STC WDC-MB Blog

Are you an amateur photographer and have you taken any high quality photographs of the Baltimore harbor, Camden Yards, and other Baltimore-area landmarks? If so, we would like to feature your photos in the masthead of our website (http://www.stcwdc.org) and blog (http://www.stcwdc.org/wdcblog). We need the name of the photographer and the location where the photo was taken so that we can give you proper credit. Please send your photos and this information to Carolyn at gro.cdwctsnull@tnediserp if you are willing to share your photos.

Calling all graphic artists – We need you!

Are you handy with Adobe Illustrator or something like it? We need your expertise to update our chapter logo.

Now that we’ve grown into the Society for Technical Communication, Washington, DC / Metro Baltimore Chapter, we need to add our Baltimore connection to the logo.

Contact Carolyn at gro.cdwctsnull@tnediserp to volunteer.

Spread the word!

Update: Nicky Bleiel’s presentation included lots of good ideas for making your online help interactive.

The STC WDC-MB Summit Technical Communication Competition has ended and next Wednesday night we celebrate the winners at the Competition Awards Celebration.

A list of this year’s winners follows. Be sure to spread the word about their accomplishments!

DISTINGUISHED AND BEST OF SHOW AWARD
Julie Tilley, Brian Kaihoi, and Donald E. Tepper, American Physical Therapy Association
Virtual Worlds: A New Universe for Education, Patient Care, and More
Category: Informational Materials

DISTINGUISHED AWARDS
Jennifer Bownas, Kris Christen, Holly Haun
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Grand Challenges for Biological and Environmental Research: A Long-Term Vision
Category: Informational Materials

Sarah Lichtner, Jared Kosters, Brandon Robinson (PERC)
Nexight Group
Remote Tank Level Monitoring System Executive Summary
Category: Promotional Materials

Lindsay Kishter, Jack Eisenhauer, Darren Highfill (UtiliSec)
Nexight Group
Securing Tomorrow’s Grid
Category: Informational Materials

Arthur Pease
Siemens A.G.
Pictures of the Future
Category: Informational Materials

EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Rachel Chuang, Esther Wang, Allison Wang, Zeming Lin, Pali Singh, Melanie Kim, Jacqueline Speiser, Stephanie Melendez
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Teknos, The Journal of Science, Mathematics, and Technology
Category: Informational Materials

Joan Pellegrino, Graphics Department (Energetics), Teresa Kowalczyk
Energetics
Foundations for Innovation: Photovoltaic Technologies for the 21st Century
Category: Informational Materials

Elaine Garber, Samantha Fox, Laura Sobrado
Palladian Partners
DCEG Linkage website
Category: Informational Materials

William J. Hagen
Hughes Network Systems
Returning Your HughesNet HN9000 or HN9200 Leased Equipment
Category: User Support

Tina Marshall, Jenifer Urff, Susan Hills, Shelly McGeorge, Julienne Giard, Claudia Bepko, Julie Pearson
Westat
COSIG Lessons Learned Series
Category: Informational Materials

MERIT AWARDS
Sheryl Martin, Marissa Mills, Darren Hughes
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Department of Energy Genomic Science Program
Category: Informational Materials

Michele Wojciechowski, Donald E. Tepper
American Physical Therapy Association
How Technology is Being Used in PT and PTA Education
Category: Informational Materials

Samuel Felice, Lue Gils
UNATION
“Coming Soon” Help Center for UNATION.com
Category: User Support

Valerie Riedel, Graphics Department (Energetics), Sarah Lichtner
Energetics
Case study: Propane-fueled combined heat and power at the Kauai Marriott
Category: Informational Materials

Joan Pellegrino, Paget Donnelly, Julie Chappell
Energetics
Implementing 21st Century Manufacturing: Workshop Summary Report
Category: Informational Materials

Heather Gotham, Ron Claus, PhD., Julienne Giard
Westat
DDCAT Toolkit
Category: Instructional Materials

Lisa Devashrayee-Oaks, Nathan Massie, Hydee Clayton
3M Health Information Systems
Coding, Grouping, Editing, and Reimbursement Library
Category: User Support

Lindsay Pack, Ross Brindle, Allian Pratt, ASME
Nexight Group
Initiative to Address Complex Systems Failure: Prevention and Mitigation of Consequences
Category: Informational Materials

Sarah Lichtner, Ross Brindle, Warren Hunt, TMS
Nexight Group
Electric Power Industry Needs for Grid-Scale Storage Applications
Category: Informational Materials

Jaime Williams, Jessica Becker, Rebecca Popka
Exceptional Software Strategies, Inc.
Exceptional Software Strategies Inc. Newsletter
Category: Informational Materials

Rebecca Popka, Thomas Olson, TJ Pawlikowski
Exceptional Software Strategies, Inc.
Exceptional Software Strategies Inc. Website
Category: Promotional Materials

Peter Neumeier
Siemens A.G.
SIMATIC PROFINET – PROFINET with STEP 7 V11
Category: Promotional Materials, User Support

Ingo Nicklas. Mathias Grosse, Bernhard Zeitz
Siemens A.G
SIMATIC Industrial PC – Operating Instructions IPC547D
Category: Promotional Materials, User Support

Ingo Nicklas, Mathias Grosse, Bernhard Zeitz
Siemens A.G.
SIMATIC Industrial PC – Operating Instructions IPC227D
Category: Promotional Materials, User Support

Christian Flierl
Siemens A.G.
Getting Started SIMATIC Safety V11
Category: Instructional Materials

Peter Neumeier, Dr. Eberhard Schmid, Karl-Heinz Busch
Siemens A.G.
PROFINET First Steps – Designing a PROFINET IO System
Category: Promotional Materials

Maik Boche
Siemens A.G.
SIMATIC Mobile Panels Tutorial
Category: Promotional Materials

Event Summary

Wednesday, March 21, 2012, 6-8:30 p.m.
Guapo’s Restaurant, 4515 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20016
Judges, Entrants, Competition Committee, and Chapter Volunteers: $20
Chapter Members: $30
Nonmembers: $40

Keynote Presentation

Content is King, but adding a measured dose of interactivity to your help will increase readability and usability, as well as make it more compelling. Our speaker, Nicky Bleiel, will demonstrate a number of simple ways to improve your help in a single-sourcing environment. We will:

• Discover the options available for interactivity, including expanding/collapsing text, image maps, glossary popups, Google Maps, and more.
• Learn how to implement these interactive options.
• Discuss how structure contributes to successful interactivity.

Why Attend?

We offer you four great reasons to come to this event.

• View the winning entries in our annual competition to get ideas for the technical information we craft every day in our jobs.
• Network with others to discover solutions to challenges and build relationships.
• Listen to our keynote presentation from Nicky Bleiel, an online help expert. This is an abbreviated version of the presentation she will deliver at the STC Summit.
• Enjoy a fresh and delicious Mexican buffet dinner at Guapo’s DC location, less than a block from the Tenleytown Metro and in the American University neighborhood.

Agenda

6:00-7:00 Dinner
7:00-7:30 Keynote
7:30-8:00 Awards ceremony
8:00-8:30 Networking

Speaker

Nicky Bleiel has been a technical communicator for 17 years, with extensive experience writing and developing information for software products in the documentation, media, industrial automation, simulation, and pharmaceutical industries. She has presented talks at the STC Summit, WritersUA, tcworld, CIDM, and LavaCon on many topics. She has been published in STC’s Intercom (her new column is called “The Essentials”), Tieline, STC conference proceedings, tcworld magazine, TechCom Manager Newsletter, and the WritersUA and Content Wrangler websites. As the Lead Information Developer for Doc-To-Help at ComponentOne, she focuses on providing information that improves the user experience but is still efficient to produce. Nicky serves on the STC Board as a Director-At-Large and is currently a candidate for Vice President.

The 2012 STC Election will take place Friday, 2 March, through Friday, 23 March. The 2012 STC Ballot is not yet available. When the election opens, a link to the online Ballot will be posted here.

Find out more about the election, get to know the candidates, and pose questions by visiting the STC Election web pages.

Nicky Bleiel — STC Candidate for Vice President

Find out more about Nicky Bleiel by visiting her website and by reading her Newsletter Article about the election and her vision for the Society.

Some of us will remember Nicky for her encouraging and enthusiastic participation in the Virtual Town Hall meeting on January 25, 2012. Nicky will be the featured speaker at our awards celebration on March 21st (new date), so we can meet her in person during the election cycle.  

Ray Gallon — STC Candidate for Director

Ray is an independent consultant specializing in the convergence of content strategy, content development, and usability. He is currently in his second term as president of STC France. Before that, he was the chapter’s education outreach manager, and guided STC France’s mentoring programme.

Ray will be posting specific articles about important issues on his personal blog, related to his strategy of Radical Persuasion. Join him there, and leave your comments, or raise the issues that concern you the most.

As we hear from other candidates, we will be posting updates on our Chapter blog, so stay tuned as we prepare for the 2012 elections.

Good luck to Nicky, Ray, and all the STC candidates.

Many thanks to everyone who participated in our Virtual Town Hall meeting on January 25, 2012. The webinar provided a good opportunity for us to reconnect, celebrate the accomplishments of the past year, and get excited about the opportunities before us in the coming year.

Slides from the Virtual Town Hall in pdf format

Among the highlights of the presentation were

• the map of our chapter members’ geographic distribution,
  
• a summary of the events we attended in 2011,
  
• a preview of some of the events we are planning in 2012,
  
• and an open and honest view of our finances.
  

The group had a few lively discussions about what STC offers to our members, especially the grant from IBM, potential locations for future meetings (come to the wineries in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley), and the STC job bank.

The group expressed a desire to give support to our local student affiliates. Tiffany Newland will be attending the JMU Student Chapter Meeting in February and suggested that we send her ideas and information about events that would appeal to students at the undergrad or graduate level. Email Tiffany at tnewland at woodmark.com.

Many thanks to some of the STC leadership who attended online
Nick Bleiel
Alan Houser
Judy Glick-Smith
and to all our chapter members and volunteers for a terrific 2011.

Here’s looking forward to communicating with you in 2012.