1-00 (March 2000) by Hans Springer

Dear colleagues,

With the last issue of 1999 we regrettably experienced some problems:

• The invitation to "Join Forum 2000" (on page 14) was inadvertently misprinted, with half of the original text being lost. So in this issue we are printing an amended article by Gerry Gentle.
• On the second page of Udith Chaudhuri’s article (on page 19) we unwittingly committed a serious mistake: we used an incorrect map of the Indian subcontinent as background. We deeply regret this error and extend our apologies to Udith Chaudhuri.

Now we have arrived in a New Century. Looking into the near future, many of our views and expectations are focussed on Forum 2000 - the most important event of the current year for technical communicators and their societies within INTECOM.

Knowing we will have over 90 activators from 10 countries leads us to expect it to be a very stimulating conference. There are also other highlights being offered in other parts of the conference programme.

In the long term it is interesting and stimulating to discuss the further development of technical communication from different viewpoints: an examination of the status of TC in society; the design and development processes of hardware, software, and user interface; job descriptions of different branches or levels of technical communicators; and, of course, the availability of education for technical communicators and international acknowledgement of its certificates, diplomas, and degrees. Therefore we will give these aspects special weight in TC-FORUM.

In this issue two papers - by Julie Fisher (Australia) and Peter Ring (Denmark) - deal with this subject. Wouldn't it be great to have your opinions, remarks, expectations and proposals for the further development of technical communication published in our mailing list and/or in the next issues of TC-FORUM?

Incidentally, the June issue of TC-FORUM will be distributed to all participants attending Forum 2000, which will provide additional opportunities to discuss your views face-to-face with your colleagues from around the world.

Many thanks to the sponsors who have enabled us during the past year to continue publishing and distributing TC-FORUM free of charge. Many thanks, too, to all those who tackled the distribution (and paid for the postage) in their respective countries: Canada, Denmark, Great Britain, India, Israel and USA. Can you help us find sponsors for the distribution of copies in the other countries, where currently we have to mail them individually?

With best wishes
Hans Springer  

"transline Deutschland - Übersetzungsdienst für technische Übersetzung"