News & Events
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Call for Proposals
The Center for Information-Development Management has announced a call
for participation in the upcoming Content Management Strategies conference
to take place April 19-20, 2004 in San Francisco, California.
Offshore Information Development White Paper
This report presents the study findings and offers guidelines for best
practices for North American companies considering moving their information development
to offshore resources.
Purchase today!
Call 303.232.7586 or email
CIDM Member price: $149
Non-member Price: $295
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Upcoming Workshops
The CIDM sponsors the following workshops.
Sign up now:
Minimalism: Creating Manuals People Will Use
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
November 6–7, 2003,
Atlanta, GA
Managing
Your Documentation Projects
Bill Hackos, PhD
October 16–17, 2003,
Phoenix, AZ
Developing a Content Management Strategy
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
December 4–5
Rochester, NY
Developing
Online Information for Help and Web-Based Delivery
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
October 21–22, 2003,
New Orleans, LA
November 11–12,
New York, NY
XML for Writers
Tina Hedlund
October 21–22, 2003,
Chicago, IL
For more information on these and other workshops,
visit the Seminars in Usable Design Web site at
www.comtech-serv.com/workshops/index.shtml
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At the Water's Edge
JoAnn Hackos, PhD
CIDM Director
www.infomanagementcenter.com
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the 5th annual Best Practices
conference was the view of Elliott Bay from our conference room. The Edgewater
hotel is built on pilings so that half the rooms overlook the Bay over which
Seattle's downtown is built. At first, I thought the view would be distracting:
ferries plying the waters between the city and the island communities, parasailing
tourists, sea lions, glaucous-winged gulls, and at least six massive cruise ships.
The gulls often chose the most inopportune time to squawk, but overall the view
was energizing rather than annoying. It kept us all focused on the inspiring
presentations from so many CIDM members.
Read
the article
More articles
Notes from the Innovator's Forum
WYSIWIG and the Status of Technical Writers
Supply and Demand
Prioritizing Requirements
Best Practices Newsletter... Subscribe Today!
The Best Practices bimonthly newsletter, directed by JoAnn Hackos, provides the
latest news in the information-development industry and reports on CIDM studies
and member actions. This newsletter features articles about benchmarking activities
and best practices, a calendar of coming events throughout the industry,
book reviews, abstracts of journal articles of interest to information-development
managers, tool reviews, and more.
You can subscribe to the Best Practices
newsletter even if you aren't a CIDM member. The subscription costs $99 per
year. For subscribers outside the US, the cost is $109 USD.
Current Newsletter Topics
October 2003 Volume 5, Issue 9
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Feature Article
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What If Your Writers Loved Their Work?
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by Palmer Pearson, Operations Manager, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
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From the Director
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by JoAnn Hackos
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Case Study
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Motivating Teams during Trying Times
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by Beth Barrow, resource Manager, Motorola, Inc.
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Team Building
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Building a Successful Team
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by Jill Bentley, Consultant to the software industry in Silicon Valley
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Creative Techniques
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Creatively Growing Your Publications Group
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by Kyla Cragg, Senior Publications Manager, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
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Article Reprint
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The Shackleton Way: Leadership under Stress
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by Bill Hackos, Vice President, Comtech Services, Inc.
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Article Reprint
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How Can I Motivate My Technical Communicators?
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by Bill Hackos, Vice President, Comtech Services, Inc.
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Book Review
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Are We De-Motivating Our Employees?
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by Bill Hackos, Vice President, Comtech Services, Inc.
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Manager's Calendar
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Notes from the Innovator's Forum
Tina Hedlund
Senior Consultant, Comtech Services, Inc.
Following the Best Practices Conference in Seattle,
CIDM held the first in a series of Innovator's Forum sessions. Forum leaders, JoAnn Hackos,
Bill Hackos, Julie Bradbury, Katherine Murphy, and I, led discussions through the eight change
management steps outlined in The Heart of Change. The change management steps ensure the successful
adoption of any innovation, whether it be a new content management system for single sourcing or the
adoption of user experience practices within an organization.
Read
the article
WYSIWIG and the Status of Technical Writers
Bill Hackos, PhD
Vice President, Comtech Services, Inc.
I was delighted with the presentation by Mark Baker of Stilo at the September
Best Practices conference in Seattle. The theme of the conference was change management.
Mark's presentation concerned the change in writing technology from markup languages,
like NROF, TROF, and SGML, to WYSIWIG systems like Microsoft Word and FrameMaker.
Considering the recent trend back to markup languages, (HTML and XML), Mark asked us to
consider what made WYSIWIG so dominant over the markup languages in the first place?
Read
the article
Supply and Demand
Bill Hackos, PhD
Vice President, Comtech Services, Inc.
My last job before joining JoAnn at Comtech was with a mining company called the
Climax Molybdenum Company. I know it's a funny name. Molybdenum is a metal used to
make stainless steel. If you have a stainless steel utensil set it contains molybdenum.
It's also used to make high-quality lubricants. Any lubricant that has the word "moly"
in its name contains molybdenum. Climax is the name of the 11,000 ft high Colorado mining
town where the company's first mine was developed.
Read
the article
Prioritizing Requirements
Vesa Purho
Development Manager, Nokia
In the last two articles, I have discussed defining requirements. Normally,
you cannot actually implement all the requirements due to budget constraints.
Therefore, you need to have some method to prioritize the requirements. Hopefully,
your method is not "whoever speaks the loudest and is the most active gets their
requirements implemented."
Read
the article
Feedback
Have you found this issue useful? Got a great story idea? We'd like your input
and suggestions. Email our editor at
.
Important Subscription Information
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www.infomanagementcenter.com/enewsletter.shtml
The Center For Information-Development Management
The Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM) is an
organization of information-development, training, and support
managers across the United States and internationally. The CIDM
is directed by Dr. JoAnn Hackos, international leader in the management
of the design, development, and dissemination of information to
customers and employees. Under her leadership, the CIDM conducts
benchmark studies among member organizations and elsewhere, sponsors
research into information development and its management, and
gathers and disseminates results and resources through newsletters,
the Web, seminars, an annual conference, and research white papers.
The CIDM facilitates the sharing of information among the most
skilled managers in the information industry.
If you are interested in reading more in-depth articles, you
should consider subscribing to the Best Practices newsletter at
www.infomanagementcenter.com/masterindex.shtml.
©2003 by the Center for Information-Development Management. All rights reserved.
Tel. (303) 232-7586
Fax. (303) 232-0659
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