Rob Hanna

Objectives

To continue building a successful career in technical communication directing, designing, and implementing effective content/knowledge management solutions.

Solution Categories

Technical Publications, Content Management, Information Technology, Aviation/Aerospace, Quality Assurance, Software Engineering, Knowledge Management, Financial Systems, XML

Job Classifications

Technical Communicator, Metadata Strategist, Content Management Solutions Architect, Taxonomy Specialist, Technical Writer, ECM Specialist, Content Specialist, XML Architect

Work Eligibility

Eligible for work in both Canada and the U.S. under TN Visa.

Experience

10/2009 - Present

CCH Canadian – a Wolters Kluwer business

Content Standards Group

Toronto, ON

Taxonomy Specialist

Project lead responsible for taxonomy development supporting our legal, business, and accounting publishing enterprise. Key team member working on the Condor project to design and deploy an XML-based content management solution and migrate 40+ years worth of structured content into Documentum and Wolters Kluwer’s Global Atlas platform.

Accomplishments included:

• Performed structural analysis on 20,000 SGML files referencing 130 separate DTDs,

• Documented DTDs and element usage to aid with the development of a conversion spec,

• Built tools in VBA and javascript to analyse and catalogue document metadata,

• Developed a long-term strategy for development of ISO-compliant thesauri,

• Designed and built a comprehensive taxonomy for deployment of content, and

• Lead the evaluation of automated semantic-enrichment tools for CCH Canadian.

6/2009 - 8/2009

Xerox Corporation

Global Knowledge and Learning Services (GKLS)

Webster, NY

Content Management Consultant

Contracted to make recommendations on their content management strategy.

Accomplishments included:

• Completed testing and evaluation of their content management system,

• Built a tool to produce large volumes of randomly generated DITA content for testing,

• Published recommendations for future implementation, and

• Trained staff on the tools and technologies surrounding best practices for technical authoring with a XML-based content management solution using DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture).

2/2008 - 5/2009

Research In Motion, Limited

Continuous Improvement – Hardware Quality Assurance

Waterloo, ON

Knowledge Management Specialist

Mandate of Knowledge Management is to facilitate research through RIM Academic Library and identify solutions affecting the access and flow of reliable information. Tasked with examining problem areas within the department and developing an ongoing list of knowledge management priorities. This involved examining technology and practices within RIM to leverage existing best practices and introduce innovations in knowledge management where appropriate.

Accomplishments included:

• Designed and developed a comprehensive taxonomy used to manage the library,

• Developed scripts used to analyze volumes of library usage and classification metadata,

• Developed tools to capture and analyze external forum data on BlackBerry device issues,

• Designed of a new user interface for the academic library, and

• Analyzed documentation practices and standards in place within RIM Hardware QA.

6/2005 - 2/2008

SiberLogic, Inc

Professional Services

Toronto, ON

Director of Professional Services

SiberLogic is an industry innovator in the realm of XML-based content management. Their flagship product, SiberSafe™, is making great inroads into tech pub groups in many of the top-performing technology firms around the world. Responsibilities included directing pre-sales and initial engagement activities with customers in Europe and North America. Activities included: analysis and response to requests for proposals; project planning and execution with new clients; business analysis and solution design; information architecture development; development and delivery of training; and delivery of public presentations.

Accomplishments included design of solutions for the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, Sun Microsystems, Fujitsu, Northrop Grumman, Openwave Systems, GlobeRanger, Innovatia, and International Financial Data Services. Researched and published SiberLogic's award-winning DITA Pocket Guide.

3/2003 - 6/2005

International Financial Data Services, Inc. (IFDS)

Documentation Team - Products Group

Toronto, ON

Senior Technical Writer

Assumed responsibility for deliverable process-driven documentation for the company’s flagship product, iFAST™. Worked closely with business analysts to create comprehensive release notes for each major product release. Updated user guides and help files. Reengineered document production to improve the efficiency, reliability, and usability of documents through development of a single-sourcing process and toolset.

Accomplishments included

• Redesigned customer-facing materials including user guides, help files and release notes,

• Introduced an award-winning newsletter for clients to inform them of changes to iFAST™,

• Catalogued ten-years of content and metadata to create a searchable online repository, and

• Developed tools and processes to more effectively single-source deliverable documentation and reduce rework of content.

10/2001 - 1/2003

Canadian Tire Corporation

Information Development - Corporate IT Division

Toronto, ON

Senior Documentation Specialist

Joined Canadian Tire to work with internal IT documentation and develop solutions for managing information. Researched and wrote a comprehensive strategy for creating and managing documents across departments.

Achievements include design of the Information Management Model - a single-sourcing solution for creating and reusing information to build documents and publish to multiple media.

2/2001 - 7/2001

Entrust Inc.

Entrust.NET

Ottawa, ON

Lead Writer

Brought on to develop documentation services for the Entrust.net business unit. Assumed ownership of technical documentation from the system development teams. Performed extensive usability testing on their e-commerce website and published end-user documentation.

8/1997 - 2/2001

CAE Inc.

Quality/Configuration Office, CAE Dept. 49

Montreal, PQ

Systems Documentation CM Specialist

Promoted to the Quality Configuration Office to set up the department's Documentation Working Group and carry out responsibilities as intranet webmaster. Set up documentation processes, configuration management practices, and document/library specifications. Mentored a new staff of technical writers. Continued to provide writing support to the software development team.

Achievements included design and release of a dynamic web application for publishing standard operating procedures and engineering practices.

Avionics Test and Integration Group, CAE Dept. 49

Montreal, PQ

Senior Technical Writer

Supported a team of 70 software engineers maintaining various Operational Flight Programs for Canada's fleet of CF-18 aircraft. Support included technical editing, document planning, web development and overall coordination of technical documentation.

Achievements included the first official online release of the Software Requirements Specification and Software Design Document for the CF-18 Mission Computer software.

Contract Work

6/1991 - Present

Ascan Enterprises

New Media Consulting

Mississauga, ON

Senior Consultant

Ascan Enterprises is a technical communication consultancy specializing in content management, structured authoring, and single-source publishing. Services include technical writing and illustration, strategic development, systems analysis and design, information architecture, training, DTD and stylesheet development, automation and scripting, database design, new media consulting and publishing.

Clients include:

• Segula Technologies

• Manta Test Systems

• Publishing Smarter

• Verex Technologies

• Le Cordon Bleu Paris

• AirPlan Aviation

STC Awards

5/2008

Society for Technical Communication

Rennie Charles Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Toronto Chapter

Toronto, ON

The Rennie Charles Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Toronto Chapter is the chapter's most prestigious award. It is named in memory of a former director-sponsor much cherished for the “ideas, support, patience, advice, and mirth” he shared with the Toronto technical writing community.

5/2007

Society for Technical Communication

Distinguished Technical Communication (DTC) Award and Best of Show

Toronto, ON

DITA Pocket Guide

Awarded the DTC and Best of Show for the STC’s annual Technical Publications Competition for my submission. The DITA Pocket Guide is in its fourth printing and widely distributed and used by technical communicators around the globe.

1/2005

Society for Technical Communication

Distinguished Technical Communication (DTC) Award

Toronto, ON

IFDS Update Vol1No2, Vol2No2, and Vol2No2

Awarded the DTC by judges from the STC Twin Cities (Minnesota) chapter for the STC’s annual Technical Publications Competition for my submission under the Newsletter Category.

STC Presentations

5/2010

Society for Technical Communication

57th Annual STC Conference

Dallas, TX

Introduction to Information Mapping® for Technical Communicators

Full-day workshop introducing participants to the Six Research-Based Principles, Content Structures, Information Types, and Presentation Modes in the context of structured authoring for technical communicators. Produced in collaboration with Information Mapping Inc.

5/2009

Society for Technical Communication

56th Annual STC Conference

Atlanta, GA

Process Re-engineering for Topic-based Authoring

Session discussed the merits of transitioning from book-based authoring to topic-based authoring. The paradigm shift allows for improved time-to-market, increasing quality, workload balancing, and effective collaboration.

6/2008

Society for Technical Communication

55th Annual STC Conference

Philadelphia, PA

Preparing for Successful Content Management

Session lead participants through the essential steps to prepare for selection and deployment of a component content management system (CCMS). This included a nine-step roadmap for implementation. Staffing, training, content preparation, prototyping, business case development and vendor selection were discussed.

5/2006

Society for Technical Communication

53rd Annual STC Conference

Las Vegas, NV

Hiring Excellence: Identifying traits of successful technical communicators

Participated in a panel discussion on how hiring managers can identify successful traits in technical communicators. My portion examined how excellence is defined in technical communication.

5/2005

Society for Technical Communication

52rd Annual STC Conference

Seattle, WA

Mapping the Content Ecosystem

Presented a whitepaper entitled “The Information Management Model” introducing a business content metamodel used to create standard document structures using XML.

Education

6/1990

Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology

Aviation (Flight) Technology

Sault Ste Marie, ON

Engineering Technology Diploma

Graduated with an engineering technology diploma and a commercial pilot license.

11/2002

University of Toronto

Faculty of Information Studies

Toronto, ON

Enterprise Content Management Certificate

Completed Enterprise Content Management course towards the Information Design Certificate.

11/2010

Enterprise Content Management Association (AIIM)

Enterprise Content Management Professional Certification

Toronto, ON

Enterprise Content Management Practitioner (ECMp) Designation

Completing online certification course towards professional ECM Practitioner designation.

Professional Affiliations

7/2009 - Present

Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS)

DITA Technical Committee/DITA BusDocs Subcommittee

Enterprise Business Documents Specialization Focus Area Lead

Leading a group of accomplished professionals through the development of new specializations to support the expansion of DITA from TechDocs to the Enterprise.

8/2009 - Present

Enterprise Content Management Association (AIIM)

First Canadian Chapter

Toronto, ON

Chapter Executive Member

8/1999 - Present

Society for Technical Communication (STC)

STC Body of Knowledge (BoK) Task Force

Arlington, VA

Executive Team Member

Domain lead for Information Design and Development area. Technical lead on Knowledge Management technologies and practices. Member of the BoK Governance Committee.

Society Board of Directors (8/2007-5/2009)

Arlington, VA

Director, Director/Sponsor

Tasked with helping to provide strategic direction for the society. Core team member of the Body of Knowledge project responsible for knowledge management technology. The Society for Technical Communication is a non-profit organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia serving 15,000 members worldwide.

Toronto STC Chapter

Toronto, ON

Chapter President (9/2005 – 6/2007)

With close to 400 members, the Toronto Chapter is among the ten largest chapters in the STC. During my first year as chapter president, I organized our first comprehensive membership survey and orchestrated a successful Spring Conference that raised more than $10,000.

Soft Skills

• Information Mapping® expert

• Expert metadata and taxonomy specialist

• Recognized expert in content management and single-sourcing best practices and technology

• Writer/Editor with experience in technical communications, marketing and journalism

• Web designer, programmer and publisher

• Experienced public speaker

• Winning proposal writer

• Multimedia development for print and online

• Experienced with ISO 9000 standards and IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) practices

• Experienced with software development process and configuration management practices

• Experienced with documentation standards MIL-Spec 498 and DOD-STD-2167

• Experienced with XML standards DITA, DocBook, SolBook, 2361A, 2361C, and S1000D

• Experienced instructor in areas including as aviation, documentation, and desktop software

• Recent NATO Secret Clearance

Technical Skills

Updates

For more information, online portfolio, and updates please visit http://www.ascan.ca/info