Technicalities - the online newsletter for STC RMC · The Technicalities staff reserves the right to edit articles for clarity and length; substantive editing of feature articles

Spring 2008 Volume 48, Number 3

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Columns:

Message from the Editor

President's Corner

Tips from the Trenches

Chapter News

STC News

STC RMC Home

STC International Home

Features...

Adobe FrameMaker 8.0 Review: An overview of new features, highlights, and personal rants about the newest tool for technical communicators

What Isn’t Technical Communication: Reflections on the differing definitions of technical communication

Social Networks: Tips for using online social networks as a job search tools

STC RMC Website – A Whole New Look: An article announcing the new STC RMC Website and describing the effort that went into it

I Wondered What It'd Be Like When I Got Here: The last R7 Director column by John Hedtke, the last R7 Director

February Chapter Meeting: An overview of the UXD Methodology, an information design process created by Laurie Lamar and Cathy Barnes of Industrial Wisdom

April Chapter Meeting: A presentation of technologies and strategies to improve instruction

Creating and supporting a forum for communities of practice in the profession of technical communication.

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Standard disclaimers apply.

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August/September 2007 Volume 48, Number 1


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Columns:


President's Corner


Emerging Professionals

Chapter News

STC News

Features:

Fly on Your Own Wings

Which Resume Format is Best?

Book Review: Bait and Switch

July Meeting Review

STC is "LinkedIn"

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Technicalities

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Editorial Staff

Managing Editor: Stephen Wertzbaugher HTML Editors: Dana Dutson and Claire Schram Article Editors: Bridget Julian, Jay Mead, and Lynnette Reveling Contributors: Deb Lockwood, Alida Franco, Martha Sippel, and Kathy Recchiuti Newsletter design by Steve Kavalec and Ron Arner

Technicalities is published bi-monthly by the Rocky Mountain Chapter (RMC) of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and is distributed to chapter members, editors of other STC newsletters, and officers of the Society. It is available on request to anyone interested in technical communication. Other STC chapters and publications may reprint material if credit is given.

This newsletter invites writers to submit articles on subjects of interest that they wish to be considered for publication to Society and chapter members. Please credit repeated material and send a copy of the original material to: [email protected]

Submission Guidelines

Submission deadlines and themes for the next year are as follows:

October 15, 2007 - Gadgets and Gizmos: Wikis, RSS, and Other Technology for Technical Communicators

November 15, 2007 - No theme

The staff will also announce the upcoming issue and its theme via an e-mail to the membership and/or at chapter meetings.

The preferred word count for articles is 500-750 words. If your subject matter warrants it, articles longer than 1,000 words will be serialized between two or more issues.

Please e-mail all submissions to: [email protected] with the issue date, such as “October/November 2007,” in the subject line. The editor can be reached during the day at 303.956.1906, by e-mail at [email protected] and by postal mail at 6025 S. Quebec St., Suite 260, Englewood, CO 80111.

Submissions can be pasted into the body of the e-mail, or sent as an attachment. If you send your article as an attachment, it should be in either RTF or DOC format. Please include your contact information.

A “headshot” of yourself to be printed with your article would be appreciated.

Note: By submitting an article, you implicitly grant a license to this newsletter to run the article and for other STC publications to reprint it without permission. Copyright is held by the writer. In your cover letter, please let the editor know if this article has run elsewhere, and if it has been submitted for consideration to other publications.

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The Technicalities staff reserves the right to edit articles for clarity and length; substantive editing of feature articles will be reviewed with the author prior to publication.

STC RMC 2007-2008 Officers

Administrative Council

President: Ron Arner Vice President: John Endicott Secretary: Kathy Recchiuti Treasurer: Jessica Betterly Past President: Deb Lockwood

STC RMC Committee Managers

Assistant to President: Frank Tagader Associate Fellow Nominations: Martha Sippel Database: Karen Kraft-Miller Hospitality: Julie Bettis Jobs: Craig Banister Listserv: Karen Kraft-Miller Membership: Tammy VanBoening Nominating Committee: Alida Franco and Frank Tagader Programs: Kristy Astry Scholarships: Marc Lee and Don Zimmerman (Mentor) Seminars: Bette Frick Strategic Planning: Martha Sippel Volunteers: Ron Arner

STC RMC SIG Managers

Consulting and Independent Contracting Special Interest Group (CIC SIG): Whitney Broach and Linda Gallagher Northern Colorado: Carmen Carmack Western Slope: Victoria Thomas

Society for Technical Communication, Rocky Mountain Chapter

General Chapter Business Rocky Mountain Chapter Society for Technical Communication 6025 S. Quebec St., Suite 260 Englewood, CO 80111 [email protected]

Job Postings Send job postings to [email protected] Jobs are posted on the chapter Web site (http://www.stcrmc.org/jobs_freelance.jobs.htm), and are e-mailed to the techcomm-discuss mailing list.

Chapter Web site http://www.stcrmc.org

STC International Office

901 N. Stuart Street, Suite 904 Arlington, VA 22203-1822 703.522.4114 [email protected] http://www.stc.org









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Technicalities Home






Technicalities Home

Columns:


President's Corner


Chapter News

STC News

Features:

Adobe FrameMaker 8.0 Review

What Isn't Technical Communication?

Social Networks

STC RMC Website – A Whole New Look

I Wondered What It Would Be Like When I Got Here

February Chapter Meeting

April Chapter Meeting

STC RMC Home


Technicalities

This site is best viewed with Internet Explorer 5x or newer.

Editorial Staff

Managing Editor: Dana Dutson HTML Editors: Dana Dutson and Claire Schram Article Editors: Bridget Julian, Jay Mead, and Lynnette Reveling Contributors: Newsletter design by Steve Kavalec and Ron Arner

Technicalities is published bi-monthly by the Rocky Mountain Chapter (RMC) of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and is distributed to chapter members, editors of other STC newsletters, and officers of the Society. It is available on request to anyone interested in technical communication. Other STC chapters and publications may reprint material if credit is given.

This newsletter invites writers to submit articles on subjects of interest that they wish to be considered for publication to Society and chapter members. Please credit repeated material and send a copy of the original material to: [email protected]

Submission Guidelines

The staff will also announce the upcoming issue and its theme via an e-mail to the membership and/or at chapter meetings.

The preferred word count for articles is 500-750 words. If your subject matter warrants it, articles longer than 1,000 words will be serialized between two or more issues.

Please e-mail all submissions to: [email protected] with the issue date, such as “October/November 2007,” in the subject line. The editor can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] and by postal mail at 6025 S. Quebec St., Suite 260, Englewood, CO 80111.

Submissions can be pasted into the body of the e-mail, or sent as an attachment. If you send your article as an attachment, it should be in either RTF or DOC format. Please include your contact information.

A “headshot” of yourself to be printed with your article would be appreciated.

Note: By submitting an article, you implicitly grant a license to this newsletter to run the article and for other STC publications to reprint it without permission. Copyright is held by the writer. In your cover letter, please let the editor know if this article has run elsewhere, and if it has been submitted for consideration to other publications.

The Technicalities staff reserves the right to edit articles for clarity and length; substantive editing of feature articles will be reviewed with the author prior to publication.

STC RMC 2007-2008 Officers

Administrative Council



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President: Ron Arner Vice President: John Endicott Secretary: Kathy Recchiuti Treasurer: Jessica Betterly Past President: Deb Lockwood

STC RMC Committee Managers

Advisory Committee: Martha Sippel, Mary Jo Star, and Frank Tagader Associate Fellow Nominations: Martha Sippel Database: Karen Kraft-Miller Hospitality: Open Jobs: Craig Banister Listserv: Karen Kraft-Miller Membership: Open Mentoring: Deb Lockwood Nominating Committee: Alida Franco and Frank Tagader Programs: Open Publicity Commitee: Melissa Graham-Morris Salary Survey: Open Scholarships: Marc Lee Seminars: Open Volunteers: Open Webmaster: Craig Banister

STC RMC SIG Managers

Consulting and Independent Contracting Special Interest Group (CIC SIG): Open Northern Colorado: Carmen Carmack Western Slope: Victoria Thomas

Society for Technical Communication, Rocky Mountain Chapter

General Chapter Business Rocky Mountain Chapter Society for Technical Communication 820 S. Monaco Pkwy. #286 Denver, CO 80224 [email protected]

Job Postings Send job postings to [email protected] Jobs are posted on the chapter Web site (http://www.stcrmc.org/jobs_freelance.jobs.htm), and are e-mailed to the techcomm-discuss mailing list.

Chapter Web site http://www.stcrmc.org

STC International Office

901 N. Stuart Street, Suite 904 Arlington, VA 22203-1822 703.522.4114 [email protected] http://www.stc.org

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by Dana Dutson

Letter from the Editor Another chapter year is coming to a close, and I must say that I’m a bit relieved! We’ve had some struggles to get the newsletter out this year, but we’ve managed to publish three great issues—thanks entirely to our contributors and editors.

This issue has interesting and informative articles, including a review of the new version of FrameMaker, reflections on the definition of technical communication, and tips for using online social networks as a job search tools. Both the Fall and Winter issues had excellent articles as well, so if you missed an issue, check them out in the newsletter archives: http://www.stcrmc.org/newsletter/newsletter.htm.

Next year will bring exciting changes. The newsletter will have a new format. We’ll still have meeting reviews and articles, but they will appear in a blog. The advantages of this new format include: •

● Less wait between article submission and publication • ● More timely news updates • ● More time for newsletter staff to write articles • ● Ability to comment on articles and news items

We also hope that the new format will spur more article submissions! We’re still working out the details, but the newsletter blog will be unveiled at the beginning of the next chapter year.

We’ll also have a new managing editor next year—Benjamin Cape. After two years as part of the newsletter staff, it’s time for some fresh ideas!

I hope that you enjoy this issue.

Dana

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President's Corner

by Ron Arner

The more I volunteer for the STC, the less I understand why others don’t. I’ve gained experience and grown professionally from every volunteer experience I’ve had with this organization.

Don’t get me wrong: when I come home at the end of a long day of work, the last thing I want to do is get back on the computer and do my presidential duties. And to be honest, often I don’t. But on weekends, or nights when I’m not so tired and don’t have computer eyes, there’s nothing like a little STC work to polish my professional skills.

Whether I’m answering emails, sending out an eBlast, or taking advantage of some of the things STC has to offer (like our great Technical Communication and Intercom publications), I feel like I’m preparing for the next day at work with every task I complete. I also meet new people, stay on top of developments in the field, and get some great things to put on my resume.

My current employer values organizations like ASTD and WICT, and because most people there were not familiar with the STC when I began I’ve promoted the value of STC so that it’s now viewed with equal esteem. That Microsoft will have a presence at this year’s Summit has helped as well, as we’re moving towards a SharePoint-based environment for internal communications.

But I’m confused as to why we always have so many volunteer needs. Don’t others get the same benefits from volunteering that I do? Should we rename volunteer positions to stress the skills they require and better explain the duties of the position? Based on that assumption, here are our needs for the next chapter year:

● Hospitality Manager, a.k.a. Facilities Coordinator/Auraria Campus Liaison● Seminars Manager, a.k.a. Director of Professional Development● Volunteer Coordinator, a.k.a. Non-profit Resource Management Specialist

If any of this inspires you to contribute your time and skills to the chapter, please send an email to [email protected].

Thanks!

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Tips from the Trenches: 22 Tips To Use At A Networking Event

by Mark Hunter

Networking events have been part of the business and social scene for as long as anyone can remember. For many people, they make a trip to the dentist seem fun. For others, networking events are enjoyable, but because of who they have to spend time with, they wish they had scheduled a visit to the dentist.

Regardless of your feelings on the subject, when attending an event, it's important to have the perspective that your goal should be to help others first. Unfortunately, it's an old cliché that is often left at the door. The next time you're headed to an event, keep in mind the following simple, helpful rule: after it's all said and done, you want to have earned the right, privilege, honor, and respect to be able to meet with them again. This is not a license to sell yourself, but an opportunity to build a relationship.

1. When you arrive at a networking event, avoid gravitating to people you know. You should initially thank the host and then immediately find someone new to introduce yourself to. This will help keep you in the right frame of mind as to why you came.

2. Stop selling and start listening! When you meet someone for the first time, use it as an opportunity to get to know them. Don't try to sell them anything. Rather, begin to establish a relationship.

3. Keep your business cards in the breast pocket of your coat, a shirt pocket, or in an outside pocket of your purse so they are easy to access and in good condition.

4. When giving a person your card, personalize it by hand writing your cell number on it. This will cause the recipient to feel that they are receiving something special.

5. When giving or receiving a business card, be especially careful when dealing with people from outside the US as many cultures treat them with very high regard.

6. When receiving a card from someone, take a moment to write yourself a note on it such as where you met. If you do this while you're still talking to the person, it will help convey your sense of personal connection.

7. During the course of a conversation, use the other person's first name two or three times. People always like to hear their own name and it will help you to remember it when the discussion is over.

8. Rather than telling a new contact all about yourself, spend your time asking them questions. It's amazing how much you'll learn!

9. After you meet someone for the first time, use the back of their business card to jot a note about something you learned from the conversation and the date and place you met them. Recording the information will give you something to talk to them about the next time you see them.

10. Connect with the person you're talking to by tilting your head as you listen to them. It is an effective body language technique which communicates that you're paying attention to what they're saying.

11. When a person is talking to you, be sure to look directly at them. Giving a person full



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attention with your eyes will encourage them to share more.

12. When giving someone eye contact, remember it's not a "stare-down" contest. Give the person 3-5 seconds of eye contact and then look away briefly before returning your focus to them again.

13. The best location to network is by a high-traffic area such as a main door, the bar, or near the food.

14. Never approach someone if they are walking towards the restroom or if they have a phone in their hand. Wait until they have returned to the networking area or put their phone away.

15. After the person has shared something with you, ask them another question about what they just said. This shows that you're paying attention and that you care about what they're telling you.

16. Always keep one hand free to allow yourself to shake hands with people. This means that you shouldn't eat and drink at the same time. Remember, you're there to network, not eat a full-course meal.

17. As a way of demonstrating your networking skills, introduce each new person you meet to at least one other person.

18. Never try to barge into a group of 4 or more people. Come along side of the group, but do not attempt to enter into the discussion until you've made eye contact with everyone and a minimum of two other people in the group have said something.

19. Do not approach two people who are talking, as you may be interrupting an important discussion.

20. Initiate conversation with someone who is standing by themselves. They'll be happy to have someone to talk to them and, as a result, will many times open up with valuable information.

21. When you meet someone for the first time, you have 48 hours to follow up with them before they will completely forget about meeting you.

22. A networking event is not a time to see how many business cards you can acquire. Rather, it is a time to develop a few relationships that have potential.

Mark Hunter, "The Sales Hunter," is a sales expert who speaks to thousands each year on how to increase their sales profitability. For more information, to receive a free weekly email sales tip, or to read his Sales Motivation Blog, visit TheSalesHunter.com

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Chapter News

Chapter Meetings

June 19 , 2008 – Wikis, Blogs, and Podcasting – Today’s Collaboration Tools

Volunteer Opportunities

Call for Volunteers

Please remember that this chapter doesn’t run itself. We still have open volunteer positions that we need to fill to keep our chapter running smoothly over the next year:

● A Hospitality Manager● A Seminars Manager● A Volunteer Manager● A CIC SIG Manager● Publicity Committee Volunteer

Membership News

If you have any membership news, please send news items to [email protected].

Networking Opportunities

If you were a member of our Techcomm Discuss list serve, you should have received an e-mail to join our new discussion forum. If you weren’t a member of the list serve and want to sign up, watch your e-mail for an invitation within the next couple of weeks.

Employment News

You can view job announcements on the STC RMC Web site at http://www.stcrmc.org/jobs_freelance/jobline.htm.

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STC News

55TH Annual STC Conference

STC’s Annual Technical Communication Summit will be June 1-4 in Philadelphia, PA. For more information, see the conference information page at: http://stc.org/55thConf/index.asp.

STC Election Results

The results of STC’s 2008 election have been posted to the STC Web site. Of 8,953 eligible voters, 1,134 participated in the election for a turnout of 12.7 percent.

Congratulations to those elected, and special thanks to all candidates for their willingness to serve the Society.

The new Board of Directors will meet for the first time at STC’s Technical Communication Summit, June 1–4, in Philadelphia, PA.

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by Bernard Aschwanden

An overview of new features, highlights, and personal rants about the newest tool for technical communicators

It's new

Adobe has released FrameMaker 8.0 and a whole technical communication suite to go with it. According to their website it’s “a flexible, user-friendly, enterprise-class authoring and publishing solution for technical communicators. It combines word processing and XML-based structured authoring with template-based publishing and powerful single-sourcing support to help you create polished technical documentation and books in multiple languages.”

That’s a lot of marketing in a few quick sentences. People want to know what’s actually new, what’s good and what’s not, and what’s worth paying the upgrade price for? In this article, I dive in a bit deeper to discuss features and my personal take on them.

Interface upgrades

Tab bar

The FrameMaker interface has a new look to it. Part of the new look includes a tab bar across the top when more than one file is open. The tabs display the names of open documents. It’s a nice feature and easy to use.



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While this is a nice feature, it’s not a must-have for upgrading. I do like being able to see the names of several files, but I’d love to see more power added to the tab bar. It’s a fast way to navigate between a few open files, but if you open more than a dozen files it’s bulky and you end up tabbing around using traditional shortcuts.

Are you reading this, Adobe? I’d love to be able to drag and drop the order of the tabs, right-click in one and have more options, and generally have more than a horizontal list of open files. However, for a user who opens three, four, or even a dozen files, it’s a quick way to see what is open and navigate between documents.

Finally, if you don’t like the tab bar it’s easy to turn it off from the View menu.

On its own this likely isn’t enough to justify the cost of the upgrade, but combined with additional features it sure is nice to see.

Vista support

If you are one of the dozens of Vista users worldwide (okay, there may be hundreds by now) then this is great. If you are not on Vista, it’s not a problem. FrameMaker runs on Windows 2000 and on Windows XP. You can also run on Solaris UNIX. As with the past few versions though, there is no Macintosh support.

Vista support will become more important as Microsoft phases out more of the Windows XP software. Manufacturers of PCs will drop the option of a Windows XP install on a new system in the next year or so as well, so the Vista support is a forward-looking move by Adobe.

Adobe is doing some longer-term planning. This should help retain and grow the user base as companies upgrade their OS.

Save directly to PDF or XML

The File menu is updated to support File > Save and File > Save As just as in the past. However, you also can choose Save As > PDF or Save As > XML if you want. The Save Document dialogue appears and automatically selects the appropriate file type.

As a new feature, this is nice, but not crucial. As with other minor changes to the interface, this is a nice feature to have as a bonus to the full features of the new product.

But it is not worth the upgrade for this one alone.

Font menu improvements

This I like—quite a bit more than I thought I would early on. Of course, I do a lot of font work, so it may be of greater value to me than to you.

When you select any font related command (Format > Font or the Font option in the Paragraph or the Character Designer) the real font appearance is displayed when you roll over a font name. No more guessing what the font looks like.

Nice to have when you do not know for certain what the differences are between, say, Minion and Myriad, and you want to quickly identify the serif family. However, if you know your fonts well and do not use a large variety this may be a minor change for you. To remember each distinct font and its appearance is a lot of work for me. Now I don’t have to.

This is worth the upgrade for me as I work with multiple client files that use many fonts.

Dialog redesign

The majority of the dialog boxes in FrameMaker retain the same functions, but have been modified to add usability that I’ve wanted for a long time. While not perfect, this is a nice change.

As with most of the interface design changes, I don’t think this is worth the upgrade cost on its own, but it is nice to get when I buy the product for other reasons.

Menu changes

While the majority of the menu changes have been for the better, there are a few that you have to get used to. Stuff that really vexes me includes the decision to change existing keyboard shortcuts.

For example, when Adobe added the tab bar, the menu command of Alt-v-b (which would toggle the View for Borders) got hijacked. For the tab bar! Why would they do this? For years I’ve used the quick key combo on my PC to toggle borders on and off. Now I have to use Alt-v-o to activate the same function. That’s a lot of muscle memory gone.

While not a planet-ending change, it’s really frustrating to get to know a tool only to have some simple things yanked out from under you. Why this change? Why add a new function and then take over an existing menu command? Would it not have been easier just to come up with something else for the tab bar?

In the same way, the new Stucture menu creates some issues. If you were used to using the letter u to access Utilities in the old system, get used to the letter l instead. That’s right. The lowercase L is used for utilities. The letter U, it seems, has moved on to Set Structured Application.

It’s a headache, but not enough to switch me back to 7.x FrameMaker. Instead, I’ll just have to

learn my shortcuts again. Sigh.

Working with other file types

Word 2007 import

If you happen to be one of the people who imports content from Word 2007, the cost of the upgrade may be worth it for this alone. Of course, you can also open the file in Word and save it to an older Word version. Then the older Word file can be opened in a legacy version of FrameMaker.

If you take advantage of Word 2007 and create content that contains UNICODE characters, consider FrameMaker 8.0 as a solution. Importing any UNICODE content (or creating it from scratch) can be done with the new release. This brings us to the next topic.

UNICODE support

Finally! Updated dialogues use UNICODE characters in the Find/Change dialogue. New dictionaries are included with support for UNICODE. You can even create a PDF where all your headings are written in a specific language and properly convert to bookmarks.

The bad news is that even now the support is not there for right-to-left languages. However, for content that is in Russian, Greek, or even Hindi you can work right in FrameMaker. It is not just typing either—dialogues also support the UNICODE character set.

If you are in need of UNICODE support, then the upgrade is worth the cost for that one feature alone.

Universal 3D and Flash

Support for universal 3D and Flash file import is now included. This allows either of the two file types to be imported and, upon conversion to PDF, supported in the Acrobat environment.

By doing so, Adobe has created a stronger bond between the Acrobat and the FrameMaker software. Models created in 3D drawing tools can be configured to allow the model to be rotated, zoomed, and even lit up from a variety of angles. Flash animations can be embedded and full activity retained in the final PDF.

Acrobat provides the fully featured Flash and 3D support, but don’t plan to activate any of the 3D

or Flash features in FrameMaker. Instead, you need to save the file to a PDF first.

Finally, some of the people I’ve talked to find the feature to be nice. Really nice. But they don’t expect it to be used in their documentation simply because they don’t do 3D and Flash work or they don’t have the time and the budget to update content. Most users agree that they would like to incorporate these features, so the hope is that companies catch on. This really does change the way that people can work with a PDF document, and should be investigated.

For those who do use Flash or 3D models, this may be worth the upgrade.

Work smarter with content

Track text edits

This is not to be confused with the Microsoft Word feature Track Changes. Microsoft tracks a wide set of changes including formatting modifications, reorganization of content, layout modifications and more. Adobe tracks text edits.

This is a glorified version of conditional text that automatically inserts mark-up for content as it is added or deleted. It is a bit like a dynamic document comparison in FrameMaker. However, the enhanced set of options (including a toolbar to work through the document) available to manage the tracked content is really nice.

While the feature is nice, it is also a feature that competing tools have had (both Word and XMetaL already have similar features available) so it is not a showstopper. Other tools have more robust versions of this, so if it’s crucial, look elsewhere.

That said, it is nice to have this as an option. For people who have to do a lot of little text edits, the ability to track what you have done is fantastic. You can turn around an updated document showing the edits inline very quickly.

If this describes your work environment then this feature alone could be worth the cost of the upgrade.

Conditional content

For anyone who has had to suffer with conditional content in the past this version has a major modification. If all you do is use conditional content in a very traditional sense, you may not see the difference. However, if you overlap any conditions, prepare for a nice surprise: the Expression.

Overlapping conditions now support AND, OR, and NOT features. This means that you can specify that content be conditional for multiple products, audiences, or platforms and overlap them. Then, when needed, you can specify a display that includes specific mixes of conditions. In the past, all conditional content was treated as OR content.

That meant that any content that was conditionalized would show up regardless of an overlap. In the new version you can specify the combinations you need to manage and display or hide content as you want. If you want to show content that is conditional in Help AND for Windows, you can build it.

Overlapping conditions are no longer magenta either. Custom colors are applied dynamically when more than one condition is applied.

Now the really bad news: the names used in the expression editor are horrible. If you have content that has a variety of combinations and you need to develop a clearly named way to show and hide it, be ready for disappointment. If you have Mac-specific types of PDF output as well as Windows and UNIX versions of materials, the expressions and the names may appear as seen below. Not pretty. With no way to create a friendly name you can expect frustration early on as you try to construct the right combinations.

For clients using overlapping conditional content this is worth the upgrade on its own.

Work with Structure

Structure Tools menu

If you work with structured content in FrameMaker (as more and more clients do), this is a nice touch. Most of the options that used to branch off the File menu get their own home.

Some of the objects are still a bit scattered. For example, the View menu is still home to the Element Boundaries and Attribute Display options. The Special menu still has Remove Structure from Flow. There are a few other new additions to the Special menu that relate to structure as well. However, this is a start in the consolidation of some of the more common elements (some pun intended).

Another nice upgrade, but not a crucial one.

XML applications

Even if you don’t use DITA but plan to start with XML, you can consider version 8.0 to be a step up. There are a lot more applications and there is far better support for structure in general.

Add to this the growing need for XML support in software tools in general and one can see that Adobe is taking the product more seriously. I really hope that this stops the rumours of a death in the family at Adobe.

Import comments

In the past, any comments in XML files were lost on import. Now, instead of dropping comments, markers are created to support the use of comments in the XML source file. The markers can then be managed in the same way as any other marker type in FrameMaker.

For people who import XML files that contain comments that others have generated this is a nice feature to have.

Variables and structure

Again, I say “Finally”! In the past, the use of variables and FrameMaker import or export of XML did not work well together. With the new release it is painless to export content with variables and automatically have entities created.

This resolves the long-standing problem of user variables being flattened to plain text on export to XML and is a major step forward in resolving what should have been a basic patch in the past.

It’s nice to see that aside from major features that have been added there are also small things. Adobe seems to be paying attention to requests from users and looking at the details of the application, not just the features that build marketing hype.

Filter by attribute

Conditions in structured content had always been horrible to work with. FrameMaker added processing instructions to files on export to handle conditional content. This meant quite a bit of work in other tools. It also increased the “look, FrameMaker isn’t doing real XML” complaints from users of other tools, as the condition comments only worked in FrameMaker!

The new release provides a feature that lets you filter content by attribute and value in a manner similar to conditional content. If an element has attributes with specific values, FrameMaker can use those attributes and values to filter content.

For example, an element with an attribute named Platform with a value set to Windows is filtered and hidden when the Macintosh version of a document is produced. Then, when the Windows version of the document is produced, the filter would display only elements with their Platform attribute value set to Windows.

Unlike the conditional text utility to manage expressions, the attribute filters can have a friendly name assigned to them as well. Adobe needs to add that to the expressions used in unstructured conditional content to make it even better.

With DITA support and the attribute-based filtering there is a dramatically improved way to manage content for multiple products, platforms, and audiences at any given time.

This feature alone is likely worth the cost of an upgrade if you work with structured content and need conditional content.

DITA menu (and DITA support)

This one gets its own section. If you plan to use DITA, then get the upgrade. For DITA support alone, the software is worth the upgrade.

For anyone who works with DITA and is either using FrameMaker or plans to, version 8.0 is a far more solid launch point than 7.x was or likely will be, even with plug-in tools from Adobe and third parties.

This release supports DITA xref elements, works well with layout, and lets you open and edit maps including relationship tables. You can easily create topics and export them to XML. These files can be successfully opened with other tools and even transformed using the DITA Open Toolkit.

Conref elements work well for reuse of materials in your documents. Consider this a huge step up from the use of text insets. A conref allows you to reference content created in another document, even if it’s only a specific paragraph, table, or image, or even the phrase used to describe a user interface control.

DITA support is well worth the upgrade if you plan to work with DITA. For anyone considering DITA, it is safe to say that you will spend a lot of time and money to customize an older version, so it would make sense to switch to version 8.0.

Worth the cost?

To be seen. There are specific features that make it worth the upgrade cost on their own. If these are features you will use, then go for it. Without a compelling reason to upgrade you may want to wait to see what your evolving publishing needs are and make the call down the road.

Personally, I have upgraded and use it now for about half of what I do for clients. A lot of the work I do involves DITA or structure and that makes an upgrade an easy choice for me. For client use I recommend evaluating the features, downloading a copy to test (you can run both FrameMaker X.x and 8.0 on the same machine), and deciding whether the new functions make enough difference to justify the cost.

If nothing else, the new Technical Communications Suite from Adobe should help make the decision to work with FrameMaker 8.0. This is due to the tighter integration between RoboHelp, Captivate, and Acrobat when working with FrameMaker.

Final words

By releasing a new version of the software and announcing a new suite integrating FrameMaker with other key products, Adobe seems ready to take the technical communications field seriously.

About the author

Bernard Aschwanden, Director of Technology and Publishing Architecture with Bright Path Solutions (www.brightpathsolutions.com), is a recognized publishing technologies expert. He is an Adobe Certified Expert, an XMetaL Certified Trainer, a Certified Technical Trainer, and the author of numerous articles on XML-based publishing and single-sourcing. He is also co-author of the book Advanced FrameMaker.

He is a senior member of the Society for Technical Communication, the President of the Toronto Chapter STC, and Past President of the Computer Trainers Network. Bernard has helped hundreds of companies implement successful unstructured and DITA/XML-based publishing solutions.

For a special promotional offer for the DITA/TECHCOMM CONFERENCE, presented by Bright Path Solutions, click here.

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What Isn't Technical Communication

by Glenn Dayley

As a new immigrant seeking citizenship in the nation of technical communication, I have been interested in the various definitions of the field. Practitioners, researchers, and educators don’t always agree on what constitutes a technical communicator.

Definitions and Duties of Technical Communicators

In the April/May 2007 edition of Technicalities, authors suggested what technical writers could do to switch from more traditional technical writing positions to other areas of technical communication such as usability studies. There was a distinction made between technical writing specifically and technical communicating generally. It seems practitioners, researchers, and educators do agree that technical communicators are involved in many things in addition to writing end-user documentation.

A quick survey of job listings on STC chapter websites reveals that employers have a wide variety of expectations for a technical writer or communicator. Some job descriptions are so general and others so specific that one might wonder whether companies really know what they can expect from technical communicators. “Technical communicator” seems to be losing its ability to define the role of the person hired for that job because of the varied duties that could be required—everything from computer-based training (CBT) developer to visual rhetoric advisor for a company’s website.

Does “technical communicator” capture subfields of technical communication such as usability? Are subfields becoming so specialized now that they should be regarded as their own fields? While these questions often loom large in academia, professionals don’t seem as hung up over this concern about fields and subfields as researchers and educators, as evidenced by the variety of duties technical communicators perform from project to project.

Definitions in Academia

In the academic world, technical communication teachers teach everything from resume writing to how to be a team player on a new software development team to the way users respond to visuals and text in online environments. It’s possible to find academic programs that focus on certain areas of technical communication, such as human-computer interaction, but leave other areas such as industrial safety documentation under-represented. How do programs make such decisions?

Due to lack of resources or interest, academia often struggles with how to define or represent technical communicators. In industry this is not always the case. Many people working in what could be considered technical communication are not even called technical communicators. My brother works for a computer programming and engineering firm and, although hired as an engineer, has become the resident technical communicator. There wasn’t an official change of position or title; he simply was good at many of the things we would call technical communication and over time was tasked more with projects requiring technical communication skills than “pure” engineering skills. Practitioners have a knack for flexibility that academics often lack.

Common Definition?

Why does this debate over the definition of technical communication matter? I think as soon as practitioners approach supervisors and others in their chain of command, attempting to demonstrate other areas in which technical communicators could be of service and offer real



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return of investment (ROI), a clear definition and description of all that technical communicators can offer is essential. “Bean counters” might hear only that technical communicators are looking for more time and more money. It might be helpful for practitioners to be able to point out just how valuable their contributions could be by using an actual description of the duties performed and by showing that the value of those duties has been demonstrated and is being demonstrated by researchers and taught by educators.

The relationship goes the other way as well: researchers and educators often point to what is being done by professionals to justify curriculum modifications and research agendas. The relationship between the three groups—educators, researchers, and professionals—should be more openly symbiotic than it is.

Below are links to websites offering definitions or views of technical communication relevant to this discussion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_communication http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwtwc/definitions.htm http://www.leaonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1207/s15427625tcq1601_2 http://www.stcboston.org/jobbank/bank.shtml http://www.stcwvc.org/galley/0205/c3.htm http://www.stcrmc.org/resources/resource_code.htm

Collaboration

The main populations in technical communication haven’t always held each other in the highest regard, but I think they are more alike than different. They really could leverage one another’s work and passion to give their own population a boost. Newsletters, journals, and conferences, both professional and academic, are good places for members of these groups to come together and interact in productive ways, sharing the latest concerns, trends, and research, and discussing ways for better progress within the overall field.

Glenn Dayley, currently enrolled in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric gradate program at Texas Tech University, has worked as a composition teacher, literature professor, journal editor, webpage designer, layout editor, and professional writing advisor, and has published numerous articles, essays, and stories.

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http://www.stcboston.org/jobbank/bank.shtml

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Social Networks

by Mark Andre

Social networking on sites such as Facebook and MySpace can provide job search information--after all, having a network of friends and acquaintances online can only help put you in touch with someone who might be looking for your particular skills and pedigree.

There is a particularly effective site called LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/) that offers at least six helpful methods toward finding a great next job:

1. Business-oriented social networking (what one first thinks of) –lets you build a network online. You post your profile (basically it looks like your resume), and invite your business acquaintances to link with you. LinkedIn uses the paradigm from the six degrees of separation theory and allows you to see the profile information of the people with whom you are directly linked. You can also see the profiles of those linked to your links, and the third-level of separation too. In that way, the network of people, friends of friends of your friends, with whom you can interact grows large indeed.

2. While the official advice from LinkedIn is to link with, and accept links from, only those with whom you have an existing relationship and trust, there is good reason to step outside that boundary at times. After all, it does take people we don’t know to bring new opportunities. There are some “ueber-networkers” who have built up massive networks; if you link to one of these super-connected types (for example, Mike O’Neil of Integrated Alliances in Denver), your own network, by extension, grows by leaps and bounds. A number of recruiters on LinkedIn accept links freely, as it benefits them to have as many direct contacts as possible.

3. Recruiting: As mentioned, recruiters join LinkedIn for the access they get to the motivated early-adopters who have made the site a success. When they search to fill a position, they can scan the profiles of anyone in their network for the particular combination of skills required.

4. Company research: After your network has grown beyond more than a handful of links, you’ll be able to search on nearly any company name and find someone who was either (a) employed there currently, or (b) formerly employed there. In some cases, you can find the person who last held the position you want to apply for. LinkedIn gives you two means to contact these people with questions--either you can ask your intermediary links to make an introduction, or you can send a message to them directly. You get five of the latter messages with a basic account on LinkedIn, and have to cough up some cash to buy more after those are used up. Yes, LinkedIn is free for the basics, but they do offer a few levels of premium membership that provide extras (good for someone in recruiting or in sales).

5. Job board: LinkedIn has its own job listings. There are positions on LinkedIn posted directly by the hiring manager (who would be a LinkenIn member), and these may be exclusive to LinkedIn.

6. LinkedIn Q/A: Members pose questions to the LinkedIn membership about a number of business/technology topics. If you provide an answer that is voted “best” then you earn the designation as having expertise in that area. This can help you stand out to recruiters, and besides, it’s a great ego boost.

7. Groups: There are a growing number of groups for those with shared backgrounds and interests: professions, conferences, non-profits, global workers, networking itself, and company and university alumni. Joining up with these groups allows you to find people you have something in common with and with whom you can subsequently network and link.

It is free to sign up at LinkedIn, and it takes thirty minutes or less to get your profile organized. Adding recommendations from people you’ve worked with rounds out your profile. Tweaking your profile and adding to your connections is a work-in-progress, of course. It’s an organic process, building a network, just as it is in the real world. But with LinkedIn it goes a good bit faster, and it is surprising how far and wide your reach will extend after just a few months climbing the



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networking curve.

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by Deb Lockwood and Bill Thomas

During the 2006-2007 chapter year, the STC RMC leadership decided that it was time for the chapter to update its website. Our current website has been around for several years and from comments we’ve received from both members and nonmembers, we knew that the chapter’s website could benefit from improving the navigation and incorporating some Web 2.0 features.

Our first task was to form a committee of STC RMC members that would direct and help us accomplish this effort. This committee is made up of the following members: Ron Arner, Craig Bannister, John Endicott, Deb Lockwood, Martha Sippel, Frank Tagader, and Bill Thomas.

In March 2007, Kathy Recchiuti completed the task of creating a very detailed inventory of the current website. With a completed website inventory, the committee worked together to create more efficient navigation and organize the existing website information better. Martha Sippel finalized the information architecture the team drafted, including a wireframe design for the new site.

Immediately after finalizing the wireframe, we requested some outside assistance to come up with a new graphic design. With some help from Joe Victor, a website designer, the committee decided on a spiffy new look for the main and subsequent pages.

One of the things that we decided we needed to do was to move our website to a different web hosting service. Doing so not only allows us to take advantage of various technical capabilities, but saved the chapter a significant amount of money in annual hosting fees. After researching several possible vendors, we selected Dotster because they offered us the most functionality and proven reliability for a reasonable price.

Our most recent progress was made when Craig Banister volunteered to be the new webmaster and we actually moved the site to the new hosting service in February 2008. There were few glitches with the move, but overall, things have gone quite well. The email lists (discussion list, jobs list, and council) have been more of a challenge.

Now that the site is actually on the new host, future plans for the site include the following:

● Build out the site and launch it using the new design ● Add new functionality to the website (e.g., an updated calendar on the home page) ● Determine a new direction for the chapter’s newsletter using recommendations from our

next year’s newsletter editor, Benjamin Cape

At this point, this multi-phased project is progressing and will continue throughout 2008 and probably into 2009 as our newsletter morphs into more of a blog format and new, yet-to-be-decided functionality takes form. We will be looking for people to own certain pages of our new website. We are also looking for members to test functionality as it becomes available. If you are interested in contributing to your chapter by helping with this interesting project, please contact us at [email protected].



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I Wondered What It'd Be Like When I Got Here

The last R7 Director column by John Hedtke, the last R7 Director

This is my last R7 Director column and, as it happens, the last column from ANY R7 Director, because Directors are no longer associated with specific regions. I want to tell you about the last three years on the Board, where we are now, and about those campaign promises I made 3-1/2 years ago.

Three years ago when I took office, I was wondering what it would be like in 2008. I figured I would be glad to be done with my term (I was right) and I had hopes that I'd have achieved my campaign promises (see below), but I really didn't know what else to expect. As it turns out, anything I could've expected from my 2005 POV would've been wildly inaccurate. In the last three years, we've seen major changes, including:

● the departure of Pete Herbst, followed by Rob Moran as interim Executive Director and our new Executive Director, Susan Burton

● a complete revision of the Annual Conference, including support for continuing education certificates, a focus on presentation topics relating to the conference theme, and the vendor room being open on Wednesdays (which it seems everyone had wanted for years)

● an open STC Office, figuratively and literally: the STC Office door used to be closed at all times; getting in was something special and not for the mere hoi polloi membership

● a complete revision of the STC Office internal procedures, including moving our software into the 21st century with the purchase of iMIS

● a complete revision of the dues structure, so chapters and SIGs get specific amounts for each member, regardless of size, and get the money much faster, as well

● the elimination of regions and the role of "Sponsor" for the Directors, bringing us in tighter compliance with NY corporate law and also freeing the Directors and other Board members to start working strategically instead of tactically

The list goes on, but you catch the drift: we've seen huge changes. In fact, when I chose to run, it wasn't at all clear to me that there was going to even BE an organization in five years. Personally, I was only betting even money that we'd survive we had so many problems. I am much happier with where we are now: I'm willing to bet 5-1 or better that we'll be around in five years. But what's going to happen in the next five years is not something I can guess at very easily (though I really hope I'm around in 2013 to find out). Things are going to continue change in ways that I'm not sure anyone can envision.

A little history here: the STC Transformation effort some years ago, designed to "transform" the STC into I'm-not-sure-what, was just a disaster. The management was bad, the communications were ghastly, and the end results were dismally small. There weren't clear goals, measurable benchmarks, a timetable, or even a clear sense of direction.

My reaction when we were ultimately told that the Transformation was complete was "Oh, yeah? How can you tell?" "Well, there's been a change to the membership status so you can pay $10 less and get electronic rather than paper publications." (To be completely fair, there were a couple other things, but this was the biggie.) "Well, gee, don't do me no favors, now." After 2-3 years of messing around and beating drums and telling us how good it was all going to be when they got done, this was all they could pull out of the magic bag? What a failure!

Except, I've come to realize, it wasn't. What the Transformation accomplished at the time was nothing, nada, bupkes. What the Transformation did that was so good was that it gave subsequent Boards the permission to consider changing things. I don't think we'd be here now if that hadn't happened. I couldn't have imagined saying this three years ago, but the Transformation was a screaming, wild success.



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Changing things was a new thought for the STC. (It still meets with lots of resistance a few years later.) But all of a sudden, Board members were saying, "Why do it this way? Couldn't we do it this other way? And what happens if we do?" Individual Board members had certainly said this over the years, but this was the first time in recent history that we'd had a whole Board thinking about this.

And change things we did. When Pete Herbst decided to leave, we hired Rob Moran as interim ED to guide us in the transition process and to help us find a permanent ED. He stepped us through a lot of the more painful parts of the initial transition and our search committee found Susan Burton as our permanent ED. She's first-rate.

With the decision in 2005 by the STC membership to eliminate regions and remove sponsorship from the duties of a Director, the Board was able to start approaching things strategically. That was another big change. The first questions we asked were "Where are we now? And where do we want to go?" It turned out that no-one really knew where we were, so we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.

We quickly realized there were a thousand things that needed to be changed, starting with the STC Office. Our internal procedures weren't working. Our membership software was hopelessly inadequate: the annual membership process was handled manually and required the work output of the entire office for about 2 months just to get everyone entered in seven different databases, none of which had all the data for a member's record. (The horror, the horror!) We ultimately bought iMIS, an association management package, that is doing all sorts of good things for us.

While all this was going on, the Board was looking at where we'd like to be. We've spent lots of time on strategic planning, developing the infrastructure to support the STC (a lot of things worked only because they'd never broken down, but we were on thin ice), and figuring out what to do next. As a result, we've got a good direction and the Board's doing well at implementing our plans as fast as possible.

As for my campaign promises: when I was running for R7 Director, I very intentionally kept my campaign promises modest, because I figured it would be easier to fulfill them if I hadn't promised the moon. As it turns out, I didn't have to promise the moon to make it hard; I could've just promised Tukwila or Grant's Pass and still had trouble. There were three things I wanted to accomplish:

● Create a list of the complete range of services available to members, chapters, and regions from the STC Office

● Set up a newsletter bureau ● Set up a speaker’s bureau

Let me address these in reverse order. The speaker's bureau, providing a list of speakers and topics to chapters and communities, is about to go live. Several other IT projects necessary to being able to keep running (notably getting the iMIS software in place) took priority. However, by June, we'll have the first few dozen speakers entered so we can test the system. If everything looks good, the STC Office will be opening this up to all and sundry thereafter. Check that one off the list.

The newsletter bureau, aimed at giving newsletter editors and web managers a resource for content from authors, is not up yet… but the structure of this is very similar to that of the speaker's bureau system we're testing. Once that's up and running, I have high hopes that we'll be able to get the newsletter bureau set up not long thereafter.

"Creating a list of services:" This was the answer to a question I'd had for about 20 years that had gotten me the brush-off for just about as long. The answer to this question is "No-one knows right now." The reason no-one knows is this: I want you to imagine a closet that things have been getting pitched into for years and years. More things kept getting added to the pile but nothing's been cleaned out in ages. For the last couple years, the Board has been cleaning out the closet. We're removing the mess far faster than it accumulated, but we've still got a few years to go before the floor can be swept clean and everything's back in place.

As a result, we're still putting things in place and evaluating what we can do for members, so there's just no way to produce a canonical list of services. The best I can say is "You want something? Talk to any of the Board members." The Board's the best place to start; if nothing else, you can find out who the right person is to talk to, if there's anything like it being done already, and so on. Be sure to follow up, too; Board members can forget things. There's no promise the Board or the STC Office will be able to get to it right away or that they'll say "Yes" to your request. It's not like there aren't a thousand other things to do, too. But it's our job and our pleasure to do what we can for the membership and we will give reasonable consideration to just

about anything.

Hot tip for increasing your chances of success: depending on what it is you're asking for, be prepared to show a business case/what needs to be done/how to do it/ideas on raising money or finding budget/an offer to volunteer to spearhead the group to do this. The Board and the STC Office both adore people who put their money where their mouths are and show commitment to making something happen. It also makes it far more likely your idea will be considered that much sooner. Hey, if you're unsatisfied with the response you're getting, consider running for a seat on the Board. It's a worthy goal and you can help make the STC become what you'd like it to. Come talk to me if you're interested; I'll be glad to answer questions.

Let me close by saying that it has been an honor and a privilege to serve this region, which I love and am enormously proud of, the STC, and the membership. I'm not done working for the STC—I will continue as head of the Ethics committee this coming year—but I am pleased to say "My three years are up! It's time to party."

Yours truly,

John Hedtke

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February Meeting Review

by Benjamin Cape

The February program started off with a reminder from Frank about the need for more people to run for office. Those interested can write [email protected] for more details.

Lori Lamar and Cathy Barnes of Industrial Wisdom, presenters at February's chapter meeting

The featured speakers were Laurie Lamar and Cathy Barnes of Industrial Wisdom, a Denver-based information design firm. Their presentation “A Whirlwind Tour of a UXD Methodology,” was a high-level overview of the information design process Lamar and Barnes have perfected with their decades of experience in everything from Web site design to usability engineering.

Lamar and Barnes first established that User Experience Design (UXD) can mean many things, but it is primarily identifying the user requirements for a product. To find out what those needs are, a methodology can be implemented that will reveal what the end user needs and wants when they navigate a Web site.

The methodology is divided into two parts. The first part, business and user requirements, consist of four steps: concept model, persona, task flow and use case. The second―design, spec, evaluate the UX―consists of site map, flow map, wire-frame and visual comp steps.

The first part must be done before any design steps are taken. These first four steps answer the basic questions that confront any online business, essentially a who, what, where, when and why of potential customers.

Once the first part is done, the business problem has been identified and the designing process can start. It begins with the site map design but really starts to take shape with the flow map and wire frame states. At these stages, the true outline of the Web site starts to take shape and the solution is in sight. Finally, a visual comp stage is completed that is presented to the client. This stage is also used in marketing the Web site.

Lamar stressed that all the steps are crucial and need to be taken, even if only for a couple of minutes.

“If you skip a step, all the questions will come up at the visual comp stage,” she said.

Of course, all steps are subject to time and budget constraints. The second half of the presentation focused on the challenges that face implementing a UXD methodology. There will always be a difference between how much time a team wants to work on a project and how much time they will actually be allowed to work on a project.



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Lamar and Barnes offered suggestions on selling a UXD project to a company. They said that the value of the project itself isn’t the only thing being presented to an organization’s decision maker. The value of the staff behind the project must also be brought forth so those in charge of the purse strings and calendar know that the resources put into a UXD project will be money well spent. They ended their presentation by saying the biggest asset to any project is “YOU.”

More information about Industrial design can be found at www.industrialwisdom.com.

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April Meeting Review

by Benjamin Cape

A fire drill at the Tivoli delayed the start of the April meeting, but once settled in featured speaker Patti Shank presented her program “What’s it Good For? Exploiting the Natural Characteristics of Instructional Technologies and Strategies to Improve Instruction.” Shank is president of Learning Perks, a Denver-based information and instructional design firm that has worked with private businesses and public organizations. She is also the editor of The Online Learning Idea Book: 95 Proven Ways to Enhance Technology-Based and Blended Learning.

Shank began her presentation with Aesop’s tale of the fox who was walking through an orchard and came upon a tree from which dangled bunches of grapes. The fox tried to get the grapes, but they were out of reach. Frustrated, the fox gave up, and said the grapes were probably sour anyway—hence the phrase “sour grapes.”

The story illustrates a point that most people will learn despite what writers and educators do to reach an audience. We evolved to learn. We have to learn. “We are learning machines,” she said.

All technical communicators should realize the difference between what a tool can actually offer and the hype about that tool, Shank said. The usability characteristics of media and strategies, or “affordances,” should be considered soberly when approaching a project. It may be comforting to believe one tool or method can do everything faster, better, and for less money than everything else on the market, but there is no such thing.

She listed 10 media strategies that can be used to educate an audience. Each can be useful, and no single strategy is best in all circumstances. The list included:

● Live in-person or online presentation with little or no interaction with presenter or audience● Online interaction with content (questions, drag and drop, simulations, etc.)● Reading materials (book, articles, PDFs)● Video● Live interactions with presenter/instructor (classroom, phone, online meeting)● Practice problems/scenarios (with solutions)● Live interactions with learners (classroom, phone, online meeting)● Realistic practice● Podcasts● Instant messaging

Shank pointed out that while video can reach a large and captive audience, there is no interaction with the audience, who have a passive role and can’t ask questions. Podcasts may be thought of a just a way to explain a simple process, but they have been used to teach everything up to flying lessons (which made travelers in the audience a little nervous). Sometimes, the hands-on affordance of an interactive Web site (like the example she showed that mapped out music notes on a keyboard) is the best way to teach an audience. Instant messaging, which began as a way to facilitate basic chat, can also be a powerful learning tool.

Shank ended her presentation by having the audience break into groups that investigated each of the 10 strategies. Each group then presented the pros, cons, and best uses of the strategy, and realized that no one strategy could be everything all the time, and that any organization that doesn’t allow itself to exploit the affordances of the other strategies will limit its reach.



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