Technically Speaking

Once in a while it is fun to toot my own horn. Here’s an opportunity too good to pass up. This blog, Technically Speaking, was ranked in the top 50 communications blogs by the Bloggie Talkie blog.

I think it is an honor to be listed. I got a text message from my colleague, Tom Johnson, who writes another listed blog, I’d Rather Be Writing. We are both listed in the “Technical Communication and Science Communication” category.

Check out some of the other blogs on the list. And thanks to Bloggie Talkie for the including Technically Speaking on the list!

A relative send me an e-mail forward today, and while I don’t generally read or respond to forwards, this one was quite disturbing.

The CBS Evening News recently reported on the dangers posed by digital photo copy machines. Essentially, every new copy machine made since 2002 has a built-in hard drive that keeps a copy of every document that is copied, scanned, or faxed by that machine.

Here is the story: (You can see the same story on CBS’s own site.)

Watch CBS News Videos Online

I think back on the copies I’ve made in the last year, which include:

• Copies of the listing form for our condo
• Copies of each offer we made on houses (there were 3)
• Copies of all the documents related to the purchase of our new house, including detailed financial statements and bank statements
• Copies of my tax returns including W2 and other documentation with private information

…And that is what I can think of off the top of my head.

I made some of those copies or scanned the documents at places like Kinkos, using my work copier/scanner and copies were done at my mortgage company, my title company, as well as the buyer and seller’s mortgage and title companies.

I had no idea that copiers were storing that kind of information. Did you?

However, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do about it. I can’t control how the hospital copies my medical charts. I can’t control how the mortgage or title companies make copies of documents.

We live in a world where HIPPA and other privacy laws require paper copies of these documents to be securely disposed of, yet what about the digital versions of those same documents? How are we to protect our private information?

Here is a cute phone mail message I got from my three-year-old kid today:

I know, this is normally a tech comm related blog. But I just loved this message.

Okay. Back to work.

NPR reported yesterday that sales of Google’s Andriod-based smart phones outsold sales of Apple’s iPhone for the first quarter of 2010.

I love my iPod touch. I am green with envy every time I see somebody using an iPad. However, in the current market, I’ll never be an iPhone owner, and I doubt I’ll be getting an iPad. (Though, dear, father’s day and my birthday are happening in the same week, next month…) I don’t want a phone from AT&T, and frankly, I’m kind of annoyed at Apple over the whole Adobe Flash support issue.

I’m glad to see Android gaining market share. Products are improved through competition. As competitors like Andorid and Blackberry increase market share, Apple will have to adjust if they are to continue competing. Maybe they will even be forced to rethink their refusal to allow Adobe Flash on iPhone-OS devices. As Android and Blackberry user bases widen, application developers will increase their support for non-iPhone platforms, which will improve the application markets for all devices.

You have to admit, when Apple releases a new device, the world oohs and awes about it, because Apple makes some pretty incredible products. Owning one of those products, especially in the early adoption phase, is something of a status symbol. However, other handheld OS developers are closing the gap between their devices and Apple’s, and there are some really cool products running operating systems like Android. In some cases, Android is already leading the way, forcing Apple to play catch up.

So, as a current iPod touch user, I say “Congratulations Android!” Because my next device may or may not be from Apple. I won’t decide until I see who is willing to give me the features I want from my device and right now, it is pretty hard to say who that will be.

STC Summit this year was a great experience. It was my first Society-level conference (I attended a Region 7 Conference back in the day that they did regional conferences), and I had a great experience. I’m already committing to attend Summit next year in Sacramento, and I’ve actually already started working on a potential presentation topic for next year’s conference.

This was my first conference since the Twitter revolution changed how attendees interact with conference presenters. I loved using the conference hashtag (#stc2010) for my tweets, as well as for searching other tweets about the conference. Twitter was such a handy way to share short tidbits of knowledge we were gaining at the conference, it served as an instant feedback method for presenters, and it was a great way to connect with other people at the conference for evening social activities.

If you want to see a list of tweets about the conference, go to Twitter and search for the #stc10 hashtag, or just click here (I did the “hard” work for you).

One of my favorite parts of the conference was meeting, in-person, people from the tech comm profession that I have seen or interacted with online. I really enjoyed meeting everybody at the conference, and it adds a new dimension to the online conversation when you’ve actually met somebody.

I attended lots of interesting sessions. The presentations, by an large, were fantastic. Kudos go to the STC conference committee for picking such great presenters and presentations. For every session of the conference, there were literally 3 or more sessions I wanted to attend. What is great about Summit is that conference attendees can go to the STC website and view Summit @ A Click, where you can see almost all of the presentations from the most recent conference. This isn’t up yet for this year’s conference, but it will be in the next couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to that.

As an almost-chapter-president, I thought the conference was inspiring, and it energized me for the coming year. I’m excited to serve the Intermountain chapter as the incoming president, and I think we are going to have a great year.

I’ve already reached out to our chapter members to inform them of the activities that are coming up, but I want you all to know that you don’t have to be a chapter member to participate. These events include:

• May BBQ and Social. At this pot-luck event, we will have social interaction with other tech comm people in the area. Feel free to bring your family. Please RSVP (see the link) so we can know how much meat to bring.
• June e-Learning Event. Lunch is provided at this half-day event where we will listen to three different presentations on e-Learning. Registration for this event is $15.00 (regardless of STC membership).

We will also be holding our annual business meeting on Friday September 17th in the evening.

I invite those tech comm professionals in the greater Salt Lake area to attend all of these events, regardless of your membership in STC.  We want to build a strong tech comm community in the intermountain area, and we need your help to do it!