CIDM Information Management News Volume 5, Issue 9

Information Management News
Volume 5, Issue 9
September 2005

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

We hope you enjoy our HTML format!
If you would like to receive the CIDM e-newsletter in plain-text format, visit http://www.infomanagementcenter.com/enewsletter.shtml,
fill out the subscription form, and choose the plain-text format.

News & Events

Join the Showcase at the Best Practices conference

Find out how you can participate in this year’s Showcase during the Best Practices conference.

Looking for summer reading?

Find some great deals on books from previous conferences.

What is CIDM?

Find out more about The Center for Information-Development Management.

Best Practices newsletter subscriptions available

Find out how to subscribe to the bi-monthly Best Practices newsletter.

Upcoming Workshops

The CIDM sponsors the following workshops:

DITA: Getting Started
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
September 5
Sydney, Australia

Managing Your Documentation Projects
Bill Hackos, PhD,
September 20–21
Cary, NC

User and Task Analysis for Information Design
Bill Hackos, PhD,
October 18–19
Ottawa, Ontario

XML for Writers
Jen Linton
October 18–19
Denver, CO

DITA: Getting Started
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
and Jen Linton
December 6–7
Columbus, OH

Managing Your Documentation Projects
Bill Hackos, PhD,
December 6–7
Princeton, NJ

Structured Writing for Single Sourcing
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
January 25–26, 2006
Austin, TX

For more information on these and other workshops, visit the JoAnn Hackos Workshop Series web site.

Vendor Announcements

Free Webinar

Learn more about this free Vasont Systems and Blast Radius webinar.

Innodata Isogen Webinar

Read more about this webinar.

Best Practices 2005
September 26, 27, and 28, 2005
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
www.infomanagementcenter.com

Save the Date for these Upcoming Conferences!

DITA Europe™ Conference
November 3, 2005
Frankfurt, Germany
www.infomanagementcenter.com/DITAeurope

Content Management Strategies 2006
April 3, 4, and 5, 2006
San Francisco, California
www.cm-strategies.com

Quality Management—Establishing a Link to the Customer
JoAnn Hackos, PhD
CIDM Director

www.infomanagementcenter.com

Most of the key characteristics in the IPMM focus on issues of process management: planning projects, estimating and tracking effectively, ensuring quality, and managing costs. However, two of the characteristics allow us to examine the effectiveness of an organization in serving the needs of customers: information design and quality management. In the August newsletter, I discussed how information design enables organizations to adopt innovative ideas about delivering key information to customers.

Read the article

More articles
Staffing Within a Centralized Model—Gail Angel
Change Your Routine!—Palmer Pearson
Making the Small Wins Count—Deborah Shapiro

Staffing Within a Centralized Model
Gail Angel
Cognos, Inc.

Is your organization centralized or decentralized? If you follow a centralized model (or one that is largely centralized), there are different considerations you can use when making staffing decisions for a medium-to-large project.

Read the article

Change Your Routine!
Palmer Pearson
Cadence Design Systems

Research. Write. Rewrite. Publish. Go home. Repeat.

Such is a day in the life of many veteran writers. The monotony of repetitive tasks can take its toll on anyone in any profession.

Read the article

Making the Small Wins Count
Deborah Shapiro
Biosense Webster (Israel) Ltd.

I am the lone writer for a medical device company. My job title, “Technical Communications Specialist,” is a reflection of the many different tasks I handle—almost everything that communicates and goes outside of our offices is run through me. Our company is a research and development center (based in Israel) for an international company. As a result, the high-tech, innovation-centered, multi-cultural, and multi-lingual atmosphere in our organization provides numerous challenges.

Read the article

Feedback
Have you found this issue useful? Got a great story idea? We’d like your input and suggestions. Please contact lisa.finger@comtech-serv.com about any comments you may have.

Important Subscription Information
Subscribe to the e-newsletter—Unsubscribe to the e-newsletter—Change your email address

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.