In late October, I attended this year’s Documentation and Training East (Doctrain East) conference in Burlington, MA. Doctrain is a series of annual conferences: East, West, and Life Sciences. Scott Abel is the program manager, and Eileen Savary manages conference logistics.
Since last year I have served as a Doctrain conference volunteer. I help with registration, room monitoring, and whatever is required. Besides reaping the educational benefits of the conference, I enjoy the networking opportunities. I inevitably make new business contacts and new friends.
Keynote and Daily Opening Sessions
This year’s conference featured an impressive lineup of keynote and opening session speakers. The kickoff keynote address featured Albert Chu, Vice President, Marketing & Alliances with ACCESS Systems Americas, Inc. Chu highlighted the transition of the PC-based internet to the mobile internet, explaining how social networks are leading the way.
Two XML specialists provided their perspectives on XML publishing and content management. Elliott Kimber explained how DITA is an increasingly cost-effective solution because of its modular nature and its “off-the-shelf processing infrastructure.” In the closing keynote, Joe Gollner explained how content management leads to content solutions when it effectively uses technology to integrate business applications with organizational knowledge.
During the Day 2 opening session, STC Executive Director Susan Burton provided an update on STC activities. The STC is engaged in several notable efforts to define (or redefine) our profession. The organization has been lobbying to change the rather limiting definition of technical writer as set forth in the Department of Labor’s Standard Occupational Classification (SOC).
Here’s how the SOC describes what we do:
Write technical materials, such as equipment manuals, appendices, or operating and maintenance instructions. May assist in layout work.
“May assist in layout work?” Ouch.
In addition to their efforts to change our representation in the SOC, the STC has created a task force to build an official Body of Knowledge (BoK). STC members received an e-mailed invitation to review the work and provide feedback. If you’re a member, you can also review the work by visiting the STC BoK announcement page.
A presentation by Adam Hyde, founder of FLOSS manuals, definitely sparked my interest. FLOSS Manuals is a not-for-profit, volunteer-based foundation based in Amsterdam. FLOSS stands for “Free, Libre, Open Source Software,” and its volunteer writers collaboratively write documentation for free, open-based software. FLOSS writers also wrote the help content for the One Laptop Per Child program. If you want to know more about this innovative organization and register to get involved, explore the FLOSS Manuals site.
Main Conference Workshops
Whenever I attend a conference, a few of my preferred workshops are always scheduled during the same time slot. I couldn’t get to all of them, so I tried to diversify the range of topics.
Here’s a summary of sessions that I attended during the main conference days:
- Comparing DITA Support in XMetal and FrameMaker
Speaker: Simon Bate
Simon compared the strengths and weaknesses of XMetal and FrameMaker as tools for DITA content development and publishing. He concluded that the the balance of pros and cons ultimately leads to no clear winner. - APIs and SDKs: Breaking into and Succeeding in a Specialty Market
Speaker: Ed Marshall
I have attended other presentations on this topic but have never been as satisfied with the content. Ed’s presentation was helpful and informative. He covered all the bases: required knowledge, types of deliverables, examples of APIs and SDKs, documentation methods, tools, and resources. - Producing Quality Documentation in an Agile Development Environment
Speaker: Christine Sigman
I have worked in “modified Agile” environments, but the term has been loosely used to describe a stream of endless releases (sometimes three per day). Ms. Sigman gave us the true picture of how Agile team structures and processes really work. - Blogzilla: Why Blogs are the Monster in the Business Closet: You are No Longer in Control of Your Brand
Speaker: David Esrati
I wanted to know more about how blogs are used to support business, and I certainly got what I needed. Esrati covered the major mistakes that business bloggers make. He also shared methods that you can use to test your own site for search effectiveness. Esrati’s presentation is available on the Doctrain East 2008 program site. - The Right Tool for the Right Job: Expanding Options for Technical Communicators
Speaker: Alan Hauser
Using a tool-independent approach, Alan focused on establishing a set of criteria to use when choosing tools: primary output format, design requirements, single-sourcing requirements, standards compliance, size of the organization, and of course, budget. This is useful knowledge that publishing departments should consider before spending the company’s money. - The Shape of Information
Speaker: Roy Jacobsen
I’m passionate about information structures, so this session intrigued me. We discussed the following types of structures, using LATCH as an acronym to remember them: Location-based, Alphabetic, Time-based, Categories, and Hierarchies.
Pre-Conference and Post-Conference Workshops
Since I am a MadCap Software customer, user, and Certified Instructor, I took the opportunity to strengthen my product knowledge with four MadCap-related workshops.
I attended three half-day Flare workshops presented by Mike Hamilton, Vice President of Product Management at MadCap. Mike is a masterful presenter and is, as I see it, the leading authority on all things Flare. His workshops covered topic-based authoring, content control and publishing techniques, and methods for controlling the appearance of Flare output with CSS.
The fourth half-day workshop focused on MadCap Mimic, which is MadCap’s tool for creating software demos and simuations. The presenter for this presentation was yet another industry expert, Neil Perlin. Neil led us through the process of creating and editing Mimic movies.
Conclusion
I highly recommend the Doctrain conference. I’ll be attending Doctrain West in Palm Springs next March. I hope that you’ll be there, too.
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