Saturday, May 3, 2003

Dinners at STC Con? There's movement toward a Techwhirler's dinner at the STC conference in Dallas; how about an STC blogger's get-together? There aren't many of us, so I'll also hit the email, but ping me if you're interested. 4:47:46 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Tina, STC, and DUX (quack!) Beth talks conferences in her Tina Moments post, including both STC and DUX, noting appreciatively perceived outreach by DUX in particular. Sparing no false humility, I'll take a bit of credit for the DUX outreach, as I pitched for Silicon Valley STC's involvement early on, after I was asked to participate as a DUX volunteer (webmaster, thank you). That STC logo on the DUX site is due to my involvement, and we're co-sponsoring the closing night reception, along with AIGA. And BTW, early registration for DUX has been extended to next Friday, May 9, so get on it! There's also more info on the advance program, names and sessions and the like, and a downloadable PDF of the advance program is available (and will be updated with more info RSN). Now what I really need to do is read up on the disciplines represented at DUX, so I can talk a good line about why STC's involved and where our interests intersect. I have a gut understanding, but can't quite put it into words yet, using the lingo that user experience designers will understand. Your help will be appreciated--email works just fine. 4:18:31 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Catchup I'm looking back at a few items I wanted to note from CHI and the weeks after, during which the Windows box was kaput. Here's linkage to Micah Alpern's blog the day of the blogging special session at CHI, and linkage to the slides from said presentation--except that page has gone 404. Too bad. Jenny pointed to an article at CertMag.com on the importance of documentation. Only thing wrong is they seem to suggest that IT folks should just learn a few style rules, find an authoring tool, and write the doc themselves. Precious little appreciation for the value of actual trained professional technical communicators--that's us--who already know how to do these things. Darren also chimed in with his view. Darren also pointed to a rewrite of the Klingon-as-developer lines to Klingon-as-techwriter. If we could only get away with that attitude! And I know that Gordon's made some interesting observations and linkage in the last month, but I'm out of steam right now. 3:29:16 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Yes, Doc, it's raining here too. . . I've noted when travelling that folks will usually tell you "This isn't normal, you should have been here last week." Yes, well, this is not normal. This is not even unusual. It just doesn't happen. Winter rain in May. No way. I've been in California since. . . oh, yes, I was born here. OK, we get the occasional shower in July from the moisture spun off of a Mexican hurricane, but it does not rain like this. The Santa Cruz Bluegrass festival has been postponed. The Monterey Bay Iris Society show is happening, but the flowers are all wet. And a flip-over accident has both northbound lanes of Highway 17 blocked. Know what causes that? Driving too fast for the conditions!!!! Just like in the old country. One grace of California living (which, as a kid from Jersey, I've never been able to completely get my head around) is that you can plan an outdoor event weeks in advance and know that it won't rain. Even in winter the odds are good. (Guess how many times the Rose Parade has been rained out?) It's still raining. T-ball has been cancelled because the fields are muck. Several other festivals are going on, and I don't know what will happen, except that it won't involve blogging. [The Doc Searls Weblog] 1:07:12 PM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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