Tony Chung: Creative Communications

One of my really cool projects is to harness the collaborative CMS features of MediaWiki as a means to store comments within an HTML-based help system. I thought I’d start by implementing a forms-based entry that created wiki pages when first loaded, but after getting so far I’ve been banging my head against the wall.

Let me explain what I’ve done so far, with the hope that someone out there on teh Interweb would be able to help me out. I’ll post an update when I get it sorted out. (Sorry, I’m not posting screen shots to save time.

Continue reading: Bang my head against the MediaWiki wall

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In the interest of time, I thought I’d share the photos I took in Dallas with the world the quickest way possible. I quickly weeded through the doubles and darkies on my disk, imported them into iPhoto, then exported them into a new Picasa album. This is my first attempt to embed a Picasa album.

Read the write up for more insight.

Continue reading: STC TCS 2010 Dallas Photo Journal

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Happy New Year, everyone!

Tony Chung: Creative Communications

Several technical communicators have had a hard time reconciling the value-add proposition for renewing their membership with the Society for Technical Communication. Some have been very vocal about the society’s lack of support, lack of expertise, lack of understanding, and lack of relevance for the communications field. In blunt terms, the STC is a dinosaur, with a business and operations model that doesn’t fit the current trends. Some of the outspoken include volunteers like myself who thought we could help initiate and support change from the inside. Fortunately I am involved in the very active Society for Technical Communication – Canada West Coast Chapter, which is experiencing a new wave of volunteers who thrive on connecting within this community. As well, I participate in a couple of really experienced special interest groups, the Single Sourcing (officially), and Contractors and Independent Consulting (locally).

After the 2006 summit a fellow chapter member observed that technical communicators are expanding from the traditional plan/interview/write model into the facilitation and editing of user authored content. This exciting trend from writer to enabler has always appealed to me, because I’ve always been on the periphery of traditional technical writing. While I am technical and I love to write, I also have a passion for music and multimedia, web design and programming, graphic design and illustration, and performing. It’s been difficult finding jobs that match my level of interest in technology and my love to write. That said, I’ve found lots of work in the web development arena, and am excited at being able to harness these skills and abilities in my current job, along with writing and editing.

In this post I describe at length why the STC has me for at least another year.

Continue reading: Just renewed STC Membership for 2010 — here’s why

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From August 4 to the 20 I’ll be taking the family to visit my wife’s parents in Ontario. In addition to all the fun family stuff, I plan to meet up with other web developers, technical communicators, musicians, worship leaders, and social media afficionados while I’m there.

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Pretty exciting stuff. Send me a private message if you have time to meet for coffee.

Continue reading: Travel planning for family fun and finanace

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Today’s post is merely a pet peeve I have about the lack of concern people have about the copyright statement at the bottom of their sites and documents. I used the traditional publishing copyright statements since my foray into comic book publishing back in the 80s. Naturally, this becomes the default format I turn to when I write my copyright statements. It also makes me sound like a stickler about seemingly insignificant details.

Continue reading: Professional copyright statements

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One day, while out with my wife for our weekly coffee date, I read the quote on her grande white mocha two-bag refresh tea soy misto. I thought to myself, how poignant; it made so much sense. The next day, as I slowly enjoyed my triple-venti peppermint soy caramel drizzle latte macchiato, I was surprised to receive the same quote. That was simply too odd.

Still later, while out for lunch with my friend, a Starbucks shift supervisor, I told this story, and referred to the quote on the cup that I kept encountering. As if on cue, the sleeve from my grande sized beverage fell to the table, revealing the same quote on that cup as well.

I have since seen that quote several times in the past six months.

The way I see it #26: Failure’s hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you’re successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever. ~ Po Bronson

Continue reading: Excess of success worse than failure?

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My younger son doesn’t have as many Transformer toys as his older brother. Because of this, he felt inclined to create his own Transformer model. This toy is so colourful, so powerful, uses every weapon and can transform into any vehicle mode.

Note to Hasbro: I am negotiating contract offers for this five-year-old toy designer, and his seven-year-old technical communicator brother. My contact information is below. Child labour is legal where I come from. LOL!

Continue reading: Toy designer for hire

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