Items tagged "STC"

Using WordPress for Your Professional Website - NEO STC (Cleveland, OH, USA)

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 by Ben Woods
January 14, 2010
5:30 pmto8:00 pm

WordPress, started in 2003, is a self-hosted blogging tool used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people. It is an Open Source project, which means there are hundreds of people all over the world working on it. It also means users can use it for anything without paying anyone a license fee. WordPress can be used as a blogging tool, content management system, website creation tool, and so much more. Thousands of plug-ins, widgets, and themes allow the user to customize their projects.

Find out more by visiting http://wordpress.org/about/

Presenter: Kim Lindsey will present the many advantages and uses of WordPress. WordPress is a state -of-the-art personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free, and priceless, at the same time.

Location:

Bar Louie

Legacy Village 

24337 Cedar Road

Lyndhurst, OH 44125To register - go to http://neostc.org/calendar/20100114.html

NEOSTC: Writing for Translation (Cleveland, OH, USA)

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 by Ben Woods
September 10, 2009
5:30 pmto8:00 pm

Today, in the midst of the worst recession in 75 years, Bauhaus architect Mies van der Rohe’s aphorism that “less is more” has taken on new meaning. These days, everyone is expected to do more with less, quicker, and better. The goal of this presentation is to help technical communicators do just that when they write for translation.

Much of the content created by technical communicators is eventually translated. Consequently, technical communicators are in a position to positively impact the translation process, and by extension, the organization’s international communication efforts. By adopting best practices in authoring for translation, and by expanding their focus from production of documents to creation of linguistic assets that can be more effectively leveraged across languages, technical communicators can offer significant value to their organizations and increase their competitiveness in the job market.

Presenters:

Elena Dunne is an Account Executive at Advanced Language Translation. Elena holds Bachelor’s degrees in Linguistics and in Psychology, a well as a Master’s in Translation. At ALT, Elena has expanded her interests in language, cross-cultural communication, psychology and technology, playing a key role in the development of the company’s proprietary terminology management and ISO 9001 quality management systems. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Translation Studies at Kent State. Her primary research interests are language project management (in particular, risk management) and terminology management.

Keiran Dunne is an associate professor at Kent State University, where he teaches graduate courses in software localization, computer-assisted translation, and language project management. He has over a decade’s experience as a French-language localization and translation subcontractor for corporate clients large and small, and draws upon this experience in his courses and research. His primary research interests are localization, project management, quality management, and terminology management. He is the editor of the recently published volume, Perspectives on Localization, and is currently compiling an edited volume on translation and localization project management with Elena Dunne.

Time

5:30 to 6:00 p.m. registration
6:00 to 7:00 p.m. dinner
7:00 to 8:00 p.m. presentation

Place

Bar Louie
Legacy Village
24337 Cedar Road
Lyndhurst, OH 44125
(216) 325-1120

Food

Select from the following:

* Veggie - Veggie Burger
* Beef - 1/2 Pound Angus Burger
* Chicken - Lemon Chicken Pasta
* Seafood - Grilled Salmon

Cost:

You can choose one of the following:

* Meeting only members $10
* Meeting only nonmembers $20
* With dinner members/students $20
* With dinner nonmembers $35

More information and registration here.

NEOSTC: Functional Forms Design: Putting Pragmatism Before Aestheticism (Cleveland, OH, USA)

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 by Ben Woods
August 26, 2009
1:00 pmto2:30 pm

Functional Forms Design: Putting Pragmatism Before Aestheticism
Presented by Eric Spears

For much of its history, the field of graphic design has established and forwarded the notion that beauty is the primary goal of design. While aesthetic considerations make sense for a vast majority of design projects, the design of forms and other business communications requires more than just an artistic eye for businesses to communicate effectively with their employees and clients. This live web seminar explores the principles of pragmatic forms design that, when applied correctly, help designers to strike a balance between the pragmatic and the aesthetic.

Eric Spears has over 10 years’ experience in forms, visual communication and design in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. His work has received awards from the International Association of Business Communicators, the Society for Technical Communication, and Writing that Works (awards for Publication Excellence). Mr. Spears has provided design solutions for diverse clients, such as the US Federal Trade Commission, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Internal Revenue Service. In addition to his design work, Mr. Spears has experience in conducting forms-design training, literature reviews, heuristic analyses, and large- and small-scale consumer testing.

Location:

Radcom, Inc.
561 Boston Mills Road
Suite 400
Hudson, Ohio 44231

Date: Wednesday, 26 August, 2009

Time: 1:00 - 2:30pm ET

Price: NEO STC members: *Free - Nonmembers: $20 payable at the doorMore information here.

NEOSTC - Second Life (Cleveland, OH, USA)

Monday, July 13th, 2009 by Ben Woods
August 6, 2009
5:30 pmto8:00 pm

Please join the Northeast Ohio STC community as we kick off our 2009/2010 meeting year on August 6th, 2009. The topic is Second Life.

Second Life is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab that launched on June 23, 2003 and is accessible via the Internet. A free client program called the Second Life Viewer allows users to interact with each other through avatars. Users can explore, meet other users, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade virtual property and services with one another, and more in this virtual world.

Topic: This presentation will provide an introduction to Second Life, including registration, selecting and modifying your avatar, navigation, communication and basic editing and building. A virtual “tour” will be conducted of selected areas of interest in Second Life. Time will be provided for questions related to the use of Second Life for a variety of purposes.

Presenter: Dr. Pamela Mitchell

Dr. Mitchell  is a tenured  Associate Professor in the School of Health Sciences at Kent State University. She has been involved with technology applications since the 80’s, and has developed expertise and experience in virtual worlds such as Second Life since 2006. She has conducted numerous presentations and trainings in the use of virtual worlds, and has developed case studies, simulations and assistive technology to improve learning and problem solving. Her work in virtual worlds has been featured in the Kent State magazine, Ohio magazine, and Second Life events.

Bar Louie
24337 Cedar Road
Lyndhurst, OH 44125
(216) 325-1120

Cost

You can choose one of the following:

  • Meeting only members $10
  • Meeting only nonmembers $20
  • With dinner members/students $20
  • With dinner nonmembers $35

Registration is located here.

Usability Testing: Observation to Analysis (Okemos)

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 by Anthony Viviano
November 5, 2008
6:30 pmto8:30 pm

The Southeast Michigan Chapter of the STC and Techsmith Corporation will host a presentation by Barb Hernandez, Josie Scott, and Casey Usabilty Testing: Observation to Analysis.

Experience a live usability test and participate in observation and analysis and learn what it takes to put together a test and make actionable recommendations.

Program meetings are an excellent networking opportunity for both professionals and students. Non-members are welcome, so feel free to bring guests! Also, we have a new fee structure this year, with lower prices for all. (We will serve light snacks for this meeting.) We hope you can attend!
Location:

TechSmith Corporation
2405 Woodlake Drive
Okemos, MI 48864-5910
Parking is free in the TechSmith lot.
Map

Schedule:
6:30-7: networking and food
7-8:30 program

Program Fees:
Chapter members: $5.00
Students (members and non-members): $5.00
Non-members: $10.00

Registration:
Register and pay by using any of the following methods:
-E-mail–register@stc-sm.org and pay at the door (cash or check)
STC contact: Erin Moulton, 734-645-1301

MadCap Flare Demonstration (Cleveland, OH, USA)

Monday, October 6th, 2008 by Ben Woods
October 15, 2008
6:00 pmto8:30 pm

Presented by Sharon Burton

With Flare, you have a complete authoring and publishing system with full support for maximum content re-use (single-sourcing). You can publish to online, desktop, and print formats (multi-channel publishing).
This online webinar demonstration will show how you can use Flare to create:
•    Policy and procedure manuals
•    Knowledge bases
•    Software documentation including online help with context sensitivity
•    Reference books, manuals, or illustrated guides
•    Hardware or maintenance manuals
•    And more
Attend and win a chance to take home a free copy of Flare!

 Register at NEOSTC’s site.

Date

Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008

Cool Tools for Tech Writers for under $100 (Pittsburgh, PA)

Monday, November 26th, 2007 by Michele Marut
December 10, 2007
6:30 pmto8:00 pm

Date: Monday, December 10, 2007
Time: 6:30 to 8:00 pm
Place: Pittsburgh Technology Center, 2000 Technology Drive, Pittsburgh PA 15219
Get directions at http://www.pghtech.org/aboutus/directions.asp
Cost: $12 for STC members, $15 for non-members, $10 for students and unemployed
RSVP: By Wednesday, December 5 to Bryce Walat at walat_bryce@msn.com or 412-779-1795. Include your name, phone number and email address.

Technical Writers write, yes – but producing information requires a number of other tools that aren’t specifically publishing tools. We need to create and edit graphics, create wikis, manage knowledge – as well as perform more non-traditional functions, such as creating audio files and icons. We can also be required (or desire) to set up systems for backing up our machines, managing source control of our documents, and bug tracking.

This talk will discuss and demonstrate a number of low cost (or free) tools that technical communicators can use to perform a variety of tasks, including: graphic/screen capture creation and editing, icon creation and more!