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Here's the lowdown on some key employees of Scriptorium Publishing Services, Inc.

Sarah O'Keefe, President. In 1996, Sarah O'Keefe founded Scriptorium Publishing to provide editing and production services to technical writing departments. From the beginning, Sarah focused on efficiency—-selecting the right publishing tools, creating templates, and training writers on how to use their tools.

Today, the company is known for expertise in cutting-edge tools and technologies. With a dozen employees, Scriptorium specializes in streamlining publishing processes for numerous high-profile clients in telecommunications, defense, technology, and other content-rich industries. Sarah is an early adopter of technology who enjoys experimenting with the latest tools. In consulting engagements, however, she contains her enthusiasm and focuses on establishing a solid business case for new workflows.

Sharing knowledge is a priority for Sarah, who strives to be both entertaining and informative during training sessions and conference presentations. In 2002, she received her Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+) accreditation from CompTIA. Her presentations at international, national, and regional conferences (including STC, tekom, and WritersUA) have consistently earned high ratings.

Last year, Sarah began a regular column for Intercom. “The XML Strategist” provides candid analysis and opinion about developments in structured authoring. She is also the primary contributor to Scriptorium's blog, Palimpsest.

Her publishing credits include Publishing Fundamentals: FrameMaker 7 (originally published as FrameMaker 7: The Complete Reference), The WebWorks Publisher Cookbook, Technical Writing 101, FrameMaker 5.5.6 for Dummies, and numerous white papers.

Sarah moved to Durham, North Carolina, to attend Duke University. She traces her interest in technical publishing to one fateful summer when she was forced to choose between a chemistry major and the position of editor-in-chief of Vertices, Duke's Undergraduate Journal of Science and Technology. Two years later she graduated with a double major in Comparative Area Studies (Western Europe and East Asia) and German. She still lives in Durham with her husband, Mark, and daughter, Charlotte.

Sarah looks forward to leading Scriptorium as the technical publishing field continues to change—-provided that she doesn't run out of chocolate.

Matthew C. Arnold, Vice President, Business Development. Matt has more than 20 years of experience in the publishing arena. For most of his career, he has overseen the development and support of software for the publishing industry. During his tenure with Adobe, and Frame Technology before that, Matt oversaw large-scale integration projects uniting FrameMaker and various document management tools. At Datalogics, where he was responsible for product development, he oversaw the creation of several new lines, including middleware products for FrameMaker, FrameMaker+SGML, and Documentum's 4i content management products.

Alan S. Pringle, Director, Scriptorium Press/Lead Technical Editor, implements new processes for developing and distributing technical content. His responsibilities include managing schedules and budgets for complex consulting projects, automating production and localization tasks with XML-based workflows, and working on large-scale DITA conversions.

Alan guides books through the entire publication process as the manager of Scriptorium's publishing imprint, Scriptorium Press. He is also the coauthor of Technical Writing 101 and Scriptorium's FrameMaker Workbook Series. He edited Publishing Fundamentals: FrameMaker 7, Publishing Fundamentals: Unstructured FrameMaker 8, and The WebWorks Publisher Cookbook.

As a technical editor for Fujitsu Network Switching in 1994, Alan rewrote and reorganized the flagship document for a phone switch, and he was the primary editor of English content that was translated from Japanese. While at Fujitsu, Alan began working with element definition documents (EDDs) in structured FrameMaker (then known as FrameBuilder).

In the 1990s as a new technical writer, Alan wrote documentation for a Lexmark laser printer. He then completed the production work on the localized versions, which taught him early lessons about the importance of considering translation when implementing publishing processes.

Alan holds a BA in English from Wake Forest University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. At the weekly student newspaper, Old Gold and Black, he managed the first section that transitioned to desktop publishing, and he later ran the paper as editor in chief.

When he's not working, he's chasing his trouble-loving Boston terrier/beagle mix, reading, traveling, or scoping out bargains.

Sheila Loring, Senior Technical Consultant, creates systems that produce and repurpose content. These days, most of her work is XML based, and many systems are based on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and the DITA Open Toolkit. The DITA Open Toolkit provides a basic starting point for conversion to HTML, Eclipse Help, HTML Help, and other formats. Sheila's job is to modify and extend XSLT, CSS, and Ant files to produce deliverables that exactly match customer requirements, including the production of attractive, corporate-branded PDFs via XSL-FO and other technologies.

Sheila has donned a variety of other hats over her many years at Scriptorium, from designing FrameMaker templates and writing technical documentation to developing documentation conversion and production processes. In addition to developing conversion processes, Sheila converts libraries from Word or FrameMaker to structured FrameMaker documents. Using FrameScript scripts, she eliminates much of the tedious manual work to produce a push-button conversion process. To support these automated processes, Sheila provides intensive training to small groups of customers and documents everything from templates to scripts.

Sheila coauthored Publishing Fundamentals: FrameMaker 7 (originally published as FrameMaker 7: The Complete Reference and the only third-party reference on FrameMaker 7) and The WebWorks Publisher Cookbook, the sole third-party reference on WebWorks Publisher. She also contributes to the Scriptorium blog, Palimpsest.

A senior member of the Society for Technical Communication, Sheila has been very active in the Carolina Chapter, serving as Communications Manager, Vice President, web site manager, FrameMaker SIG chair, and online competitions manager. She produces the Carolina Communique, the chapter's award-winning newsletter. The Communique is one of the few chapter newsletters created in wiki format, which provides online authoring and collaboration.

Sheila moved to North Carolina from Oklahoma in 1992. Her interest in technical writing stems from solving computer problems for coworkers and family over the years and a dedication to concise, clearly-written technical instructions. She began her college career at the University of Oklahoma, majoring in fine art, and ultimately graduated from Oral Roberts University with a bachelor's degree in English Literature and a minor in fine arts.

Simon Bate, Senior Technical Consultant, thrives on technical challenges. With over 30 years experience in technical publications, he has acquired extensive knowledge in writing, managing, production, book-design, template design, and document conversions of all sorts. Simon takes great delight in programming and scripting. His motto is: "let the computer do the work." He also enjoys teaching and sharing his knowledge with others.

Simon got his introduction to Technical Writing as a summer intern at IBM. He had so much fun at it, he was asked back for a second summer. After graduating from the University of Colorado with a degree in Geology, he continued on in software documentation. His first job was writing operating system-level API and assembly language documentation for Digital Equipment Corporation. While at DEC, Simon was responsible for re-writing and organizing a series of class materials into the VAX/VMS Internals and Data Structures, which was published by Digital Press (1984).

Throughout his career in technical publications, Simon has developed tools to help him — and others — perform their tasks more efficiently. Over the years, Simon has amassed programming skills in assembly language, C, C++, Perl, FrameScript, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, Python, Ant, and XSL, just to name a few. He is also an expert user of many publications tools, including FrameMaker, Quadralay WebWorks, AutoMap, and ePublisher, Interleaf, Adobe PageMaker, and many other systems that are now obscure or obsolete.

Because he was interested in more than just the writing aspect of technical documentation, Simon enrolled in the Graphics Design program at the University of California at Santa Cruz extension. These courses taught him skills in page and book design as well as traditional production methods. As his career shifted to management, he re-directed his course work at UCSC to the Certificate Program in Technical Publications Management, receiving his certificate in 1995.

After managing publications teams for ten years, Simon transitioned to full-time tools development. Before coming to Scriptorium, Simon developed indexing systems, gencode markup interpreters, an early SGML parser, tools to convert C header files into API documentation, an automated production system that built 30,000 PDF pages every night, and a project scheduling and tracking system. He has also created several book designs and a number of FrameMaker and WebWorks templates.

After starting with Scriptorium in May of 2007, Simon has worked on projects that include: transforming XML documents to DITA, enhancing the DITA Java API Reference specialization, creating XSL:FO output transforms for the DITA Java API Reference specialization, designing pages and creating transforms for an UltraSeek implementation (including UltraSeek customizations), customizing Quadralay ePublisher help output, and developing a JavaScript HTML search tool for online help.

Simon divides his time at Scriptorium between tools development and training. He teaches the Scriptorium classes on Structure and XML, DITA and XMetaL, XSL classes. He has also given presentations at the Gilbane Enterprise Content Management conference and DocTrain East. He also wrote and presented two webinars, co-sponsored with JustSystems: an Introduction to the DITA Open Toolkit and Hacking the DITA OT (soon to be a feature film, or perhaps a Scriptorium white paper).

In addition to his professional degrees, Simon has also earned a certificate in Leadership for Parish Musicians. He sings tenor in choirs, directs when asked, and has worked as an interim choir director. An accomplished chef, all of Simon's recipes are stored in Structured FrameMaker, but might be converted to DITA in the near future.

Simon enjoys the small-town life of Apex, NC with his wife and son.

David Kelly, Senior Technical Consultant, has worked since 1978 as a technical writer, publications coordinator, documentation manager, software project manager, program manager, and technical consultant. Currently he manages various Scriptorium projects and hacks the DITA Open Toolkit for pleasure and profit.

Always interested in the use of new tools to improve documentation processes and quality, David has devised several enhancements to the DITA Open Toolkit for Scriptorium's customers. Among these are:

A method for preventing memory errors with large XML documents when rendering PDFs

A method for rendering individual landscape pages in a portrait-oriented document using XSL:FO

A method for processing copyrighted terms

A method for automatically translating Microsoft Word documents into DITA output

A method for placing unique identifying numbers on HTML pages

As a documentation manager, David emphasized practices that reduced drudgery and overhead for the writers while improving productivity, regulation conformance, and waste reduction for the business. His departments would get to their deadlines and no one would notice because everything was already finished.

David's skills in business process development and information management lead him to more comprehensive roles in project management, application development, and program management in the telecommunications arena. Projects he has managed include

Development of a fourth-generation software development system's documentation and training suite

Development of user documentation for SS7 telecommunications switch equipment and software

Software/hardware integration for a telecommunications network management data system

Development of an XML-based system for guiding customer service representatives through troubleshooting and repair procedures

Development of an XML-based database, user interface, and output system for documentation of a command line-based operating system. This project involved coordination with an offshore software development team and the use of Agile development methodologies.

Development of extensions and enhancements to the DITA Open Toolkit for a large military contractor

Conversion of Microsoft Word to Framemaker documentation

In the area of business process improvement, he worked with large cross-functional groups to improve project development processes and hand-offs between departments. This work included developing processes to improve information management between customer documentation, product development, and customer services departments.

David obtained a BS in Physics and attended graduate schools in English Literature and Fine Arts for short periods of time. When he isn't pursuing a variety of personal projects, he spends quality time with his wife Anne and son Thad.

Terry Smith, Technical Consultant, works on a variety of projects: writing books and papers, converting documentation to DITA and other formats, presenting at conferences, and troubleshooting customer documentation problems. A long-time FrameMaker user (and now an Adobe Certified Expert), Terry updated Publishing Fundamentals: Unstructured FrameMaker 8.

Terry has worked in many areas of technical communication over the past twenty years: technical writer, production manager and editor, and trainer. In her first technical writing job at Pointer’s International, she wrote training materials for Frito-Lay employees running the machines that extrude cornmeal into Cheetos. Strict traditional documentation processes were in place: writers wrote longhand in blue ink, editors marked up copy with green ink, artists drew the graphics based on sketches from the writers, editorial assistants typed the text into computers, and the copy editors read the copy backwards and wrote proofing marks in red. Those doing cut-and-paste always wore long fingernails so they wouldn’t get their fingerprints on the pristine copy that would later be photographed. Although it sounds like this process would be slow, it was lightning fast. Those early experiences taught Terry that good documentation processes were essential for both speed and quality.

Terry is an active senior member of STC, and she has been recognized with the Distinguished Chapter Service Award from STC Carolina. As programs manager, Terry scheduled over 40 programs for the STC Tri-Doc 2005 conference. Terry’s writing received a Distinguished award in the STC technical publication competitions for the ANSOS One-Staff Employee Portal guide.

After entering college on art scholarship (her doodles lead to her working as caricaturist for the school newspaper), Terry tried a number of different majors. A large number. While Terry still hasn’t decided what she wants to be when she grows up, she did earn her teaching certification and a Master’s degree in English (graduating Summa Cum Laude) from Morehead University.

Terry loves a good cup of coffee.

Ethan Duty, Technical Consultant, brings many skills to Scriptorium including Adobe Dreamweaver, Photoshop, FrameMaker, Flash, XSL, and a knowledge of web standards and trends. He currently maintains Scriptorium's website, writes the monthly newsletter, and creates the flash ads you may have seen online or projected on the back of Scriptorium's booth during trade shows and conferences. His other projects include web analysis, structure implementation, and document conversion for clients and Scriptorium's white papers and technical references.

Ethan has had a rich technical communications career spanning several industries from PC sales and repair to education and entertainment. Starting as a PC technician in 2003, he quickly went from following the procedural instructions to writing and updating them for locally owned computer repair centers and the late CompUSA.

From there he began work as an instructional technology consultant at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro and designed several interactive exercises for online classes. His favorite and most interesting assignment was writing the dialog and instructions for an economics class taught from the vantage point of aliens marooned on a post-apocalyptic Earth. The interactive class was featured in Campus Technology magazine as an innovator in educational gaming and the course website was awarded best in show by W3 in 2006.

Ethan obtained his bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro where he studied English literature and Chinese Mandarin (which has been useful for plumbing the depths of Unicode and Chinese HTML generated through XSL). He now divides his time between communications technologies, writing small games, and spoiling his beautiful wife Xinxin.