Are You Ready for Multimedia?  

Lights! Action! Sound! There's a certain mystique associated with the design and development of multimedia. A multimedia developer is not quite a movie director, but.... If you're a technical writer, you may already have considered multimedia as a career option, but you may not know what's involved or how to get started. Having the information you need always makes a change easier, so perhaps this information will help you make that career move!

Currie, Cynthia C., Carmie Boutin and Linda Mandra. STC Proceedings (1999). Careers>Multimedia>Technical Writing

Getting Started with CD-ROM Publishing  

This paper provides guidelines for migrating to a CD-ROM publishing strategy. It presents migration issues for publishers both from their perspective and their users' perspective, and cost considerations. The desired features and functions of online viewing products, complementary technology to CD-ROM, are also examined.

Currie, Cynthia C. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Publishing>CD ROM

Getting Your Book Published  

Publishing your work accomplishes two goals. First, it gives you the recognition you deserve for your accomplishments. Second, if you are sponsored by your company, it enhances your company's position as a leader in the technical communication field and possibly information technology field as well. This paper tells how you can turn your ideas, accomplishments, experiences, tips, and tricks into a successful proposal for a book on your topic of expertise.

Currie, Cynthia C. and Thomas J. Vallone. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Publishing

Guided Web Tours: Developing Comfort from a Distance  

You’ve just created a new Web-based business application, or perhaps you’ve redesigned an existing one. You need to introduce users to the site and help them become familiar and comfortable with the new organization and navigational techniques. They need the information quickly and concisely. What do you do? You give ‘em a guided Web tour….

Currie, Cynthia C. and Michael T. Yarter. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Usability

Information Process Reengineering  

Information process reengineering means making fundamental changes to how you create, maintain, deliver, and distribute information so that you meet business objectives. It is not simply incorporating new tools or technologies into a current information development and distribution environment. The changes made as a result of reengineering are much broader and more significant; they are revolutionary. The phases you move through as you reengineer are not revolutionary. In fact, to many the phases are quite familiar: design, pilot, refine, roll out. It’s not how you approach reengineering but rather what you end up with when you’re done that revolutionizes your business.

Currie, Cynthia C. and Thomas J. Vallone. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Information Design>Workflow

Management Activities for Achieving Organizational Change and Improvement  

Viewing your documentation or training group as a business entity is an important first step toward enabling organizational change and improvement. The actual business status of your organization - a company unto itself a profit center in a larger company, or a cost center in a larger company - matters not. It’s your view of things that will put you on the road to operating your group as a business.

Currie, Cynthia C. and Thomas J. Vallone. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Documentation>Management

Managing Your Publications Group as a Business  

All too often, publications and documentation groups operate without considering themselves as a business group and continue to view their role as simply a support function. This can result in an adherence to outdated processes that are inefficient and in place because “that’s the way it’s always been done.” This paper explains why it is essential for publications and documentation groups to establish business objectives that will ensure the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and productivity of their processes.

Currie, Cynthia C. and Thomas J. Vallone. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Management>Workplace

Rules of the Game: Contract Consulting and Negotiating Skills  

A panel of experts will discuss how negotiating with vendors, business partners, peers, or employees can turn differences to mutual gain. Whether the technical communicators finds professional fulfillment and financial success from permanent or contract employment, as an employee or as a manager, the panel will offer suggestions, rules of thumb, and examples of how to optimize success in the work environment. The perspectives offered will be from the viewpoints of the consultant, the contractor, and the organization. Two papers, “Successful Contract Consulting” and “Negotiating Rules for Technical Communicators” provide background for this panel.

Currie, Cynthia C., James T. Currie, Laurie Modrey, and Emily A. Sopensky. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Consulting>Collaboration

Successful Contract Consulting  

Many technical communicators are venturing into the world of independent contract consulting. Some have taken the bold step on their own initiative and others have been unwillingly pushed out of the corporate nest. In today’s working environment, numerous technical communicators have found that the key to professional fulfillment and financial successful is contract employment.

Currie, Cynthia C. and James T. Currie. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Consulting

The Technical Communicator as Strategic Consulting Partner  

Service-based. Needs-based. Relationship-based. Trust-based. These are the types of relationships that can exist between you and your clients. As a technical communicator, you will likely have relationships at the service and need-based levels, perhaps even at the relationship-based level. To truly have bottom line impact for your client, however, you need to have that trust-based relationship. How do you get to the trust-based level? This paper describes the role of the technical communicator as strategic consulting partner, a trust-based relationship for sure, and provides some practical approaches to getting there.

Currie, Cynthia C. and Kristen J. Erickson. STC Proceedings (2003). Careers>Consulting

Understanding Java  

This paper introduces neophytes to Java. It starts with Java’'s beginnings as a programming language for interactive cable TV boxes and continues through the features of optimization, platform-independence, and object-orientation that make it unique. Next, it dispels the myths surrounding Java, presents solid guidelines for when and when not to use Java, and finally examines today’s practical uses of Java, including enhancing Web pages, managing a business, and delivering sophisticated training modules capable of advanced interactions.

Currie, Cynthia C. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Web Design>Programming>DHTML