Tweet at us now – Sydney technical communicators meeting at Atlassian on 4 May
The next meeting of the Sydney CBD technical communicators group is on Wednesday 4 May. This month it will happen at the Atlassian offices, and I’ll be presenting a session on Twitter in and around your documentation. Can you come? Lunch is on the house! Even if you’re not in Sydney, it would be great if you can tweet at us: #SydneyTechComm. Tweet now, or any time before the meeting. I’d love to show the group a stream of tweets from technical communicators all over the world.
Thank you to Bede Sunter for all his hard work in arranging these great monthly sessions! He has asked me to speak this month, and we’re holding the session at the Atlassian offices.
Date and time: Wednesday 4 May, 12:30 to 1:30pm.
Place: Atlassian offices, 173-185 Sussex Street, Sydney. (Google maps.)
Lunch: Free. Thank you Atlassian!
Who can come: Anyone interested in technical communication.
RSVP: Drop a comment on this blog post, and I’ll email you.
The presentation
You can download the presentation from SlideShare.
I’ll give a talk about using Twitter in and around your documentation.
A little bird told me… about a good page in your user guide
What’s all the fuss about Twitter, and how can I get involved? Do I even want to? In this session, Sarah will give a quick introduction to Twitter and the conventions that have sprung up in the tweeting community. Then we’ll see how we can use this new medium in and around our documentation:
- Twitter as a medium for release notes.
- Encouraging your readers/customers to tweet hints and tips.
- Building interaction into your documentation pages.
Come along, bring your smart phones and your clever quips. Let’s get social. 🙂
I’m trying something new, in that I’ve already published the slides on SlideShare. This means you can have a look even before the session happens. Let me know if you like seeing the slides early!
Tweet hello to the Sydney technical communicators
At the session I’ll be introducing a number of people to Twitter.
- If you’re planning to come, tweet now.
- Even if you’re not in Sydney, it would be great if you can tweet at us. I’d love to show the group a stream of tweets from technical communicators all over the world. You can tweet now if you like — the tweets will show up in the Twitter stream next week too.
If you haven’t used Twitter before, you can sign up for a free account at the Twitter website . You can use any name you like. It doesn’t have to be a real name.
Say hello and tell us where in the world you are, using this hash tag:
#SydneyTechComm
Some example tweets:
Looking forward to the Sydney tech communicators meeting on 4 May http://bit.ly/iEzdkV #SydneyTechComm
Sydney technical communicators tweetup 4 May FTW http://bit.ly/iEzdkV #SydneyTechComm
Hello Sydney technical writers! From a chilly Mark Twain in San Francisco #SydneyTechComm
😉
Let me know if you can come or if you can tweet
Add a comment to this post, if you like. I’d love to see you there, or see your tweet!
Posted on 28 April 2011, in atlassian, technical writing and tagged ASTC (NSW), atlassian, social media, Sydney technical communicators group, technical communication, technical writing, Twitter. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
ffeathers 
Looking for an introduction to Twitter? I wrote a post a while ago that has a fairly thorough introduction at the beginning:
Cheers, Sarah
I’m not a technical communicator by title but your ideas and your enthusiasm are really inspiring. If I were at least in the same hemisphere – I’d definitely come! 🙂
Hallo sasha
Ha ha, I wish you were in the same hemisphere too! Thank you for the lovely words. 🙂
Cheers, Sarah
Hi, I’m in the right hemisphere and would love to participate at this event! – Frank
Hallo Frank
That’s great! I’ll email you too. Looking forward to seeing you at Atlassian tomorrow.
Cheers
Sarah
Hallo all
Update:
The Twitter API has changed, meaning that we need to change the URL that we use for auto-tweeting links. The changes seem to require the following:
1) Remove the word “home” from the URL. Instead of this:
“http://twitter.com/home?status=My status”
It’s now this:
“http://twitter.com/?status=My status”
2) If you URL-encoded your message, then you need to get rid of all the plus signs but leave the special characters encoded. So, instead of this:
“My+status+encoded+%23techcomm”
You’d now have this:
“My status encoded %23techcomm”
Here’s a full example of something that works. Let’s say you want to tweet “My status encoded #techcomm”. This is your URL:
“http://twitter.com/?status=My status encoded %23techcomm”
Cheers, Sarah