Martin Cid's Blog: Martin Cid Magazine, page 1056
June 22, 2016
IGEL Technology Enhances the Functionality of Software and Hardware Thin Clients
Multi display using IGEL UDC
New update supports mobile broadband connectivity, management of up to four displays through the IGEL Universal Desktop Converter (UDC), and expands multimedia capabilities
Reading, UK. June 22, 2016 – IGEL Technology, a world leader in the delivery of powerful workspace management software, software-defined thin clients, and thin and zero client solutions, today announced that it has enhanced the functionality of its Linux-based software and hardware thin clients with a update that supports mobile broadband connectivity and multi-display management, and expands multimedia capabilities.
“At IGEL Technology, we are always looking for ways to add new features and functionality that enhance the desktop computing experience for end-users, and make it easier for IT organizations to manage workspaces across the enterprise,” said Simon Richards, IGEL Managing Director for the UK & Ireland. “With the new high-performance computing and advanced multimedia capabilities now available through our latest Linux update, we are ensuring that our Linux-based software and hardware thin clients meet the requirements of our end-user customers today, and well into the future.”
Some of the new features and functionality now available with IGEL’s Linux-based software and hardware thin clients, include:
• Mobile Broadband Connectivity. Customer demand for the ability to connect IGEL thin clients to centralized IT infrastructure via a mobile broadband connection, instead of the traditional Ethernet network, drove the integration of a 4G wireless card. Now, end-users can simply and securely connect their IGEL software and hardware thin clients using a Huawei E3531 HSPA+ mobile broadband USB drive, which can be purchased separately.
• Multi-Display Management. Many users within vertical markets, including financial services and healthcare, are increasing their reliance on multiple desktop displays. To meet this growing customer demand for multi-display support, IGEL has integrated a Radeon R7 250 Eyefinity 4 graphics card into its Universal Desktop Converter (UDC 2) software. Now, up to four displays can be conveniently managed through the IGEL Universal Management Suite 5 (UMS 5) software.
• Expanded Multimedia Capabilities. Due to the growing use of HTML5 programming languages to develop websites, IGEL has added an optional multimedia codec pack that includes the latest version of the AAC audio code to ensure quick and easy playback of HTML5-based YouTube videos in MP4 format.
The new update also includes a trial of IGEL’s HDX 3D Pro hardware acceleration software. Designed for high-performance workstations operating within Citrix environments, HDX 3D Pro can easily be managed via the IGEL UMS.
EASY Wins At The Storage Awards For Tenth Year In A Row
EASY and the coveted 11th Storrie
EASY wins key industry recognition for the contribution of its EASY for Exchange at the premier annual event for the UK storage industry, the Storage Awards
Bury St Edmunds, UK, June 21, 2016 – EASY SOFTWARE UK, Europe’s leading supplier of document management solutions, has once again triumphed at this year’s Storage Awards, coming top against stiff competition in the ‘Bench Test Product of the Year’ category with its EASY for Exchangesolution.
EASY for Exchange supports automatic, rule-based and user-centric archiving scenarios, and offers customers increased data security and compliance peace of mind – and by integration with the latest Microsoft technologies, EASY for Exchange supports users in implementing comprehensive e-mail management and archiving solutions.
Howard Frear, Director of Sales and Marketing at EASY, commented: “We’re thrilled to have won a prestigious ‘Storrie’ Award for the tenth year running; we’d like to thank everyone who voted for us and, of course, everyone who uses our solutions.
“By working with the product, customers are ‘winning’, too – as EASY for Exchange means that increasing amounts of data is no longer a challenge, because the software simply evolves with the enterprise as it grows.
“This brings EASY’s total number of Storries to eleven over ten years, which is very gratifying. But of course, we won’t be resting on our laurels – we’ll be trying even harder to keep up the good work for the next ten years to come.”
The Storage Awards, running for 13 years, includes 30 categories which are voted for by thousands of Storage Magazine readers to reward the outstanding products, services and people in the industry. The 2016 Storage Awards were held in London’s Grand Connaught Rooms in London’s Covent Garden on June 16th.
More information about the awards can be found at www.storagemagazine.co.uk/storageawards/@STMagAndAwards #Storries
About EASY SOFTWARE UK
EASY SOFTWARE, founded in 1990 and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, is Europe’s leading provider of integrated document management technologies. With more than 12,000 customers worldwide, global and local companies alike now rely on EASY’s comprehensive suite of scaleable document technologies to automate business processes, improve productivity and boost efficiency, as well as meet increasing regulatory requirements.
EASY promotes it extensive suite of document management solutions both directly and indirectly through a network of 200-plus global sales partners. More than 100 software development companies have created interfaces to EASY ENTERPRISE™, the company’s flagship solution.
EASY SOFTWARE is also a Microsoft Gold Independent Software Vendor (ISV) as well as being the second largest provider of SAP archiving solutions worldwide.
EASY is headquartered in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr, with further offices and subsidiaries throughout Germany, Austria, the USA, Singapore, Turkey and the UK. More information on EASY’s UK subsidiary can be found athttp://www.easysoftware.co.uk
Vasculitis Charity Races to £500K with 5K Walk and Run
Grant, Adrienne and Lauren Currie
On Saturday 25 June from 11:00 AM the Lauren Currie Twilight Foundation will be holding their annual charity 5K Walk and Run at Dean Castle Country Park, Dean Rd, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire KA3 1XB.
The run is a great opportunity to have fun with friends and family, stay healthy and help raise money for a great cause. As well as increasing awareness of vasculitis, money raised will continue to fund the patient support services the charity provides as well as the funding research into this rare illness. The charity organises quarterly patient support groups in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh and also funds respite breaks at The Twilight Cabin in Argyllshire.
The Lauren Currie Twilight Foundation 5K Walk and Run will be taking place at the historical Dean Castle Country Park in Kilmarnock, the hometown of the charity’s founders Grant and Adrienne Currie.
The Lauren Currie Twilight Foundation was created by Grant and Adrienne following the death of their 15-year old daughter and only child Lauren in 2010. Lauren had suffered from Wegener’s granulomatosis, a variant of the auto-immune disease vasculitis.
Lauren’s condition was only diagnosed in the final hours of her life and her parents realised that, with earlier diagnosis, her life could have been saved.
Grant Currie said, “It’s shocking how little is known about vasculitis.
“If vasculitis is detected earlier the outcomes for patients can be greatly improved. The Lauren Currie Twilight Foundation strives to raise the profile of vasculitis within the medical community and the general public. Encouraging earlier diagnosis will reduce cases of severe organ damage and save lives.
“Events such as our 5K Walk and Run are important to help raise awareness of vasculitis and support those who have been affected by the disease.
“We are looking forward to seeing everyone who comes along to support our campaign and raise awareness of vasculitis!”
The charity is happy to collaborate with other charities that support the fight against vasculitis, including those in the United States.
The event is free to enter and registration can be completed online at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/vasculitis-awareness-fun-run-… .
Event Details:
Dean Castle Country Park, Dean Rd, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire KA3 1XB
Saturday 25 June, 11:00 AM
If you would like to know more about the foundation’s work, you can see Dr Hilary Jones talk about the charity here: http://www.thelaurencurrietwilightfoundation.org/patrons.htm…
Links:
LCFT Website: http://www.thelaurencurrietwilightfoundation.org/
LCFT Respite: http://www.thelaurencurrietwilightfoundation.org/lctf-cabin-…
Entry: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/vasculitis-awareness-fun-run-…
June 21, 2016
Law Business to Boom in Event of ‘Leave’ Vote
Justin Urquhart Stewart and Peter Duff
Legal expert and UK200Group Executive Board Member Peter Duff has forecast that, in the case of Britain leaving the European Union, lawyers will be busy as our government and businesses adapt to being outside of the trade bloc.
“As a lawyer, it appears to me that the legal profession will have a boom time in the event of Britain leaving the EU – whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, I’ll leave you to judge. It’s clear that the new trade deals that are going to be put in place will need to be negotiated. Apparently the UK government has 30 staff in the relevant department and New Zealand has 300 staff in that department, so they’re going to be outsourcing that and lawyers are the natural people to outsource that to.
“We also have the existing contracts that our businesses have with the EU countries, which have been negotiated against a backdrop of European law. If we remove ourselves from the European system of law there’s going to be some sort of conflict and again, lawyers will slot in to resolve that conflict.
“There’s also the questions of if we leave we can no longer appeal to the European Court, then the Supreme Court will be indeed supreme. There will be a rush of cases going to the Supreme Court to overcome what we don’t like about the European Court so there’s going to be quite a lot of business for lawyers.”
Peter Duff, who is a Partner at Glasgow-based Morisons LLP, was speaking as the UK200Group – the UK’s leading membership association of quality-assured independent chartered accountancy and law firms – published a report detailing the top 30 EU Referendum questions asked by SMEs and the respective answers of the official Remain and Leave campaigns.
The UK200Group compiled the questions in order to address a lack of clarity about how remaining or leaving the EU would affect the small business community.
Collectively, the UK200Group’s members support over 150,000 SMEs, and the questions put to Britain Stronger in Europe and Vote Leave were all sourced from the association’s members and their clients.
The briefing, which took place at the offices of Seven Investment Management, was chaired by futurologist and author Dr James Bellini, who spent 25 years in the broadcasting industry presenting programmes such as The Money Programme, Newsnight and Panorama, and as a studio presenter with Financial Times Television and Sky News.
Dr Bellini was joined by a panel of business leaders, including Seven Investment Management’s Justin Urquhart Stewart, Co-Founder and Head of Corporate Development, a renowned market commentator who launched Seven Investment Management with a group of colleagues in 2001.
Justin said, “There is one word that runs any economy – and that is confidence.
“We need confidence so that – consumers buy “stuff”, confidence so that companies invest in capacity and innovation and we need confidence so that overseas investors keep buying our debt to finance our deficit.
“Any wobble in confidence will easily unnerve that confidence, and that could frighten consumers, companies and investors into holding back. Such nerves could increase the cost and potentially lose much of the potential financial benefit that many have hoped for.
“Whatever your views, the effect of this vote is fundamental to the successful functioning of the UK economy.
“Our politicians are playing with fire – and whatever the outcome some of them will suffer the consequences. They may be fired with enthusiasm, but we will end up firing many of them – and with even more enthusiasm.
“We at 7IM have a great weight of responsibility to our investing clients, and regard this as possibly the most important issue we have had to address for them.”
The UK200Group was represented by some of its most senior members, including its President, James Abbott. James founded Abbott Moore LLP – an accountancy firm based in Bedfordshire – in 2012.
Peter Duff is an expert in business law and brought a uniquely Scottish viewpoint to the discussion.
Debra Dougal of Haslers Accountants also joined the panel. Debra has great experience of VAT consultancy, especially with regard to the property and construction industries.
The UK200Group, which was established in 1986, represents a group of trusted, quality-assured business advisers – accountants and lawyers – who have over 150,000 SME clients in total. As such, the UK200Group acts as the voice for 1,500 charities, over 10% of all registered academies, more than 3,700 farms, 800 healthcare businesses and over 500 property and construction professionals.
A video of the media briefing can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-fHaWkALac .
A full copy of the report can be found here:http://www.uk200group.co.uk/web/FILES/EU_Questions_answers_v…
Useful links:
The UK200Group: http://www.uk200group.co.uk/
Campaign for Clarity 30 Questions and Answers report:http://www.uk200group.co.uk/web/FILES/EU_Questions_answers_v…
Morisons LLP: http://www.morisonsllp.com/
Seven Investment Management: http://www.7im.co.uk/
Dr James Bellini: http://www.jamesbellini.com/
Britain Stronger in Europe: http://www.strongerin.co.uk/
Vote Leave: http://www.voteleavetakecontrol.org/
Los Angeles Exhibitions. DAC Gallery
Carlos Beltran. Container. 24x24x2. Mixed Media
Los Angeles, CA (June 13, 2016) – The Downtown Art Center (DAC) Gallery is pleased to announce a summer group show which brings together twelve distinctive practices which attend to shifting forms of corporeal, architectural, and socio-structural contours.
Hailing from a variety of studio and new media backgrounds, and employing a myriad of differing conceptual and aesthetic strategies, this select group of artists and their respective works speak to each other through their attention to the contingent relationships between human cognition and the precariousness of organic and artificial
environments. Implicitly or explicitly, each artist’s practice touches upon an underlying and timeless sense of ambivalence in regards to their psychic and spatial relationships to the materiality of the world, negotiating an enduring yet seemingly urgent sense of estrangement between the spheres of order we construct and those that are beyond our control.
The Summer Group Show will run from July 14th through September 1st, an opening reception will take place on Saturday, July 16th from 6-9PM. The gallery will be open for the July Downtown L.A. Artwalk, on Thursday, July 14th from 11AM-8PM.
Artists: Anna Bae, Carlos Beltran, Jieun Cha, John Cuevas, Meryl Engler, Jeremy Fraser, Shelley Kommers, Autumn Lundberg, Cody Lusby, Naureen Meyer, Francesca Quintano, Abby Sin
Details: Free to attend; light refreshments served; parking available at meters and pay lots (see posted signs for details; note that the DAC Gallery does not validate parking).
Francesca Quintano. Heterogeneous Locus. 60×48. Oil on Canvas
Partners:
About Exceptional Children’s Foundation | www.ECF.net
Exceptional Children’s Foundation (ECF) provides the highest quality services for children and adults with developmental, learning, and emotional disabilities – empowering them to reachb their greatest potential. Each year, ECF serves more than 3,500 clients and their families at 15 program sites, in clients’ homes, and in community settings throughout L.A. County. Established in 1946, ECF is the only organization of its kind in California to provide a lifespan of services for persons with developmental disabilities. The ECF Art Center Program provides adults with developmental disabilities fine arts training, life skills training, and case management. To learn more, visit ECF.net and connect on Facebook at Facebook.com/ConnectwithECF. For artwork sales, please visit CFonAmazon.com
About DAC Gallery | www.DACGallery.com
DAC Gallery is a contemporary art space in the heart of Downtown LA’s Gallery Row. Our exhibitions focus on mid-career local and international artists, while bringing attention to a community of individuals whose works are rarely presented to mainstream audiences. The DAC Gallery is adjacent to the ECF Art Center, an adult program of the Exceptional Children’s Foundation.
Peugeot 308 – With Confidence. Built in
Peugeot 308
• New UK campaign draws attention to the real benefits of buying a new PEUGEOT vehicle
• Its products – like the new 308 – have so many attributes contained within its stylish design
• The new campaign goes live on Friday and features the ‘Confidence. Built In’ messaging
A new combined TV / Radio / Press / Outdoor and Social Media campaign has been created by PEUGEOT UK went live on 13 May 2016 to promote the confidence experienced by its customers, and this is fully justified with numerous product attributes that place it best-in-class, well-equipped, of high quality and high operational efficiency. Promoted under a core ‘Built In’ messaging, the campaign encourages potential customers to take a ‘closer look’, as PEUGEOT has confidence in its products that make them worthy of scrutiny.
The UK campaign promotes the award-winning PEUGEOT 308 in GT Line specification – launched in 2015, it accounts for a fifth of range take-up. 308 is a car with numerous attributes; by being the lowest CO2 car in its sector, thus with the latest and best-in-class engines it is also the most economical, while other performance models feature the most-powerful engine of its size too, in a body design that is lightest and class-leading in capability and size. The Brand uniquely features the PEUGEOT i-Cockpit, well-liked by its 2.2-million customers of car thus equipped, for it combines agile handling response with a compact steering wheel, high-positioned instrumentation and a colour touchscreen – all within the view looking forward. Its standard specification is comprehensive and provides allure for its many advanced features and rewarding driving experience.
The centre-piece of this campaign is a new TV advert, produced specifically for the UK market, which challenges buyers to consider the new 308 and PEUGEOT as a brand. Filmed in Scotland, the advert has been produced by the UK team, to specifically address local requirements for customers buying a 308. The TV advert first goes on air on Friday evening.
Mark Pickles, Marketing director at PEUGEOT UK, commented “We have enjoyed formulating this UK campaign as we are entirely confident in the excellence of our products and simply wish to convey this sentiment to our prospective customers. PEUGEOT is a highly trustworthy brand and with so many virtues on offer. We are looking at ways to bring our products to the scrutiny of people who might otherwise be distracted by the promises of other brands when the values of what we offer are in fact better, more valued and of higher quality. The new ad is provocative intentionally.”
This campaign also sees the launch of PEUGEOT UK’s new creative format, where a new visual layout and tone of voice is employed, together with the line “Confidence. Built In”. Future campaigns will also feature the “Built In” tagline, in order to provide a consistent means of putting across the strengths of each vehicle, in a consistent and coherent manner.
Accompanying Outdoor, Radio and Press campaigns challenge prospective buyers to share the confidence we have for the 308 by taking a closer look with a 48 Hour Test Drive, giving customers the opportunity to drive and become more acquainted by the cars numerous attributes, and to see for themselves why the new 308 is such a compelling car.
The overall vision for this campaign, which spans all major communication channels, is to challenge prospective buyers on how they choose their next car. By highlighting the key product attributes of 308, we demonstrate that the beauty of this car is in the detail. However, thanks to some stunning driving footage and new photography, we demonstrate that in 308 we have a car which marries image with detail. The campaign runs from today until 30th June, and will be reprised later in the Autumn to maximise awareness. More details of each element of the campaign are provided below.
The TV campaign begins tonight, on prime-time slots and runs for five-weeks and will feature both the standard 30-second version plus an extended 60-second version which showcases the message in even greater detail.
In order to lend gravitas to the film, which takes a very direct approach to questioning how people choose their next car, we have used a recognisable and highly acclaimed actor – Peter Mullan is a Scottish actor, filmmaker and socialist, known for his acting role in My Name Is Joe, winning a Best Actor Award at 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Mullan has also appeared as supporting or guest actor in numerous cult movies, including Riff-Raff, Braveheart, Trainspotting, Children of Men, War Horse and the Harry Potter film series.
The result is a TV advert which is arresting, thought provoking, and ultimately designed to highlight the strengths of 308 versus its competitors. ‘Take a closer look’.
Two year ROI forecast on robot installation at CED Thurrock
The IRB 6640 can stack 4,000 bags
CED Stone Group based in Thurrock in Essex, has experienced a number of improvements to its palletising process since upgrading its robot installation to an ABB Premium Refurbished IRB6640 model. The IRB 6640 has the ability to stack the 25kg sacks of aggregate quicker and higher than its 25 year old predecessor, resulting in an average of 1,680 bags palletised per day.
The supplier and manufacturer of natural stone products had a 25 year old ABB IRB 6000, sold by a non ABB System House, installed at its site for the past five years. The initial decision to automate its packing and palletising process was made when CED won a large contract with Steintec Paving Systems, whose prominent projects include paving the O2 arena in London, the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg and the historic Jaffa Road in Israel.
Since that time, the original model had broken down and with no parts available to replace it, CED contacted ABB Robotics UK for an alternative solution. The company has a historical relationship with ABB as Byron Griffiths, System Service Account Manager, installed a robot at the CED Scotland site 15 years ago.
Given this experience, Byron was called in to help with the Thurrock project, which involved a number of challenges, not least transporting the robot and its associated peripheral equipment to the site. Byron explains, “The biggest hurdle we faced was the remote location as the process takes place in what’s essentially a shed in a quarry. Transporting all of the heavy equipment there was difficult but luckily there was a power supply in the shed already.”
Howard White, Southern Area Manager at CED said, “There were initial teething problems with the light guard as we chose to use this part from the original equipment with the brand new system. We expected this to happen but ABB resolved the issue straight away. In fact, the whole installation only took a week. I expected about three weeks of messing about and settling in, but in the end there was hardly any downtime.”
The project also included adding a new safety circuit to meet the latest regulations, as well as a new controller, the IRC5, which combines flexible, high-level programming with basic features and functionality.
Howard White explains, “With visual-input diagrams, it’s much easier to understand.”
Furthermore, the manual workers who took over whilst the original robot was out of operation were relieved to be returned to their usual roles at the site. The CED staff had hand stacked a total of 4,000 bags over a period of seven months which the robot alone can now achieve in less than three days.
This boost in productivity has surprised Howard White. “We originally estimated that the return on investment would take around five years, but the versatility of the robot combined with its speed has meant the payback should take no longer than two.”
When asked about the possibility of automating any other processes at CED in the future, Howard says: “We have no plans at the moment but we would consider building another bagging plant with a robot if we got another large order. We would highly recommend and use ABB again.”
June 20, 2016
EU Referendum Football: A Game of Two Halves
The UK200Group 30 questions report
As Euro 2016 gets into full swing and we enter the final week of campaigning ahead of the EU referendum, the question of the UK’s football leagues’ continued competitiveness in the event of an exit from the trading bloc has been answered by the official Remain and Leave campaigns.
The UK200Group – the UK’s leading membership association of quality-assured independent chartered accountancy and law firms – has published a report detailing the top 30 EU Referendum questions asked by SMEs and the respective answers of the official Remain and Leave campaigns.
Included in the report is the following question:
Currently, footballers from across Europe can live and work in the UK without procuring a visa. If Britain were to leave the EU, would it be more difficult for foreign players to sign for our clubs, and could that affect the £3.4 billion the Premier League alone adds to the UK economy?
The Remain campaign said, “The EU benefits sports fans in Britain by eliminating barriers and making it cheaper to travel to sporting events across Europe. Sports clubs in the UK are able to recruit the best talent from across Europe with no barriers thanks to free movement rules.
“It has recently been shown that Premier League clubs could struggle to maintain certain EU players if we left the EU, a risk that was underlined by Arsene Wenger. This is likely to impact the competitiveness of UK clubs.
“The EU’s Erasmus programme provides funding for projects to get young people into sport, and supports the inclusion of minorities and people with disabilities through participation in sport. Access to Erasmus could end if we left the EU.
“Britain can draw on best practice from across Europe through cooperation in EU sports bodies. EU sports bodies exist to tackle match-fixing, promote transparency and fair regulation, take action against doping and develop rules for the transfer of sports players that preserve integrity and prevent exploitation.”
The Leave campaign said, “The Premier League has more foreign players than competing leagues. EU free movement rules have damaged British football. As the FA has acknowledged, the recent restrictions that have been introduced on skilled immigration from non-EU countries are the direct consequence of the EU’s freedom of movement rules. After we Vote Leave, it would be easier for foreign players to sign for our clubs.”
The UK200Group compiled the questions in order to address a lack of clarity about how remaining or leaving the EU would affect the small business community. The questions put to Britain Stronger in Europe and Vote Leave were all sourced from the association’s members and their clients.
The UK200Group, which was established in 1986, represents a group of trusted, quality-assured business advisers – accountants and lawyers – who have over 150,000 SME clients in total. As such, the UK200Group acts as the voice for 1,500 charities, over 10% of all registered academies, more than 3,700 farms, 800 healthcare businesses and over 500 property and construction professionals.
A video of the media briefing that launched the report can be found here.
Useful links:
The UK200Group: http://www.uk200group.co.uk/
Campaign for Clarity 30 Questions and Answers report:http://www.uk200group.co.uk/web/FILES/EU_Questions_answers_v…
Britain Stronger in Europe: http://www.strongerin.co.uk/
Vote Leave: http://www.voteleavetakecontrol.org/
“Half of all UK rabbits are lonely and stressed,” says leading vet charity in the run up to Rabbit Awareness Week
lonely rabbit
The UK’s leading veterinary charity, PDSA has released distressing statistics that show more than 55% of rabbit owners have identified signs of worrying behaviour in their pet rabbits.
In the run up to this year’s 10th Rabbit Awareness Week (RAW), PDSA veterinary surgeon Rebecca Ashman has highlighted the effects of boredom and loneliness on the mental health of rabbits. The findings, taken from the latest PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report, suggest that on a weekly basis owners have noted signs of unhappiness in their rabbits such as biting the bars of their run or hutch repeatedly, fur pulling, biting, growling and hissing.
With more than 680,000* rabbits living alone, despite being highly sociable animals, and thousands more living in small hutches with no opportunity for exercise or mental stimulation, Ashman says it is no surprise owners and vets are seeing these issues on a regular basis.
“Our figures highlight that lack of mental stimulation can have a huge impact on pet behaviour,” says Ashman. “What’s most frustrating is the fact that many of these issues could easily be avoided if rabbits were given the right conditions, diet and companions to live alongside.”
As a charitable partner in this year’s RAW, which runs from 18 to 26 June 2016, PDSA is backing RAW’s #BuddiesForBunnies campaign to get solitary rabbits paired up with suitable companions from rescue centres. The charity says the findings should be a ‘call to action’ for the 57% of rabbit owners who own single rabbits.
Ashman added: “Pets do so much to enrich and improve our lives, but by not meeting their needs, their physical and mental wellbeing can be severely compromised. “Sadly, rabbits seem to be the forgotten pet”. They can’t speak up and tell us if they’re unhappy, but with the right information and education, owners can make positive changes to their pets’ lives.”
www.rabbitawarenessweek.co.uk
pdsa.org.uk
Six Emerging Trends within the Technical Communication Industry
lison Peck, Director of Clearly Stated
Most technical products and software applications need some sort of explanation. This is where technical communication comes in, whether it’s for user guides, manuals, installation instructions, operating and safety procedures, business processes, training materials or software user assistance. The Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC) recognises the best examples of work within the industry through its UK Technical Communication Awards. The entries can also provide a window on new developments as to how technical information can be presented. The ISTC has noticed six emerging trends within the industry:
1. Growth of Application Programme Interface (API) Documentation
The growth of APIs has seen a corresponding growth in the need for API documentation and interactive document environments. Ellis Pratt, Director of Cherryleaf (a specialist technical communication company), and judge on the panel of the ISTC’s UK Technical Communication Awards (UKTCA), says “Without the documentation, it’s virtually impossible to use an API, as developers need to know what resources are available, where they are, and what parameters they will accept.”
2. Increase in Use of Agile Methodologies
Agile methodologies are a set of principles for software development in which requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organising, cross-functional teams. Alison Peck, Director of Clearly Stated Ltd (a technical writing and training company), judge on the UKTCA panel and current President of the ISTC, says “The biggest impacts on [technical communicators] are in the working practices and products of our customer base. For example, there is a steady increase in the percentage of software development teams adopting agile methodologies, which affects technical communicators specifically working in the documentation of software.”
3. Increased Use of Mobile Technology
Alison goes on to say “the increased use of mobile technology has made changes to our work, as has the (general) improvement to user interface design. Rather than having to give detailed instructions, I’m more likely to explain the outcome of an action or give guidance on when it should be done. People using products and services also expect them to be more tailored to their requirements, so being able to create supporting products (help, tutorials, guidance) that can be tailored to those same requirements is becoming more important. A one-size-fits-all approach is much less acceptable now than it was a few years ago.”
4. Move towards a less formal tone
Ellis states “As technology becomes more part of our daily lives, we’ve seen a move towards a less formal tone in some types of documentation. This is a consequence of documentation being part of the pre-sales process, and users are generally less scared of technology than they used to be.”
5. Embedding User Assistance
Ellis adds “We’re also seeing a move toward embedding user assistance into the application itself, without the need to go to the docs. We’ll be seeing more developments with Conversational User Interfaces, on-boarding screens and micro-content. This is a consequence of users being reluctant to admit they’re stuck and going to the Help.”
6. Navigating via Search
Ellis has also spotted a trend within the ISTC’s annual UK Technical Communication Awards entries: “The awards entries have reflected the trend towards navigating via Search, rather than via hyperlinks. I’ve also noticed a move towards content in Responsive Web format, which can be viewed on mobile phones, tablets and laptops.”
The ISTC, the UK’s largest body representing technical writers and information development professionals, organises the annual UK Technical Communication Awards. The awards are the industry’s key platform which recognises the value of clear, concise and effective information relating to scientific or technological products or services. The entry deadline date is Thursday 30th June 2016 via www.uktcawards.com. Entries are welcomed from ISTC members, non-members, individuals, companies or students alike. Submissions cost GBP25 for ISTC members and GBP40 for non-members per entry. The awards include nine categories split between three classes focussing on communication effectiveness, use of technology and innovative business practices. Results will be published in ISTC publications and websites, including its Communicator journal, with awards presented during the Gala Dinner at the Technical Communication UK conference, held at Wyboston Lakes Executive Centre near Cambridge on 14th September 2016.
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