In this Issue:

1. You're invited! STC France Chapter meeting on 23 November 2006
2. Save the Date: STC France Chapter Annual Conference and Competition Awards Dinner: 2-3 February 2007
3. Participate in the "World's Largest Card Sort Event" on World Usability Day: 14 November 2006
4. Call for Judges 2006-2007 STC International Competitions
5. ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English Receives European Community Trademark

You're invited! STC France Chapter meeting on 23 November 2006

Join STC France Chapter members in Paris for dinner and informal discussion on Thursday evening November 23rd.

Ellen Lebelle will present a report of last month's hugely successful STC Region 2 Conference in London. We'll discuss this year's World Usability Day event and report on the STC sponsored Card Sorting exercise (see below). We'll also provide an update on preparations for this year's France Chapter Annual Conference, scheduled for 2-3 February 2007 (see below). Share your ideas and suggestions and find out how you can get involved.

Who: The meeting is open to STC France members and non members.

When: Thursday 23 November 2006 at 7pm (or arrive at 8pm if you don't want to join us for dinner)

Where: FIAP Jean Monnet, 30 rue Cabanis, 75014 Paris - Metro: St Jacques/Glacière (line 6) or RER: Denfert Rochereau (line B) - http://www.fiap.asso.fr/ - Meet us in the cafeteria "L'Européen" at 7pm or follow signs to the meeting room posted in the lobby if you arrive at or after 8pm

Registration: STC Members: 10 euros / Non members: 20 euros (price does not include dinner).

Save the Date: STC France Chapter Annual Conference and Competition Awards Dinner: 2-3 February 2007

Building on the success of last year's event, this year's France Chapter Annual Conference will take place in Paris on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd February 2007. The event is being organized in conjunction with the STC Trans European Technical Communications Competition Awards Dinner, which this year is being hosted by the STC France Chapter.

The theme of this year's conference is "Raising Our Profile". Learn how you can become better known and better respected within your company, find out how you can broaden your horizons and job prospects through networking and professional training, and discover ways to promote yourself and your profession through participation in STC activities and other professional communities.

The first day of the conference will offer a series of hands-on workshops led by leading industry specialists and this will be followed by a full day of presentations, seminars and themed discussions. We'll round the conference off with a fun evening dinner event and awards ceremony for this year's STC Trans European Technical Communications Competition. The event will also provide a backdrop for STC France's 15th anniversary celebrations, so mark your calendar now and we hope you'll join us for what promises to be a fabulous and fun opportunity for networking, education, and professional development!

If you or your company is interested in sponsoring this event, or if you are interested in presenting or hosting a workshop at the event, please contact the conference organizing committee at conference@stcfrance.org for more information.

Participate in the "World's Largest Card Sort Event" on World Usability Day: 14 November 2006

The second annual World Usability Day will be held on November 14 2006 and the theme this year is "Making life easy". The day will feature a worldwide series of events to promote awareness of the benefits of usability and user-centered design, and every user's right to ask for things that work better.

As part of STC's sponsorship of the event, members of STC communities around the world are being invited to participate in "The World's Largest Online Card Sort". Card sorting is a common analysis technique used to group objects in order to understand how users categorize information, and is used by information architects and usability professionals to find latent structure from a range of items.

To take part in the card sort event, sign up now at http://www.stc.org/wud/wud02.asp. Select the option "Connect me with a group participating in the online card-sort" and enter "STC France" in the Chapter/group name field so that we can contact you with further information before the start of the event.

On the day, leaders and members of the STC France Chapter will host an online Skypecast voice conference and/or chat session to provide instructions and assistance to anyone wishing to take part in the activity and to discuss their experience, before or after, and talk about applications of the card sort.

You will need to download and install the latest version of Skype to participate in the Skypecast. For more information, see http://www.skype.com/help/guides/skypecasts.html. We will also send out additional information by email and post information on the STC France website shortly before the event. You should set aside about 20-30 minutes to complete the test on Nov 14th.

To take part in the card sort, all you will need is a web browser and Internet connection. Web-based software from Websort Software (co-sponsors of the event) will be used to perform the card sort. You can check out http://www.websort.net/ and familiarize yourself with the software before the day. There is a demo card sort there that you can do (http://websort.net/dev?s=demo).

So mark your calendar and plan to join members of the STC France Chapter online on November 14 and contribute to a world-wide exercise that will help us understand regional and cultural variations in how people think about information.

Spread the word to your friends and colleagues, local or around the world (you don't have to be a member of STC to take part). The more people we have participating, the richer data set we'll have.

After the card sort data has been gathered, it will be analyzed for response variances, to see if the differences are by geography, age, etc. The repot that comes out from the exercise will be made publicly available to further our understanding in the usability field.

Check out the STC France website at http://www.stcfrance.org/ for updates and additional information.

For more information about World Usability Day, visit http://www.worldusabilityday.org/.

Call for Judges 2006-2007 STC International Competitions

from Peg Cottrell, Director of Administration, STC

STC is inviting technical communicators to serve as judges in this year's STC international competitions (technical publications, technical art, and online communication). Judging in the international competitions provides a unique opportunity to share information with peers, network, and get a marvelous view of the best work that our colleagues are producing.

If selected, you will serve on a team of three judges to evaluate entries that have already received distinguished awards at the local/regional level. Your team will judge the entries in one or more categories. The number of entries varies by competition and category. All judging and determination of awards are completed before or on the day of judging.

You may apply as either an on-site or remote judge. There are advantages to both, but because of funding considerations, the number of on-site judges is limited and some applicants for on-site judging may be invited to judge on a remote team. If you are applying to be an on-site judge, please indicate on your application if your employer is willing to fund all or part of your travel and/or accommodations.

On-Site Judges

On-site judges will meet in Arlington , Virginia for judging that begins at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 24, 2007. Rooms will be reserved for Friday and Saturday, March 23-24, 2007. Priority as on-site judges may be given to persons who have partial or full corporate travel support.

Off-Site Judges

Off-site judges make the initial and final decision on awards in a telephone conference call. The team selects a mutually agreeable date and time for the call but they must allow time for mailing of the entries, and electronic submission of evaluation forms, awards list, and Best of Show forms to the Society office to be received by March 20, 2007.

Qualifications for Judges

All judges must meet at least two of the following criteria:

1. Master's degree or higher in technical communication or related field.

2. Senior membership in STC

3. Seven years in technical communication or a related field (STC membership not required).

4. Strong publishing background (five articles or one book).

5. Teaching experience in communication or a related field (five years full-time or seven years adjunct or part-time).

6. Winner of an STC or other communication competition award.

7. Certification by a communication-related professional organization.

Your judging experience and breadth of activity in STC may also be considered.

How to Apply

Complete the application (available at http://www.stc.org/comp/internationalCompetitions01_forms.asp). The form must be submitted by December 1, 2006. You will be notified of the results of your application by the first week of February.

If you are accepted as a judge, details will be sent to you in mid January.

If you have any questions, please contact Karen Baranich, STC Competitions Manager, +1 (803) 217-7299 or kbaranich@scana.com

ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English Receives European Community Trademark

"In practice this means that the good results we have achieved are now being acknowledged by an audience outside the aerospace industry. The Simplified Technical English specification ASD-STE100, represents groundbreaking work in standardization, which is in line with the European Commission work programme fostering an Innovation-Friendly Europe. And we hope this will help other industries in their standardization work," says François Gayet, Director General ASD Europe.

ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English, initially AECMA Simplified English, was developed to help the users of English-language documentation in the aerospace sector to understand what they read, particularly in multinational programmes. Since the first publication of the AECMA Simplified English Guide, other non-aerospace industries have adopted the principles of AECMA Simplified English for their own documentation.

The official ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English website is http://www.simplifiedenglish-aecma.org/.

ASD Simplified Technical EnglishTM is not only for those who do not have English as their native language, but also for those who do.