A Domain-special Regional Conference

The theme of this second regional conference was “Writing Documentation for Different Domains in the Computer Industry.” At this conference, participants explored the potential which different domains in the computer industry have to offer to technical writers. This event reflected the important trends and practices followed by the technical writers working on banking, telecommunication, networking, semiconductor, and aerospace products.

This domain-special conference was inaugurated by Mr. Sridhar Marri, the Associate Vice President and Head of Communication Design Group (CDG), Infosys Technologies. Sridhar’s presentation was titled as “You.” He made a comparison between “You” and “Your World.” He also spoke about the differences between mission and goal. He said, “People are often fixated on the wrong goals and overlook the mission for the goal.”

Sridhar Marri inaugurating the session

After the inauguration, Nilima Kapoor from Oracle introduced the speakers for the remainder of the day. The first domain-special session was conducted by Sunita Shelar from Infosys. Sunita presented her views on writing documentation for the banking industry. She introduced many basic banking concepts and terminologies to the audience. Also, she spoke about the challenges faced by technical writers working in this domain. The second session was on writing documentation for the semiconductor industry. Vinay Babu from Philips Software described the functioning and practices of the semiconductor domain. After this presentation, Sandeep Balakrishna conducted the initial round of quiz on trends in technology, technical communication, and language. Over 40 teams of 2 members each participated in the written prelims. After the first round of the quiz, it was time for lunch. It was at lunch that people started speaking with one another – in other words, ‘networked’ before learning about networking.    

The afternoon session started with a presentation on telecommunication documentation. Asha from Lucent Technologies introduced fundamental networking and telecommunication concepts to the audience. Asha’s session was followed by a focused presentation on computer networking. Sanoj Kumar and Lakshmi from Novell described different techniques for communicating information to system and network administrators. Last of the day’s session was of  Basavaraju Revanna from Honeywell who talked about the aerospace domain. He introduced many basic concepts, Honeywell’s practices, and the approach to aerospace documentation.

The second regional conference of the STC India chapter concluded with the second/final round of the quiz. Three teams vied with one another for the top two prizes. The first prize was won by Padma and Sharada from Integra Microsystems, and the second prize went to Dr. Annapurna and Serah John from TWB.

In addition to the focus on different domains, other conference highlights include: 

• A presentation on The Writers Block, a new technical writing training and consulting company started by Helen Shukla.

• A presentation on career opportunities at Oracle. The Server Technologies (ST) division of Oracle is on the lookout for senior and junior technical writers, graphic designers, and editors. For more information, write to Venkat Iyer at venkatasubramaniam.iyer@oracle.com.

If not for the sponsors and the tireless efforts of all the volunteers (Pravin, Pallavi, Sanjay, Nilima, Sandeep, Venkat, and Meeta), this second regional conference of the STC India chapter would not have been a successful event.

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