Topic: Covering information from Sun Microsystem’s newly published best practices guide of the same name, Jeff will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using a wiki for product documentation; suggestions about document structure, organization, and navigation; how to encourage collaboration and participation by community members; and other topics. Join us for this exciting, cutting edge topic.

Speaker Bio: Jeffrey Gardiner is the former Editorial and Production Manager at Sun Microsystems. He managed the development and publication of the recently released third edition of Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry. He has taught editing classes for UC Berkeley Extension.

Description: Software companies that grow to moderate size or beyond find that they must localize their products to sell to multinational or foreign customers. Our speakers will explain the issues that surround localization and discuss its impact on companies and technical writers.

Speaker Bios: Bing Hong built the OSIsoft department that does software internationalization, localization, and documentation. Before that, she ran the Asian Localization Center at Sun Microsystems. She has more than ten years experience in internationalization and localization in the software industry.

Tonie Flores is a Senior Technical Writer at OSIsoft. She draws on her experience of learning English as her third language and delivering software training in Asia and Latin America to inform her writing for a global audience.

Future Meetings

May – Spring Schmooze
June – Social Networking

Duration: 6+ months
A client in San Jose needs an on-site Technical Writer/Editor for a 6 to 12+ month contract.

They recently converted a large help system from RoboHelp to Flare 5.01 and need to make the Help more user-friendly and match the current version of the software.

Requirements:

o. 2+ years experience as a technical writer
o. EXCELLENT editing skills
o. Solid Madcap Flare experience

o. Experience doing Instructional Design a plus
o. Experience doing usability testing of Web content a plus
o. Experience documenting financial applications a plus

prospringstaffing.com

Research, plan, develop, and publish CLI-related documentation. This includes task, reference, and conceptual information for user guides, reference information, and help system and well as release notes. Ensure all documents adhere to Pillar style standards, information model, and quality checklists. Work with minimal supervision and meet established deadlines.

- Research, develop, write, and edit CLI-related content for Pillar Data Systems publications.
- Author content in XML and ensure that it conforms to topic-based (DITA) writing standards.
- Use batch files and Perl scripts to convert output to POD format.
- Conduct interviews with various users and technical staff to gather data for authoring content.
- Research and translate technical information into final deliverables for technical audiences.
- Prepare content that is ready for internationalization.
- 1 – 3 years in technical writing in computer systems domain.
- Must have some experience in a single-source environment using structured authoring tools (such as Arbortext or FrameMaker +SGML).
- Must demonstrate strong analytical and interpersonal skills.
- Must work well as a team member in a high-paced and structured environment.
- Able to quickly extract information from subject matter experts and engineering documents.
- Proficiency with SAN and NAS storage environments, and with Windows, Linux, Solaris, and other Unix-like operating systems are highly desired.
- Experience working with a content management system a plus.

pillardata.com

Research, plan, develop, and publish hardware product documentation. This may include hardware installation guides, service guides, cabling diagrams, implementation guides, architecture guides, best practices, and release notes.
Ensure all documents adhere to Pillar style standards, information model, and quality checklists. Work independently and meet established deadlines.

- Research, develop, write, and edit hardware installation and service content for Pillar Data Systems publications.
- Author content in XML and ensure that it conforms to topic-based (DITA) writing standards.
- Become an expert in the domain of storage hardware-related information.
- Conduct interviews with various users and technical staff to gather data for authoring hardware content.
- Research and translate technical information into final deliverables for technical audiences.
- Prepare content that is ready for internationalization.

Education:
BA/BS in Computer Science or a Technical Communications discipline or equivalent combination of education and experience.

Minimum Experience:
5 years in network storage or related technology; 8 years in technical writing in computer systems domain. Must have some experience in a single-source environment using structured authoring tools (such as Arbortext or FrameMaker +SGML).

Knowledge:
Proficiency with SAN and NAS storage environments, and with Windows, Linux, Solaris, and other Unix-like operating systems are highly desired. Knowledge of networking hardware and protocols (such as TCP/IP, LDAP, HTTP, SNMP) a plus. Experience working with a content management system a plus.

Analytical/Interpersonal Skills:
Must demonstrate strong analytical and interpersonal skills. Must work well as a team member in a high-paced and structured environment. Able to quickly extract information from subject matter experts and engineering documents.

pillardata.com

Help the two staff technical writers — one here in San Jose, one remote — re-write an extensive online Help system that hasn’t been re-thought or comprehensively revised in its ten years of existence.

We just finished the heavy lifting of porting the Help content from RoboHelp 7 for Word to Flare 5.01. Now we need to make the Help user-friendly and accessible (it is neither) as well as reflective of the latest aspects of our application and ready for the future (DITA? User-created content? HTML 5? Localization? Don’t know — just need to be thinking about these things.)

The software is a tax and financial SaaS application for SMBs. Release schedule is monthly. There are about 1600 context-sensitive Help topics, none of which were written with the end user in mind, many of which are thousands of words long.

So here’s what we need:

- A crackerjack editor as well as a spare, clean writer
- A ferocious focus on end user needs
- Solid Flare skills
- Instructional design and/or Web usability expertise very helpful
- Knowledge of financial applications or actual experience in finance very helpful
- Single-sourcing experience very helpful
- RoboHelp 8 experience helpful (to see where we’ve been, occasionally mine archived content)
- Training experience helpful
- CSS, Web development experience wouldn’t hurt
- A crackerjack editor as well as a spare, clean writer (it bears listing twice)

Contract is full-time, on-site, for at least six months. Could easily be extended to nine or 12. Contract to begin as soon as we find the right person.

www.intacct.com

We are seeking an information developer (technical writer) for a full time position at the IBM Silicon Valley Lab to develop technical documentation for the set of IBM Enterprise Content Management (ECM) products.

This individual will work closely with software development teams to turn technical specifications and instructions into product information and provide customers with a comprehensive set of user assistance and content in the form of online help, information centers, user guides, and embedded assistance in the user interface.

Candidates need to have expert level technical writing, communication, and audience-definition skills. A sound working knowledge of markup languages such as DITA is required. Candidates must be experienced in researching, designing, evaluating, updating, and creating technical information. Candidates must also be self-motivated, flexible, detail oriented, and effective team players.

Major Field of Study: Technical communication with a concentration in computer science (preferred).

Skill requirements include technical communication (written and verbal), information design principles; user task analysis, user feedback methodologies; information authoring tools, database, middleware, and application concepts, project management, and presentation skills.

http://www-03.ibm.com/employment/?cm_re=wspace-_-horznav-_-about

The Senior Technical Writer in this position will work closely with Product Managers, Development and QA teams, subject-matter experts, and the Product Documentation team to analyze documentation requirements for various audiences. He or she will combine excellent communication skills with extensive knowledge of current software technology and a passion for learning new and emerging technologies to design and develop deliverables to meet the requirements. The deliverables may include user guides, administrator guides, developer guides, API references, installation guides, reference guides, tutorials and examples, and incorporate graphics, diagrams and code samples as appropriate to illustrate targeted use cases.

Note: The option to telecommute one day per week will be offered after 6 to 9 months of satisfactory job performance. This job is in our San Rafael office.

Job Responsibilities:

• Define appropriate documentation deliverables to meet the requirements
• Research, write, and edit assigned topics
• Coordinate the production and handoff of all final deliverables
• Proactively explore architectural and platform issues relevant to the products, and provide technical assistance to sales, marketing, support and other technical writers

Minimum Qualifications:

• BA/BS degree with at least 5 years of technical writing or software development experience, or the equivalent combination of work experience and education—all candidates will be asked to provide writing samples
• Experience in one or more of the following fields: predictive analytics, data mining, machine learning, statistics, business intelligence, decision management
• Proven ability to document complex software for a variety of audiences
• Experience with Java or another object-oriented programming language
• Proven ability with English spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax and composition rules and a clear business/technical writing style

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with query & reporting tools is helpful
• Familiarity with a scripting languages such as Perl, Python, Groovy, Ruby
• Familiarity with the DITA Open Toolkit

To apply:
Go to http://www.fico.com/EN/COMPANY/CAREERS/Pages/opportunities.aspx
From the Requisition Number field, select 4714, and click Search.
Click on the job title to open the job description.
Click Apply & Create/Update Profile.

www.fico.com