CIDM e-newsletter Volume 3, Issue 10

CIDM e-newsletter
Volume 3, Issue 10
November 2003

A monthly e-newsletter from the Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM)
JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD, CIDM Director
http://www.infomanagementcenter.com

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News & Events

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 our 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

Upcoming Workshops
The CIDM sponsors the following workshops. Sign up now:

Developing a Content Management Strategy
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
December 4–5
Rochester, NY

For more information on these and other workshops, visit the Seminars in Usable Design Web site at www.comtech-serv.com/workshops/index.shtml

Outsourcing and the Productivity Myth
JoAnn Hackos, PhD
CIDM Director

www.infomanagementcenter.com

Productivity increases have been making the news for several months. The workers employed by US companies are more productive than ever, we are told. Productivity is at an all-time high and is largely responsible for higher profits. Many information developers can attest to the productivity gains they've been asked to make for the good of the company profits. With staff layoffs, fewer people are left to do the same work. Fewer people producing the same output equals a productivity increase.

Read the article

More articles
Update of the Innovator's Forum
What is an organizational vision?
Creativity - Can it be learned?

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
What If Your Writers Loved Their Work?	Palmer Pearson, Operations Manager, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Motivating Teams during Trying Times	Beth Barrow, resource Manager, Motorola, Inc.
Building a Successful Team	Jill Bentley, Consultant to the software industry in Silicon Valley
Creatively Growing Your Publications Group	Kyla Cragg, Senior Publications Manager, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
The Shackleton Way: Leadership under Stress	Bill Hackos, Vice President, Comtech Services, Inc.
How Can I Motivate My Technical Communicators?	Bill Hackos
Are We De-Motivating Our Employees?	Bill Hackos

Update of the Innovator's Forum
Tina Hedlund
Senior Consultant, Comtech Services, Inc.

Company culture is an important indicator of a company's ability to change and to implement innovation. In the last monthly phone conference for the Innovator's Forum, participants discussed two books and their implications for their planned innovation, The Character of Organizations by William Bridges and Corporate Cultures by Deal and Kennedy.

Read the article

What is an organizational vision?
Bill Gearhart
Director, Information Design and Development, BMC Software, Inc

Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture…Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.

— Norman Vincent Peale

Read the article

Creativity - Can it be learned?
Vesa Purho
Development Manager, Nokia

One day I was talking with a colleague who said that everybody talks about the importance of being innovative and creative but she didn't feel that she could be like that. I think that creativity is somewhat connected with our genes, but there must be something that can help everybody to think creatively. I searched Amazon.com and came across the book Lateral Thinking—Creativity Step by Step by Edward de Bono (Harper & Row, New York, 1970).

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 .

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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, two annual conferences, 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.