We all depend on professional and social Networking to form the relationships and to obtain the information that we need to survive socially and professionally. “Networking” and “Connections” are impersonal terms to use when describing a human activity that is as old as human society and the spoken word—such terms make us sound as if we are part of the Internet. Unfortunately, these terms have become a part of popular culture.

Recently, professional virtual networking, especially via the LinkedIn professional networking web site, has become popular among many of the active members of the Washington D.C. chapter.

LinkedIn is built around the assumption that each of us has a circle of trusted collaborators, colleagues and friends, and that each of them has their own circle, and so on. If each person in these concentric circles has an online resume, and the linkages between them is known, then you could, for instance, quickly identify someone who works at a company where you just interviewed, even though they’re a “friend of a friend.”

A basic LinkedIn membership is free, and creating a profile on LinkedIn is like posting your resume on Monster. You can create a basic profile for yourself in less than 30 minutes.

Hopefully, you can look past the mechanistic connotations of the terms “Networking” and “Connections” and use these resources to help you take advantage of the opportunities for meeting and interacting with your colleagues that professional virtual networking sites like LinkedIn offer. For instance, you can get a brief introduction to virtual networking by reading an article from The Wall Street Career Journal or get an in-depth introduction to virtual networking by reading “The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals OnLine” which you can download or borrow from your public library.

Networking

“Networking for Job Search and Career Success”
L. Michelle Tullier, Ph.D. JIST Works, c. 2004

“Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Black Book of Connections: 6.5 Assets For Networking Your Way to RICH Relationships”
“Everyone wants to connect with someONE for someTHING or some reason. This book is about how to make value connections, not just acquaintances.”—Jeffrey Gitomer

“Make Your Contacts Count: Networking Know-How for Business and Career Success” 2nd Edition
Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon. American Management Association c. 2007″
This is the definitive book on person-to-person networking. It’s a complete methodology, i.e., step-by-step “cookbook”, on how to network.”—The Business Ledger.

International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA)
Social network analysts “. . . believe that how an individual lives depends in large part on how that individual is tied into the larger web of social connections. Many believe, moreover, that the success or failure of societies and organizations often depends on the patterning of their internal structure.”

Networking for Shy People

Networking for Nerds—HP.com Chief Architect on Using LinkedIn

Shyness Home Page sponsored by the Shyness Institute.

Shyness and Social Anxiety Discussion Board.

Introduction To Virtual Networking

Expand Your Connections Through Online Networking from the Wall Street Journal CareerJournal.com Executive Career Site

The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals OnLine
David Teten, Scott Allen, AMACOM/American Management Association c. 2005
This is an excellent book on virtual networking. It is available as a free Acrobat download or you can borrow it from your public library.

Book Report: The Virtual Handshake
FastCompany.com Networking Resource Center

Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age
Duncan J. Watts, W.W. Norton & Company c. 2003

What a small world - or is it? Steven Poole is fascinated by Duncan J Watts’ Six Degrees—a book review

Business Development/Networking Blog
Discussions about the importance of building a network, creating your professional brand, embracing marketing and fine tuning sales skills.

How To Do Virtual Networking

Ten Steps to Dramatically Improve Your Network with Social Software From David Teten and Scott Allen

Sample Networking Correspondence

About LinkedIn

Getting Started With LinkedIn

Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn

LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover by Guy Kawasaki

LinkedIn and Privacy law: LinkedIn participates in the EU Safe Harbor Privacy Framework and is certified to meet the strict privacy guidelines of the European Union.

Etiquette for LinkedIn

Scobleizer, a blog with lots of comments about LinkedIn

LinkedIn Intelligence Blog

My LinkedIn Power Forum, a discussion list with almost 6,000 members

Job Searching with LinkedIn

Virtual Job Search Networking from About.com

LinkedIn and Your Job Search

What are best practices for a LinkedIn job search?

About the author: Hugh Owen’s LinkedIn profile

Our Flickr account holds photos from conferences, banquets, and meetings. These are collected in photo albums on the Photos page. In addition to the chapter’s photos, we are connected to several groups in Flickr that contain interesting images to use for your blogs and other writing related to technical communication. Scroll to the section on the Photos page called Group Photos and review the collection for each group. You’ll be sure to find something you can use or get a few laughs. The groups are listed as follows:

• STC AccessAbility SIG – Photos from STC conferences.
• Usability & Accessibility – Photos from the UPA.
• This Is Broken – Photos about the brokenness (bad design) of items, places, etc.
• ERROR – Photos of any and all kinds of errors… mainly dealing with computers.
• Aesthetics of Failure – Photos of breakdowns, slippage, entropy (disambiguation), accident, glitches, failures in sound, image, concept, utopian and dystopian experiments.
• Drafting & Drawing Instruments – Photos of all things related to drawing and drafting.
• Writing Machines – Photos of typewriters, printing presses, and movable type—anything to do with the mechanical reproduction or creation of the written word.
• Writing – Photos about writing and the life of writers. If you are a writer/journalist, you can show fragments of your writing life. Includes photos of handwritten pieces, pens, notebooks, Moleskines, and so on. Photos of people writing and artworks if the theme is “words, writing, writers”.
• Written In Stone – Photos of inscriptions (i.e., words, phrases, names) carved into stone such as on tombs, monuments, and buildings.
• Camera Toss – is a particular form of kinetic photography— the camera must be airborne and unobstructed by the photographer or other means.
  

  This is a “technique” group, and the technique here is regarded by some as insanity. For we are the reckless folks on flickr that enjoy the abstract, chance, generative, physical photography that results from throwing our cameras into the air (most often at night in front of varied light sources). It is about trading risk for reward in the pursuit of art. It is not about being a photographer, it is about enabling the photography that happens naturally when you let go of the process, give up control, and add a hell of alot more variables. It is about physics, gravity, angular momentum, acceleration, direction, chaos, and timing… most of which you have tenuous control of at best!

• Travel Writing Bloggers – Photos that go with the words of travel writing and just traveling bloggers.
• Travel Writing Photographs – Photos related to travel writing with links to blogs dedicated to writing fiction.
• Flickr API – Photos related to Flickr API projects. The group’s aim is to drive awareness of the Flickr API, projects that use it, and those incredible ideas that programmatically exposed systems produce. Think Google API + Amazon API + Flickr API with a bit of GMail thrown in.

If you encounter another group you think we should add, please send us a note with the name of the Flickr group.

The STC Washington, DC Chapter’s annual Technical Publications, Online Communication, and Technical Art Competitions are open to receive entries. Would you like to see them? Are you ready to help evaluate them? If you think you may be, here’s the gist of what’s in store.

The Call for Entries in over 20 categories of technical communication goes out in late August. This year, the deadline for submission of entries is October 20. The competitions could not be held successfully without the commitment of a group of qualified and enthusiastic judges. The judges are recruited from among professional communicators in the DC area and beyond. Membership in STC for both entrants and judges is common, but not required.

Early in November, the judges assemble to receive their judging materials, entries, and instructions. They meet the other members of their judging team, get training from experienced judges on how to evaluate an entry, and have their questions answered. Over the next four weeks, judges read and examine the entries. They discover—or rediscover—the joy of encountering excellence in published manuals, brochures, magazines, help systems, and Web sites. As they begin to form opinions and record their evaluations, the judges apply all the knowledge and experience at their disposal.

WDC competition judging.

In December, the judges meet again to discuss the entries and decide which ones deserve an award. Some entries stand out as award winners; others elicit debate. The judges relish the opportunity to compare notes on design, presentation of information, layout, and overall quality. By the end of the meeting, a consensus is reached on award levels and the Competition Committee can begin the process of notifying the winners and non-winners, choosing the Best of Show, and sending the very best to the STC International Competition. The judges, both veteran and new, leave with a sense of a job well done. They have judged the work of their peers and shared their passion for excellence in communication. Many will be eager to do it all over again in future years.

If you are ready to experience the joy of judging, we need your help. Apply to judge online on our Web site. Fill in the application form at
http://www.stcwdc.org/php/judge_comp_application_form.php.

Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Enjoy all the piratey goodness today!

The Society encourages qualified students to apply for membership in its honorary societies, Sigma Tau Chi and Alpha Sigma.

Sigma Tau Chi recognizes students enrolled in a baccalaureate or graduate technical communication program who have a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or above, are exemplary participants in STC, and demonstrate the potential for significant contributions to the profession.

Alpha Sigma recognizes students enrolled in two-year and certificate technical communication programs who have a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 or above, are active participants in STC, and demonstrate the potential to contribute to the profession.

In early September, details and applications will be sent to all directors of academic technical communication programs, Society directors, and advisors of student STC chapters. If you meet these qualifications or know of a student who does, please request an application from one of these contacts. The application materials are also available on the STC website at http://www.stc.org/recog/awards01_STX-AS.asp.

Students who are accepted into Sigma Tau Chi or Alpha Sigma receive one year’s membership in STC, a pin, and a T-shirt. The STC Board of Directors will notify the selected students after its January meeting.

Completed application forms and supporting documents should be e-mailed as attached Word or PDF files to David Dayton at dr.david.dayton@gmail.com no later than November 1, 2008. By the same deadline, an official transcript must be mailed directly from the applicant’s school to this address:
David Dayton
2006 Glenhaven Place
Silver Spring, MD 20902

For answers to questions about the application process, contact David Dayton, chair, Honorary Societies Committee, at dr.david.dayton@gmail.com.

Elizabeth Pohland has been selected as the new editor of Intercom, the monthly magazine of the Society for Technical Communication. For many years, Pohland, a Washington, DC chapter member, served the Folger Shakespeare Library as editor and designer of the scholarly journal Shakespeare Quarterly, as consultant to the Folger Magazine (a membership publication), and as contributor to the Folger website and branding, among multiple other publications and multimedia projects.

Pohland brings to Intercom over ten years of extensive experience as an editor, content and production manager, designer, and writer. She introduced usability and readability standards to the Folger’s publications, and she has researched new technologies in editorial management software. Her freelance editing includes topics as diverse as Japanese animé, baseball, and memoirs.

“We are especially pleased to have selected an editor with excellent credentials who is also an STC member and understands technical communication,” said Susan Burton, STC executive director. “I was also excited to see several candidates mention they were STC members in their resumes.”

Pohland received her bachelor’s degree in English and French from Hollins University; a master’s in English from Virginia Tech University, where she interned with distinguished professor and poet Nikki Giovanni and won an award for her thesis; and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Technical Communication and Rhetoric from Texas Tech University.

Congratulations from all of us in your home chapter, Elizabeth!