STC Meeting - Philadelphia Metro Chapter

[Emily Skarzenski <71220 -dot- 341 -at- COMPUSERVE -dot- COM>]

STC Philadelphia Metro chapter - February meeting

Wednesday, February 15
at The New Woodbine Inn in Pennsauken, NJ

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User Documentation in the Post-Usability Era
         Speaker: Edmond Weiss
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Computer users have become more sophisticated--has our user documentation done
the same? Join us this month to hear Edmond Weiss talk about what he calls the
"retreat from usability."

During the 1980s, developers and documentors collaborated on a joint mission: to
make applications (and their manuals) as usable as possible: easy to learn, easy
to operate, and therefore more useful. In recent years, however, developers have
substantially retreated form this protective approach to users, placing greater
emphasis on flexibility, feature-richness, and customizability, none of which is
consistent with the traditional technical communicator's model of usability. New
conceptions of software and new expectations about users may result in a
"post-usability era," in which documentors may need to moderate their
traditional rhetorical/pedagogical roles as protectors of users and advocates
for the primacy of ease of use.

[Edmond Weiss is an Associate Fellow of STC and Associate Professor of
Communications at Fordham University Graduate School of Business Communications.
He has given may thought-provoking talks on a variety of topics related to
technical communication.]

Meeting/program schedule:
6:30  Networking
7:00  Cocktail buffet ($16)
8:00  Program (free)

Directions:
Located approximately one mile from the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge at the Remington
Avenue Jug Handle on Route 73.

RSVP by Monday, February 13, to the STC-PMC Program Hotline: (800) 289-4180
(Please RSVP even if you're coming only for the program.)