August 2018
It's been a busy month – join us for the ITx Highlight reel, Steve's acceptance speech and Meredith's presidential reminders. Then, former journalist Bernadette brings you a recap of our July event in Christchurch: Technically not technical writing, and Earnsy looks into the intricacies of gender in What's the Evidence. Finally, Grant brings us fonts, finance, free features, and Back to the Future in this month's Let's Tech Communicate.
From the President
Hi everyone. I hope you’re enjoying the year and not feeling too dismayed at the way it seems to slide past so quickly. I’m rather pleased to see the end of July, which is usually so cold, and start looking forward to spring. Don’t worry, give it a few months and I’ll be moaning about the hot weather, the flies, and the kids not wanting to go to bed because it’s too light! I really have only two messages this month. And they’re both equally important...
Reppin the TCs at ITx 2018
So, it’s now four weeks since the ITx conference and I think I’ve finally recovered. My hangover’s gone too but I still have some blisters from our dancefloor antics.
Of course it wasn’t all boozing and glamour. We did some work too. It really was an amazing experience and I’m thrilled that we got to be a part of this amazing conference. I know we left our mark and I get the feeling we’ll be welcome back next time!
What's the evidence? Asking about gender
Do technical communicators need to think about gender? I think so. We may be asked to review wording in forms or surveys, we may need to develop personas, and we need to ensure our writing doesn’t alienate readers and give them a bad user experience.
Christchurch Branch Report: Technically not technical writing
Bernadette Cooney discovers the role of a technical writer is an ever evolving one at the July branch meeting of TechCommNZ in Christchurch, where seasoned communicator Claire Mahoney took her audience of 30 people through the rigours of managing organisational knowledge as well as content…
Let's Tech Communicate
This month it is fonts, finance, free features, and we go Back to the Future. The questions are as follows:
- The Swiss have Helvetica and the French have Garamond but is there such a thing as a New Zealand typeface?
- We all know what Bitcoin is but do we understand blockchain technology and how it could be applied to technical communication?
- If you can’t code and you need to interact with APIs, what tools exist to help you and how can you avoid common API documentation mistakes?
- Who said “Docs? Where we’re going we don’t need docs” and why did they say it?
We should be told. Read on.