Upcoming Chapter Meetings

April 11th, 2006*
Looking Forward—The Communicators of Tomorrow

The field of technical communications is changing quickly. Once focused primarily on writing, technical communication now increasingly includes the design and production of media (images, sound, video, hypertext). In response to these changes, the University of Waterloo is educating students in multimedia and interaction design. Over the next few years, these students will be looking for careers. The question is: will they see the STC as their first and preferred starting point for moving into their professions?

This session will include a panel of students from the Digital Arts Communication specialization and from the Rhetoric and Professional Writing Program (now the Rhetoric and Communication Design Program). The discussions will focus on questions such as: "What do students know about the STC? What might attract them to become members? What might they contribute to the STC as members?" Questions and discussion from the attending members will be encouraged.

David Goodwin is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Digital Arts Communication specialization within Arts and Business at the University of Waterloo. He also researches and teaches in the Rhetoric and Professional Writing program at UW. His research areas include: interaction design, visual communication and persuasion, and digital branding. For almost two years, David worked in the private sector for Quarry Integrated Communications. His main projects involved developing interaction design and marketing strategies for international companies such as FedEx in Memphis, Tennessee.

*Note: This meeting occurs on the SECOND Tuesday in April.

May 2nd, 2006
Championing Standards in Technical Documentation

Ralph Robinson will discuss why standards are needed; how they are created; and what role the STC plays.

The STC has been actively involved with the development of international standards on many fronts. Through the STC Standards Committee, the Society is currently represented at both the W3C Consortium for WWW Standards and the ISO working group for Software and Systems Documentation standards. Ralph Robinson is one of two official delegates representing the STC on the ISO standards committee. The ISO committee has embarked on a major overhaul effort of current standards and guidelines to structure them in a more user-centered way and update them to account for new technologies in the field of technical communication.

Ralph Robinson is an active senior member of the STC Toronto chapter and a member of ASQ (American Society for Quality). He has been in the technical communication field for over 18 years, dealing exclusively with ISO matters for the last 13 years. He is an independent consultant and author of Documenting ISO 9000: Guidelines for Compliant Documentation.