TechWhirl Recap for November 18 2011

[INKtopia Admin <admin -at- inktopia -dot- net>]

This week’s update is supported by Platinum sponsor Madcap & their Ultimate
Communications Suite, MadPak | http://goo.gl/eO3ls



*LavaCon Conference<file:///C:/Users/Connie.ConnieGiordano/Dropbox/TECHWR-L%20-%20Private/Site%20Content/Weekly%20Update/lavacon.org>2011
*: We came, we saw, we met to incredible people and learned some valuable
things.



This week’s TechWhirl update has to be about LavaCon since Connie, Al,
Jacquie, Lois and Roger spent five days in Austin and four full days
covering the event and interviewing some of the thought leaders in the
technical communications industry (but not all of them, more coming soon).
Frankly, we can’t really summarize in this update everything we learned
because we learned so much that we’re still trying to digest the entire
thing (like one of those great Hut’s
Hamburgers<http://www.yelp.com/biz/huts-hamburgers-austin>or the
natural beauty of the Lady
Bird Lake<http://maps.google.com/maps?q=austin+texas&ll=30.257214,-97.743387&spn=0.045373,0.086432&hnear=Austin,+Travis,+Texas&gl=us&t=m&z=14&vpsrc=6>.




Some things we learned:

   - This industry of technical communications that we as professional
   communicators work in, is seeing a new movement to take it from competent,
   thorough and thoughtful desktop publishers to a full profession worthy and
   necessary for the long term success of any company.  Anywhere.
   - Social media and the tools available provide fantastic opportunities
   to unleash the creativity and knowledge of everyone. Our job as technical
   communicators and as the industry’s online magazine is to encourage it and
   enable it while also helping to provide context for it.
   - It seems the number 950 <http://www.scriptorium.com/> fascinated many
   of the presenters.  We heard it over, and over, and over again.  [no hurry
   we’ll wait]
   - The greatest content in the world is useless if it can’t be found.
   - Content strategy may inform a wide array of tactics and outputs, but
   it starts with understanding what customers want and how they want to use
   it.
   - We believe more than ever in the authoritative role of the
STC<http://www.stc.org/>in helping define this profession.
   - The start of one of the most fascinating software stories in tech comm
   history.
   - People can’t seem differentiate TechWhirl from TechWorld if the
   speaker has any type of a southern accent.
   - We really enjoyed covering this event and working in a larger team and
   from the feedback to the TechWhirl LavaCon Conference 2011 session
   summaries <http://techwhirl.com/topics/conferences/lavacon/summaries/>others
have enjoyed our coverage too.  |
   http://goo.gl/FFyBJ
   - Our little flyers were a success. (YouTube) http://goo.gl/jv9Hi

Social Media and the Chance to Follow TechWhirl:

Our Google Plus Page – what’s happening behind the scenes |
http://goo.gl/SO0R4

Will you be our Friend? Please, you know you want to click |
http://goo.gl/tDrW7

Want all this TechWhirl goodness a few characters @ a time |
http://goo.gl/itjDg

Inside TechWhirl newsletter (all about our work) | http://goo.gl/yRxu1

Typing TechWhirl.Com too much for you? Try RSS | http://goo.gl/msLzu
What You’re Talking About
A quick *What you talkin’ ‘bout* to our Tech Writers and their discussions
in our email discussion group <http://goo.gl/YUrbb>:


   - Janice Gelb’s wonderful home décor find – “Punctuation-shaped Lamps,”
   was good for a few giggles and groans well before the Friday funnies—Light
   editing indeed!
   - Monique Semp is looking for help in “visually describing command
   syntax ?” and has gotten some suggestions ranging from reviewing SQL and
   API descriptions, to referencing sentence diagramming techniques and
   following IBM’s visual syntax guidelines.
   -  While Bonnie Turner asked for assistance in “digitally signing help
   files”—the old fashioned .hlp files, Dan Goldstein let us know that even
   though it’s deprecated, WinHelp downloads are provided by Microsoft for
   Vista and Windows 7.

In Case You Missed it: This Week  @ TechWhirl

   - LavaCon Story:  TechWhirl.com/lavaconstory
   - “Technical Writing on a Shoestring: Open Source Tools That Can Save
   Your Technical Writing Department Money” by Chantel Brathwaite |
   http://goo.gl/bEbzh
   -  Poll Question: Sidebar of TechWhirl.Com

SPONSOR-Luv

We want to send a very special “thank you” to our sponsors for their
support.



*Platinum A*: Adobe Systems
Incorporated<http://www.runaware.com/clients/adobe/techsuite/>

*Platinum B: *Madcap<http://www.madcapsoftware.com/products/flare/overview.aspx#whatsnew>,
ComponentOne<http://www.doctohelp.com/?utm_source=techwrl.com&utm_medium=125x125%2Bbanner%2Bad&utm_campaign=doctohelp>
**

*Gold*: Vancouver Island University <http://pr.viu.ca/techcomm/>, Society
for Technical Communication (STC) <http://www.stc.org/>, EC
Software<http://www.ec-software.com/>

-- 


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