Wow! What a Summit

I can't remember a more exhilarating STC Summit. Congrats to Alan Houser for pulling off a great event. The two keynotes were delightful and informative--making me excited about being a technical communicator. Unfortunately, my official duties didn't let me take in too many of the technical sessions, but I networked my little heart out.



Some IBMers at breakfast. By popular vote (at 7:30 a.m.) we decided it would be an IBMer happy hour next year. (l-r: Terri Whitt, Robert Anderson, Barrie Byron, Mike Hughes, Lori Fisher, Alyson-Kathleen Riley, Susan Becker, Mark Wallis)


Me with my fellow Fellows from IBM, Andrea Ames and Lori Fisher. It's good to be a Fellow :-)

Atlanta Host City Website

Check it out!
The Atlanta STC chapter has posted its host city Web site for the STC Summit. We are starting to get geard up and revved up. We are in the final stages of editing a cookbook of our favorite Southern technical writer recipes, e.g., Cut and Pasta Garden Salad, to share with our visitors. It will include extra tidbits such as tips on speaking Southern. The following in an excerpt:

Bless your heart
This is the most delicious of Southern phrases. When said in a kind way it means that you are doing the best you can in a tough situation. Example: “They’ve got you doing the Help with ForeHelp 1.2? Bless your heart!”
When said in a mean way, it means you’re just too stupid to know better. Example: “You sent the VP an e-mail demanding that the technical writers’ platforms get upgraded before the developers’? Bless your heart!”

Just when I ought to be getting cynical...

... I go to my local STC chapter meeting and there are over 50 attendees! So much for a dying profession and a society that has lost its relevance. So what gives here?

First off, a dynamic programs manager, Jen Collier. Last night's event was a progression, six presenters in three 15-minute time slots. Pick the three you're most interested in and rotate. The topic was Instructional Design, a perennially popular topic with technical communicators, perhaps trying to break away from traditional writing or just interested in broadening their skill set in a tough economy.

Speakers were a mixed bag of university professors, consultants and business practitioners--even had an old guy from IBM ;-) This was pure grass-roots STC like its hay-day in the 90s. As a matter of fact, I saw some of my old fellow classmates from Southern Polytechnic State University.

Good pre-marketing too. Getting the word out is important.

Just got me pumped. STC rocks and I'm glad I have a professional society that brings me into contact with peers who believe learning doesn't stop on graduation day.

Hey, Atlanta, let's do the math

Many technical communicators cannot afford to attend a conference every year, not because of the registration fees, but because of the associated travel and hotel costs (which typically exceed the price of the conference). The STC conference will be held in Atlanta in 2009, and for local good old boys and gals, this is a great opportunity to attend the premiere conference for technical communicators without having to cover the travel expenses.

If you are not already a member of STC or if you are wondering if you will renew, look at the additional savings you get if you attend the conference as a member:

Non-member Early Bird registration: $1095

BUT:
Classic Membership: $175.
Member Early Bird registration: $795
Total cost: $970

By joining or renewing your membership, you save $125! And you get all the other benefits of STC membership.

I can't remember any other time when our profession has had so many exciting opportunities and challenges--this is the year to ramp up those professional skills and contacts. I hope every technical communicator comes to Atlanta for the conference, but we local professionals should take advantage of having the conference right here. Go to the STC Web site and join or renew your membership today.

My Recession Strategy

Yikes, the economic news is certainly scary these days. So what do you do if you think layoffs are coming?

Get into the top third

Every boss right now is making a list, real or mental, that focuses on which employees are in the top third and which are in the bottom third. Get into the top third of that list by doing the following:

• Add value in the areas that your boss will be evaluated on.
• Make your boss's job easier/more pleasant.
  

Some examples for adding value:

• Is your boss tasked with off-shoring certain aspects of the work and you've been the lone voice of reason in the wilderness pointing out the foolishness of such an endeavor? (Substitute the appropriate goal: implementing DITA, going to a new CMS, etc.) Step one: Shut up! Step two: Find ways to make it work.
• Yeah, yeah, we're all about the user, yay user, but take a look at ways to cut development time, production costs, etc., and let your boss know what you're doing there as well.

Some examples for making your boss's job easier or more pleasant:

• Be happy. Seriously, people would rather work with happy people than with chronic whiners.
• Having personality conflicts with someone? Get over it or at least appear to. If someone is habitually whining about you and you have nothing bad to say in return, you make the top third, he makes the bottom third.
• Having legitimate work conflicts? Stay positive and work through the solution.
• When discussing issues with your boss, have a success path defined--don't tell them how the project will fail.
  

Remember, in a layoff, the decision as to who goes and who stays will be made for some rational reasons and some emotional reasons. Cover down on both.

One more thing...

Oh yeah, start going to your local STC chapter meetings. Never hurts to fire up the network before you need it.

A Model for Assessing Value--
I've been thinking and talking a lot lately about our value as technical communicators. I can see that my thinking has been influenced by my background in instructional design, specificially by Kirkpatrick's model of evaluation. In his model, he states that instruction can be assessed at four levels:
Level 1: Reactions
Level 2: Learning
Level 3: Transfer
Level 4: Results

I think we can easily apply this same model to how we evaluate our communication products as well as our contribution to our sponsors.

To summarize the four levels in the context in which Kirkpatrick proposed them, I put them in the context of a training course on how to correctly operate a drill press. Let's assume the training had been triggered by excessive scrap rates coming out of the machine shop.

1. Reactions. How did the students react to the training itself? This is generally assessed through a course evaluation sheet, e.g., course met my expectations, instructor was knowledegable, yadda, yadda, yadda.
2. Learning. Did the students learn anything? This is generally assessed through testing or lab observations. Students could be obseved by the instructor who certifies them using a checklist of targeted drill press competencies.
3. Transfer. Did the student go back to the job and apply the new knowledge or skills correctly and effectively? Employees coming out of the training could be assessed by the shop supervisor who observes if the they are applying the right techniques.
4. Results. Did the training solve the business problem that triggered it? Did the scrap rate go down?

By the way, Phillips adds a fifth level, ROI, which would compare the cost of the training to the dollar value of the reduced scrap and compare it to other investments that could have been made.I'll blog on that one later.

So let's see how Kirkpatrick's model could be applied to technical communication.

Level 1: Reactions--We see this in reader response cards and in usability tests where participants are asked to rate various aspects of a product or document. Lots of the research done on fonts or layout stop at this level of evaluation, e.g., which document looks more professional?

Level 2: Learning--To me this translates to: If the user read the document, did he or she understand it and did it apply to the task at hand. For example, did the Quick Start card work in the lab when we specifically asked users to use it?

Level 3: Transfer--Oooooh, the toughie. Did users improve their performance in real life based on the documentation? For example, did real patients comply better with their medication protocol when given redesigned instructions?

Level 4: Results--Did we achieve the business goal the document was meant to achieve? For example, did Support Desk calls go down, did medical claims decrease, did user registrations increase on a redesigned web page, did percentage of transactions completed go up, etc.

I think we need to emphasize levels 3 and 4 more. I might be wrong, but I haven't come across a research study on fonts that tested if users completed tasks faster or made fewer errors depending on which font face the Help was written in. (So why do we fight so passionately about it?) So I would like to see research in our field increase its emphasis on user performance. (Level 3)

I would also like to see more discussion about the how better informed, better performing users make positive impacts on an organization's business performance. (Level 4)

Certification--
I have rejected Technical Communication certification for a long time, and I have recently changed my mind. The field of technical communication has had a "We don't get any respect" chip on its shoulder for a long time. I think we have failed to communicate our value in many cases because we ourselves have not understood that value. To our credit, we have evolved from "We produce well-written, correctly punctuated documentation" to "We support user task-based information requirements." In other words, we did a good job of moving from documenting products to supporting what users do with those products (please, I'm using the term product very broadly). What we haven't done so well is understand and articulate how a better-informed, better-performing user benefits our employers.

We hear a lot that we want STC to "tell our compelling story" and I have participated in board discussions about what level of management STC should target with articles about how technical communicators add value. To me, this is like asking our mother to come to school with us and tell the other kids they have to play nice with us (well, not as humiliating, but about as effective). The only ones who can tell our compelling story is us (yes, yes, I know it should have been we, but that sounded too, well, like who we were twenty years ago).

So what does this have to do with certification?

• Certification programs, when done well, focus on employer value. Certification will help us communicate to ourselves what our value propositions are--in terms of value added for employers. Once we understand that value, we become better able to communicate and demonstrate that to our employers.
• Certification can increase jobs within a profession, as employers understand better what value those jobs add.
• Certification can create revenue potential for STC.

So if I get elected as 2VP for STC, I will have 4 active years to work on this. And by the end of that 4 years, my goal would be to have a fully defined body of knowledge in place and a certification program launched that demonstrated multiple levels of competencies within that body.

I have a new column out in UXmatters.com: Hockey Sticks and User Assistance: Writing in Times of Resource Constraints. I blogged on it earlier, but this is a more thought-out (and better edited) version than what you saw in the blog.

I've also updated my web page to include my "platform" for my STC 2VP campaign. Take the STC Campaign-2008 link. In short, my focus as an officer would be to

• Maintain a balanced budget that funds the programs that add the most value for members
• Ensure that our publications and conferences provide the content that helps members do their jobs
• Create a collaboration where members, vendors, employers, and academic communities help technical communicators keep up with the ever-changing demands for tools and technology knowledge
• Support a certification program through STC that helps our sponsors trust and understand our value and that creates sustainable careers for technical communicators

I'll blog more on why I have decided to get on the certification bandwagon after staying off it all these years.

A rose by any other name might have more syllables--
Two blogs in one day! But my last blog was 14 hours and another Board of Directors meeting day, so that's got to be 3 dog days at least.

I annoyed some folks today by referring to what we do as technical writing and by referring to myself as a technical writer. Then I totally blew it by referring to the people who consume what I produce as readers. Seriously, I could tell that I was a major disappoint to them, so it made me pause and think. I have noticed lately that I have been referring to myself that way, not necessarily consciously, but purposely enough to notice that I was doing it. Now that I know I'm disappointing and alarming some folks by doing it, I've decided to reflect and try to understand why I have reverted to these somewhat retro terms.

I think there are a couple of things going on. For one, I'm a little embarrassed by the sometimes pretentious sounding titles we use. My current job title is user assistance architect. I just feel less pretentious telling folks I'm a technical writer. I'm not particularly embarrassed by its more blue collar appeal.

But mainly, I think I am rebelling somewhat against the idea that people didn't respect the job we did because we were called technical writers, and somehow changing it to technical communicators will get us the respect we deserve. It just seems to take our eye off the real ball: When we truly add value and articulate it in real terms, people notice. It has nothing to do with what we call ourselves.

For example, I am aware that businesses need a lot of advanced products and services to support their analysis of data that goes well beyond the need for calculators. But it doesn't bother me that the company I work for that provides all of those advanced needs is called International Business Machine. Nor am I concerned when using an ATM that it was made by a company called National Cash Register. I know their names are somewhat steeped in the technology of their origins, not in their technology or business practices of today. Granted, their names have morphed into acronyms, but they serve as examples (along with the NAACP) that if your actions and results clearly communicate your value, out-of-date names don't seem to be so problematic.

So in the close circle of associates who know my body of work and who see me in my professional environment, I'm going to keep calling myself a technical writer; it's clear, and "writer" is only 2 syllables whereas "communicator" is 5. Plus it's a designation my dog can understand--I think "communicator" throws her. And in my case, it's what I do: I write about technical stuff. I further suspect it's what a LOT of us do.

But I also realize the benefit a name change can have in supporting a changing vision, so I will use technical communication in my public communications--if for no other reason so it quits being an irritant to my professional colleagues.

I'm also going to keep pushing that we focus on defining how we can add real value and quit worrying so much about what we call ourselves.

I Visited the Sausage Factory (and did't throw up)--
Otto von Bismark said, "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made. " I was wondering if seeing how STC really runs from the inside would be a similar experience. I'm serving as an interim director for the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and I am attending my first board meeting in Arlington, VA. Since I am also running for 2ndVP, this is my first reality check to see what I could possibly be getting myself into. I was pleasantly relieved to see that the process and the environment are pretty sane. (I'm not saying I expected them to be anything else, I'm just saying...)

I am very impressed with the caliber of the STC members serving on the board. I know we're a smart group of communicators, but I did not expect the breadth of business acumen and management skills. I was also impressed with the consultants who reported to the board on several areas of analysis the board had commissioned. One had been done by a CPA who specializes in associations, one by a publications consultant--once again who specializes in association and non-profit organizations--and one by an economist who had done a comparative study of the role of a formal body of knowledge and certification across four benchmark organizations. We also heard some impressive reports from member committees, especially one that had done a similar study of our publications from a more internal perspective. That study dove-tailed nicely with the one done by the consultant.

My impression is that we have a skilled set of professionals in the STC office, a mature set of governance principles, and some exciting challenges ahead of us. The two primary objectives that seem to be emerging are to create a stronger business model that mitigates fiscal risk and to move aggressively to defining our body of knowledge--a hallmark criterion for being a profession. The good part of that scenario is that "fix a broken organization" is not on the list.

So, if elected to executive leadership, I see a clear path emerging before me:

• Continue to improve STC operations that will provide greater fiscal security. (Not that we are in trouble in that regard; it's just that we received some excellent advice about how we could improve.)
• Implement recommendations to improve the effectiveness of our publications
• Aggressively support the Body of Knowledge project

I know there has been some turmoil over the past few years, and I have certainly seen threads of discontent running through some of the forums and blogs. As a profession, we have some great challenges as we see our roles changing, and I think STC is as relevant and necessary as it has ever been for technical communicators. I think the professional and volunteer leadership is as ethical and expert a group as you could ever hope to assemble to meet these challenges.

So I'm going on record: If you are looking for a candidate of discontent (the throw the bastards out platform)--Don't vote for me. I'm pretty happy with what I saw.

And if you've felt alienated or discontented, let's give it a new try. Don't just look to STC to solve our problems, become active and make yourselves part of the solution again.

Vendors as Stakeholders--
In my candidacy for 2VP for the Society of Technical Communication (STC), I have been using this blog to develop my platform. My central theme has been that STC should forge collaborative relationships among its principle stakeholders of practitioners, academics, vendors, and employers. In my blog on November 3, I discussed the role of academics, and today I would like to discuss the role of vendors.

The Tool Keepers and Trainers
Whereas the role of academics is to be the keepers of the body of knowledge and to be the educators, the role of vendors is to be the keepers of the tools and to be the trainers. This reveals an important aspect of my perspective on our profession: Tools are an important part of what we do and how we are defined as a profession. We are not merely the writers of content; our job is also to design and build the engines that deliver that content. We are a technology-based profession both in our content domains and in our production and delivery channels of that content.

By vendors, I mean those companies and individuals who sell to technical communicators and whose involvement in STC is largely motivated by a desire to be close to their market. Typical vendors are providers of tools such as Help Authoring Tools (HATs), Desk-top Publishing (DTP) systems, Content Management Systems (CMS), as well as services. These services can range from content translation to consultation and training. Conference sponsors that target technical communicators, such as WritersUA and DocTrain fall into the training and conference arena. Consultants are a more slippery category and I classify them as vendors or practitioners based on who's paying for their services. If the TechComm manager has brought them in to help formulate a CMS strategy, I see them as a vendor. If those same consultants do the same thing but for the director of engineering, I see them as practitioners (operating in a contract capacity).

As I have said in an earlier blog (October 31), I think STC has a great opportunity to bring vendors and academics together to serve the integrated need of helping practitioners build well designed solutions that work (all kinds of puns intended). Currently STC is doing some strong things in this area. Lloyd Tucker, the director of Education, has implemented vendor-sponsored webinars that seem to be very popular (given that the one I tried to sign up for filled up faster than a Hannah Montana concert). The active training presence we see by the vendors at our conferences is another example.

Conclusion
So my position is that tools are an important aspect of our profession. I already know more grammar rules than my readers do. My occasional lapse into using "display" as an intransitive verb or writing "Click on Submit" rather than "Click Submit" is not going to diminish my end user's ability to be successful with the products I support. But if I can't figure out how to use social networking technologies, XML-based authoring systems, and a really good content management system, my users will be handicapped with how well they can get to information that influences their success.

And that is where vendors step in. I want our STC to be a collaborative environment that helps practitioners and vendors connect in ways that make both sides more successful than if STC had not been there,

Certification--
I told Joe Welinsky the other day that I planned to avoid touching any "3rd rails" for a while in my candidate blogs, and here I am blogging about certification. But as Carol Barnum is fond of telling her students, "Writing is thinking." I believe blogging is a good way to sort out one's own thoughts while making yourself open to the influence of others. So here goes.

First of all, what is it?
Certification can mean a number of things. Some programs certify participants by having them go through a prescribed set of courses. PMI (Project Management Institute) is a good example of that model at the professional organization level. Others certify through regulatory examination, such as for CPAs. That model generates a lot of 3rd party training opportunities. The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) certifies through inspection. Applicants submit a portfolio of artifacts and client endorsements that address specific areas of professional competency. I am familiar with that process first-hand, being a CPT (Certified Performance Technologist).

Certification differs by whom is being certified (programs or practitioners) and by who is doing the certification: commercial training organizations (such as WritersUA or HFI), academic institutions, or professional associations (Such as PMI and ISPI).

And certification can vary by professional status. Training organizations offer "certificates" to show completion of a workshop, and conferences offer "certification tracks" in specialized topics. Some academic institutions offer "certificates" as an academic credential that is bigger than a course but smaller than a diploma. Not all certifications are equal. In some cases, they warrant the recipients putting the certification as part of their professional title, as with CPA; in some cases they are cube decorations held up with push pins.

Cui bono?
As Cicero was famous for asking, "Who benefits?" A number of different stakeholders can benefit from certification programs. The most obvious in my mind is employers. Certification can be a yardstick by which to assess job applicants and by which to direct professional development among their current employees. Practitioners benefit by having an avenue for professional development that is compact and tailored toward working professionals. Professional societies benefit by having a value-add activity and revenue source. Lastly, academic institutions and training organizations can benefit by offering programs specifically aimed at certification.

So why haven't we done it?
We've been talking about certification for a long time and haven't done it as a profession. Does the fact that we haven't felt a serious enough need mean the idea lacks merit?

For one thing, the academic programs have been filling a significant portion of the need. Additionally, training vendors and conferences have also filled part of the need. And of course, the elephant in the room: the lack of an agreed-upon body of knowledge on which to base the certification criteria. (But I truly believe that elephant will be corralled in the next year or so.)

I personally think that the schools and training companies have successfully addressed entry-level certification. By that I mean that if someone were trying to get into technical communication, I would highly recommend any of the Masters or undergraduate programs I am familiar with. But what about the highly skilled and experienced professionals I work with, for example, who do not have a Masters degree? I'm not sure there is enough value in many of the programs for folks like that. Either their level is aimed at entry into the field, or their scope is too wide/too long for what many veteran practitioners need.

So what niche is not being met? I believe there could be an opportunity to certify "master technical communicators." By that I mean that STC could play a legitimate role that does not compete with its academic and vendor stakeholders by certifying when practitioners have reached a certain level of professional performance and knowledge.

Possible roles for STC in certification
STC is already in the business of peer recognition through its ranks of associate fellow and fellow. The criteria for these positions are aimed primarily at service to the profession, however, and not at performance within the professional requirements. I would recommend keeping the associate and fellow ranks exactly as they are, but we could have a certification rank, one whose criteria are based on professional achievement and standards of skills, knowledge, and performance.

We already have a method in place for handling one of the trickier aspects of that kind of certification: peer evaluation of job artifacts. We do that today through our publications competitions. We could incorporate competition achievement as part of a master technical communication certificate. Of course, that means we would have to make sure our competitions have a standard of rigor that is met, eventually requiring that certified master technical communicators be part of every chapter's competition oversight committee.

Another role for STC would be to offer training tracks and resources that could help toward advanced certification. But we need to be careful not to compete with academic programs and 3rd party training stakeholders who are doing a good job of meeting the needs of a large segment. Existing programs could be incorporated into the certification tracks where possible. Once again, however, if STC focused on master certification, I think there could be a legitimate niche there.

Comments?
These are my current, somewhat un-vetted thoughts on a topic I will probably have to deal with over the next four years if elected. Please comment freely so that I understand the multiple perspectives on this topic.

The Role of Academics in a Professional Society--
Part of my avowed platform in running for 2nd VP of STC is to help forge stronger, more collaborative relationships among the primary stakeholders of practitioners, academics, vendors, and employers within the field of technical communication. I'm starting with academics because, quite frankly, their contribution is what makes us a professional society rather than a trade association.

Academics contribute to our profession by doing the following:

• Teaching the skills and knowledge required to be a practitioner in this field
• "Keeping" the body of knowledge
• Doing research that informs best practice

Teaching
The obvious contribution that academics make is that they prepare incoming professionals in the core body of knowledge required to be a technical communicator. Additionally, they serve veteran practitioners wanting to upgrade their skills and knowledge to current practice or obtain extended skills in areas such as management.

Body of Knowledge
You want to get a roomful of academics thrashing, just say BoK. It's as much fun as watching technical writers argue about whether or not to capitalize sentence fragments in a bulleted list. I realize there is a great disparity between the gravitas of those two topics, but the principle is the same: I'm glad someone is worrying about this. The issue of the BoK for technical communication is in essence what drives an academic curriculum. Take a look at the courses that are offered in a degree program and that is a statement from that school about what it thinks the body of knowledge is. Granted, practitioners have a big stake in this discussion, but the truth is that our sisters and brothers in academia are the ones doing the heavy lifting.

Research
Ah, we get to my pet corner of the world. As George Hayhoe and I say in our book, A Research Primer for Technical Communication, "Research in technical communication is not an activity conducted in a vacuum; it is generally initiated by a problem or need to understand a phenomenon related to technical communication." As a former usability consultant, UX designer, and design team lead, I am a strong advocate for "data-driven design." Research is the cornerstone of a data-driven approach. One of the issues I see within our profession, however, is that practitioners who are living with all kinds of problems that would benefit from data collection and analysis lack the research skills to construct valid studies and draw reliable conclusions. On the other hand, academics who do have those skills, often do not have access to authentic users and artifacts with which to conduct valid research and are often time-bound within semester-sized constraints. If only they belonged to the same club, one that could put the two together in meaningful collaborations. Hey wait...!

What do you think?
I would love to see comments on this blog, especially around the following two questions:

1. What are other contributions of academics that I missed?
2. What do academics want from STC?

If given a bully pulpit...

One of my favorite topics I would like to pursue if I get elected to be an officer of STC is helping technical communication students learn how to use the tools and technologies of our industry. I have been involved in many discussions (some of them heated) over the last year or so that deal with the question, "Should academic techcom programs teach tools?" I think it is a bad question; it misdirects us and inevitably the discussion degrades into finger pointing and everyone ducking for cover.

Let's try a new question. How can the community of technical communicators help students develop tool skills while learning principles of good design? I think this new question has win/win written all over it. It falls into the "economy of abundance" arena, that is, avoid arguing over who gets what proportion of the pie (an economy of scarcity); rather, concentrate on making the pie bigger.

Students want to learn how to use the latest tools (students, heck! so do I). Vendors want to promote their products. Schools want to tout employability as an outcome of their programs. STC wants to increase membership and the value of that membership.

So imagine a scenario where a student is enrolled in an online documentation course. She is told by the professor that one of the requirements of the course is to produce a sample Help file with a specification of what that file should contain (e.g., kinds of topics, TOC, index, specific kinds of links, etc.) Just at the moment the student starts to panic, the professor points out that STC has a tools and technology section on its web site for members (and is equally available to student members). That web site has downloads of demo versions of commercial Help Authoring Tools, competency inventories (hmmm, these look a lot like the spec the professor inlcuded in the syllabus), and tutorials that focus specifically on those competencies. Wait, there's even an e-mail address for student support!

• Professor is happy: She can focus on design and critical thinking and not on clicks and drags.
• Student is happy: She has access to a tool and tutorial geared to the critical "getting started" skills a student would be interested in.
• Vendor is happy: The product is getting into the hands of future buyers and influencers.
• STC is happy: They are picking up student members with a good chance of converting them to full members after graduation. Plus, there could be some secondary revenue opportunities hidden in all of this.
  

Make that win/win/win/win.

This will be a pet project of mine if I get elected.

Campaign 2008: The Blog--
My hat is in the ring; I am running for the 2nd VP position for the Society for Technical Communication. Those familiar with professional associations know that the 2nd VP automatically becomes the 1st VP and then the president of the society. In essence, then, I am running to become president of STC in 2010. So maybe my tag line should be "The odyssey continues" (with apologies to Authur C. Clarke).

Actually, I was thinking more along the line of "Expanding our sphere of influence," to reflect how we have broadened and continue to broaden our value proposition. I know it is in vogue to talk about how technical communicators are on their way out, but I have long advocated that just the opposite is happening. We seem to be disappearing because we are redefining ourselves beyond being the mere writers of words. We scaffold the user technology experience by providing information that eases and enhances that experience. Sometimes we do that by writing helpful content, but more and more we do it in less literary ways. We are as much about content planning, architecture, delivery strategies, and management as we are about content development. And we no longer limit ourselves to describing user interfaces; we now help design those user interfaces.

And when we write, we focus our content in new directions. Our documents are no longer about products; they are about the human performance those products support. We don't just instruct patients how to take their medication, we teach them how to live with their conditions. And technology-wise, we have leapt off of the page and into Webs, Wikis, blogs, Flash demos, and knowledge bases.

Having said all that, I'm starting to like "The odyssey continues." Make the trip with me. I will be using my blog space to explore and develop my platform over the next few months. Please respond with your perspectives and to voice your visions and issues.