Benefits
 •  An opportunity for technical communicators from different cultures and languages to compare their knowledge and experience.
 •  An opportunity to talk about research on how to write manuals, help, messages, and web sites. The roundtable leader knows the research (and has conducted some of it) with people in North America and Europe. She hopes that other participants at the roundtable will bring the perspectives from their own experiences in different Asian countries and cultures.

Key questions
 •  How do you use the information that comes with products you buy? Do you read it all? Do you skim, scan, read only what you need at the moment you need it?
 •  How useful are the system messages that come up in your software? How clear is the content on web pages that you write or read?
 •  Does the research from North America and Europe on how people read and use what technical communicators produce apply to audiences in Asian cultures, too?

Audience
 •  Technical communicators who write user manuals, online help, messages, or web sites Format
 •  Discussion led by a very experienced roundtable leader on
     how people use information
     why they act the way they do, and
     what this tells us about how to communicate effectively for different cultures, industries, and products.
 •  The workshop leader speaks English but hopes to have a multi-lingual discussion with the people who come to the roundtable. Perhaps some of the roundtable participants can help with translations if needed.