TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Many thanks to all of you who spent some time to answer to our message.
As you can see, the discussion is open to all the people willing to talk with us and to all the ideas that can find a few supporters. During this first stage, I would like to test our ideas, collect ideas from other people, find other people willing to partecipate in this initiative and decide what to do next. This is the right moment to spek your mind, so, if you are interested, JOIN US!
Regarding the topics already focused by the partecipants:
1) I think ITWG should take care of all the people working in this field: Technical Writers, WinHelp Writers, Indexers and so on. I do not even think there is a real reason to have so many "classes". IMHO, all of us are Technical Writers, maybe devoted to different part of the job or to different media, but anyway TWs.
2) I think the "Official" language of our group should be English. We are already forced to know and use it for our work, so there is no reason to use another one. I would be happy to find people willing to translate our stuff in their original language but I think this will be possible only for the "stable" documents, not for the "moving targets".
3) Our relationship with the existing associations (STC, INTECOM and so on) ought be as cooperative as possible. I do not think we will "overlap" any of the existing association for two reason:
A) As long as I know, all of these associations work inside their own national borders and use Internet only as a secondary publishing tool. In contrast, I think ITWG should be borderless and (almost) completely Internet-based because our work is inherently borderless and Internet-based.
B) We will take care of a kind of "basic problems" that I do not see are taken in account by many other associations (as long as I know, at least): a worldwide, self-defined "quality standard", a mutually-provided translation/localization support, and so on.
I hope this will help to make clear my position. I wait for your comment.
P.S. Please, contact us directly, there is no need to clutter up the list in this moment.
-----------------
Alessandro Bottoni
Technical writer
Cad.Lab SPA
Via Ronzani 7/29
40033 Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna)
Italy
Tel Int+ 51-597357
Fax Int+ 51-597120
------------------
TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send commands
to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/ or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html
