Notes from 45th International STC Conference
Anaheim, California, May 17-20, 1998

Reinventing Yourself for the New Millennium

Carol A. Szatkowski
Clear Point Consultants, Inc., Peabody, MA

Abstract: As knowledge workers, we can directly impact the success of the technology we write about. Reassessing our value to an organization can lead to greater professional development and more lucrative careers.

Note: A 10-page handout is available from Dan Voss.

• Clear Point Consultants is a head-hunter specializing in placement of information design and delivery professionals.
• "Life is a daring adventure or nothing." -- Helen Keller
• Employment trends for the Year 2000
   
• Specialized professionals are on the fastest growth track.
• Unemployment is expected to stay low for at least 3 years.
• Use of contract labor will continue to increase.
• Impact of the World Wide Web has already been profound and will continue to increase.
• This reflects a basic paradigm shift from information in a storage medium to information in continuous change.
• Percentage of Web users is expected to increase by 47% by 2000.
• The Web provides...
   
• Visibility for the writer
• A palette to design information that people will actually use
• Access to customer feedback
• Real-time access to change information and communication with users
• A plethora of tools with which to create multimedia, online Help, etc.
• All this translates into significant new career opportunities for technical communicators.
   
• Web page creator
• Web graphics creator
• Web designer
• Web system administrator
• Web content developer
• Intranet manager
• Extranet* manager
  
  *Extranet = a private, password-protected Internet site that is open to selected customers but not to the general public.
  
  Note: Specific skill sets required for each job category are outlined in the handout.
• The key for technical communicators in taking advantage of these opportunities is to use existing skills and develop new skills that will "reinvent" them as experts in various new specialties.
• Paradigm shift from information to knowledge
   
• Knowledge management = "Systems that allow organizations to store, disseminate, exploit, and reuse corporate information and experience, with the goal of synthesizing knowledge to improve business operation."
• Daniel Burrus, author of Technotrends, stresses the fact that information in motion is more powerful than that in storage. The power of information increases when it is shared. Knowledge is the third tier in a pyramid that spirals upward from raw data to wisdom: data, information, knowledge, wisdom.
• Knowledge = information that is relevant to the user.
• Wisdom = knowledge that is relevant to all users (universal)
• A new niche is the knowledge worker. Key capabilities are:
   
• Understand how to use search engines to leverage information
• Know how to clearly express knowledge
• Know how to use multimedia to clarify and add value
• Key skill sets for the Millennium: the "Must-Have List":
   
• Ability to present information graphically
• Ability to learn new tools and technologies quickly; specifically, online tools for the Web
• Ability to express the knowledge that lives in information
• Ability to write modular information that can be delivered in multiple formats without reworking... repurposing
• Ability to contribute to the user interface.
• Job security: "The new security stems not from today's employment, but from the ability to remain constantly employable." -- Rossbeth Moss Kanter
• Intellectual capital = knowledge that can be captured and leveraged for the good of the company (the ability to look at the "big pic" and figure out what you are going to need to know and what skills you are going to need).
• Robert Wright speaks of "symbolic analysts" who deal with numbers, ideas, and problems. Intelligence is the source of their power and influence. They comprise 20% of the workforce. Knowledge workers fall in this category. They are a valuable intellectual property that can be leveraged to improve the company's bottom line.

Writing for the Third Millennium

Beth Agnew
Insystems Technologies, Inc., Markham, ON, Canada

• Presentation was also a demo in using advanced multimedia techniques to enhance the presentation of knowledge. It included a musical soundtrack and all manner of special FX.
• "The visible world is no longer a reality; the unseen world is no longer a dream." -- William Butler Yeats
• Writers have long been society's interpreters and visionaries (e.g., Jules Verne, H.G. Welles, Isaac Asimov).
• Writers typically question how things are done and look for better ways to do them. That's why we're always getting in trouble.
• How can we shape knowledge for the new 21st century audience?
• The information (e.g., statistics) which showed that seatbelts saved lives was ineffective until writers converted that information into knowledge, which then became the basis of widespread action.
• The writer adds the interpretation that turns the information into knowledge. This dates all the way back to the wandering troubadours who converted the information about specific events into orally recounted epic tales of heroism which live to this day.
• In the Medieval Period, monks transcribed information into books, but the books lacked titles, indexes, etc. Information was captured but not leveraged into widely available knowledge.
• The printing press took information to the next level by making it available to the masses. It still didn't become knowledge until writers interpreted it for the people. With the leverage of the printing press, writers took information away from the elite and extended it to the world.
• Similarly, technical communicators can serve an analogous role in deciphering highly technical information into clear, comprehensible lay language.
• The "programming priesthood" has kept a hammerlock on critical computer information. Technical communicators and other mere mortals could only approach this elite cadre as supplicants. We must enlighten our companies to realize that the information controlled by the "tecchies" cannot be leveraged into knowledge without the interpretation of skilled communicators.
• Several areas of communication and publishing are overlapping: print; software development; film, video, and television production; CD ROM publishing and interactive multimedia.
• The sheer proliferation of media (especially on the Web) does not mean talent has grown as well: Having the means to publish doesn't mean one has the ability.
• The only thing that can significantly affect the bottom line is communication. Content is just as important than packaging. And content does not get into Web sites through adroit use of PageMill or like tools. Therein lies the job security--and the future--for skilled knowledge workers (read: technical communicators).
• "To comprehend new information of any kind we must go through certain processes and meet certain conditions before understanding can take place." -- Richard Saul Wurman, Information Anxiety
• The Information Explosion has made it nearly impossible to process the vast streams of data which engulf us daily into meaningful knowledge.
• The new interactive media have changed not only what we perceive but even who we are (through our basic knowledge and our very world view).
• Technical communicators understand how to convert raw information into usable knowledge for the audience:
   
• Process
• Structure
• Context
• "Context-free information": pure, isolated facts (Neil Postman's term)...they may be interesting, but they lack relevance because there is no context. (e.g., "161,000 pairs of mismatched shoes will be shipped from factories this year"...So what? It's not important unless it affects you.)
• Reconnaissance communicators: a broad base of skills (a la Da Vinci) can be leveraged into a major intellectual capital asset in the next millennium. We are experiencing a new "digital Renaissance." Our day has come!
• "Turn to those inward gestures of mind by which we achieve insight and by which we construct ourselves and our world." -- Marshall McLuhan
• Domains of the renaissance communicator:
   
• Internal communications
• External communications
• Performance improvement
• Education
• Entertainment
• Communicators are the prism which converts information into knowledge. Few people can do that. We're valuable!