atw: An ASTC training library
- From: "Christine Kent" <cmkentau@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2016 11:48:10 +1100
Julia said
"Regarding the training wiki ... I don't want to sound negative, but I have to
say that I'm not convinced that it would work. Yes, it can work if it's a
personal labour of love and you have continuity of care over an extended
period, but it's a very difficult call for a small amateur organisation to
maintain such a site (quite apart from the fact that they've given no
indication that they want to). And then, there is already a vast richness of
training resources - and sites where resources can be posted and shared -
available online. Wouldn't we just be reinventing the wheel?"
That's fantastic Julia.
Can you point us to the best site, from your experience, for hosting such a
library. Hosting it in the cloud free of charge, would mean that we do not have
to set up any infrastructure. Perhaps you or Christine could talk to the ASTC
committee, and if they think it is worthwhile, you could volunteer to
coordinate a collaborative team to at least put up the platform for such a
library.
As for the content of such a library, can you point us to a site that is
already linking to library of resources suitable for TWs wanting to expand,
enhance or update skills? I doubt many of us are aware of its existence.
But if one does not exist, it would not be a huge job to maintain once started.
Once the model was set up, resources could be added to the library
collaboratively - there just needs to be a start made, and most significantly,
a tagging taxonomy so that resources are accessible. Developing a taxonomy
might be good experience for a TW with no experience in that area. You may no
be aware, but there is an annual conference in Australia for TWs at which many
papers are given. These are a ready made resource to go in a library and the
authors might just need a nudge to put them up. I have written a range of books
on MS products for 2007 and 2010, so I would not object to putting the pdfs up
available for download free of charge to ASTC members or at a minimal cost for
non-members, the profits from which could go to the ASTC. I am sure many other
people have many other resources. Then there are all the various magazines
published by the TW world annually.
So, if you have management skills, you could put together a collaborative team
to perform different parts of this process.
Yes? No?
Christine
-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christine Kent
Sent: Thursday, 1 December 2016 9:10 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: ASTC AGM - post mortem - TOO AGGRESSIVE FOR THE FAINT HEARTED
Well jjw, whoever you are, there are lots of professional attributes that we
should bring to a professional association.
The first is to identify ourselves by our real names. Perhaps you can give us a
link to your LinkedIn profile so we can learn something about you - like your
name?
The second is that we each add value in some way, some of the time, depending
on our current employment situation. We join the ASTC committee, or we post
interesting issues, problems or articles on this forum, or we respond to the
requests from others for help. Can you point me to your professional
contributions to either the ASTC or to ATW? I don't recall any but I may have
missed them. It is hard to remember someone who signs themselves as "J".
Third, it is normal when you join a forum that you abide by the current rules
of the forum unless you become moderator and ask the group for agreement to
change the rules. The OT rule has worked for many years. By what authority do
you demand a change in a long standing cultural agreement?
Four, given that the Write the Docs groups is fairly healthy on Slack, Nick
Shears started the AusTechWriter group there also to see if would work better
than the old fashioned mailing list. It has collapsed. You will find it here.
austechwriter.slack.com Perhaps you could revive it, then you would get to
make the rules.
Five, I have made a suggestion about compiling a training wiki suitable for
technical writers. As you currently do not appear to have a professional
commitment to the group perhaps you might like to take up a position on the
ASTC committee and take this on board as a project - donate the equipment,
manage the software interfaces, and act as a librarian for the resources. You
will find a good suggestion for a resource on the austechwriter.slack.com wall.
No?
Love and light, Christine
(Someone told me today he loves my sense of humour. My god, someone who gets
me!)
-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of jjw@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, 1 December 2016 12:14 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: ASTC AGM - post mortem - TOO LONG FOR THE FAINT HEARTED
Quoting Christine Kent <cmkentau@xxxxxxxxx>:
To see what mean about the behaviour of technical writers, take a look
at this blog post by Swapnil,
https://icreatedocs.wordpress.com/2016/07/13/the-astc-is-failing-us/
. A communicative article. But then look at the comment. “Maybe we
should just all get together and argue about 9/11 and climate change –
works for some tech writing communities :b”. The technical writer
personality in a nutshell. Bitchy. Point scoring. Spiteful.
The comment you object to is mine.
To provide context, I joined this list some years ago. Sometime last year (?)
there was a long discussion of climate change. A number of people questioned
whether it was an appropriate topic for the group, and considered
unsubscribing. I did unsubscribe.
To be clear, I don’t object to off-topic threads in general, but partisan
political discussions can quickly become rancorous and I don’t feel that they
help to create a welcoming, collaborative atmosphere. It is certainly
legitimate to raise contentious on-topic issues here (as Ana has done
recently), but there are many, many other venues for off-topic political
discussions, so suggesting that those be taken to a different list is not
unreasonable in my opinion.
Perhaps a useful guideline might be to restrict discussion to topics that you
would be comfortable raising in your workplace.
Recently I re-subscribed, and soon the topic of the truth (or
otherwise) of 9/11 was raised. This seemed to me to be another very political
topic that would generate hostility (and it did), so to forestall this I –
pleasantly I think – suggested that the conversation could be taken to another
list. Some people publicly agreed with me, including Swapnil.
Your response to my suggestion was this patronising (and blatantly
passive-aggressive) put-down:
"Your response is petulant. As Petra has responded, take responsibility
yourself, and block her if you find her contributions unwelcome. Block me while
you are at it, and Peter Martin, and anyone else who dares to treat this list
as a friendship as well as a professional group."
For this reason, feeling a little exasperated, I posted this joking comment at
the end of my (longer) post on Swapnil’s blog. It was intended to be a wry
acknowledgement of our mutual opinion that the topics of conversation on this
list are not always appropriately targeted, but that it is clearly not
acceptable to say so.
You can call my closing comment "Bitchy. Point scoring. Spiteful" if you
choose. I don’t think it was, but to tar the “technical writer personality” in
general with the same brush is silly. I’m sorry that you have encountered
people who you found unpleasant, but that can hardly be construed as a
reflection on technical writers in general. I find the technical writing
community to be amazingly diverse, but in twenty years I have never worked with
a technical writer who I would describe as "bitchy" or "spiteful". I would
certainly think twice before applying that description to someone I have never
met and know nothing about.
J
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