The conversation at this quarter’s ISTC West of Scotland area group meeting covered a wide variety of topics:
- The value of attending the ISTC’s annual conference this coming September
- Tools and technologies for topic-based authoring
- Building XML transformation systems from scratch versus off-the-shelf solutions
- Communication and note-taking systems for working with engineers
- Information security policies and how they affect the work of a technical author
- Working in small and large departments
- Remote working practices and tools
- Career development options
The group also discussed the outline proposals made at the previous group meeting by Dr John Lynn from Glasgow Caledonian University for a degree course containing a technical writing component. We were keen on hearing more from Dr Lynn on the progress the concept had made at a future meeting.
We also reflected on the very pleasing fact that each of the most recent West of Scotland group meetings had been comprised of distinctly different groups of people, often including newcomers. On that note, we were pleased to be joined on the night by a new member, Ben Bruce of SAS Memex. Welcome, Ben!
Summary by Graeme West