Attend the PeachPit Web Conference

Meet the people who feed the chapter’s book habit at Peachpit’s annual confab. Our Voices That Matter:  Web Design Conference will be back in San Francisco from April 27-30, at the Grand Hyatt. Web design authors Steve Krug, Marty Neumeier, Jared Spool, and Jesse James Garrett (among others) will lead interactive discussions with the Web designers in attendance, answering questions, sharing experiences and helping you find new inspiration. Visit www.voicesthatmatter.com/webdesign2009 for a complete list of speakers.

 You can take advantage of an exclusive user group discount. Save $200 when you register by using the User Group Priority Code WBVSGNS! If you sign up before March 12, you can get the Early Bird discount in addition to this special user group discount!

More Conference Opportunities

• PMA, an annual photo imaging event:
  March 3-5, 2009, Ls Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV
• SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST
  March -17, 2009, Austin Convention Center, Austin,TX
• PHOTOSHOP WORLD CONFERENCE AND EXPO
  March 25-27, 2009, John B. Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MA
• SOCIETY FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC EDUCATION
  March 26-29, 2009, Fairmont Dallas Hotel, Dallas, TX

Register Free for Documentation and Training West 2009

Documentation and Training West 2009 will be held in Palm Springs, CA, from March 17-20, 2009. The conference theme is Moving From Unstructured to Structured Content; its special focus is on DITA (the Darwin Information Typing Architecture). Registration, which includes two days of conference presentations, case studies, and panel discussions, as well as access to two days of hands-on training workshops, is $1299.

However, as a member of STC-SWO, you may be able to register for FREE.

That’s zero dollars and no cents.In these economically-challenged times, you can’t beat a deal like this!

If you’re interested, contact President Louise Tincher (president@stc-swo.org) for details about eligibility and requirements.

More Content Management Conferences

If you’d like information about other content management conferences (including some that are a little closer to SWO territory, check out this list:

• Intelligent Content 2009, Jan 29-30, 2009, Palm Springs, CA
• Documentation and Training DITA, June 2-5, 2009, Indianapolis, IN
• Web Content Chicago, June 15-16, 2009, Chicago, IL
• Documentation and Training East, October 27-30, 2009, Waltham, MA

The Content Wrangler Community

The Content Wrangler Community (http://thecontentwrangler.ning.com) is the new social network dedicated to people who value content as a business asset, worthy of being effectively managed. This is the place where technical communicators, medical and science writers, marketing pros, content management gurus, indexers, online community managers, document engineers, information architects, localization and translation pros, e-learning pros, taxonomists, bloggers, documentation and training managers, and content creators of all types hang out. It’s much more than a blog. It’s a place to join peers, to share, to collaborate, to contribute, to find information.

The Content Wrangler Community, launched officially March 8, has attracted more than 600 members from all over the world. Members come from a variety of disciplines and experience levels.

According to community manager Scott Abel:

Social networks are about connecting people and ideas. Web-based social networks are the natural evolution of the web from a passive broadcast medium to a multi-directional communication platform that more closely supports the way humans interact in the physical world. We congregate. We join others like us. We interact with birds of a feather. Until the advent of social networking tools, the web failed miserably to connect people in meaningful ways.

Some of our members really gravitate to the social features of the community. Things like videos, music, a discussion forums are some of the most popular. And, of course, it’s a much better medium for interaction compared to old-school listservs. Members can see each other online and converse in real time. And, the addition of photos helps humanize the site. Just look at the many different types of members that have joined the community already and you’ll begin to appreciate how diverse a global social network of this type can be. It’s exciting!

The Content Wrangler Community includes a variety of features including:

• Keyword searchable archive
• Keyword searchable member directory
• Music and video players
• Groups and discussion forums
• Customizable home pages
• Member-to-member communication * Integration with Facebook applications

The Content Wrangler Community provides a variety of members only services, including discounts on upcoming conferences, free access to tutorials, books, webinars, and online learning courses. The community is an extension of TheContentWrangler.com (http://www.thecontentwrangler.com), a popular blog that attracts thousands of visitors each day interested in topics related to content creation, management, and delivery.

To join this new social network for content professionals, take a look at http://thecontentwrangler.ning.com.

If you need additional information about The Content Wrangler Community, just ask Scott!