Clear, blue skies stretch before me. Leaves shimmer in vibrant trees. A gentle breeze…
And then my alarm clock rudely reminds me that it’s early March in Arlington, Virginia, with ice pelting the window. That’s how my week began as the Washington, DC area became enveloped in its first significant snowfall of the season. Though we fared better than our neighbors to the north and south, the weather certainly disrupted our routines. And as anyone who lives here will tell you, a mere dusting of snow disrupts our routines. Weather becomes our biggest news.
But I haven’t been hibernating. Granted, I took a brief hiatus from blogging, but I have been busy wrapping up projects, teaching classes, and planning a trip to the west coast. Now I’m ready to jump-start my spring season.
Spring is a time for renewal, so why not engage in a few learning opportunities?
Sign up for free webinars
I recently had the privilege of being a presenter in a series of webinars hosted by MadCap Software. While MadCap offers plenty of webinars pertaining to their products, they also offer tool-independent webinars designed to provide learning opportunities for our community. And they’re all free.
As part of the series, I delivered a webinar titled Planning for Content Reuse: Best Practices for Legacy and New Content. The webinar is designed for information developers who want to become big-picture content strategists. My focus was not specifically about implementing a full-fledged content management system (CMS). I emphasized tool-independent analysis techniques that lone writers and teams can use to start building and organizing a content repository. I explained how to establish information types and content units that support reuse, and how to assign metadata to them.
You can do all of the planning and analysis using your everyday office productivity tools such as Word and Excel. To support the work, I recommend that you have solid writing standards, a proven project management infrastructure, and a topic-based writing model in place.
If you were not able to attend the webinar, you can listen to the recorded version. You’ll need to provide your email address to access it.
Other companies routinely offer free webinars, though their sites don’t always make finding information easy. Here are some links to get you started:
- MadCap-sponsored webinars
- JustSystems webinars
- Free Webinar Central blog
- College@Home
- W3C Schools – Free training on web technologies
If I have left out any sites here, it’s because they were charging money. I welcome comments and recommendations.
Attend a conference
The 2009 spring conference lineup includes great speakers and sessions. I have included a brief description of the big three in order of occurrence. I also provide links so that you can learn more about each conference.
DocTrain West 2009
Palm Springs, California
March 17 – 20, 2009
I wrote a post about DocTrain East a few months ago, and soon I will serve as a volunteer at DocTrain West. DocTrain always has a great lineup of speakers and cutting-edge topics. It’s a great way to learn about new and upcoming technological trends.
The Conference for Software User Assistance
(WritersUA)
Seattle, Washington
March 29 – April 2, 2009
The sessions at the WritersUA conferences focus on creating a better software user experience. Topics cover ways to improve the software interface and best practices for developing the help information that supports that interface. To learn more about the WritersUA organization and the conference, visit the WritersUA site.
Society for Technical Communication Annual Summit
Atlanta, Georgia
May 3 – 6, 2009
The STC annual conference offers a broad focus for technical communication professionals at all levels. It also provides workshops and activities for STC leaders. For more information, visit the Technical Communication Summit site.
Forge your own personal learning path
I realize that attending conferences can be a significant expense. You may not be able to attend a conference this year because of budget constraints or job loss. Nevertheless, I encourage you to engage in activities that will enable you to lay a foundation for your ongoing growth and survival.
Here are a few tips:
- Regardless of whether you are an STC member, find out about local STC chapter events and try to attend. STC is one of the best learning and networking resources for tech comm professionals. If you need convincing, visit the STC site.
- Read, read, read, whether it be books or web articles.
- Join some online communities. For example, try the Content Wrangler Community or Learning Town.
- Search for free and low-cost opportunities for training.
Like you, I am working to maintain a foundation for survival in these tough economic times. I remain optimistic that the outlook will eventually improve for all of us.
