Conference 2006 - There is a better way
The ISTC Conference for 2006 was held from Tuesday 3rd. October 2006 to
Thursday 5th. October. For the first time, Conference was held during
the week rather than over a weekend.
Click on one of the links in the following list for details on various aspects of the 2006 ISTC Conference.
The venue
The Europa Gatwick hotel, about five miles from Gatwick airport.
Balcombe Road
Maidenbower
Crawley
West Sussex
RH10 7ZR |
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The theme
"There is a better way": what new techniques and ideas could help
us to work more easily and efficiently?
Keynote speaker
Our keynote speaker was Patrick Hoffman,
A specialist in the use of visual symbols in technical communication. As a
former technical writer and now a visual interaction designer, Patrick Hofmann
has turned into 'a man of few words'. For over ten years, this vibrant Canadian
has helped clients like Nokia, Philips, FedEx, HP, BASF, and Agfa overcome
the anxiety and stress involved in globalisation and translation--often by
eliminating the text in their online, hardcopy, and interface information.
His award-winning work and undying passion for 'visualisation' have sent him
far and wide, as he teaches workshops and helps his clients use images to
improve communication.
You can view his presentation here (PowerPoint slideshow)
Tackling the age-groups of our information users
For the past ten years, Patrick Hofmann has been hip-hopping the
globe exclaiming the virtues of visual language and pictorial instruction.
'Away with words!' he's always said. Wordless communication can solve countless
usability problems and reduce often enormous translation costs, but all the
time?
Since he created his first wordless manual, Patrick and his colleagues have
conducted a barrage of usability tests on reams of hard-copy and online information,
uncovering both new and ongoing challenges that face visual communication,
technical documentation, and digital information.
Not only may we localise or internationalise our information for different
cultures and languages, we must take ages into account!
Why? How does this impact our information, our images, our technologies, our
processes? How can we make them better?
Let's address these questions, become inspired by the possibilities, and
really poke fun at the whole situation. In the end, there are indeed better
ways of making our information work.
- International Documentation and Today's Technologies - Teresa Mulvihill
- A Proposal is not a Technical Document - it is a Unique Marketing Opportunity - Dave Chapman
- Impact of Adopting a Content Management System on the Authoring Process - Eddie Moore
- Using Outsourcing to Find Technical Communicators -
Debbie Stevens
- Driving Markets By Using Technical Communications -
Roger Steeper
- Making Knowledge Usable - Kees van Mansom
- There is No Point Being the Best Kept Secret -
Fiona Auty
- The SFIA Foundation - Skills Framework for the Information Age -
Ron McLaren
- A Process Approach to Small-Scale Software Technical Publications - David Nixon
- Is This a Golden Age for Technical Authors? -
Ellis Pratt
- Designing Forms - Florence Dujardin
- Technical Communication in the Air Environment -
Gene Sexton
- Clear your Debt, Double your Income, and Have Fun Doing It - Terry Marsh
- Between the Verbal and the Visual - Mario Saraceni
- Getting in Part 3 -
James Bromley
- Office Working - Tips For an Easier Life -
Martin Block
- Three Technical Authors and a Single Source System -
Amanda Caley
- What is Communication? -
Andrew Slack
- The DITA Difference - An Introduction to the Standrd that's Changing Content Solutions - Noz Urbina
- Future Perfect -
Mark Clifford
- Cross-Cultural Communication in Producing ISO Standards - Tom Warren
- (Vendor Presentation - PDA) AuthorIT and its New Integrated Capabilities - Robert Cowan
- (Vendor Presentation - SDL) Writing for Global Audiences - Christie Fidura
- Let images do the talking -
Leo Adank
- (Vendor Presentation - Microsoft) Office 12 - Paul Foster
- (Brainstorming Session) - Raising Awareness of Technical Communication and the ISTC - Simon Butler
The following presentation papers are available. More will be added as they become available.
Sponsors
Our thanks to Adobe for sponsoring the Conference carrier bags and folders.
Also to AST for supplying the wine for the Gala Dinner.
Exhibitors
The following companies exhibited at Conference:
In Germany alone, expenditures for writing and translating technical documentation add up to approx. nine billion euros per year with a strong upwards trend. Complete documentation in the language of the target country has become a requirement for opening up new markets, not only for marketing reasons, but also from the legal point of view.
across develops and markets a tool of the same name for Corporate Translation Management (CTM) which simplifies and accelerates the preparation and management of translations, improving the quality and lowering the costs.
Firstly, CTM provides immediate support for professional translators in the course of their daily work. A Translation Memory saves the complete pool of translations sentence by sentence and permits the convenient "recycling" of repetitive phrases. Other important components are a terminology system as well as an editor that can be used to edit all popular document formats.
Secondly, CTM means the administration of translation projects, which is often more than half the work. It's a matter of seamless workflow management, meeting deadlines and standards of quality as well as transparency of costs and work. In particular, across brings together agencies from the industry, specialized service providers and freelance translators in a common system.
Target groups for across range from freelance translators to medium-sized mechanical engineering companies to multi-national corporations and all those who either require professional translations themselves or offer them as services. The product options range from the stand-alone version for 400 euros up to the corporation license for 40,000 euros.
For more than two decades, the company's award-winning technologies and software have redefined business, entertainment, and personal communications by setting new standards for producing and delivering content that engages people anywhere at anytime. From rich images in print, video, and film to dynamic digital content for a variety of media, the impact of Adobe solutions is clear to anyone who creates, views, and interacts with information.
Now that Adobe and Macromedia are one company, Adobe is better positioned than ever to push the boundaries of the digital universe. Under the leadership of CEO Bruce Chizen, we're driving even greater innovation with powerful, compelling software solutions that meet the needs of customers and markets ranging from designers and filmmakers, to enterprises and governments, to developers and home users.
PDA will be showcasing the full AuthorIT suite of products, including the Website Manager, which provides an integrated approach to web content creation, maintenance, delivery and multi-language support.
AuthorIT is an end-to-end, component content management system. It is a single application which provides facilities for importing legacy material (including RoboHelp projects), authoring and controlling modular content, managing documentation workflow and localisation, and publishing to multiple output formats. AuthorIT enables simple re-use of content and complete freedom from complex formatting or tagging.
Supporting a range of industry-standard delivery formats, including compiled Help systems, DITA, XML, PDF and HTML, AuthorIT provides a flexible and future-proof authoring solution. Support for new formats, such as Windows Vista, will be added as they become available.
For further information on AuthorIT, and the range of services offered by PDA, visit them in the exhibitors' area or go to http://www.authorit.uk.com/
AuthorIT Software Corporation (ASC) was founded in 1996 and it has thousands of clients in over 50 countries. Its head office is based in Auckland, New Zealand.
As well as providing and implementing AuthorIT systems, PDA assist organisations of all sizes in evaluating, scoping, planning and implementing component documentation and content management strategies, as well as providing outsourced documentation services.
Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, with offices in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada, Inmedius is a global leader in delivering performance-oriented applications that capture, create, manage and deploy technical information. Integrating those information assets within business processes, using proven and innovative techniques, is an Inmedius hallmark. Providing lifecycle solutions to aerospace, defense and technical publications departments worldwide, Inmedius enables its clients to share an unprecedented level of productivity and efficiency -- empowering every corner of the organization.
Easy to implement, maintain and use, the Inmedius S1000D Publishing Suite -- a set of fully-integrated COTS software tools -- makes every facet of an ASD S1000D project possible throughout its lifecycle. Advisor, a revolutionary new Quality Assurance tool from Inmedius, insures SGML and XML data conforms to business rules and document standards.
More information can be found on our website: www.inmedius.com.
Lloyd International has been a leading provider of technical translations for over 17 years and can help you reach new customers in multiple markets, quickly and cost-effectively.
Specialising in the translation and localization of user manuals, marketing material, web content and software - Lloyd International provides language and technology solutions to support your business needs:
- We cover all commercial language combinations
- Your projects are translated and independently proofread by mother-tongue subject matter specialists
- All major software and graphics formats are supported on both PC and Mac platforms
- We provide a complete page layout service and can output print-ready files to your exact specifications
- Our localization services include the translation of XML files, CMS content, resource bundles, as well as recompiling Help files and GUI resizing
- Using Translation Memory tools we store and reuse your existing translations to reduce your costs and improve time-to-market, accuracy and consistency
- Lloyd International is ISO 9001:2000 accredited and a certified Investor In People
Lloyd International has proven expertise within many major high-tech industries including:
- Automotive
- Control & Instrumentation
- Engineering - Process, Marine, Electrical & Mechanical
- Finance
- Healthcare
- Information Technology
- Telecommunications
For a more in-depth overview of our company, our services and the benefits we can offer you, come and see us at the ISTC Conference, or visit our website at www.lloyd.co.uk.
Mekon is focussed on increasing the effectiveness of content creation, management, review and delivery systems within our clients' organisations. Our ability to thoroughly understand the content needs of our clients stems from our rigorous investigative methodology, involving the in-depth analysis of customer processes, systems and business problems.
Because our first objective is always to gain 'understanding' of client content needs, we can offer the very highest standards of scalable and fully customised solutions, designed to meet specific customer requirements anywhere in the content lifecycle.
Because of our expertise in DITA, XML and SGML based publishing systems, we can offer our clients the most cost effective and efficient means by which to manage their content and publishing processes. For more information about Mekon, click here.
Ovidius is based in Berlin, Germany, with offices in the UK and specialises in XML and SGML software solutions for creating, managing, and publishing of technical and scientific information. We help companies with complex documentation requirements, e.g. automotive, mechanical engineering, software "manufacturers", aviation and defence, medical engineering and IT companies.
SGML and XML standards aim at providing an open, platform-independent format that can be processed by any application.
Using track-proven software tools Ovidius develops scalable, modular and flexible solutions. We bring expert knowledge of the software currently available on the market and help find the solution that best meets our customer's requirements.
MetaMorphosis, our transformation software, is now used in over 20 countries worldwide.
Ovidius TCToolbox is a flexible and efficient SGML/ XML-based Technical Publication Content Management System that is used by customers all over Europe.
Current references include Eurocopter, General Motors Europe, Siemens, Daimler Chrysler, BMW, Bosch and MAN.
The Society of Indexers is the professional body for indexers in the UK and
seeks to promote indexing, the quality of indexes and the profession of
indexing. We provide support and advice for publishers, authors and other
clients who are looking for an indexer - our online Directory of Indexers
Available lists details of over 200 professional indexers, covering a wide
range of subject specialisms. Our well-established training course,
available in both electronic and printed formats, features interactive
exercises and a practical indexing assignment, and is complemented by
competitively-priced workshops held at venues throughout the country.
Tailor-made in-house workshops for individual companies can also be
arranged. See our website www.indexers.org.uk for further details.
'An index groups together in a systematic arrangement information scattered
throughout a document, database or other collection, and is designed to
enable users to identify and locate relevant information and to retrieve it
quickly and efficiently' (ISO 999: 1996).
Documentation Awards
The winners of the ISTC documentation awards for 2006
were announced during the gala evening. This year, the sponsors included:
Communication comes in many flavours. Even for high-tech companies, non-technical information is just as important as technical information. Consider marketing and promotion: key factors in the success of every company. But all too often, instead of clear communication, we see technobabble and a list of product features, rather than an explanation of benefits to customers. Of course, 'there is a better way'. This year's conference theme encapsulates the belief at TechScribe. So, we are pleased to sponsor the documentation competition for Class 1b, printed delivery of non-technical information.
Clear non-technical information in itself won't make a company into a market leader. In addition to a useful product at an acceptable price, technical companies often need user guides, reference manuals and other forms of documentation to explain to customers how to use a product. This is where TechScribe comes into the picture. We work exclusively in the software documentation sector, helping our clients in software houses and IT departments to improve their user guides and online help systems.
The principal, Mike Unwalla, has a rare mix of teaching skills, English language skills and technical expertise. That means he can talk to technical people in their language, and re-present the information to non-technical people. The result is crystal-clear documentation that helps people perform their business tasks effectively.
You can find case studies, articles, testimonials and samples on www.techscribe.co.uk.
For an informal discussion about your software documentation project, contact Mike Unwalla:
Phone: +44 114 266 6933
Email: Mike Unwalla
Web: www.techscribe.co.uk
Horace Hockley award
The 2006 Horace Hockley award was awarded to Adam Hart-Davis, a well-known
science broadcaster.
Brainstorming session
There was a brainstorming session held immediately before the AGM. The purpose of this session was to gather ideas for raising awareness of Technical Communication in general and the ISTC in particular. Results of this will be posted once the analysis has been completed.
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