Tom Johnson – you probably know Tom from his http://www.idratherbewriting.com/ site. Not only are Tom’s articles helpful to me as a technical writer, they also help me consider areas that I usually tend to avoid. A simple example is his podcasts. I don’t care for these in general but have had second thoughts after seeing how he makes them (i.e. behind the scenes) and how much others value these. Expect to see podcasts on this site soon!

Scott Able – again, you may know Scott, who’s also a budding DK by the way, but it was a comment he made on the (old) site that got me re-thinking about the role of technical writers and their position in the industry. In many ways, it opened my eyes to what I’d overlooked. One of those ‘a-ha’ moments that makes you stop. Scott is here http://thecontentwrangler.com/about-2/ and http://twitter.com/scottabel

Eric Lin – a UK based technical writer who helped me in two ways. One was encouragement. I know that sounds simple but a kind word makes a lot of difference when you’re starting out. Next was criticism. What I mean is that I changed the site (a bit too much) and he wrote in to say why this didn’t work. It wasn’t a rant. What he said made sense and I changed the site back. Other suggestions have made their way into how this site is presented, i..e. offering more than just technical articles but career advice and life-hacking tips. Site under re-development.

Rahul Prabhakar – introduced me to the technical writer’s group in India, though he’s based on Korea. We’ve swapped ideas on Facebook, some fairly active technical writing groups there, and now connect more regularity. I plan to travel to India sometime in late 2010. There is so much happening there that we (me, anyway!) need to see what we can offer, whether it’s strategic advice, training, consultancy or management skills. http://2brahulprabhakar.blogspot.com/

Betsy Weber – the voice of TechSmith! This is the person to connect with if you want to know or do anything with video recording, screen capturing or screen-casting. Betsy is always ‘out there’-as in on the road-so you should be able to link up with here if you’re in the US. She just came back from Europe and even made time for us in little ‘ol Ireland. http://visuallounge.techsmith.com/

Those are some people keeping me on track.

PS – Links to these technical writers’ website are here: http://www.ihearttechnicalwriting.com/2010/01/4-technical-writers-i-love-betsy/

Whom do you recommend?

Developing connections —and giving value to these connections —is an important part of developing your career. How do you go about making these connections and nurturing so that we don’t take them for granted?

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