What we do for a living

[geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]

 Beverley Henderson wondered what techwhirlers do for a
 living apart from documenting computer stuff. I'm a forest
 biologist by training and I work for a company that does
 operational problem-solving for the forest industry.
 Editing technology transfer reports and translating the
 French ones into English, plus dealing with the printer to
 get the reports published, is probably 75% of my daily
 work. The remaining 25% is truly miscellaneous, ranging
 from communications consulting to preparing slide and
 overhead presentations and video scripts. But I also do
 more typical techwhirling, specifically software docs
 (we're doing a computer sensitivity-analysis model for fall
 release) and developing a process for our beta testing
 (first time). I'm also involved in assessing new and
 emerging communication media, most recently in the form of
 consulting on our Web site, which is currently contracted
 out (I designed the image map that tells you where you are
 in the site, and provided much of the content, though I'm
 scared to look and see what the consultant did to it); I
 hope to be working more actively on the site later this
 summer. (No, the Web isn't really "new"; it's just new to
 the forest industry.)

 --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
 Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

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