Chapter Seminars  

Chapter seminars help members by providing current technical communication information, significant additional chapter funding, recruitment of new members, and a proving ground for new leaders. Seminars need a definite organization and leaders need clearly defined responsibilities and authorities. Seminars must provide useful relevant information, either focused or diverse, delivered effectively by skilled speakers. Seminars are not expanded monthly meetings; they must be quiet properly equipped pleasant facilities. Seminar finances must be balanced to provide the desired surplus, or the sting of lost funds will linger long after the sweet success of a stimulating program is forgotten.

Malcolm, Andrew. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>STC

CHIplace

CHIplace is an online community site for Human-Computer Interaction. All HCI topics are relevant, and all perspectives from our multi-disciplinary field are welcome.

CHIplace. Resources>Human Computer Interaction>Community Building

Circles of Leadership: Resources for Chapter Committee Managers  

Every chapter relies on volunteers for its success. The secret to successful chapters, then, starts with recruiting the right people, training them well, delegating to them carefully, nurturing them along the way, and rewarding them for a job well done.

Brown, Dennise C. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC

Communication, Cognition, and Community

There is a vast assortment of schools of thought concerning how it is possible to communicate.  Empiricism, romanticism, materialism, psychoanalysis, and cognitive psychology all have been used as rationale for, and to describe the genesis of, the simple and natural activity of communication.  How is it possible that we are able to communicate successfully?  Much scholarly work has been generated documenting our interpretation of written discourse in an attempt to describe how we successfully convey meaning from within to without.  Whether a theorist is an advocate of New Criticism, Reader Response, Phenomenology, Social Constructionism, rhetoric, or plain style, the basic question remains the same: How are we able to convey concepts successfully and accurately from one source to another?

Smith, David C. Orange Journal, The (2001). Articles>Communication>Community Building

Communities of Practice: Dealing with the Changes in the Technical Communication Field

STC has been challenged by the changing economy and the evolving nature of our work and career development. These challenges have required Society leaders to look carefully into how the STC should change to better serve a diverse and global membership.

Bachmann, Karen L. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC

Community Service: Giving Something Back Through Literacy Training  

Literacy is a major problem in America that affects our profession more than we may realize. A recent study sponsored by the U.S. Congress suggests that over half the U.S. population cannot read our writing. The literacy problem offers STC chapters a perfect opportunity to pool the best of their skills and to get involved in community- based projects. Our skills are exactly what are needed to help America attain one of its National Goals: 100% of all Americans will be literate by the year 2000. This workshop will help your chapter get active in giving something back through literacy training.

Hoft, Nancy L. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Education>Community Building

Community: From Little Things, Big Things Grow

Any community—online or off—must start slowly, and be nurtured. You cannot “just add community.” It must be cared for, and hosted; it takes time and people with great communication skills to set the tone and tend the conversation.

Oates, George. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building

Consistently Leading A Successful Community  

Boston, one of the founding chapters of STC, has a distinguished 50-year record of accomplishments. Boston recently won its third consecutive Chapter of Achievement award. We strive to consistently provide an outstanding level and value of services to our members.

Sztaimberg, Ilana. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC

Conversational Web Sites

Web technology makes it very easy to quickly communicate with so many people that it's easy to forget the overriding purpose of creating a powerful Web site.

Allen, Cliff. Allen.com (2003). Design>Web Design>Community Building

CSS Beauty

CSS Beauty is a project focused on providing its audience with a database of well designed CSS based websites from around the world. Its purpose is to showcase designers' work and to act as a small portal to the CSS design community.

CSS Beauty. Design>Web Design>Community Building>CSS

Design for Community: An Interview with Derek M. Powazek

Derek M. Powazek has worked on community features for Netscape, Nike, and Sony, along with creating the community sites, {fray}, Kvetch!, and SF Stories. Christine Perfetti, a consultant at User Interface Engineering, recently talked with Derek about his experience. Here is what he had to say about creating effective online communities.

Perfetti, Christine. User Interface Engineering (2002). Articles>Web Design>Community Building

Designing a Different Kind of Intranet: An Intranet for a UX Team

Most of us who are working as part of a design team in a services company, a product company, or even a design boutique have to live with a generic intranet. In this article, I’ll describe how to leverage your company’s intranet and how to build a community around an intranet for a UX team.

Mallik, Anirban Basu. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building>Intranets

Designing Ethical Experiences: Social Media and the Conflicted Future

Questions of ethics and conflict can seem far removed from the daily work of user experience (UX) designers who are trying to develop insights into people's needs, understand their outlooks, and design with empathy for their concerns [2]. In fact, the converse is true: When conflicts between businesses and customers--or any groups of stakeholders--remain unresolved, UX practitioners frequently find themselves facing ethical dilemmas, searching for design compromises that satisfy competing camps. This dynamic is the essential pattern by which conflicts in goals and perspectives become ethical concerns for UX designers. Unchecked, it can lead to the creation of unethical experiences that are hostile to users--the very people most designers work hard to benefit--and damaging to the reputations and brand identities of the businesses responsible.

Lamantia, Joe. UXmatters (2008). Articles>User Experience>Community Building>Ethics

Designing Online Social Networks: The Theories of Social Groups

It's important to fully understand the theories of social groups before designing online social networks - find out all you need to know!

Halabi, Lisa. Webcredible (2008). Design>Web Design>Community Building>Social Networking

Developing a Chapter Career Day Program  

In the past few years, our chapter has presented three or four Saturday workshops per year, including the Career Day workshop. (We offer the Saturday workshops as an alternative to the usual monthly chapter dinner meeting.) We developed our Career Day program with two tracks—one for novice technical communicators (and curious laypeople), and another for persons with some experience in the field. Initially, we cooperated with a smaller, nearby chapter with many of the same employment issues.

Thomstatter, John H. Tieline (2000). Careers>Mentoring>Community Building

Developing a Chapter Mentoring Program  

In an effort to promote and encourage an interest in the field of technical communication through academic/professional relationships, the New York Metro Chapter has developed a mentoring pilot program with Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) in Madison, New Jersey. The chapter, along with Dr. Michael B. Goodman, Director of FDU’s M.A. program in Corporate and Organizational Communication, coordinated their efforts to select members who can serve as role models for students interested in this field.

Epp, Barbara E. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Mentoring>Community Building>STC

Discover Buried Treasure at Your Local STC Chapter Meetings  

You don't have to be an officer to benefit professionally from your local STC chapter meetings. Start attending your local chapter meetings and discover the many forms of buried treasure. These treasures will result in a new perspective of your writing, an increased library of professional resources, professional writers being hired at your workplace, and the chance to view the 'Best of Show' writing. You can reap rewards such as these with a small investment of personal time.

Lunemann, Rhonda S. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC

Discover Buried Treasure at Your Local STC Chapter Meetings  

You don’t have to be an officer to benefit professionally from your local STC chapter meetings. Start attending your local chapter meetings and discover the many forms of buried treasure. These treasures will result in a new perspective to your writing, an increased library of professional resources, professional writers being hired at your workplace, and the chance to view the “Best of Show” writing. You can reap rewards such as these with a small investment of personal time.

Lunemann, Rhonda S. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Collaboration>Community Building>STC

Do You Have a Reputation for Excellence?

Your reputation depends on your ability to be a public-spirited, plain-talking professional who serves the interests of your audience rather than your organization.

Olds, George. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Careers>Collaboration>Community Building

E-Communities, Community Knowledge, and Knowledge Management    

Collaboration and cooperation - real and virtual - among people with commonality of interests and practices have given rise to e-communities and web-based communities. This paper examines some intra- and inter-community communications and exchanges, other than scholarly and business communications, and the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in this context. With particular reference to rural and marginalized communities, it considers positive aspects of ICT applications, such as acceleration of empowerment, creation of a more level playing field, facilitation of expression of and greater visibility to their needs and 'dreams', and utilization of the tacit 'community knowledge' for the greater welfare of society. It presents a few illustrative cases. It suggests that Knowledge Management (KM) ideas usually applied to enterprises can be extended to cover e-communities taking into consideration some additional parameters or dimensions.

Neelameghan, Arashanipalai. International Journal for Technical Communication (2006). Articles>Knowledge Management>Community Building

Education: Issues within the STC Academic Community  

STC supports students through scholarships, the honor fraternities, and recognition of student chapter achievements. STC members provide a network for information and contacts for employment. The academic community can strengthen its ties to STC by encouraging students to apply for the awards and recognitions and to take advantage of the network of professionals.

Smith, Elizabeth Overman 'Betsy'. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Education>Community Building>STC

Facing Facebook

Technological changes keep happening, and every time a new phenomenon occurs, employers seem to react the same way. Questions that were asked about phones, e-mail, mobile phones and blogs in the workplace are now being asked about online social networks. Why do we keep repeating history? In my view, it’s because we can get so overwhelmed by the possibilities of the tools that we lose focus on the basic functions of communication and how these tools can help us with them.

Barbaro, Geoff. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Community Building>Social Networking

Finding "A Winning Community" at the STC 53rd Annual Conference

An STC conference is a unique type of education that supplements the formal theory and ideology one can learn in school. It is a place to interact with and learn from people with a range of professions, viewpoints, and expertise. It is a place to experience passion and vision for the field as a part of an international community. But most of all, it is a place filled with resources just waiting to be used by the next eager technical communicator.

Rothwell, Kimberly M. Carolina Communique (2006). Articles>TC>Community Building