New Web site, SIGDOC paper, new job and new email address

[Carl Stieren <carls -at- CYBERUS -dot- CA>]

Between September 9 and October 6, I launched a Web site, got a new email
address, presented a paper at SIGDOC 98 in Quebec City, and changed jobs.
While I wouldn't schedule a month like this again, I'm glad I did all three.
Here's the run-down:

*  Web site: www.cyberus.ca/~carls

* New email address: carls -at- cyberus -dot- ca

*  SIGDOC paper: "The Zen of Minimalism: Creating a Top-of-Class Manual for
Beginners and Advanced Users"

* New job: technical writer at OmniMark Technologies, Ottawa

Creating the Web site was fun. I knew what I wanted to do - create a
resource for technical communicators that was both serious and fun.  My
friends acted as Quality Assurance for me - special thanks to Robert Stanley
of Simware, and Lisa Dobson, former colleague at Simware who is now across
the River at Cognos. It had been a good six years at Simware but I couldn't
resist the opportunities I found at OmniMark.

I decided to liven up my SIGDOC presentation.  Since we were in Quebec
City, I threw up the first slide in French and began my presentation in that
language. Worried looks appeared on unilingual faces, several people started
to leave, and then I switched to English with "Fooled you, didn't I? No, I'm
not presenting in French ...  mais pour mes collegues francophones, j'ai des
exemplaires de ma presentation en francais."

Joining OmniMark was even more fun. For my second interview, I had to
critique their new documentation - which was a challenge. The person
responsible for the new documentation (Mark Baker) and the head of R & D
were sitting across from me, asking me to critique the documentation!

The company's values were a joy to hear ("We view light as a common
resource, so people get shared offices with windows on both sides.") At
OmniMark, there are ways of finding information both formally and
informally. There's an internal Web site with product specifications, and
there was that Friday after work at The Royal Oak Pub where the head of R &
D bought us all a round and we talked about everything from history to the
future of high tech. In a reversal of the usual company scene, there's fresh
fruit in the kitchens (for free) and junk food (for a price).

The one thing that worried me was the pool table in the lounge at one
corner of the fourth floor. I feared it would get used too seldom or too
often. I was wrong - it gets used just the right amount of time. The pool
table was the ideal place for asking "Maybe I'm way out, but is there a way
to access the read stream position for SUBMIT?".  I was way out, of course,
but nobody frowned. Instead, two developers chimed in, with different
versions of the same answer, and I had a solution for the mini-program I was
writing.  Then I knew I'd never be hung out to dry by a Subject Matter
Expert here.

Especially intriguing is the system of "Houses" in OmniMark, each named
after a different constellation (I'm in Draco House). Each house mixes
people from all different departments - who can also join the staff health
club for $10.00 a month. Each house member gets points for each 30 minutes
of physical activity or each hour of work for charity. There's a monthly
competition among all houses for points.

I described the company to a friend of mine who has a Ph.D. in sociology,
and who teaches the sociology of organizations at a local university. He
said, "Someone's taken quite a bit of care to design the culture of that
company" in a way that avoids the problems of traditional firms.

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