info-design

Last weekend, I attended a reunion of the Bay Area Publications Managers (BAPMF) "Founders" here in Silicon Valley. These are people who were considered early members of the organization. Although I have not managed a publications group for many years, I have always maintained a connection to the technical writing community. I was struck by the sheer amount of experience in the room, where I'd guess the average was around 30 years in technical publications. It was also telling how many were no longer managers, but individual contributors, or had moved to other lines of work. For a number of reasons, being a technical publications manager is a tough assignment. Historically, it has always had its challenges, but in recent years, it has become more so.

And yet this looks like just a symptom of what is affecting the larger profession as evidenced by its professional organization, The Society for Technical Communications (STC), which is currenly undergoing a self examination and change under the banner of a Transformation. Given the changes in technology and the larger context, including the economy and globalization, the transformation is much needed. I'll be returning to this topic in the future.