Israel rates as one of the highest per-capita technology consumers in the world, but its actual market size is small, as the total population is only about six million. This means that most high tech companies here must find additional markets outside of Israel. Therefore, most technical writing is in English, which is accepted in many countries and is also a more practical source language (for localization) than Hebrew.

The demand for English-language documentation means that most TCs in Israel are originally from English-speaking countries. Many of them retrained as TCs simply because of their English skills. However, as the high tech market has become more sophisticated and demanding, employers have begun to expect professionalism and technical expertise from their TCs. In return, TCs earn respectable salaries and are treated on par with the engineering staff.

This increased respect and recognition exists only within the high tech community; outside of it, few people have heard of our profession or understand what it is. One colleague had difficulty convincing an insurance clerk that a TC was not a secretary!

One side effect of the demand for TCs has been an increase in the number of courses in technical communication. This has led to a surplus of people trying to break into the profession, causing fierce competition for entry-level positions.

The Israeli TC community has several special strengths:

• People are willing to help others getting started in the field, with more experienced writers providing informal mentoring to novices. There is a very active local list server for TC issues.
• Israeli TCs are serious about professional development, skills, tools, and keeping up with changes in the industry.
• The TC community is still small enough that people know each other. This means that an incompetent TC cannot easily hide.
• Israel has one of the highest per capita rates of TCs in the world.

Our cultural environment leads to several interesting challenges:

• We write in English and speak in Hebrew, as Hebrew is the common language among engineers who may have grown up speaking Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, or any of a dozen other languages. In addition, we often have overseas customers or business associates with whom we speak English.
• We deal with multiculturalism. As a country of immigrants, we must learn to communicate among ourselves as well as to the outside world. Many Israeli companies now train their engineers how to behave when working on projects in other countries.
• We are geographically remote from our markets. Customers in the US are seven-to-ten hours behind us, making it difficult to coordinate conference calls and meetings.

STC Israel dates back to the 1960s. For almost 30 years, our chapter remained small (fewer than 20 members throughout the country) and sometimes went through periods of near-dormancy. During the active periods, however, we were often on the cutting edge of both technical and professional development. For example, our chapter sponsored the first word processing and DTP conferences in Israel.

In 1994, our chapter began to grow and enjoy increased activity. We now have just over 100 members, making us the third largest chapter outside of North America (only France and Japan have larger chapters). The chapter is very active:

• About every two months we host an event with one or more local or overseas speakers. Events—panel discussions, lectures, or informal presentations—are grouped around a theme, ranging from new tools and technology to management issues. They are held in the late afternoon or early evening and are open to everyone; non-STC members pay a small fee (about 4.2 euros) while STC members attend free.
• Our newsletter, i-contact, was redesigned two years ago. We are also starting to place some of the newsletter articles on our Web site.
• This year we are planning a major membership drive using a Hebrew-language brochure targeting R&D managers and personnel directors.
• We are also hosting our first-ever international competitions (Technical Publications, Online Communication, and Technical Art); our president, Mark Levinson, was one of the judges of the final entries at last year’s international competition in Houston.

I have watched our profession mature here over the past seven years. I predict continued growth in the field, but with higher expectations on the part of employers (specifically in areas of technical skills and tool experience). I also predict that STC Israel will continue to grow in the coming years.

I hope to meet more of our international colleagues at conferences and through other venues such as this. For more information about TC in Israel, or about STC Israel, please contact me