The Website Triad
Thursday, May 5th, 2011Who is the first person you call when you need a website? It should be a technical communicator. Often described as a web content developer or web writer, a technical communicator with knowledge of the important disciplines of web usability and user advocacy will save you thousands of dollars when building or enhancing your web [...]
FSOSS 2009 & Documentation
Saturday, October 31st, 2009Concluding Open Source week in Toronto, Seneca held its annual Free Software and Open Source Symposium (FSOSS) yesterday. I was privileged to have the opportunity to speak about documentation for open source projects. What is truly exciting about open source development is the collaborative and community aspect of it. I love the synergy of keen [...]
No Gender Bias
Saturday, June 14th, 2008Technical Communication is a profession that is practiced equally well by women and men. For many women working as technical writers in the ’60s and ’70s, our entrée into some male-dominated high tech fields came through the door of technical communication. We were accepted on teams in aerospace, engineering, automotive, and manufacturing because our skills [...]
Dependencies: The Bane of Efficiency
Friday, June 13th, 2008Students in the Technical Communication program learn how to manage their documentation projects. I’m fond of drawing the parallel between the Software (or Product) Development Life Cycle and the Document Development Life Cycle. They both have the same phases. The keys to project management of course are to control scope, supervise resources, and manage dependencies. [...]
