STC WDC Blog

Posted by Stephen Shankland
November 19, 2007 4:00 AM PST, c|net News

MONTEREY, Calif.—In August, researchers unveiled a new way of shrinking or expanding photos called seam carving. Now it turns out the technique applies to video, too.

Ariel Shamir, a senior lecturer at the Efi Arazi School of Computer Science in Israel and a visiting scientist with Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, showed off the technique at the 6sight digital-imaging conference… The technology analyzes a picture for vertical or horizontal “seams”—the term the researchers use to describe a path traversing the photo where pixels are most like their neighbors and therefore least likely to be missed.

Read the full article…

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Get a jump on your summer training plans—take a look at EEI’s new training schedule. Classes are scheduled through September 2008, so now is the perfect time to think about your training needs and those of your organization. You may view the entire class schedule online and register for the classes you need to be more productive and efficient. Some of the training classes include the following:

• Adobe InDesign
• Adobe Flash
• Digital Video Training
• Microsoft Office
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Podcasting
• Project Management
• XML
• And much more…

For more information and assistance with class selection and budget planning, contact

Bob Payton
EEI Communications
The Publishing Think Tank
Office (703) 683-0683, ext. 238
Toll Free (888) 253-2762, ext. 238
http://www.eeicom.com/training/

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Referendum Approves New Bylaws for STC

The STC 2007 Bylaws Referendum ended at noon EST on November 1, 2007. In total 802 votes were cast. For 775 votes (96.63%); Against 27 votes (3.37%).

The approved Bylaws were amended in March 2008. The March 2008 version of the Bylaws is now available: STC Bylaws, amended March 2008.

The need for amended bylaws was driven by:

• United States Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) requirements. The IRS has tightened up requirements relating to non-profit associations. This has particular importance for communities.
• Compliance with New York state law. STC is incorporated in the state of New York. STC’s bylaws must conform to New York state law.
• A need for streamlining. Numerous additions over the 50-year history of STC made the old bylaws overly complicated.
• A need for clarity. The old bylaws were ambiguous or unclear on some important issues.

The chapter’s current Bylaws will be revised as needed based on the Society’s new Bylaws. The changes will be sent to the Society for review and approval. Chapter members will have the opportunity to review the chapter’s revised Bylaws and vote for final approval within the next few months.

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The AccessAbility SIG has published information about Getting around at the 2008 conference in Philly. It has illustrated directions from the Market East Platform to the PA Convention Center or the Philadelphia Marriott.

For those who are arriving by train at the Amtrak station, there is a note about how to transfer from the Amtrak station to the Market East station. Specifically, Amtrak trains arrive at the 30th Street Station, across town. From there, you have to go outside and down to the Market Street subway, or use the SEPTA (suburban) trains “upstairs” (actually up a ramp) to get to Market
East (at 11th Street).

Whitney Quesenbery added that “These spaces aren’t that complicated, but they are cavernous, with passageways that are a city block long. If you are arriving on Sunday, it might be easier to take a cab. But be warned that on a weekday, you are crossing right through the heart of
center city - so traffic is not fast.”

In addition, Marc Gravez, of the Philadelphia chapter says that finding the elevators is tricky unless you know where they are.

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Call for Papers Deadline Approaching

For the third year in a row, GALA is cooperating with tekom to organize the Localization Forum for the 2008 tekom annual conference and trade fair (tcworld). This year’s conference will take place 5-7 November in Wiesbaden, Germany.

You are cordially invited to submit a presentation or workshop proposal for the Localization Forum. The program will cover high-level management, practical applications, and cultural, or regional issues in the field of translation and localization.

Download the call for papers here: http://www.tekom.de/upload/tagung/2008%20tcworld_CFP.pdf
Download the application form here: http://www.tekom.de/upload/tagung/2008%20tcworld%20application%20form.rtf

Deadline for submissions: 5 May 2008

About GALA

GALA is an international nonprofit association that promotes translation services, language technology, and language management solutions. The member companies worldwide include translation companies, localization service providers, globalization consultants, internationalization specialists, and technology developers. GALA companies share a commitment to quality, service, and innovation in helping clients reach global markets. GALA is cooperating with tekom as organizer of the tcworld Localization Forum.

About tekom

tekom is the largest professional association for technical communication and information development in Europe. Visit http://www.tekom.de.

For additional information:
E-mail: info@gala-global.org
URL: http://www.gala-global.org

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Our chapter’s volunteers work hard to increase the value of chapter and STC membership by providing networking and learning opportunities, organizing competitions, communicating career information and job opportunities, and much more.

Meet us at Rí Rá Irish Pub in Bethesda, MD luncheon and help us thank this year’s volunteers, install our new officers, and reveal the winner of the Distinguished Chapter Service Award. Come celebrate all of these people with us and get to know some of your fellow chapter members.

Our generous buffet lunch includes the following items:

• Potato & Leek Soup: A traditional soup of puréed leek and potato finished with cream
• Pub Salad: Field greens, carrot, cucumber, tomato, red onion, and bell pepper with herb vinaigrette
• Classic Caesar: Crisp romaine tossed with our house dressing, croutons, and parmesan cheese
• Savory Roast Turkey: Boneless turkey rubbed with herbs and served with home-style gravy
• Roast Atlantic Salmon Fillet: Brushed with olive oil, garlic and thyme with a light lobster sherry sauce
• Pasta Primavera: Select vegetables sautéed with garlic & basil oil served over gemmelli pasta
• Roasted Red Bliss Potato: Rosemary and thyme seasoned Red Bliss potato
• Rí Rá Rice Pilaf: A savory blend of rice, fresh herbs and sautéed onion and leeks
• Warm Apple Crisp: Baked sweetened apples with an oatmeal crisp topping served with fresh whipped cream

Please register and pay (cost is $10-20 based on membership status) by 9:30 PM Tuesday, May 13.

Driving directions and a map

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STC member, Sarah Horton, wrote about accessibility and the Web in her book “Access by Design”. There is an excellent book review on the SAP Design Guild site at
http://www.sapdesignguild.org/community/book_people/review_acc_design.asp.

The review is a thorough discussion of the book and the whole reason for the book. It might even inspire you when you think about writing a book review.

If this book catches your fancy, why not shop for it through the WDC chapter’s aStore at http://astore.amazon.com/stcwashindcch-20 in the Books section and earn a little bit for the chapter’s scholarship fund? Browse the list of books we recommend at http://www.stcwdc.org/refbooks-1_answer.shtml.

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STC member, Frank M. Palinkas, has developed a new Fast Track tutorial, which is free to the technical writing, user assistance, accessibility and web design communities. The tutorial was presented at the 2008 WritersUA Annual Conference in March at Portland, Oregon. This tutorial demonstrates how to create the accessible, static Navigation section on the left side of each web page in the tutorial using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Source Code Editors. The objective is to build
* a valid, semantic, navigation Structure layer according to current web standards;
* a valid navigation Presentation layer to accompany the structure layer;
* full accessibility for all users in the structure and presentation layers;
* static navigation without employing the Behavior (unobtrusive DOM/JavaScript) layer (i.e., expand/contract).

Online Tutorial: View tutorial
Download:
static_zip - Download the zipped project folder.
staticCODE_zip - Download the zipped code file.

Frank authors all markup, presentation, behavior code and content using Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2005 Team System IDE source code editors for XHTML, CSS, and Unobtrusive DOM/JavaScript. The CSS is the CSS 2.1 Liquid Box Model for layout/presentation. Frank built fully accessible static navigation for mouse and keyboard into every web page. Each Web page illustrates the complete separation of Structure/Content (XHTML), Presentation (CSS), and Behavior (Unobtrusive DOM/JavaScript), the semantic nature of the content/markup relationship, and the application of accessibility attributes and values according to the U.S. Govt. Section 508 Rules of the ADA and the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 - Level Double A.

Frank is an American, working in South Africa as a Senior Technical Communicator/Web Standards and Accessibility Designer, and holds the following concurrent Microsoft Certifications: MCP, MCT, MCSE and MCDBA. He also holds the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award in the Windows Help product area. His technical writing incorporates web standards, accessibility, and semantics. He uses Helpware FAR HTML for the creation of MSHelp1 and MSHelp2 documentation packages and executables.

More of Frank’s Fast Track tutorials are available on his Web site at http://frank.helpware.net and on the Dev Opera site at http://dev.opera.com/author/947856.

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Sharing this news release from the National Association of the Deaf. The third bullet, about this applying to Internet-based video programming, could have implications for webcasts and e-Learning.
_______________________________________

NAD Supports Draft Legislation to Ensure Access to Technology

SILVER SPRING, MD - The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) announced its support of a recently released U.S. House of Representatives discussion draft, titled “21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act”. This draft, if passed, would upgrade telecommunications laws to mandate access to current and future cutting edge technologies.

Through its leadership in the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT) (www.coataccess.org), the NAD has been working with Congress on this draft for many months and is pleased with its release.

Since the early 1990s, federal law has required accessibility features and services such as telecommunications relay services, captioning decoder circuitry in televisions, and closed captioning for television programming. While these requirements have served the deaf and hard of hearing community well, they have not kept pace with, nor have been updated to apply to, newer technologies such as mobile devices or the Internet. As a result, deaf and hard of hearing individuals now are experiencing decreased access to telecommunications devices and services. This draft U.S. House of Representatives bill would amend the Communications Act to remedy this lack of access. Among other things, it would:
- Expand the scope of devices that must display closed captions. Today, television sets with screens that are 13 inches or larger must be capable of displaying captions, but other devices do not have to meet this requirement. Under this draft, captioning requirements would apply to all devices (regardless of screen size) that display video programming transmitted simultaneously with sound, including those that display programming carried over the Internet.
- Clarify that video programming includes what is provided by or comparable to that provided by a television broadcast station, even if the programming is distributed over the Internet. Current captioning requirements apply only to broadcast, cable, or satellite programming. This new provision would have the effect of extending captioning requirements to comparable programming shown over the Internet.
- Require manufacturers of devices used to display video programming, including those that are Internet-based, to ensure that these devices are accessible by people with disabilities. Manufacturers also would be required to provide a conspicuous means of accessing closed captioning, including a button on remote controls and first level access to this feature when available through on-screen menus.
“Deaf and hard of hearing consumers are tired of being denied access to today’s technologies because these have not been created with accessibility in mind,” remarked NAD President Bobbie Beth Scoggins. “If passed, this draft bill will remedy many of the problems we have had with telecommunications access. It simply is not acceptable to leave out 30-plus million deaf and hard of hearing people from access to cutting-edge telecommunications devices and services. The NAD urges U.S. Congressional members to take decisive action to close the digital divide in an expeditious manner.”
________________________________________
About the NAD

Established in 1880, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) safeguards the civil, human, and language rights of deaf and hard of hearing Americans, including recognition and usage of American Sign Language (ASL). As a federation of national, state, and local affiliates, and individual members, the work of the NAD encompasses a broad range of advocacy issues including, but not limited to early intervention, education, emergency access, employment, health care, mental health, technology, telecommunications, and transportation - toward creation of a barrier-free, respectful, and welcoming environment that is mutually benefits all involved. For more information about the NAD, visit www.nad.org.

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Researchers believe it could be time to build a successor to the internet.
by Bobbie Johnson
http://www.guardian.co.uk, Wednesday August 1 2007

How do you cut online crime, tackle child pornography, halt crippling viruses and get rid of spam? The answers could lie in a £200m successor to the Internet that computer experts are already referring to as the next rendition of the virtual world.

Researchers in the US want at least $350m (£175m) to build the Global Environment for Network Innovations (Geni), touted by some as the possible replacement for today’s Internet. In Europe, similar projects are under way as part of the EU’s Future and Internet Research (Fire) programme, which is expected to cost at least £27m.
Read more…

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