2004 International STC Conference

The 2004 International STC Conference in Baltimore got off to an early start on Monday, May 10 with keynote speaker Ben Shneiderman, author of Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies. Schneiderman is a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland at College Park and the founding director of UM's Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory. Shneiderman's book shifts the focus from what computers can do to what users can do. A key transformation is to what he calls "universal usability," enabling participation by young and old, novice and expert, able and disabled. His speech touched on sections of the book and practical applications, such as the Treemap (www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/treemap/) application created by Shneiderman.

After Shneiderman's speech, it was time to attend sessions. There were six different “stems” available at the conference: Management; Professional Development/STC-Related Sessions; Theory, Research, Education, and Training; Tools and Technology, Usability and Information Design; and Writing and Editing. With at least one session in every stem during every time session, you could theoretically specialize in one stem all the way through the conference. I found myself gravitating towards sessions on accessibility, website development/maintenance, and strategic life planning. The stem with the most sessions was Usability and Information Design. Usability sessions have been steadily increasing in number in the last 5 years, and there were sessions available for attendees of all levels, from beginner to advanced. Some of the industry “name” folks were there, such as Ginny Redish (5 sessions), Whitney Quesenberry (4 sessions), Andrea Ames (3 sessions), and JoAnn Hackos (3 sessions).

Next year, the 52nd Annual STC Conference is being held in Seattle, Washington, with a theme of “Experiencing Technical Communication.” I hope that the convenient location will inspire many chapter members to attend, even if only for a day. You can submit your session or post-conference workshop proposal online (www.stc.org/52ndConf/Proposal/confProposal.asp) starting May 21. Hope to see you there – I know I'll be there next year!