Christine. To reiterate - I do NOT think that this site is a good idea. There
are a number of reasons for this, but the main reason is that technical writing
is a diverse and rapidly changing field (as you have recently pointed out), so
I think that it is not sensible to try to build a "one size fits all" resource
when people can seek out specialist resources themselves.
To take just the example you mentioned of Microsoft Office resources:
- Microsoft Virtual Academy (https://mva.microsoft.com) have over 200 free
courses on office related subjects.
- Microsoft also provide some free courses at Udacity
(https://www.udacity.com/). I just did one on Typescript. Udacity are excellent
and have a wide range of courses.
- Then there is Lynda.com (https://www.lynda.com) who have 45 Office courses -
they're not free, but if you live in Melbourne you can get them free online by
joining the Public Library. That may also be true in other centers. Or you
could ask your library to join.
- Udemy (www.udemy.com) also have Office courses. Again, not free - but if you
get on their mailing list they have deals every couple of months when you can
get any course for $10. I did a couple of course on API documentation through
them.
- Also not free (but why should that be a restriction?), Safari Books Online
have a vast and wonderful library of books and videos including books from
Microsoft Press (and from XMLPress which publishes tech writing books). Some
workplaces will have corporate subscriptions. I had a personal subscription to
this for ten years.
- Some publisher sites have forums and other resources and are worth joining.
For example, I got a free copy of Headfirst Design Patterns by volunteering to
proofread the updated version.
See what I mean? There's a lot out there, far more than my short list, and it's
not hard to find. I think you'll find that many of us are already using these
resources. Now I could build a site and list it all, but it would be out of
date in a couple of weeks. There's too much, and it's too diverse.
There is one issue that you raised that I would like to comment on, although it
is not related to training. You mentioned that we could link to " all the
various magazines published by the TW world annually". I do think that it is
unfortunate that there are very few academic technical communications
publications that are easy for the non-academic to access. I am not a member of
the ASTC at present for some of the reasons Swapnil has raised (I do belong to
TCANZ), but I would consider joining the ASTC if they were able to come to some
arrangement with the STC to make their academic journal "Technical
Communication" available to members. I have thought about joining the STC to
get access to this, but I would be paying a lot for all the other STC services
(meetings, conferences etc) that I'm not able to take advantage of here. You
can subscribe to Technical Communication, but it costs hundreds of dollars,
presumably because it is priced for academic libraries.
Lastly (and I'm not sure why this is of such interest, but you mentioned
hosting a couple of times) I observe that the ASTC site is already hosted by
Dreamhost (https://www.dreamhost.com/). I imagine if they are looking for a
hosting service for a wildly popular tech writing training site, they would
start by looking at the extended services available there .
-----Original Message-----
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christine Kent
Sent: Saturday, 3 December 2016 11:48 AM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: An ASTC training library
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.
