Directions to Hola!

1. Take highway 101 and get off at Ralston Ave.
2. Take Ralston west until you reach Alameda de las Pulgas.
3. Right before the signal, turn left into the shopping center.

If you miss the first driveway, turn left on Alameda de las Pulgas, and turn left into the next shopping center driveway.

Note: Look for the Carlmont Village Shopping Center‎ because you cannot see the restaurant from the street. Look for the restaurant when you’re in the shopping center. Hola! is at the opposite end from Lunardi’s market.

This month’s meeting requires a RSVP and also costs $18. In order to RSVP, email Daniel or call him at 408-228-1437 by February 21. When you walk in the door at Hola! the night of the meeting, tell the host/hostess that you’re with STC. You will then pay $18, take a numbered menu, and go to the banquet room all the way in back. Your payment covers your choice of entrée and beverage, plus tax and tip.

Program Description

Whether you are distributing a report or giving a presentation, if have a lot of numbers to present and only a few minutes to get your point across, don’t let an amateur presentation bog you down, confuse your audience, and damage your credibility. Instead, learn how to present numerical information effectively—in the same way you learned how to speak or write. In this presentation, you’ll discover how to present numbers clearly and effectively so your ideas and your presentation shine.

Bio

Randall Bolten is a highly experienced Silicon Valley financial executive, who has recently published a book entitled “Painting with Numbers: Presenting Financials and Other Numbers So People Can Understand You.”

“A Technical Writer’s Trip to Hollywood” is a presentation on things Eliza learned by getting a certificate in screen writing through UCLA Extension, that have improved her technical writing. She was surprised by what she learned and how it relates to information architecture..

She will introduce the following basic screen writing concepts as covered in many screen writing classes:

Scene structure
Story structure
Archetypes
Character development
Parsimony

She will relate the above concepts to the following:

targeting audiences
structuring technical documents
making information easily accessible

She will then demonstrate how all of the above relates to information architecture and the type of topic-centered authoring that is required for DITA.

Bio

The daughter of a Slovak convert pianist and a New England atomic physicist who hired a Dutch babysitter, Elisa sought to decode the culturally diverse surroundings of her childhood by turning to the books left to her family by her grandmother, a brilliant scholar who worked directly with Carl Jung in Zurich. She began writing poetry in kindergarten and hid her journals from the prying eyes of her three siblings for years. Her passion for writing bled through into her professional life. After wondering why writing projects consistently found their way to her desk, she finally surrendered to her primal passion for wordsmithing by adopting the word “writer” in her job title. After over twenty years writing grant proposals, manuals and technical references, Elisa began exploring the creative writing process and got a certificate in screen writing for feature film through UCLA.

Gracenote is looking for a Senior Technical Writer for B2B SDK/API documentation. This role is primarily responsible for writing developer-facing documentation. Other duties include helping develop scripts and processes to improve technical publications infrastructure.

Required Technical Skills

• At least 10 years of technical writing experience writing SDK/API developer-facing documentation
• Technical degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field preferred
• Knowledge of two or more of the following: C, C++, C#, Java, Objective C.

Other Preferred Skills and Experience

• Experience writing developer documentation for:
o client application development (Android, iOS, embedded systems, and desktop applications)
o client-less (web-based) application development (e.g. HTTP post/get applications)

• Experience using:
o Perforce (or similar)
o Doxygen, Javadoc, and/or Doc-O-Matic
o JIRA, Bugzilla, Test Track, or similar

• Experience writing scripts or other tools for technical documentation processing.
• Experience working with Agile/Scrum teams, and a demonstrated ability to adapt to rapid and frequent changes in project scope and work assignments
• Experience authoring and producing documentation from a Wiki. (Confluence a plus)
• Proven track record of producing new documentation from scratch.
• Experience with DITA or other single-sourcing models
• Knowledge of HTTPS or other web protocols (a plus)
• Knowledge of music, video, and mobile industries (a plus)

www.gracenote.com

We are working with our client in locating a Senior Technical Writer to be responsible for all product technical manuals and quick-start guides and collaborating closely with the engineers designing the products.

In this role, you will:
- Be responsible for planning and executing production all product manuals.
- Assist the marketing writer with technical aspects of marketing collateral.
- Maintain consistent document layout, style, and branding.
- Support the creation of online help content by single-sourcing with print manual content.
- Proofread and edit written materials through process reviews & editing procedures.
- Interface with Engineering, Product Management, and Graphics Design to produce highly professional, technically accurate hardware and software product manuals (User Guides and CLI/API Reference manuals) for end users and development partners.
- Interface with Product Management, Marketing, Engineering, and Graphics Design to produce technical supporting documentation including data sheets, white papers, application notes, solution briefs, case studies, and training materials.
- Ensure all communications meet the highest professional writing standards. A wide degree of creativity and latitude is expected.

Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree
- 3+ years of Technical Writing experience with networking/datacom products and applications (switches, routers, remote access, servers, network management systems, etc.) – good understanding of Ethernet, IP networking, and SNMP technologies
- Experience in working on end user technical manuals for networking/IT products
- Skilled in document layout and production
- Expert in Adobe InDesign, and good with Photoshop and Illustrator
- Working knowledge of HTML/XML (for document generation)
- Practical capability in graphics design and creation, i.e., some ability to draw illustrations for manuals
- Familiar with engineering and product documentation required for networking products
- Ability to stay current with market trends and solutions in network security and monitoring hardware devices
- Ability to explain complex technology in clear, precise terms. Ability to rapidly analyze, understand, and articulate product features and functionality.
- Able to work under tight time deadlines and manage several time-driven projects concurrently. Ability to come up to speed quickly on new products, and work independently to set goals and meet deadlines.

Desired Skills:

- Experience with MadCap Flare authoring tool a big plus
- Experience with single-source writing environment helpful

www.claritytechwriters.com

As a member of the Technical Publications team, the technical writer is responsible for writing and maintaining user and administration documentation for a complex enterprise application. You must be self-directed and demonstrate the ability to work in a fast-paced agile environment as a member of teams of engineers, product managers and others. This position is best suited to an independent, creative person who enjoys the challenge of writing about complex technologies for a variety of audiences.

This is a full-time on-site staff position in Menlo Park, CA, reporting to the Technical Publications Manager.

Responsibilities
• Write, edit and maintain topic-based user and administrator documentation for an enterprise application in an agile software development environment.
• Create supporting content such as effective graphics.
• Be an active, contributing member of the Technical Publications team and your scrum team(s).

Qualifications
• In addition to other technical writing experience, should have a minimum of 4 years’ experience in product documentation for complex software applications.
• Proven time management skills. Must be a self-starter and be able to demonstrate that you can: estimate work and deliver within an overall release schedule; manage and complete documentation with minimal supervision; handle tight deadlines; work independently.
• Agile/scrum experience is a big plus; if you do not have direct experience, then demonstrate that you understand the concept and can be an active member of more than one team at once.
• Ability to write for a variety of audiences from non-technical users to system administrators. Demonstrate that you can take complex concepts and procedures and present them in a clear, concise and understandable way to your audience.
• Must be willing to take the initiative and “hit the ground running” with new projects.

Desired Requirements

• Multimedia skills and experience with social media.
• Experience with online help authoring software (Madcap Flare) and experience with HTML/XML, style sheets, troubleshooting, etc.
• Experience with FrameMaker.
• Experience with Accounting, Cash Flow.
• Multimedia skills (e.g., Captivate, Mimic, as well as digital imaging software such as Photoshop, SnagIt, Capture).
• Bachelor’s degree in a technical communications, English or other related field.
• Knowledge of engineering, construction project management, and/or facilities management.

www.skire.com