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Subject:Re: Is the STC worth it? From:Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 5 Nov 2014 14:24:20 -0800
When Certification was first announced, I said it had a chance of
succeeding only if the academics didn't get involved. Sure enough, the
academics got involved and tried to model specialized certification after
existing educational models.
With the Information Age at the forefront, traditional academic models
cannot sustain our economy. We have more out of work academics than people
ready and willing to work.
As it is, the STC membership is also failing to attract and retain members.
Forcing members to spend money to join SIGs, without justifying
the additional membership overhead, was my primary reason not to join at
first. But that the costs still kept increasing.
I would have stayed with STC if I didn't have other groups to discuss the
issues of the day. TechCom succeeds by synthesizing aspects from other
fields as well as itself. We have the most successful Agile meetup group in
Vancouver. Our combined Content Strategy/Information Architecture group is
also gaining traction. And both are modelled on the social nature of the
highly successful UE/UX meetup group.
-Tony
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