User:Coaimhin

Who I am
Born, bred and educated in Liverpool, I left the city in the late 70s as an economic refugee because the profession for which I had just spent three years training disappeared from my home town. So, unable to follow the rest of the men of my family into the Merchant Marine, I drifted into computing.

I started out as an engineer but soon discovered I enjoyed describing systems more than building them, so I became a technical writer. It was an inspired move. It was a job that released me from England and enabled me to live and work across Europe, the USA and East Asia. It was also a job that demanded you were always prepared to learn, gain new skills, and network.

What I do
In a career spanning 30 years in the field of Technical Communications I have endeavored to become as good as I can be in what MIT define as, "the art and science of preparing information so that it can be used by human beings with efficiency and effectiveness".

During this career I have been fortunate to have been involved in the processing and presentation of information for some of the best hardware and software teams in industries as diverse as telecommunications, computer networks, data processing, pharmaceutical, biotech, aerospace and financial software.

This experience has given me an extensive working knowledge of single-source publishing, component content management, collaborative authoring, and localization. In addition, through my studies for a Masters in Online and Distance Learning at the Open University I have gained extensive knowledge of Web, e-learning and social network technologies and an understanding of the impact these technologies are having on the Public and Corporate Education sectors, and the opportunities for creative information products this presents.

What I want
My ambition is to use, and share with others, my knowledge and expertise in the technologies, tools and methods for the production of documentation and other technical information products.

Where to find me

 * LinkedIn
 * FaceBook