SIGDOC Newsletter
September 2004
:: Volume 5, Number 3
Our Members :: Notes from the Chair
Dear SIGDOC Member,
Now in it's 22nd year, the annual SIGDOC conference is one of the highlights
of the organization's activities. This year's theme of "The Engineering
of Quality Documentation" seems particularly timely. The traditional
SIGDOC member was a technical writer. Today, a member of SIGDOC is equally
likely to be computer scientist or software engineer. The inter-disciplinary
nature of modern documentation challenges is reflected in the varied
SIGDOC membership.
Advance registration for the SIGDOC 2004 conference ends on Sept. 25,
2004. As a member of SIGDOC, your active participation in the conference
will make a big difference in the success of the event. I do realize
that there are many constraints placed on all of us these days, in terms
of schedule, funding, and travel restrictions. Nevertheless, I'd encourage
you to make arrangements to come to Memphis from Oct. 10-13 and experience
the excellent technical program and enjoy the social aspects of SIGDOC
2004. Just click on http://www.regonline.com/15195 to expedite the online
registration process.
The Program Chair (Shihong Huang) and the Local Arrangements Chair (Michael
Albers) have done a lot of work to make the SIGDOC 2004 conference happen;
this is a wonderful opportunity for you to engage with the community.
More details concerning the SIGDOC 2004 program are available at the
conference Web site.
Your registration fees cover a reception on Sunday night, continental
breakfast and full lunch for each of the three days of the conference,
a copy of the Proceedings, and participation in all the technical sessions.
The hotel rates are quite reasonable as well, at the Holiday Inn on the
campus of the University of Memphis. All in all, it's a great deal. Please
visit http://www.sigdoc.org/2004 for more information.
I look forward to seeing you in Memphis!
Scott Tilley
General Chair, SIGDOC 2004
Chair, ACM SIGDOC
Department of Computer Sciences
Florida Institute of Technology
PS: As always, please remember that SIGDOC personnel are all volunteers,
and we're always looking for help. If you'd like to get involved with
SIGDOC, please send me email (chair_sigdoc@acm.org). Preliminary plans
are already being made for the SIGDOC 2005 conference. We'd welcome
your contribution!
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Our Members :: Notes from the SIGDOC 2005 Program Chair
The SIGDOC 2004 Conference is nearly here! The engineering of quality
documentation is a cross-disciplinary challenge affecting all team members,
including technical writers, graphic artists, software developers, usability
experts, and project managers. Documentation quality is an elusive concept
that includes characteristics of the document product (such as readability
and efficacy) and of the documentation process (such as automation and
predictability). In this context, technical communicators' traditional
knowledge and expertise is more important than ever.
As the field of documentation matures, we would like to consider the
implications of making design a systematic process of specification,
creation, management, and evolution—in short, adopting an engineering
approach. Designing effective communication artifacts may benefit from
an engineering model of disciplined creativity. How would the design
of communication improve under an engineering model? What might be lost?
SIGDOC 2004 will provide an opportunity for the exchange of information
related to exciting new research and empirical results in areas such
as:
- Tools and techniques for engineering quality documentation
- Assessing documentation quality attributes
- Changing roles of technical communicators in 2004 and beyond
- Single sourcing, artifact repositories, and document repurposing
- Methods to keep documentation accurate and up to date
The
SIGDOC 2004 technical program includes 21 technical paper presentations,
3 workshops (DITA, Legal Aspects of Documentation, and
Graphical Documentation 4: UML Style Guidelines), a keynote presentation
by Art Graesser, the
Diana Award presented to the Society for Technical Communication
(STC), the Rigo Award presented to Alan Cooper, and a presentation
by the graduate
student competition winner. The social program includes a scheduled a tour of the Institute for
Intelligent Systems at the University of Memphis. And, of course the
dinner banquet at the Rum Boogie Cafe. It will be a great time. Please
come join us in Memphis!
Shihong Huang
Program Chair
ACM SIGDOC 2004
Department of Computer Science
Florida Atlantic University
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