I’m home from my twin courses, two days of “XML and Structured Authoring” and one day of “Moving from Unstructured to Structured FrameMaker” in Cambridge, Ontario.
That’s a long time to pay attention, and I think my brain is full.
Sarah O’Keefe founded Scriptorium Publishing to help companies develop and deliver high-quality documentation for high-tech products (and to subsidize her chocolate habit). She offers consultation on issues such as structuring a product library and identifying the best tools and strategies for a company’s documentation process and has coauthored a few books including FrameMaker 7: The Complete Reference. A FrameMaker Adobe Certified Expert (ACE), CTT+ Certified Professional, and all-around tool expert, Sarah teaches a number of Scriptorium Publishing’s classes on topics like FrameMaker and XML and Structured Authoring.
Bill Swallow’s Waxing TechComm is hosting a continued discussion of the direction of and appropriate strategies for the Society for Technical Communication.
If you notice a decline in the number or quality of my blog entries, it’s because I’ve started a new contract and expect to be very busy for the next little while. It’s difficult to be perky and attentive at work, learn a new raft of acronyms, faces, office maze, systems, and methods. I tend to come home and crawl into bed right after supper, neglecting chores such as hydrating the cat or digging up vital paperwork. Blogging has to come third or fourth after important family tasks, especially until I get into the rhythm of a new project.
The Clear Language and Design, or CLAD, Web site is a plain language resource and the gateway to a plain-language editing service. Plain language provides clear, simple language that makes technical content or Web sites accessible to the average reader. It’s an important goal.
The Web site includes a very useful readability evaluation tool.
The consultants on the CLAD team contribute most of their fees to support Toronto’s East End Literacy project.
In between running back and forth to visit my dad, I’ve been sending a few resumes and going to interviews. Happily for me, one of them has come to roost and I will be starting a new, short contract, not quite full time, which suits me perfectly at this moment.
I’m skipping the technical writers’ meeting tonight to stay home and snuggle in for the next winter storm. My dad died on the tenth, and somehow I don’t feel like socializing.
Percy Saltzman, who brought the idea of dynamic weather reporting to television and made it happen, died at age 91 after a brief illness. Mr. Saltzman received the Order of Canada in 2003. He was an interesting character. Read about him.
The Ministry of the Attorney General changed its mind and decided not to interview me. So I’m no longer reserved for them. I work happily in in any one of several genres, media, industries, or subject areas.
I’m looking for a contract in the Toronto area as a documentation consultant, which for me includes these designations among others:
I won the door prize! I went to a meeting of my professional organization tonight, where the speaker, Mr. Jack Molisani, was offering a seat at a conference as the door prize. To my surprise, I won. It’s not til next fall, but the conference is packed with good information about documentation project management, content management, XML, perhaps DITA, new tools and techniques, and a host of other topics. After three days I’ll be reeling and muttering, “My brain is full.”
I have to find transportation myself. It’s normally held in Hawaii (hence the name), which would be much harder to pay for. New Orleans, here I come!
