4-99 (December 1999) by Hans Springer

Dear colleagues,

With this issue TC-Forum completes its 3rd year of existence. Who, in 1995, would have anticipated that Forum 95 and the requests made during its closing session - "To keep the Forum-process running" - would result in such a long-lasting and still vivid virtual enterprise, leading right up to the next international conference, Forum 2000.

What have we reached?

Thanks to all authors who have brought their ideas and experience into TC-Forum we have achieved a high reputation presenting lively discussions; discussions that have continued from Forum 95 and have bridged the 5-year gap between two successive Forum conferences. We are proud to have been able to further develop our idea of "a service for technical communicators designed by technical communicators" - as we had envisaged from the very first issue. And we will continue to represent and offer a virtual market place for you: technical communicators: free-lancers, employees or employers.

Thanks to the excellent development of the content and to very generous sponsors we are able to distribute 2200 copies of each edition of TC-Forum free of charge now, widening the audience from 21 countries (present at Forum 95) to 35 countries today. This has helped spread the word about Forum conferences, i.e. the idea of a forum for discussing technical communication subjects, nearly worldwide.

Our first sponsor (Mercedes Benz AG) enabled us to start and survive the first two years. The company, now called DaimlerChrysler is still sponsoring TC-Forum - but we have also found new sponsors. It is a very special honor for us that the world's largest non-profit organization for technical communicators, the American Society for Technical Communication (STC) has sponsored TC Forum in 1999. We owe lots of thanks to other sponsors, too. We sincerely recognize that we would not be able to produce and distribute TC-Forum to you without their support!

In addition to the paper version of TC-Forum, we have also installed two other services:

• Our website www.tc-forum.org contains news for everybody and an archive of previous paper issues. It is intended for technical communicators who do not want to subscribe to the paper version or who want to have the most recent issue prior to the arrival of the paper issue (especially in those parts of the world to which surface mail from Germany may last weeks or even months).
• Our mailing list tcf-gen is the media for fast communication and has been well accepted by approximately 430 subscribers. They use it to obtain information quickly and to pose questions and replies on any topic of interest. They sometimes receive help or answers to their questions within a few hours!.

Now we're facing our next international event: Forum 2000 in London, June 12-14, 2000. Forum 2000 is going to be the Super-Forum-Conference of the new millenium. Make sure you don't miss it. The preliminary program will be available soon. You'll receive it if you're already on our distribution list - if not, you'll find it on our website or on www.istc.org.uk.

Forum 2000 is going to be a superb market-place for technical communicators to present and discuss there ideas. There will be

• more than 60 idea market presentations
• 24 information sessions
• debate sessions
• exhibitions

and a closing panel with internationally-recognized experts on technical communication discussing "International Cross-Cultural Management". They will try to present views on what will happen in technical communication in the years ahead. We intend to include experts from abroad who can't be present physically in London by means of modern electronic techniques.

For now, let me wish you a Merry Christmas and a good start into the new year.

Hans Springer

"transline Deutschland - Übersetzungsdienst für technische Übersetzung"