Forum 2000 4-00 (December 2000) by Hans Springer

 

Preface

New subscribers to the paper version of TC-Forum and visitors to our website might ask "Why is there another magazine for technical communi-cators?" - Here is the answer.

 

The Idea

The original idea of TC-Forum goes back to the Forum conferences, the international conferences for technical communicators. Forum conferences take place every five years, the first one being organized in 1975. They gather more than 350 technical communicators from more than 20 countries in the world. And they follow a most unique formula with a large variety of active and interactive discussion possibilities so that conference delegates become active participants rather than passive listeners.

At the closing session of Forum 95, the keynote speaker Patricia Wright requested the delegates "to take the forum process home into their respective countries" and "to keep the communication process running" rather than waiting another five years to meet at the next Forum conference.

Following this, a small group of active commu-nicators decided to continue this "forum process" in the form of a discussion media on paper where technical communication professionals could discuss their subjects and find answers from readers in other parts of the world without traveling far distances.

Thanks to generous sponsoring of Mercedes Benz AG (nowadays Daimler Chrysler) and some financial means from Forum 95, the first issue of TC-Forum was published and distributed free of charge in January 1997.

 

TC-Forum Today

The Paper Version

Since 1997, TC-Forum has been published four times a year. Currently, about 2300 copies are distributed into 34 countries free of charge. This has been achieved by a honorary "micro-team" that does the editing and organization (Hans Springer, Ron Blicq, Wolfgang Buchholz, and Brigitte Beuttenmueller) and by means of sponsors paying for services like production, printing and distribution: Daimler Chrysler Stuttgart, Reinisch GmbH Bretten, InfoSatz Stuttgart, transline Reutlingen, all in Germany; and Foss Electric in Denmark, ISTC in the UK, RGI in Canada, TechWriters of India in India, IBM Watson Research Institute in the USA and TechStyle in Israel. A generous sponsor was STC in the USA in 1999 when they bridged a financial gap at that time.

All contributions in TC-Forum are made without any payment by subscribers, so that TC-Forum has truly become a forum made by communicators for communicators.

TC-forum is the only independent communication media for technical communicators worldwide. It does not depend on membership in any of the professional organizations and there is no subscription fee.

INTECOM, the international umbrella organization which has professional organizations as members, supports TC-Forum.

The graph illustrates the worldwide distribution of TC-Forum.

 

34 Countries:

Europe: Austria Belgium Denmark Estland Finland France Germany

Greece Irland Italy Luxembourg Norway Portugal Poland Russia

Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland The Netherlands Turkey United Kingdom

America: Brasil Canada USA Africa: Kenia South Africa

Asia: China India Israel Japan Korea Singapore Australia

 

Since TC-Forum is made by its readers, the subjects discussed in TC-Forum are those of most importance to them. To give you an overview, here are the main topics:

Note: The figures in brackets, e.g. (97 - 21) mean: the topic has been discussed since 1997 and has produced 21 contributions since then.

• Controlled Language (97 - 21)
• Translation Issues (97 - 18)
• Readability / Usability / Quality (97 - 22)
• Consulting (97 -7)
• Graphics / Illustrations (97 - 2)
• Tools (97 - 13)
• Education & Training (97 - 5)
• Special Aspects (99 - 17)
• Mailing List Discussions (99 - 3)

• Information about Forum conferences
• News from INTECOM
• International Professional Events

 

The Electronic Version

TC-Forum also has its own website where the full paper versions can be downloaded. There are two main reasons for having the website:

• To reach more readers than those who have actually subscribed to the paper version.
• To overcome the long time interval between dispatch in Europe and arrival in long distance countries, e.g. India and Australia, since TC-Forum can only afford second class postage.

Finally, TC-Forum has accelerated international discussion by operating an electronic mailing list called TCF-GEN. This mailing list has currently about 430 subscribers, it has no moderator, is open to all subscribers of the paper version, and discusses mainly the same topics as the paper version.

 

TC-Forum in Future

TC-Forum has developed from the original idea of bridging the five-year gap between Forum conferences into a communication forum for technical communicators on its own - independent of membership to an organization or business. As intended at its early beginning in 1997, it is and will remain a "forum made by communicators for communicators". TC-Forum contributes to the globalization of technical communicators in their daily work.

Motivated by the high appreciation of the paper version, the TC-Forum team will continue to deliver the magazine free to subscribers provided there will be enough sponsors.