Professional Organizations for Practicing Technical Communicators

Note: The following links are by no means a complete. To recommend additions or changes, contact David A. McMurrey.

• Society for Technical Communications (STC). An association that includes writers, editors, indexers, illustrators, printers, publishers, educators, students, engineers, and scientists employed in a variety of technological fields.

• ACM SIGGRAPH Home Page. The Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics.

• ACM SIGLINK Home Page. The Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on HyperText/HyperMedia.

• ACM SIGMM Home Page. The Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group for Multimedia.

• ACM SigDOC Home Page. The Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group for Documentation.

• ACM SigCHI Home Page. The Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction.

• American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). A professional association for graphic designers.

• Association for Women in Communications. Advocates free press, gender equity and high professional standards and offers a variety of news and services for AWC members, including on-line networking and job searching. (Take a look at AWC's Job Connections page.)

• American Society of Indexers (ASI). A professional association for indexers.

• Usability Professionals Association. Information on usability conferences, resources, and usability consultants. In particular, check UPA's resource list.

• American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). The professional association in the field of workplace learning and performance.

• Society for Intercultural Education Training and Research (SIETAR). An Arizona State organization.

• IEEE Professional Communications Society (IEEE PCS). One of the technical groups within the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the Professional Communication Society (PCS) focuses on the core competency of communication in its membership by exploring the theory and application of all forms of communication technology.

• Graphics, Visualization, & Usability Center. Located at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a center for developing of new technologies in graphics, visualization and usability and for finding better ways to communicate information between people and between computers and people.

• Jakob Nielsen's Usable Information Technology Site. Plentiful information, opinions, and links to usability issues.

• Graphic Communication Association (GCA). A volunteer non-profit membership association devoted to applying computer technology to printing, publishing, and related industries. GCA developed the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), from which the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) are derived.

• American Medical Writers Association. Founded in 1940 to help biomedical communicators construct more effective communications. See AMWA's excellent collection of medical- and writing-related links.

• National Association of Science Writers. Its charter is to foster the dissemination of accurate information regarding science through all media normally devoted to informing the public.

• Society for Environmental Journalism. The mission of the Society of Environmental Journalists is to advance public understanding of environmental issues by improving the quality, accuracy, and visibility of environmental reporting.

• International Interactive Communications Society . Dedicated to the advancement of interactive systems and the people who produce them, with members coming from a wide variety of multimedia-related fields and applications.

• Usability Professionals' Association. Provides a forum to promote usability concepts and techniques worldwide and an opportunity to network with other usability professionals on the web and at the annual conference.

• Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Promotes the discovery and exchange of knowledge concerning the characteristics of human beings that are applicable to the design of systems and devices of all kinds.

  
  
  
  

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