339 N. Murray, just off North Ave., near the lake.
Details:
A relaxing evening by the fire, with good food (hors d’oeuvres galore
from Sendik’s) and good company (your fellow STC members!). We’ll
be meeting in a private room with a fireplace at Paddy’s Pub.
STC telephone seminar
When
Wednesday Dec. 10, at noon.
Where
Catalyst International will be our host site (Catalyst is located at 8989
N. Deerwood Dr. in Brown Deer).
Topic
Adding Panache to Your Procedures.
Topic:
"Tackling Trademarks" Using copyrights and trademarks correctly
and easily in your technical documentation.
Location:
MSOE Alumni Partnership Center
Speaker:
Amy Carlson is currently a Technical Documentation Specialist at Johnson
Controls, doing their external Product Information Web site, CD catalog,
and several internal software products.
Topic:
Searching Smart(er) on the Internet - how to improve your searching skills
on the Internet.
Speaker:
Jan Kamholtz, MLS, is a full-time consultant at Kamholtz Associates LLC,
serving the information needs of business people, technical workers, writers,
and others.
Location:
Wisconsin Lutheran College,
June 10
Topic:
Celebrate STC's 50th Birthday!
Speakers:
Panel discussion on STC's Past, Present and Future
Mollye Barrett
Michelle Berkes
Ken Cook
Joint meeting with the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) and the Project Management Institute (PMI),
Topic:
Managing Multiple Responsibilities
Speaker:
Michael Tobis, Ph. D.
Location:
Harley-Davidson
Topic:
"Managing Multiple Responsibilities"
Demands for our attention often come not only from our current "front
burner" project, but also from nearly completed past projects, planning
for upcoming projects, secondary projects, and other responsibilities.
This flood of responsibilities can be overwhelming. The more ambitious
a person is, the more that person risks being late or incomplete, or unreliable.
This talk will address the consequences of our burgeoning opportunities
and responsibilities. The audience will go away having received ideas
and strategies on how to allocate attention among the competing pursuits
that vie for our limited attention.
Speaker:
Michael Tobis, Ph.D., coauthor of "Managing Multiple Projects" a recent release in the Briefcase Books series from McGraw-Hill. The book
combines time management and project management ideas to describe ways
to cope in a work environment that presents the professional with a challenging
assortment of demands and opportunities. Michael, a systems engineer,
and his wife, Irene, a psychologist, are cofounders of Ducks-in-a-Row
Efficiency Consultants, a Madison-based consultancy focusing on individual
and small group productivity and workflow.
(Joint meeting with the American Society of Training and Development)
January 14
Topic:
Panel discussion on Current Information Architecture Trends and Usability
Methods
Speakers:
Amii LaPointe: Initial User Research Methods from the
Usability Engineering Lifecycle. Amii will discuss user profiles and personas,
plus task analysis. She will also discuss current methods and present
examples of experience from past projects.
Brian Molstad (Molstad Consulting): Information Architecture Discovery and Documentation. Brian will discuss why IA is an indispensable tool and provide an overview of current methods. He will also discuss practice for any interactive project.
Sam Racine (Unisys Corporation): Usability Testing Minus the End Users. Sam will outline methods to be used when you don't have access to the end users, including incorporating user persona data in testing, utilizing user experts in testing, and use of role-playing to get people thinking outside the box.
December 10 Meeting
Topic:
"Using the Internet and XML for Technical Documentation Support"
Speaker:
Tom Hughes
Technical Communications Manager
Adaptive Micro Systems
Meeting
Title:
“The Dynamic Web: Using Style Sheets, Scripting, and Database Technology”
Speaker:
Monte Kendrick, President and Principal Consultant for Loose Leaf Communications
Location:
MSOE Alumni Partnership Center
Meeting Outline:
Separating content from formatting through CSS
-- The traditional web model
-- Advantages of CSS
-- Customizing the user experience
Client- and server-side scripting options
-- Client-side JavaScript & VB Script
-- Server-side processing through CGI, PHP, ASP, and .NET
Separating content from coding
-- HTML Templates
-- Dynamic page generation
-- Database options and content chunking
Appendix 1: The future of web development
Appendix 2: Resources
About the Speaker:
Monte Kendrick is President and Principal Consultant for Loose Leaf Communications,
LLC in Madison. He began his career in web development and design in 1994.
As a Technical Writer for various biotechnology companies, he has been
involved in many high-profile web and multimedia development projects.
Over the years, he has extended his expertise to database integration,
Flash animation, and interactive design. Monte received his M.S. from
The Ohio State University in 1992 and has served as an officer of the
Four Lakes Chapter of the Society for Technical Communications. Recently,
he completed Microsoft training courses in web application development
for the .NET framework.
Meeting
Date: October 8
Topic: If Only I Had Known...
Back by popular demand, an open discussion on issues in the world of technical communication. Whether new to the field or an “old hat”, come share one of your memorable experiences and learn from others’ trials and travails.
The meeting will take place in a relaxed and casual atmosphere in a private room at Edwardo’s Natural Pizza Restaurant, across from the zoo.
Speaker: Moderated by: STC member Verla Gatchell.
Location:
Edwardo’s Natural Pizza Restaurant,
10845 W. Blue Mound Rd.
Meeting
Our first meeting was held on Tuesday, September 10th at ComedySportz. After a few announcements, we ate a meal catered by Saz's and then were entertained by a trio of comedians. The best part is that this evening of fun and fellowship is FREE.
Place:
ComedySportz RSVP Room
126 N. Jefferson St.
Milwaukee 53202
Tuesday, June 11 STC Meeting: A Joint Meeting with the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) - How to be creative on a deadline without going crazy
Place - Hall of Fame at the Pettit National Ice Center
500 South 84th Street Milwaukee, WI 53214.
Costs - $15 members /$20 future members / Full-time students $12
Speaker - Marshall J. Cook
Bio - Marshall J. Cook is a professor in the Division of Continuing Studies at UW-Madison. Marshall teaches workshops, seminars and credit courses on writing and editing, creativity, stress and time management, and media relations, and is a frequent speaker at conferences nationwide. He is the author of a novel and 18 non-fiction books, including Freeing Your Creativity: a writer’s guide and Slow down – and get more done. He edits Creativity, a newsletter for writers and small press publishers, and is a columnist for ByLine Magazine. Marshall holds his BA in creative writing and his MA in communications from Stanford University.
Topic - Marshall J. Cook will present a very entertaining and motivating talk in which he will present seven core principles for maintaining creativity in the workplace. His style is fresh and down to earth, and his sense of humor lively. If you go away from this meeting deciding to adopt even one of his suggestions, you’ll have done yourself a great favor.
Tuesday, May 14 STC Meeting: Grassroots Knowledge Management
Speaker - Mollye Barrett
Bio - Mollye Barrett has more than 20 years of experience as a technical writer and editor. She leads the Knowledge Management group at Iverson Language Associates in Milwaukee, where her work includes developing knowledge transfer methods. She also continues to write hardware and software manuals, video scripts, sales and promotional brochures, proposals, training materials, internal procedures, on-line help, marketing materials, corporate standards and style guides for clients at Iverson. Mollye is currently the Mentoring Program Manager for the Wisconsin Chapter of STC. She is a published poet and short story writer and owns Flatrock Press, where she publishes the work of other writers.
Topic - Where does knowledge management begin? Technical communicators produce many of the explicit components required to build a knowledge base. Mollye will discuss the grassroots efforts of a single engineering group in a large manufacturing company to centralize information in multiple languages that could be rationalized and repurposed. She'll also talk about how these efforts are being integrated into a developing, company-wide knowledge management system and her role in the implementation.
Tuesday, March 12 STC Meeting: User-Centered Design
Speaker - Michelle Davis Berkes
Bio - Michele Berkes has worked in communications for more than 15 years. Since August, she has been at Northwestern Mutual, where she is a User-Centered Design Specialist.
Michelle began her communications career in 1986 doing proofreading and typemarking for a textbook publishing house in Westerville, Ohio, and then moved on to various editing and writing jobs (Merrill Publishing, Learning Design). Prior to joining Northwestern Mutual, she worked for 3 years as a consultant with Compuware Corporation (Information Management and Delivery Senior Specialist). Michelle has been doing web work in one form or another since 1994.
Michele’s work for the Software Product Design Team at Northwestern Mutual focuses on user interface design, interaction design, information architecture, and usability evaluation. Michele is the Director-Sponsor for STC Region 6.
Topic -
Michelle Davis Berkes will discuss the user-centered design process to
identify user needs. She will also discuss the design, interactions and
interface for web sites and software.
Tuesday, January 8 STC Meeting: Guidelines for Indexing Technical Manuals
Speaker - Carol Roberts
Carol Roberts has been indexing full-time for eight years. She indexes scholarly books in the humanities as well as trade books and the occasional textbook. Her other passions include her two daughters and ballroom dancing.
Carol Roberts will present guidelines for indexing technical materials. The presentation will include tips on what to index, how to manage jargon and acronyms, phrasing main headings and subentries, handling numerical entries and complex locators, indexing software, and standalone indexes vs. embedded indexing tags.
November 13 - New Web Site Introduction"
Presentation: New Web Site Introduction. Table Topics include web site design and design tools.
Speakers - Ron Kurtus and Christine Moreau
September 25 - "If Only I Had Known..."
Presentation: "If Only I Had Known...."
Table Topics include Informal Usability Testing, Document Reviews, Document Delivery Methods, and Chapter Involvement.
March 13 - "Moving at the speed of web development"
Today the pace of business far exceeds that experienced only five years ago. Even the tools we use change at rates that often outstrip our ability to stay current. Susan will share some practical project management ideas that are drawn from visual interface design principles.
Speaker - Susan Jensen
Susan Jensen directs content acquisition and interface
design for ProMedicus Systems (Eden Prairie, Minnesota, USA). She speaks
from experience gained over 20 years in the techcomm field and through
a varietyof design projects that blend electronic and paper media, high
and low
tech, and the needs of skilled and unskilled users. As managing editor
fora manufacturer of hydromechanical testing systems, she developed modular
documentation systems that complemented the corporate manufacturing
models.
For the past four years, her focus has been on the development of usable decision support, financial, and medical applications. She is Director-Sponsor (Region 6) of the Society for Technical Communication and a past president of the STC/Twin Cities chapter.
March 10- XML Workshop
Speaker: Susan Archer, Spherion Technology Architects
Workshop Description:
This workshop will include an overview of XML and the opportunity to use
XML including:
- XML documents,
- XML Data Islands
- XML Object Model
- XML Namespaces
- XML schemas and DTDs
About the Speaker:
Susan D. Archer is a certified trainer of "GUI Design for Web-based
Applications™." She has been a technical communicator for more
than fourteen years. Her writing projects have included printed manuals,
Windows 98 online help, HTML help, Web pages, marketing materials, articles
and books. She is currently a Consultant with Spherion Technology Architects.
February 17 - HTML Workshop
What: Distance Learning
Speaker: Mary Ann Terry, Spherion Technology Architects
Workshop Description:
This three hour training session will provide you with a basic understanding
of HTML and it's application on the World Wide Web. You'll get hands on
training in creating a web page using some of the basic fundamentals of
HTML including text formatting, background definition, image insertion,
and table creation. You'll also be provided information on a few of the
more popular HTML editors, as well as some helpful web sites for web page
developers.
About the Speaker:
Mary Ann Terry is currently employed as a Senior Consultant with Spherion
Technology, Inc. She has a Bachelor's degree in English and possesses
more than twelve years of experience as a Technical Writer. Mary Ann's
background includes computer based training, paper documentation, training
videos and web site development. She has been using HTML for the past
four years to produce web pages and web-based training.
February 13
Distance Learning
Speaker: Saul Carliner
Overview of Online Learning and the Opportunities It Presents to Technical Communicators. This online session uses online learning to introduce you to this fast-growing field of communication. Through a remote, Internet connection, your Boston-based speaker first introduces you to the variety of types of online learning (some of which sound awfully familiar as online documentation), then explains how the different technologies relate to one another (for example, what is an authoring system and what does it have to do with bandwidth?). Next, he identifies issues that you must address in any online learning project, and last, identifies opportunities for technical communicators.
Saul Carliner is an assistant professor of information design at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, with specialties in online learning, information design methodologies and techniques, and the economics of information design. His consulting clients include Berlitz, Guidant, IBM, Microsoft, ST Microelectronics, 3M, and VNU. He is the author of An Overview of OnlineLearning and Eight Things that Training and Performance Improvement Professionals Must Know about Knowledge, and co-editor of Techniques for Technical Communicators. He is a fellow and past international president of the Society for Technical Communication.
January 27
Database Workshop
This hands-on seminar will introduce you to the basics of database technology, and how it can be used in the technical communication process. When you complete the seminar, you will know how to build a simple database, and, more importantly, understand what database technology can do for your information development efforts, as a basis for single-sourcing and as a component of several presentation systems.
Our speaker, Mike Huber, works at Rockwell Software as a web developer and technical communicator, with a background in software development.
January 11
First Milwaukee Chapter Information Architecture SIG
What: First Milwaukee Chapter Information Architecture
SIG
This meeting will feature an overview of information architecture. Where
it's been and where it's going. How does it affect technical communicators?
How much does it affect you current job? We'll discuss who's doing it
in Milwaukee and the nation and what type of jobs exist in this new but
rapidly growing field. We'll also discuss where to get information on
IA including book reviews and dedicated web sites.
January 9
Topic:
The Role of Technical Writers in Developing eLearning: CBT and WBT - Tools
and Techniques
Ron Kurtus is owner of Kurtus Technologies, specializing in eLearning, technical documentation, and electronic publishing. After 20 years performing project engineering in the aerospace industry, he started his own independent documentation business. Ron has been a member of the Wisconsin Chapter of STC since 1992.