I notice that many of you have created accounts and have NOT logged in at all.

Such accounts will be deleted after a week.

If you have no intention of using the site, then do not create accounts on the site. We are not here for numbers.

Thanks
Michael.

Hi All,

I wish to express my views on the STC conference that I attended on the 4rth and 5th of December 2009 that was held in Bangalore. Would like to make this short and sweet.

Dear all:

On a bright Monday morning, here is some bright news and update coming
your way.

In the last few years, TWIN has transformed from a mailing list to an
online community of over 8000 technical communicators (portal +
mailing list). It is registered as a public trust with the government.
It is the largest and oldest online community, professional mailing
list, and registered association for technical communicators in India.
And it has continually provided *significant value* to its members.
Continuing with this tradition, TWIN is now jumping the next BIG
curve!

Folks,

Finally I have moved the server to a basic DDOS protected network in the US.

It took some time to move all the data from the old server [in Luxembourg] to the new [In Pennsylvania, US].

I will be monitoring the performance of the new server for a week before shutting off the old server completely.

I think it is going to be fine. From now on, there should not be any downtime.

Thank you all for your patience.

God bless you all.

Michael.

Automatic backups have been enabled and will kick in tonight.

All files will be backed up on to an external server automatically.

Thanks.

I have added Geo Location Tagging. From now on every new user needs to add that information when registering.

Also users need to add that to blogs, new forums that they create and job postings and resumes.

Soon, there will be a search field where users can search on posts from a particular location.

Thanks
Michael.

Folks,

TWIN announces its first-ever scholarship program on November 30, 2009. The winner will be eligible for free admission to the distance-learning course on technical writing offered by TechnoWrites (www.technowrites.com).

This program comprises two steps:

a) Language tests online on www.wordwala.com (Wordwala is a partner of TWIN.)
b) Essay contest

It is was a regular working day in office until i received a call !!! a call that suddenly drag me few years back when I was struggling to start my life, once again. Once again because after getting a fitness certificate post series of 3 major and few minor operations only in few years, now i was allowed to sit for few hours and travel without any support, but it was advisable to carry a stick to prevent undue pressure on the fractured fumer and tibia and the implant incorporated in it.

It is true that competition among employees is high in software companies. This fact also works out to be true in the case of technical writing teams also. But when the competition gets unhealthy and dirty, the going gets tough and the project suffers.

Which is more important for a technical communicator? Writing skills or tool skills?

The 'intelligent' answer is both on an equal basis. You can tell this to interviewers; they will nod in agreement. But what exactly is the reality? In companies, it is the tool guys that rule the roost whether it is MS Word, FrameMaker, Robohelp, or Flare, and not the guy with excellent writing skills. If you have average writing skills, but excellent tool skills, you career can go places. You are one of the promising people in the company from a non-technical background.