B a y C H I
                 The San Francisco Bay Area ACM SIGCHI
          Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction
                        November 2003 Newsletter
http://www.baychi.org/
***********************************************************************
Inside this issue...
1)  November Meeting Announcement
2)  Directions and Carpooling to PARC
3)  Dinner Information
4)  October Meeting Report
5)  Acknowledgments and Thanks
6)  Volunteers
7)  Birds of a Feather
8)  Library
9)  Member-to-Member
10) Consultants Directory
11) Bay Area HCI Calendar
12) Job Bank
13) About BayCHI
***********************************************************************
1)  November Meeting Announcement
                              B a y C H I
                 The San Francisco Bay Area ACM SIGCHI
          Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction
                    announces its November meeting:
                          Tuesday, November 11
                            7:00 to 9:30 p.m.
http://www.baychi.org/program/
                             7:00 to 7:30:
             Tea, Coffee, Socializing, Joining BayCHI, ...
                             7:30 to 9:30:
     Designing Responsive Software Despite Performance Limitations
                     Jeff Johnson, UI Wizards, Inc.
                    PARC's George E. Pake Auditorium
                         3333 Coyote Hill Road
                          Palo Alto, CA 94304
        BayCHI program meetings are free and open to the public.
              BayCHI may publish audio or video recordings
               or photographs of BayCHI program meetings.
     BayCHI does not permit recording or photography by attendees.
--------
Abstract:
Many interactive products are not responsive enough.  Responsiveness is
important to customer satisfaction, but often slighted by developers.
Jeff will explain how to improve responsiveness despite limited or
fluctuating processing resources, with examples.
Jeff Johnson, Ph.D., is president and principal consultant of UI
Wizards, Inc., a product usability consulting firm.  He is the author of
GUI Bloopers: Don'ts and Do's for Software Developers and Web Designers
and Web Bloopers: 60 Common Design Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.
--------
Complete abstract and bio: http://www.baychi.org/program/
***********************************************************************
2)  Directions and Carpooling to PARC
http://www.baychi.org/program/directions/
BayCHI encourages members to use the BayCHI Discussions email list to
arrange carpools with one another.  To learn how to subscribe, see:
http://www.baychi.org/subscribe/
BayCHI only facilitates arranging shared rides.  The actual negotiations
are among the members.
***********************************************************************
3)  Dinner Information
BayCHI's dinner before each monthly meeting is a great opportunity to
get together with new people or your BayCHI friends.  The evening's
speakers often attend.  The dinner begins at 5:30 p.m. and ends in
time for the meeting at 7:30 p.m.
http://www.baychi.org/program/dinner/
This month, the dinner will be at:
Spalti Ristorante
417 S. California Ave.
Palo Alto, CA
(650) 327-9390
http://www.spalti.com/
We'll meet at 5:30 p.m. sharp.  Plan to pay in CASH.
RSVP directly to Rachel Garb at rgarb@baychi.org (preferred) or
(408) 519-9152 by 2:00 p.m. on the afternoon of the meeting, Tuesday,
November 11.
***********************************************************************
4)  October Meeting Report
by Nerija Sinkeviciute-Titus ntitus@baychi.org
                      Seven Myths of Usability ROI
                        Daniel Rosenberg, Oracle
Daniel Rosenberg began his talk by confessing that he doesn't believe in
usability Return on Investment (ROI).  Having spent 30 years in the
field of User Experience (UE), and never having been asked to justify
usability by its ROI, Rosenberg raises a question: Why are we still
discussing this topic?
A Google search for "usability ROI" brought up a limited set of original
studies (there were many more cross-citations than articles) which are,
in Daniel's words, "all crap!"  Specifically, most are ambiguous, with
incomplete data and without related business variables.  Daniel did
blame some of these shortcomings on lawyers, who often stand in the way
of publishing the data in full.  ("Lawyers are like beavers.  They try
to get into the mainstream of progress and dam things up.")
Rosenberg expressed his opinion that the current ROI models are
inadequate and "it is only fair that no CEO would believe them."
Conventional usability ROI theory becomes hard to prove when the data is
unreliable, so it's not clear whether good usability increases sales,
market share, customer satisfaction, and profitability.  And it is not
obvious that poor usability leads to higher training costs, higher
support costs, and longer schedules.
Rosenberg concluded that the limited case studies perpetuate a set of
myths about usability ROI and went on to present them in a very lively
and controversial manner.
                    Myth #1: Generalization is Valid
He read a citation from Tom Landauer's book The Trouble with Computers:
"Without User Centered Design, a user interface typically has around 40
flaws that can slow users and lead to errors."  Rosenberg pointed out
that this statement leaves too much information out.  We don't know
whether Landauer is talking about hardware or software, and it isn't
clear whether it is a web storefront, a packaged application, or an
internal IT project.  Rosenberg laughed and admitted that he would be
happy if a product only had 40 usability problems!  This kind of
statement "doesn't cut it with executive-class business leaders," he
said.
       Myth #2: Calculation of ROI from the Producer Perspective
"Research by Gartner Group ... reveals that in corporate practice, the
average annual bill for supporting a single PC is $13,000" (Gibbs,
Taking Computers to Task, Scientific American, 1997).  According to
Rosenberg, it's a mistake to calculate cost for the producer rather than
for the consumer, because it is a fallacy that the producer bears the
cost.  The company cares about shipping the product fast and gaining
market share, but it could care less about reducing the cost for the
consumer.  Moreover, extra support cost is someone else's revenue or
employment opportunity!
               Myth #3: You Can Ignore the Other Factors
"Revenues for one DEC product that was developed using UCD techniques
increased 80% for the new version ... and usability was cited as the
second most significant improvement" (Wixon & Jones, Usability for Fun
and Profit, 1995).  Rosenberg immediately raises questions: What was the
number-one reason?  Doubling the size of the sales force?  Increasing
their commission?  Reducing the price of the product 75%?  Rosenberg is
certain that these kinds of assertions diminish the credibility of the
person making them, making it more difficult to get funding.
              Myth #4: Analog Comparisons are Not Required
"Cost of bad web design: Loss of approximately 50% of potential sales
from the site as people can't find stuff." (Jakob Nielsen, Alert Box,
1998, cited by Forrester).
Rosenberg gets agitated here and stresses that we shouldn't expect a
consumer to buy a product on-line 50% of the time.  Do you buy something
in 50% of the brick and mortar stores you go into when shopping?  Can
you find a part at Home Depot 50% of the time?  People often don't know
what they are looking for.  His criticism here is the absence of analog
benchmarks in the literature.
          Myth #5: All Usability Dollars are Spent Effectively
Rosenberg admits he thinks this is a joke, because he believes that as a
profession we are not that effective in communicating our value and
delivering value to the corporation or as consultants.  Anecdotal
evidence would also suggest that we are not as effective commercially
as, say, marketing professionals.
           Myth #6: Executives will Believe Voodoo Economics
"There are one billion users on the internet, and half of them could
come to your site.  If the average cost of an abandoned shopping cart is
$20, you will lose $10 billion a year in sales of your designer pet
food." (Rosenberg, 2003, Parody of J. Nielsen).
Statements like these will get you coverage in Newsweek and may then be
cited as fact by Gartner and Forrester Research groups, jokes Rosenberg.
But executives know better, and they won't fall for this.
        Myth #7: UE Resources will Reduce the Software Schedule
"With a $13,000 investment in UE, overall project costs are reduced by
$8,000, and total time on the project is reduced by four weeks"
(Friedland and Innes, UPA workshop, 2003).  Rosenberg pointed out that
in 30 years, he had never seen a product ship on time.
After finishing his seven myths of Usability ROI, Rosenberg tried to be
a little more positive.  He presented three "laws of gravity" affecting
usability ROI.
1. It is cheaper to fix problems early in the design process.
2. Automation reduces complexity faster and in larger increments than
    UI design.  For example, after home networks got automated (DHCP),
    the average person can set it up now.
3. Globalization reduces labor costs.  Things that were expensive are
    now much cheaper.  Most of the complex work can be done in India or
    other places like that.  Most of the calculations for the case
    studies were done in the U.S. several years ago, and are not
    accurate anymore.
Finally, Rosenberg offered to look for a more strategic approach and to
replace the myths by defining usability value by contribution to the
customer's success--Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)--not the producer's
ROI.  That is, we should calculate what it costs for the client to be
successful.
Rosenberg doesn't suggest looking at the sales numbers, because they
can't correlate with a single factor like usability.  A useful measure
is win/loss data as well as Common Industry Format (CIF) data for the
sales cycle.  As an example, Oracle releases all the bug data to the
customer.  Customers get a chance to look at the usability reports and
can suggest tasks that the UE team didn't test, adding value to the
customer.  Another resource is company's customer support team, which
has their own usability methods and metrics.
He stressed again that in the business product ecosystem, usability is
just one variable.  There has to be good product design (features,
performance, cost, reliability, and usability) as well as good execution
(manufacturing, distribution, sales, and marketing) to produce enough
profit to stay in business by gaining successful customers who can pay
you.
Rosenberg concluded with his practical rule of the relevance of software
product ROI (not just usability ROI): 10% of the world's software
generates 90% of the software industry revenue.  Therefore, if your
product is not in that 10%, there is no return!
***********************************************************************
5)  Acknowledgments and Thanks
BayCHI would like to thank Ed Chi, Jock Mackinlay, and Stu Card of
PARC for sponsoring our use of the PARC auditorium and the terrific
A/V staff for BayCHI monthly meetings.
***********************************************************************
6)  Volunteers
BayCHI needs volunteers!  In as little as a few hours per month, you can
provide a valuable service to your colleagues in the HCI community.
For descriptions of open positions, see:
http://www.baychi.org/volunteer/
Thanks!
***********************************************************************
7)  Birds of a Feather
BayCHI's Birds-of-a-Feather (BOF) groups help members of the HCI
community with common interests connect with one another.  There are
currently nine active BayCHI BOFs:
- Struts User
- Future Systems
- Kids' Media
- Mobile Applications
- Usability Engineering
- Web Interface Design
- North Bay
- East Bay
- Student
For information on each BayCHI BOF and upcoming and past BOF events,
see:
http://www.baychi.org/bof/
Do you want to start a new BOF?  Whatever your specific human-computer
interaction interests are, the BOF chair can assist you in getting the
word out and setting up an initial meeting.  If you need help in
starting a new BOF or have any other questions, please contact BayCHI
BOF Chair Mike Van Riper at mike.vanriper@baychi.org.
==========
BayCHI Struts User BOF Event
November 5, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Netscape, Mountain View
http://www.baychi.org/bof/struts/20031105a/
Struts and JavaServer Faces: Competition or Coexistence?
Craig McClanahan, Sun Microsystems
==========
BayCHI Kids' Media BOF Event
November 6, 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Schwab Learning Foundation, San Mateo
http://www.baychi.org/bof/kids/20031106/
But Can All Kids Use It?:
Usability and Accessibility for Children's Media
Panelists from the Schwab Learning Foundation
==========
BayCHI North Bay BOF Event
November 18, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Fair Isaac, San Rafael, California
http://www.baychi.org/bof/north/20031118/
Web Bloopers: Avoiding Common Design Mistakes
Jeff Johnson, Ph.D., UI Wizards, Inc.
==========
BayCHI Mentoring Program Event
November 19, 7:30-8:30 p.m.
http://www.baychi.org/bof/student/20031119a/
AOL Chat with Brad Lauster
==========
BayCHI Mentoring Program Event
December 3, 2003
http://www.baychi.org/bof/student/20031203/
AOL Chat with Liam Friedland
***********************************************************************
8)  Library
The BayCHI Library has books, conference notes, videos, and a variety
of tutorial notes for use by members.  To learn how to obtain
materials from the library, see:
http://www.baychi.org/library/
If you've borrowed anything from the library some time ago and haven't
returned it yet, bring it on back!  Thanks.
***********************************************************************
9)  Member-to-Member
This section of the BayCHI Newsletter is for members who are looking for
others with similar interests, or wish to post requests for information,
speakers, or the like.
If you wish to submit an entry, contact Newsletter Editor Steve Williams
at swilliams@baychi.org.
Please be sure to provide your name, email address, and membership
number.
***********************************************************************
10) Consultants Directory
BayCHI members can create and update their listings in the Consultants
Directory to promote their services.
Prospective employers may browse the directory on BayCHI's web site or
run a keyword-matching query on services offered.
http://www.baychi.org/consultants/
NOTE: The Consultants Directory presently includes a browsable directory
while we work on an upgrade.  Search features will return soon.  Thanks
for your patience!
***********************************************************************
11) Bay Area HCI Calendar
http://www.baychi.org/calendar/
BayCHI's calendar features Bay Area events and selected events outside
the Bay Area of particular interest to BayCHI members.  Check the
calendar often!
==========
ACM Multimedia 2003
November 2-8
Berkeley
http://www.acm.org/sigmm/mm2003/
UIST 2003 and ICMI-PUI
The Fifth International Conference on Multimodal Interfaces
November 5-7
Vancouver, British Columbia
http://www.acm.org/uist/
GROUP '03: International Conference on Supporting Group Work
November 9-12
Sanibel Island, Florida
http://www.acm.org/siggroup/conferences/group03
ACM Conference on Universal Usability 2003
November 10-11
Vancouver, British Columbia
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/cuu2003/
DMI Innovation Summit/2003
November 10-12
Stanford University
http://www.dmi.org/dmi/html/conference/stanford/conference.htm
Sonoma County Web Developers: Designing for Users, Catherine Thorpe
November 11
Santa Rosa, California
http://www.sonomawebsig.org/
American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting
November 19-23
Chicago, Illinois
http://www.practicinganthropology.org/inside/?section=calendar_meetings
HICSS-37 Emerging Technologies track
January 5-8, 2004
Honolulu, Hawaii
http://www.hicss.hawaii.edu/HICSS37/fetcfp.htm
Conference on Visualization and Data Analysis 2004 (EI10)
January 18-22, 2004
San Jose
http://vw.indiana.edu/vda2004/
IA Summit 2004: Breaking New Ground
February 27-29, 2004
Austin, Texas
Call for Papers
http://www.asis.org/Conferences/IA04/index.html
Eye Tracking Research and Applications (ETRA)
March 22-24, 2004
San Antonio, Texas
http://www.e-t-r-a.org/
CFP: Fourth International Workshop on Smart Appliances and
Wearable Computers
March 23-26, 2004
Tokyo, Japan
http://www.unl.im.dendai.ac.jp/IWSAWC/
Participatory Design Conference 2004
July 27-31, 2004
Toronto, Ontario
http://www.cpsr.org/conferences/pdc2004/index.html
Designing Interactive Systems DIS2004
August 1-4, 2004
Cambridge, Massachusetts
http://www.sigchi.org/DIS2004
Hypertext 2004
Fifteenth ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia
August 9-13, 2004
Santa Cruz, California
http://www.ht04.org/
Futureground: Design Research Society International Conference 2004
November 17-21, 2004
Melbourne, Australia
http://www.futureground.monash.edu.au/
==========
You can contribute to the Bay Area HCI Calendar.  Submit Bay Area HCI
events to the calendar editor at calendar@baychi.org.  Please include:
- Date
- Sponsoring Organization
- Name of Event
- Presenter
- Location
- Short Description
- URL (web Address)
***********************************************************************
12) Job Bank
The BayCHI Job Bank accepts job listings and distributes them to the
paid members of BayCHI who subscribe.
http://www.baychi.org/jobbank/
Contact Don Ahrens at dahrens@baychi.org to subscribe.  You will then
receive the full company and contact information omitted from the
following sample listings.  You must join BayCHI to subscribe.
Sample listings:
======================================================
Received Tue, 14 Oct 2003; San Jose, CA
====================
Position Title: Usability Engineer
Duration: 3 Month Contract
Job Description:
_____ is the leading producer of _____.  Support._____.com is multiple
award winning site dedicated to providing customers with the information
they need to solve technical problems.  Support._____.com offers a vast
array of problem-solving features, including forums, on-line support
case submission and tracking, technical documentation, and technical
solution records.
Two main projects require the attention of an experienced contractor.
The first is to join and ultimately lead a team tasked conducting a
comprehensive evaluation of how _____ customers use on-line
documentation.  The project involves visiting design engineers and
evaluation their interaction with support._____.com to determine their
on-line software documentation needs.  The gathered information will be
used to determine the direction _____ takes with its delivery of
software documentation.
The second project is to assist with ensuring user-centric principles
are applied to the redesign of the Education section of www._____.com.
Key responsibilities include conducting heuristic evaluations, running
paper prototyping sessions, engaging in customer visits, and operation
of on-site usability sessions.  Gathered data will be used to
iteratively redesign the Education interface.  You will work closely
with developers and management stakeholders to ensure that both
corporate needs and customer needs are met.
The two projects are expected to take a total of three months to
complete.  The projects will run in succession.  Anticipated start date
is immediate.
Qualifications:
- Two or more years of relevant work in the field of usability
   engineering with a focus on applying usability principles to the
   iterative design of web interfaces.
- Keen interpersonal qualities used in determining accurate user
   behavior through interviews, usability tests, and site visits.
- Knowledge relating to the semiconductor industry is a plus but not a
   requirement.
======================================================
Received Fri, 17 Oct 2003; Seattle, WA
====================
Position Title: Senior Product Designer
Duration: Full Time
Job Description
The senior designer's portfolio should showcase his or her expertise in
top-class visual design and reflect a keen understanding of user
interface (UI) and usability issues in designing for interactive
audiences.  The senior designer is expected to understand and respect
technical issues and processes, and he or she should be adept at finding
the best solutions for customers working within (and where appropriate,
pushing the limits of) those constraints.
Role:
- Help set the visual and functional direction for TV service projects
   and distance viewing
- Communicate designs verbally and visually through presentations,
   peer-reviews, and documentation.
- Collaborate with engineers and usability experts to build the best
   product.
- Research customer needs, desires, and habits and create designs
   informed by that research.
- Work with other senior designers to incorporate the standards that
   are shared across all of the television and web services.
- Work with production designers and the rest of design team to deliver
   assets and specifications.
- Design and produce cutting-edge motion graphics.
Required:
- Five-plus years of hands-on interaction design experience in
   consumer-oriented web, CD/DVD, or television/broadcast products.
- Excellent portfolio that shows versatile style and execution
   techniques.
- Demonstrated core problem-solving skills and conceptual abilities.
- Proven communication skills, including presenting, storyboarding,
   sketching, and writing.
- Potential for leadership, management, and team-building
   responsibilities, including advocating and representing design
   across groups, creating and managing tasks within projects, and
   mentoring staff members.
Required Software Expertise:
- Photoshop
- Illustrator/Freehand
- Flash (ActionScript experience preferred)
- HTML/HTML editors such as BBEdit
Bonus Skills:
- After Effects
- 3D modeling and animation
- Director/Lingo
- Video
- Audio
- JavaScript
- DHTML
- Unix
***********************************************************************
13) About BayCHI
BayCHI, the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of ACM's Special Interest
Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI), brings together systems
designers, human factors engineers, computer scientists, psychologists,
social scientists, and users from throughout the Bay Area to hear and to
exchange ideas about computer-human interaction and about the design and
evaluation of user interfaces.
BayCHI annual dues are $20 for new members and $15 for renewals.
Members may renew for multiple years: $30 for two years, $75 for five
years, etc.
To join, come to a BayCHI meeting, contact Don Patterson at
dpatterson@baychi.org, request a membership form by email, or see:
http://www.baychi.org/join/
The BayCHI Newsletter is a monthly publication of BayCHI, distributed by
email and in print.  The BayCHI Newsletter copyright (c) 2003 by BayCHI.
You are permitted to copy or republish part or all of this newsletter
provided that the copying, republishing, and distribution of copies or
works containing articles or extracts from this newsletter produces no
direct commercial advantage; that the copy or work gives credit to the
author (for articles with by-lines) and to the source; and that the work
states that the original has been abstracted or edited if it has.  The
editor would appreciate receiving copies of printed works that republish
material from this newsletter.
Contacts
--------
http://www.baychi.org/
BayCHI
PO Box 1726
Discovery Bay, CA 94514-7726
Steering Committee
------------------
Chair:      Stacie Hibino     chair@baychi.org
Vice-Chair: Marta Fuentealba  vicechair@baychi.org
Treasurer:  Steve Williams    treasurer@baychi.org
The full steering committee includes more than 40 volunteer members:
http://www.baychi.org/leaders/
***********************************************************************
<---------------- end of BayCHI News for November 2003 --------------->
_______________________________________________
Send all address changes (electronic and postal), subscriptions, unsubscriptions
and basically ALL CHANGES WHATSOEVER to coa@baychi.org. Replying to your
friendly BayCHI postmaster will not affect your settings for this list!

dear stc-nb,
keywords: functional specifications, software road map, open source,
healthcare.
details: i have an immediate need for an experienced tech writer to take
my raw outline of functional specifications and a software roadmap and
expand it into a first draft for presentation at a project planning
meeting next week. the deadline for this draft is tuesday november 4th.
familiarity with open source software and sourceforge project
documentation is a plus. another plus is experience writing for a
healthcare environment. interested writers please contact me by email at:
  wross@ruralcommunityhealth.org
as a point of reference, here is an abstract which describes the overall
project:
http://www.ruralcommunityhealth.org/members/mendoshare_abstract.pdf
thanks!
[wr]
--
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . will ross . .
. . box 615 . . .
. . boonville . .
. . california  .
. . 95415 . . . .
. . usa . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
===========================
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message containing only the word HELP to majordomo@lists.sonic.net

For those of you who met Rob Frankland at our chapter meeting a while back...

Introducing Veredus!
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Important information follows these job listings. Please read it.
Company: QRS Corporation
Position: Senior Technical Writer
Location: Richmond, California
Starts: ASAP
Salary: DOE
QRS Corporation is looking for a Senior Technical Writer to be responsible
for planning, writing, and editing documentation for external and internal
customers and to act as help coordinator. This position works with
Development, Product Management, Business Analysts, and SQA to research,
understand, and document QRS products and services.
The position requires excellent writing skills as well as interviewing
skills, resourcefulness, time management abilities, flexibility, and an
eagerness to learn. Must have experience in writing product documentation,
and proven technical writing experience in a software development
environment. QRS is looking for someone who is effective working in an
informal, team-oriented, fast-paced environment.
QRS provides B2B eCommerce products and services, including QRS Software
Applications, QRS Trading Community Management and QRS Global Services to
retailers and suppliers throughout the world.
Responsibilities
* Research and document system functionality through interviews with
technical staff and subject matter experts, detailed review of technical
specifications, and use of QRS products.
* Write and edit product documentation for QRS customers and for internal
production and customer support teams.
* Act as help coordinator for online help projects.
* Scope and plan documentation based on goals and needs identified by
product management and product development.
* Review technical specifications for errors or inconsistencies and report
as appropriate.
* Establish and maintain effective working relationships, both internally
and externally.
Candidate Requirements:
* Minimum 6 years technical writing experience
* Excellent writing skills and experience in delivering clearly written,
thorough customer documentation, with samples provided for QRS review
* Experienced in use of authoring tools, such as FrameMaker and a graphics
package.
* Experience developing online help systems using WebWorks (preferred) or
RoboHelp. Experience with single-sourcing and incorporating conditional text
into help files.
* Proven experience in quickly learning new concepts and working with
minimal supervision while balancing multiple concurrent timelines and tasks.
* Familiarity with and prior exposure to technology relevant to QRS; for
example, relational database-driven applications, and Web- and
document-interchange technologies (HTML, XML, EDI) .
* Proven experience in managing deadlines
* Proven ability to interact with business and product experts to capture
system functionality.
* Strong people, analytical, and organizational skills.
* Proven software life-cycle development exposure.
Education
Bachelor's degree or equivalent business experience with demonstrable
writing skill.
To apply for this position, send your résumé in Word or PDF (preferred)
format to careers@qrs.com, with the position in the subject line.
Contact: QRS Recruiting
1400 Marina Way South
Richmond, California 94804
Email: careers@qrs.com
http://www.qrs.com/company/careers/

Here is my feedback, FWIW, regarding the "Working in
Biotechnology" presentation at the recent STC Northbay
Chapter Meeting.

[...]

I have been researching and inching into this kind of an
industry transition for about two years now, and I think she
left out some very important information. By this point in
time, there are 3 or 4 main areas of focus in the overall
field. A couple of those areas seem to me to be very much
more accessible to people with our kinds of backgrounds than
the aspect of the field our speaker discussed.

As I understand it, these focuses are:

1) BIOTECHNOLOGY - as in "classic" biotechnology
science-heavy, the creative lab-based & research stuff.
This is the end our speaker works in.

2) BIOINFORMATICS - the number crunching/programming end of
the field. SAS programming appears to be the basic program
used.

3) CLINICAL TRIALS - program management (trials) to test & QA
the drugs and/or devices developed by the scientists. *LOTS*
of documentation: case report forms, adverse event reports,
government reports, etc. Not creative writing, but general
documenting that supports some pretty interesting activities.
This is the program of study that I'm currently in. My
teachers keep telling us you don't need a medical degree to
work effectively in this capacity. (They also keep saying
there are plenty of jobs for all of us once we get past
that "have you worked in the field before?" curve.)

4) BIOTECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT (BUSINESS & MARKETING) - Don't
know much about these programs as they are new. Berkeley has
a current program. Don't think they are close enough to the
science/clinical aspect of the field for people who don't
already have a medical background.

There are also a couple of "certificate-type" training
programs in the greater Bay Area that specialize on the skill
sets needed for these particulary focuses.

I would be glad to talk to people INFORMALLY at one of our
meetings if people are interested. I'm not an expert, but I
have found what appears to be an effective path to follow.

Below are a coulple of links to relevant Websites:

University of California Extension Program, Berkeley
www.unex.berkeley.edu
Look under the Certificate Programs and the Professional
Sequences.

University of California Extension Program, Santa Cruz
(Classes are held on their Cupertino and Sunnyvale campuses;
this is where I go.)
www.ucsc-extension.edu/main/index.html
Look under the Certificate Programs

American Medical Writers Association
(Has a "Core Curriculum" educational program for which they
issue a certificate. One of my teachers in the Clinical Trial
program did the AMWA educational program and she said it paid
for itself in the first 3 jobs she did after getting it.
Course, she's also a nurse and has a masters.)
www.amwa.org/education/general.html

:::smiles:::
Joan

Hi:

This is a general information announcment to STC chapter presidents
and STC newsletter owners from Online-Learning. Our company
provides online training and focuses exclusively on information design
topics.

I'm writing to let you know about our new Information Design
Program and to remind you of the special 10% discount we give to
STC members. I think both of these items will be of interest to you
and your members.

Our Information Design Program teaches students how to write and
design information products. It contains over 400 hours of training
in core and elective courses such as:

* Technical Writing
* Graphics For Non-Designers
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Students can work toward the program certificate on a part-time
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As always, STC Members save 10% on all of our courses.

If you could let your members know about the program and the discount,
I'd appreciate it. Or if there is a better way for me to reach your members,
please let me know. If you, or your members, want more information
about the program, please visit us at http://www.online-learning.com or
contact me directly.

Thanks for your help.

Sincerely,
Doug Talbott

Vice-President
Online-Learning.com
Phone: 613-592-9751
Fax: 1-206-237-2026
Web: http://www.online-learning.com

P.S. Given that our company focuses exclusively on the technical
communications niche, I have built an STC President and Newsletter
Owners mailing list. It will make it easier for me to send you specific
articles of interest, course information, and STC special offers.

I don't plan on using the list too often, but if you don't want to receive
these notices, please use the "unsubscribe" feature at the bottom of
the email. And please accept my apologies for any inconvenience.
By the same token, if you know another STC person who would
want to be added to the list, please have them contact me. Thanks.

Directory of venture capital firms, angel investors, sample business plan templates

Likewise...Hoover's Online - IPO Central - Home Page

For those who want a look at start-ups about to go public: IPO Monitor

Job in Novato

Transcription of Titania's notes from last night's presentation "Technical Writing for the Biotech Industry"

EDMA
Regulations

www.fda.org
www.pheur.org
www.amwa.org

GLP
GMP
GXP

Assays
BioPharma
Vaccines
HIV
MenC
Pharma
IL-2
Betaseron

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)
CFR
Validation Protocol
Validation Report

Additional material discussed by audience:
http://www.medtronic.com/
Dice search for 'writer' in Bay Area: http://seeker.dice.com/seeker.epl?rel_code=1102&op=7
...subsearch with 'medical' as the keyword: http://seeker.dice.com/seeker.epl?rel_code=1102&op=7
Medical writer listing:http://seeker.dice.com/seeker.epl?rel_code=1102&op=7

Important information follows these job listings. Please read it.
Staff Technical Writer, Wind River Systems
Alameda, CA
www.windriver.com
Use your strong verbal and written communication skills, expertise with
authoring tools and effective interpersonal skills to lead projects and
create technical manuals for customer developers writing real-time embedded
systems and applications.
You will be an integral member of the technical publications team at Wind
River. You will work closely with engineers and product marketing managers
to build schedules, lead content management initiatives, and write product
documentation. We are looking for a leader who cares about creating
polished, consistent, informative, and accessible documentation within a
recognized process. Your experience must include familiarity with operating
system APIs and documentation management tools and systems.
Thorough knowledge of one or more of these technical areas is also
necessary:
- networking protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, PPP, NAT, etc)
- digital consumer devices (digital video & imaging,
- automotive (telematics, infotainment, electronic control systems)
- industrial automation and control systems
Job Requirements:
- 2+ years as a project lead in technical publications or allied field
- 5+ years experience in tech writing or related field, including physics,
mathematics, or any of the sciences that included C programming exposure
- Familiarity with software development technologies and processes is a must
- BA/BS degree or higher in computer science, English, or related field
Please send resumes to: Sarah.Foltz@windriver.com
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Volunteers from Bay Area chapters of the Society for Technical
Communication, an educational and charitable organization, collect
and distribute job leads as a public service.
STC and its volunteers assume no responsibility for the contents of
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Regarding the previously posted contract position at AFC:

"I just received word from the hiring manager that he won't be able to bring a contractor on board until mid-December. What I'll do is to re-write the job announcement with a corrected timeline and then submit it you for posting at a later date, say early-November.

Thank you for your help.

Iris Rogers
Senior Technical Writer
AFC North America, Inc.
iris.rogers@afc.com
707.793.4322"