ASTC (Vic) Meetings

This is a list of dates and topics for the ASTC (Vic) meetings. If you are looking for information about events organised by other groups (for example, SOCEDs meetings), visit our Other Events page.

ASTC(Vic) meetings are held on the first Thursday every two months. Please arrive at 6:20 for a 6:30 start. Guests and new members are always welcome. There is a $5 attendance fee for non-members.

ASTC (Vic) AGM, 3rd July 2008

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) is on Thursday 3rd July after our scheduled guest speaker, in room AS324 at Swinburne University (Hawthorne). Please come along to join, meet other members, discuss issues and vote on the committee for the next year. View invitation (PDF)

You can lodge nominations for the following committee positions using the online nomination form.

Location and Speakers

ASTC (Vic) meetings are held at Swinburne University, Hawthorn campus in Room AS324. Parking is available as marked on the map below.

Larger map

Past meetings

2007 meetings

Meeting Details

Separating Content from Presentation, Tony Self, Hyperwrite

Before the advent of personal computers, technical writing was performed using a quaint device called a pencil. The writer had no say in the eventual presentation of the text; that was determined by a combination of presentation standards, typesetters, typographers, layout designers, and graphical designers. PCs gave writers the power to usurp these other specialist roles. But was that a good thing? Writers are often not good at graphical design, or illustration, or colour choices. But we perform those those tasks because the technology allows it, and we believe if we don't do it, no-one else will.

Technology continues to change, and new technologies, including e-book readers and electronic ink, will force us to rethink our attachment to presentation. When our words are displayed to the reader in many forms, we need to separate the writing process from the publishing process. This means we will need new tools, and focus more of our attention on writing skills rather than word processing and publishing.

Tony Self, from HyperWrite, will present a provocative view of where technical communication is heading, and what we can prepare for new writing approaches. Tony will also brief us on the upcoming WritersUA Conference in the USA in March, and the AODC Conference on the Gold Coast in May. He will introduce us to some of the most talked about ideas and technologies.

Tony Self is a founding partner in HyperWrite Pty Ltd, which was the first hypertext document development company in Australia. Tony has over 25 years documentation experience, including 15 years with online and hypertext documents in WinHelp and HTML formats. He has managed large online documentation projects in Australia and New Zealand. Tony has spoken at conferences in Australia, the United States, Europe, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In addition to consulting, Tony lectures in technical communication at Swinburne University. He is a member of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Technical Committee, and is Chair of the DITA Help Sub-Committee.

Copyright ASTC Vic 2004-2008