Berkeley Chapter
Society for Technical Communication

The latest change to this website was made on Tuesday, September 7, 2010.

The August 11, 2010 Chapter Meeting

Register now!:

RSVP using our online storefront.

Topic:

In the Trenches with DITA

We hear a lot about structured authoring and DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) these days, and there are plenty of webinars and conference presentations that talk about the benefits that can come from shifting content into DITA--opportunities for content reuse, lower costs for translation, conditional processing, automatic linking, improved consistency and usability, and more.

But what's it like for writers who actually works with DITA on a day-to-day basis? Is it much different from the way they worked before? Is it hard to make the shift? Are they glad they did? Have their jobs changed?

This month at Berkeley STC we will hear from a panel of writers who work with DITA on a regular basis to author documentation and training content. They will tell us what that's like from the writer's perspective, when DITA is fully integrated into the workflow.

Bring your questions and join us for this insider look at DITA.

Speakers:

Mysti Berry, Ben Colborn, and Tom Idleman

Mysti Berry has been a technical writer for 20 years and is presently a Lead Technical Writer at Salesforce.com. She has been working with the DITA OpenToolkit for the last five years, including having survived a FrameMaker-to-DITA conversion, and the tardy adoption of a content/information model. Salesforce.com creates context-sensitive help, developer guides, implementation and tip guides, quick reference guides, and release notes using DITA. Their deliverable types include HTML, PDF, and eBooks. They also create videos, guided tours, and now comic books with non-DITA tools. Mysti has taught at UC Berkeley Extension, and holds a B.A. in Linguistics from UCSC and an MFA from University of San Francisco. She has won multiple awards for her technical writing and screenplay and fiction, and served as STC Touchstone judge.

Ben Colborn is a Courseware Development Lead for Citrix Education. At Citrix, courseware developers use DITA to create instructor-led training (PDF and PPT) and eLearning (HTML and Flash interactions in SCORM). In addition to developing training material for Citrix virtualization technologies, Ben works to improve course quality and simplify internal development processes. Before joining Citrix Education, he taught academic and professional writing at the college level and worked as a Unix system administrator at Sun Microsystems. He holds a B.A. in English from the University of Idaho and an M.A. in TESOL from San José State University.

Tom Idleman has been working with DITA for 7 years, both as a technical writer and a course developer. As a senior technical writer at IBM and FICO, he has written a wide range of documentation in DITA using mainly Epic Editor and XMetaL. As a course developer for Lasselle-Ramsay, he delivered a 4-hour training session on XMetaL and DITA at DocTrain East 2008, a full-day training session on XMetaL and DITA for Intel Corporation, and developed the XMART DITA CMS training program for Cisco Systems..

Date:

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Times:

6:00 to 7:00 pm: Networking, conversation & dinner
7:00 to 7:15 pm: Announcements
7:15 to 8:30 pm: Presentation
8:30 to 9:00 pm: Conversation, follow up on job announcements
9:00 to 9:15 pm: Clear the room; move conversations to the sidewalk

Location:

Highlands Country Club,110 Hiller Drive, Oakland, California

Monthly Chapter Meetings

The Berkeley chapter meets the second Wednesday of the month.

Continuing in August, 2010 we will regularly meet at the Highlands Country Club in Oakland, CA.

RSVP
Fees
Agenda
Location and Directions
Program Ideas

RSVP

RESERVATIONS FOR THE AUGUST 2010 MEETING
Use the Berkeley Chapter's online storefront to make reservations now for the August 2010 meeting.

Chapter Meeting Fees

For the meeting and dinner, reserved on the Chapter's website in advance:

Members: $10
Non-members: $18
Students: $10

For the meeting and dinner, at the door:

Members: $15
Non-members: $21
Students: $15

Note: If you do not reserve dinner in advance, dinner may or may not be available on a walk-in basis. We order dinner for the number of reservations plus a few walk-ins.

To attend the program only, reserved in advance:

Members: $5
Non-members: $15
Students: $5

To attend the program only, at the door:

Members: $10
Non-members: $15
Students: $10

NOTE ONE: Non-members are always welcome to STC meetings.

NOTE TWO: All members of the San Francisco Chapter of the IABC are welcome to register for Berkeley STC General Meetings at the member price.

If you wish to pay by cash or check, send email to that effect to treasurer@stc-berkeley.org, and then bring payment to the meeting.

If you wish to pay be credit card, please reserve using our online storefront.

Interested in becoming a member?

Chapter Meetings Agenda

6:00 to 7:00: Networking, conversation, and dinner
7:00 to 7:15: Chapter business, announcements, introductions, jobs needed and available*
7:15 to 8:30: Formal program
8:30 to 9:00: Conversation, off-line questions for the speakers, follow-up on job announcements
9:00 to 9:15: Clear the room, move conversations to the sidewalk

*Attendees are encouraged to announce open positions. Please bring job listings for distribution. Recruiters may introduce themselves, but may not describe open positions in detail. Save that for one-on-one after the program.

Location and Directions

Highlands Country Club
110 Hiller Drive
Oakland, California

Directions to Highlands Country Club

NOTE: The club's parking lot is for members only. Please park on the street. (There's typically plenty of on-street parking right along Hiller Drive.)

From San Francisco

Cross the Bay Bridge to I-580 Eastbound. Remain in the right lane, until Highway 24 Eastbound (toward Berkeley and Walnut Creek). Continue eastbound until the Tunnel Road off-ramp. Ext will loop around to the west, crossing back over Highway 24. Turn left at the stop sign. Follow Tunnel Road/Caldecott Lane to traffic signal. Veer to the right, and follow Hiller Drive halfway up the hill. Highlands Country Club will be on the right-hand side of the street.

From Walnut Creek

Take Highway 24 Westbound through the Caldecott Tunnel. Stay in the right-hand lane, taking the first exit after the tunnel ends, the Tunnel Road exit, going towards Berkeley. Follow Tunnel Road to the complex intersection and stop light, at Tunnel Drive, Hiller Drive, and Highway 13. Veer to the right, and continue halfway up the hill on Hiller Drive. Highlands Country Club will be on the right-hand side of the street.

From I-80 and Berkeley

Take Ashby Avenue to the Highway 13 exit. Ashby becomes Tunnel Road at the Claremont Hotel. Continue on Tunnel Road (through the split-level section) to the stoplight just before the Highway 24 overcrossing. Remain in the left lane and make a sharp left U-turn around the Firestorm Memorial Garden, on to Hiller Drive. Continue halfway up the hill. Highlands Country Club will be on the right-hand side of the street.

From Hayward

Take I-580 Westbound to Highway 13 north. Continue on Highway 13 past the overcrossing of Highway 24. At the stoplight, turn right, then left, onto Hiller Drive. Continue halfway up the hill. Highlands Country Club will be on the right-hand side of the street.

Chapter Meeting Program Ideas?

If you have a suggestion for a meeting topic you'd like to hear more about or if you'd like to be a presenter, send an email to Linda Urban, our VP for Programs.

Please email webpage corrections or webpage comments to:

Jim Dexter (internet@stc-berkeley.org)

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