Walking the Wiki Way: Knowledge Management For the People

This is the March 2008 Hands-on Workshop sponsored by the STC Berkeley Chapter and presented by Stuart Culshaw.

If you're looking for an easy-to-learn and simple-to-use content management tool for an upcoming personal or professional project, or if you're just curious to find out more about the technology behind the success of Wikipedia, this workshop will introduce you to wiki's basic principles, walk you through the creation of your own wiki site, and give you the confidence and guidance you need to take your first steps on "the wiki way" (and convince others to join you on the journey).

Saturday, March 1, 2008 from 10am to 4pm at the UC Berkeley Extension, Room 213, 1995 University Avenue, Berkeley, CA

Space is limited so register early!

Writing Boot Camp Workshop

Writing Boot Camp Workshop presented by Leah Guren, STC Director at Large
Monday, January 14, 2008 at the Hilton Oakland Airport, Oakland, CA. Open to all STC members and non-members.

Reserve Early -- Discount Ends Monday, January 7!!

Come to the Workshop and sharpen your writing skills!

Bitzone's introductory documenting Java APIs course ...

Another session of Bitzone's introductory documenting Java APIs course, "Getting Started in Developer Documentation" begins this month.

Session 4 dates are Monday, September 24, 2007, through Wednesday, November 14, 2007.

For information or to register, see the Training page of the Bitzone website at:

http://www.bitzone.com/training.html

Note that the course is limited to 12 participants. Please register early to ensure a space in the training.

Call for Judges

If you're interested in judging in the 2007-08 Technical Communication Competition serving Northern California, click here for more information!

2007-08 Northern California Technical Communication Competition

The Berkeley, East Bay, North Bay, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley chapters are co-sponsoring a technical communication competition. A substantial portion of the proceeds will benefit the STC Kenneth Gordon Scholarship. The Gordon Scholarship committee is managing the competition.

The competition serves Northern California, but we accept entries from elsewhere. If you have a local competition, we hope you will support it by sending your entries there. If you are in our area, we hope you will support our competition by sending your entries here.

We send Distinguished award winners to the Society level competitions for technical publications, online communication, and technical art. Last year, all of the entries we sent to the Society level won Distinguished there, and one won Best of Show. We are proud of the quality of entries we receive and the quality of our judging process.

Entries must be received by noon, Saturday, September 21, 2007.

For additional information, please visit the STC Berkeley Chapter website.

2007 Gordon Scholarship Winners Announced

By Patrick Lufkin

The Dr. Kenneth M. Gordon Memorial Scholarship has announced that Ayelet Prizant and Shiria Behiri have each been awarded a Gordon Scholarship in the amount of $750. Both are students in San Francisco State University's Technical and Professional Writing Program.

Sponsored by the combined STC chapters of Northern California, Gordon scholarships are awarded at the beginning of each academic year. Award recipients are also offered a complimentary basic student membership in STC.

To qualify, applicants must be currently enrolled in a technical communication program at an accredited college or university, and have completed enough work to demonstrate their potential for success in the field.

The scholarship is named for Dr. Kenneth M. Gordon. Dr. Gordon worked as a technical editor at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and was a popular, long-time member of the East Bay chapter of STC. He was president of the chapter from 1985-88, and also its newsletter editor. He is remembered as an early advocate for the Northern California Technical Communication Competition, and for having contributed greatly to the success of STC in Northern California in the early years.

The scholarship was created in 1992 when the East Bay chapter discovered that it had $20,000 left over from having run a very successful 1990-91 technical communication competition. Dr. Gordon had recently died, and those involved decided to set aside $10,000 of the proceeds to establish a scholarship in his name.

Since that time, the Gordon Scholarship has been funded with proceeds from the Northern California Technical Communication Competition. This year's competition is currently ramping up. If you would like to enter or help, contact the competition director, Richard Mateosian at xrm AT pacbell.net.

For more information on the scholarship, contact the scholarship chair, Patrick Lufkin, lufkin AT ix.netcom.com.

Patrick Lufkin is a senior member of STC and Chair of the Gordon Scholarship.

STC Board of Directors Event - Early Bird Discount Extended to Wednesday, August 15 !!

See below for more info. :)

STC Board of Directors Event - Early Bird Discount Ends Saturday, August 11 !!

The STC Board is meeting this August in Berkeley. With the fourteen voting board members will be the STC Executive Director, other staff from the main office, and other members in special roles who support special work of the board. The last time that the board met in this area was about eight years ago, so you can see that this is a special occasion.

Here is an excellent opportunity for chapter leaders and STC members to meet with the board face to face, express concerns, share ideas, and create a connection with the leaders of the Society, an opportunity usually available only at the annual conference.

I hope that you will be able to come to the dinner and Board presentation, which take place after the board meeting on Saturday, August 18. An early bird discount rate is available only through this Saturday, August 11, so reserve today.

Click here for more information!

Bay Area Chapters Host the STC Board of Directors

The STC Board of Directors is making a multi-day visit to the Bay Area. The Board meeting on Saturday, August 18th, at the Doubletree Hotel in Berkeley is open to all members. Afterward (starting at 5 PM), the Board will make a presentation to interested members and answer questions. Then we can all eat, drink, and mingle.

Here's your chance to find out what's happening with STC and share your ideas and concerns. We hope you will take part in this exciting event!

Click here for details about the event and to register.

CMPros Spring 2007 Summit

Roundtable discussions and hands-on workshops will address the interrelationship of people, process, and technology in successful content management implementations. In addition, an industry panel will discuss trends in content management and a "birds of a feather" luncheon will provide networking opportunities.

Event Highlights
The Content Management Professionals (CM Pros) Spring 2007 Summit, "Managing Content Management Projects," takes place Friday, April 13, 2007 in conjunction with the Gilbane Conference and LISA Forum 2007 in San Francisco, CA. The Summit brings together content management practitioners from around the globe for a one-day intensive learning and networking experience.

Details
The Palace Hotel, San Francisco 13 April 2007
All CM Pros Summit attendees receive a $150 discount off registration to the Gilbane Conference and LISA Forum, San Francisco, CA, April 10 - 12, 2007.
After March 31: Members $395, Non-members $495
Early bird registration (extended to the end of March!): Members $295, Non-members $395 (New members receive a free first-year CM Pros membership)
> STC members get a $100 discount!
Register Today: www.cmpros.org