Rolfe-

Adaptive Path and 37Signals have teamed up for an upcoming San Francisco
workshop series that we think STC members will find very relevant. We'd
also like to extend your STC chapter members a 10% discount off the
workshop tuition by using the discount code below.

On Day 1, Adaptive Path's Jeffrey Veen and Stopdesign's Douglas Bowman
will be teaching a brand new workshop about the challenges of Redesigning
Blogger. Jeff and Doug will discuss the process they used, the insights
they gained, and the key reasons why Blogger's redesign was so successful.

And on Day 2, Jason Fried of 37Signals and several of his colleagues will
teaching their popular workshop, The Building of Basecamp. Basecamp is
their web-based, leading-edge project management tool.

We'd really appreciate it if you'd help us get the word out by posting the
description below to any events listings you have or including this in any
newsletters you send out.

If you have any questions on the workshop, the discount, or registration,
please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks,

Patricia Marchetti
Marketing Manager
Adaptive Path
363 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
E-mail: patricia@adaptivepath.com
Web address: http://www.adaptivepath.com

10% discount available to STC members when discount code APDC is used.

Date: November 8-9, 2004
Where: Hotel Monaco, San Francisco, CA

Redesigning Blogger
Join Adaptive Path's Jeffrey Veen and Stopdesign's Doug Bowman for a brand
new workshop where they’ll show you how they successfully redesigned
Blogger and helped convert thousands of potential customers into actual
users. Learn how you can apply their process and insights to web design
projects you’re currently working on or about to embark on.

More info on the Redesigning Blogger workshop can be found at:
http://www.adaptivepath.com/events/2004/sfo/

The Building of Basecamp
Jason Fried and the 37Signals team will take you behind the scenes of the
development of Basecamp, their popular web-based project management tool.
They'll explain their process, their mistakes, their home runs, and the
lessons they've learned. Then they'll discuss how you can transfer that
knowledge to your own projects.

More info on The Building of Basecamp can be found at:
http://www.37signals.com/workshop-basecamp.php

Creating Context-Sensitive Help Using Single-Sourcing
Providing information in different forms to different audiences is a challenging task. The tasks can be inconsistent, resulting in a duplication of efforts and inefficient use of time. This presentation focuses on the single-sourcing solution (writing information once and re-using it many times), analyzes the user requirements, and discusses the process used to create context-sensitive Help using the single-sourcing strategy. The presentation also discusses how this solution helped us to quickly update documentation provided by an OEM vendor and re-brand it as our product. In the future, we can further improve the documentation development time by providing modular source documents.

Presenters:

Debjani Sen and Roger Dearth
Debjani Sen
BMC Software
debjani.sen@Remedy.COM

Roger Dearth
BMC Software
roger.dearth@Remedy.COM


Debjani Sen

Debjani Sen has worked in the areas of technical communication, web content development, information design, and document usability at several fortune 500 companies including AT&T Labs and BMC Software. She currently works at BMC Software. Some publications that she has worked on include topics on web based training (WBT) and single sourcing. She is the customer's advocate and is passionate about improving the user experience.

She has a Certificate in Technical Writing from San Jose State University, CA and a Bachelors in English from the University of Calcutta, India. She is continually undertaking training in content development and online help seminars to keep pace with changes in technology and is an active member of STC.

Roger Dearth

Senior STC member Roger Dearth has more than 15 years experience as a technical writer in Silicon Valley for companies including Tymnet and Symantec. As owner of Write to the Point, he has contracted for companies including Tandem Computers and Oracle. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems Management from the University of San Francisco. He currently documents Remedy products for BMC Software.

Creating Context-Sensitive Help Using Single-Sourcing
Providing information in different forms to different audiences is a challenging task. The tasks can be inconsistent, resulting in a duplication of efforts and inefficient use of time. This presentation focuses on the single-sourcing solution (writing information once and re-using it many times), analyzes the user requirements, and discusses the process used to create context-sensitive Help using the single-sourcing strategy. The presentation also discusses how this solution helped us to quickly update documentation provided by an OEM vendor and re-brand it as our product. In the future, we can further improve the documentation development time by providing modular source documents.

Presenters:

Debjani Sen and Roger Dearth
Debjani Sen
BMC Software
debjani.sen@Remedy.COM

Roger Dearth
BMC Software
roger.dearth@Remedy.COM


Debjani Sen

Debjani Sen has worked in the areas of technical communication, web content development, information design, and document usability at several fortune 500 companies including AT&T Labs and BMC Software. She currently works at BMC Software. Some publications that she has worked on include topics on web based training (WBT) and single sourcing. She is the customer's advocate and is passionate about improving the user experience.

She has a Certificate in Technical Writing from San Jose State University, CA and a Bachelors in English from the University of Calcutta, India. She is continually undertaking training in content development and online help seminars to keep pace with changes in technology and is an active member of STC.

Roger Dearth

Senior STC member Roger Dearth has more than 15 years experience as a technical writer in Silicon Valley for companies including Tymnet and Symantec. As owner of Write to the Point, he has contracted for companies including Tandem Computers and Oracle. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems Management from the University of San Francisco. He currently documents Remedy products for BMC Software.

The PMI meeting this Thursday [Secrets to Developing Successful New Products and Services] will be good, although the topic is not
as pertinent to Technical Communicators unless they are starting their own
business:

Ron Person who presented at an STC meeting over a year ago, will
be presenting. $35 for non-members of PMI.
http://www.pmi-wcc.org/next_meeting.html

Gabrielle

Survey Announcement

Does your work involve some aspect of the design, development, production,
administration, support, and/or evaluation of web-based training (WBT)?
If so, you can contribute to our body of knowledge about those who work
with WBT by participating in an online national survey and asking others
who also work with WBT to take the survey.

Briefly, you will access the online survey here

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=7419633537

and respond to the 36 main survey items (quick choice selections) and some
demographic questions. Preliminary tests show that the survey takes 15-45
minutes to complete. More about this research project and procedures are
detailed at the survey site including contact information for Texas Tech
University Human Resources, my dissertation chair, and my survey
sponsor. The survey closes November 30, 2004.

Note: The survey is housed on SurveyMonkey, and they do use cookies for
the time you are taking the survey. However, they do not store information
on you. Also, their servers have been pretty slow lately. I apologize for
that.

If you are in my survey population, please help by taking the survey!

If you are not in my survey population but know someone who is, please
help by forwarding this survey announcement to them.

Thanks!!!!!!

Ida L. Rodgers, ABD
Texas Tech University
Technical Communications & Rhetoric
ilr@rhettime.net