A Digg for Technical Communicators

Tom Johnson of IWBW has created a social news service for Technical Communicators.

I’ve been a long-time reader of Digg.com, but just last week it dawned on me that it would be really great if there were a Digg-like site for technical communication. So I decided to create one. It’s called WriterRiver.com and it’s pretty much a Digg clone, except that the entire focus is on articles related to technical communicators.

Great idea, Tom, and thanks! Everyone head on over to WriterRiver, register a witty username, & start participating.

Hmmm… now, the question remains: how do we verb-ificate WriterRiver? With Digg.com, we have “digg me,” or “I dug the site.” So, with WR… do we “WR me,” or perhaps “send me down the river? (up the river?)” Any ideas?

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Tech writer launches class action lawsuit against Sun Microsystems

A former technical writer for Sun Microsystems has filed a class action lawsuit against Sun, claiming that writers are unfairly assigned exempt status.

Dani Hoenemier says she worked long days as a technical writer for Sun Microsystems, sometimes spending over 60 hours a week at her computer when the company was preparing a new product release.

Sun’s technical writers may earn salaries of $100,000 a year, but they don’t get overtime pay for the extra hours, according to Hoenemier’s attorney, who is challenging the company’s practice of treating Hoenemier and about 300 other writers as exempt from state labor laws governing overtime and breaks.

Wow - a single technical writer (that the company calls “disgruntled”) managed to create this firestorm of controversy. I don’t get it. Most technology workers, including writers, are exempt (I have exempt status). It’s a fairly standard way of doing things nowadays. Everyone knows this before they sign an employment contract.

I’ve heard (through private channels) of at least one Sun employee who expressed frustration at how the lawsuit might negate a long-term effort by the writers to get themselves recognized as professionals on their own merits. I’m sure it goes without saying that this is probably a common frustration among the writers — hence why the article goes on to say:

Many of the writers don’t want to be hourly workers and have declined to cooperate with the lawsuit, Sun said in a statement. In court, Sun argued the case should not be a class action because the writers don’t have uniform duties.

Superior Court Judge Jack Komar disagreed, although he ordered Hoenemier’s attorneys to find a second employee willing to be named as a plaintiff in the case.

If the lawsuit continues, Sun could be out well over $20 million in back pay, which might just be enough to kill the company outright. And then what kind of backlash against tech writers would ensue…?

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Unrelated ramblings

OK, so I haven’t been around here much, but that’s not totally my fault. I blame it on overtime at work, a short vacation to Virginia, and a healthy dose of using my spare time to pwn N00bs on Mario Kart Wii.**

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**My MK friend code is 2535-4142-7883. Post your code in the comments, load me up, & let’s meet on WFC!
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But you can always get your monkey fix by following me on Twitter. You are twittering, aren’t you? What kind of web two-dot-oh person are you if you’re not microblogging? Why, it might even keep you out of a middle east prison someday.

Matthew Ellison has published a comprehensive review of the most popular screen capture tools.

Finally, the Buttonmasher sent in another puzzling infographic for us to consider:

So… I guess it’s okay for me to park my giraffe inside this garage, then?

Stick figures in Peril

Most Awesome. Images. Ever.

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(And like everything else on Flickr, they’re even better when you use Pic Lens to browse the hilarity.)

H/T: the incomparable Christie

If Monty Python designed logos

“Yessir, the new logo for Her Majesty’s Office of Government Commerce is nearly complete, eh? Certainly fetching, if I do say so meself. Mmm-hm.”

“A quite fine job, Baskins. Your mum should be quite proud, you’ve - ‘allo ‘allo ‘allo… what’s this?!? What’s this all about? Baskins, did you take at look at this, you know, as they say, ‘on it’s side?’ ”

“No, sir, I ‘aven’t… what do you OH BLOODY MERCIFUL HEAVENS!!”

“Do you mean to tell me that we just spent £14,000 to develop this… this… low-go, and that you intend me to provide this to Her Majesty’s office on monetary oversight with a straight face?”

“Well, sir, it certainly conveys that the council has a grip on wasteful spending! Haugh!

“Mm. Quite right, quite right. Maybe they won’t notice.”

“Oy! Of course not! Let’s celebrate with a warm pint, shall we?”

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