RICHARD FOSTER

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Telephone: 508-***-**** NATICK, MASSACHUSETTS 01760 ab9o5n@r.postjobfree.com

SUMMARY

As an experienced Technical Writer, with strong design, analytical, and communications skills, I effectively

communicate complex technical information to both novice and technically savvy audiences. My career learning

and documenting a variety of software and hardware products (including healthcare IT, telecommunications,

green energy equipment, and CAD/CAM), demonstrates my ability to understand any complex technology for

which user and administration manuals, installation and configuration guides, on-line help, and other

documentation is required. My extensive knowledge of all aspects of the technical communications process,

combined with my proven strong management and people skills, allows me to assume leadership roles and

provide solutions for documentation challenges, determine documentation requirements, design documentation

sets, defining formats and styles, and implement documentation tools. My work with non-U.S. customers

(particularly on site in Japan) provides me with the experience to implement and manage localization projects.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Authoring Software: FrameMaker 9.2, Adobe Acrobat, MS Word, Camtasia, ArborText Adept Editor (Epic),

Interleaf, WordPerfect, EMACS, Scribe, Runoff

On-Line Help Tools: RoboHelp and WebWorks ePublisher; trained in SGML/XML and writing DTDs, knowledge

of HTML and experience designing and building web pages

Graphic Tools: Visio, Illustrator, PaintShop, SnagIt; knowledge of and experience using and documenting

CAD/CAM applications

Operating Systems: W indows (multiple OSs), DOS, Sun (UNIX, Sun OS, and Solaris)

EXPERIENCES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Interbit Data, Inc. 2009 - present

Manager of Documentation & Marketing

As sole writer, planned, designed, and wrote product literature for healthc are IT applications that provide

secure, cost effective solutions for Electronic Medical Records (EMR) report distribution and healthcare

business continuance, including:

o Procedure manuals

o Reference manuals

o Implementation guides

o Video tutorials (wrote script, recorded and edited)

o Frequently Asked Questions

Coordinated the corporate marketing effort, including:

o W rite various types of marketing literature supporting the corporate sales effort

o Guide effort to develop and implement a marketing strategy.

o W ork with and coordinate external marketing organizations to implementation the marketing

strategy.

Documentation Consultant 2007 - 2009

Genzyme Corporation – W rote Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the implementation of an

engineering content management (ECM) application that supports FDA compliant Good Manufacturing

Practices (GMP) for pharmacutical research, development, and manufacturing.

Q1 Labs – W rote installation, configuration, and administration documentation for multi-vendor network and

security infrastructures targetting both end users and system administrators.

2003 – 2007

American Superconductor

Principal Technical Writer

W rote install guides, and operation and maintenance manuals for large-scale superconducting motors.

W rote design reports describing the theory and guiding principles for the design and construction of

large-scale superconducting energy equipment.

W orked with Marketing and Sales to prepare responses to private sector and government RFPs.

Edited white papers and conference presentations.

Richard Foster 2 of 2

Documentation Consultant 2000 - 2003

IntraLearn Software – W rote user guides and on-line help for an e-Learning Management System .

GE Transportation Systems – W rote hardware installation guide and software configuration guide for a central

control system for the operation of a light-rail transit system.

Stratus Technologies, Inc. – W rote hardware and software installation and configuration guides for Stratus’

Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server fault-tolerant platform (ftServer). Documented how to configure,

monitor, and maintain the ftServer; updated Stratus’ proprietary Virtual Operating System (VOS)

documentation.

Authentica, Inc. – Documented and tested complex enterprise software applications that protect e -mail, PDF

files, and Web content from unauthorized and unauthenticated access. Wrote administration, configuration,

and installation manuals as well as on-line Help (HTML) for UNIX and Windows products; target audiences

were end users and system administrators.

1992 – 2000

Comverse Network Systems, Inc.

Documentation Manager

Organized and staffed a new technical publications unit supporting a software development organization:

Managed the simultaneous development of multiple documentation sets; determined staffing levels, hired,

trained, and supervised a staff of ten people.

W orked closely with major Japanese customers (both in the U. S. and on–site in Japan) to develop and

deliver Japanese documentation sets, contributing to the successful implementation of the product.

Established standards, process, and procedures; trained writers; and monitored documentation

developed that ensured compatibility and consistency among documentation sets developed in diverse

geographic locations (Malaysia, Israel, and Japan).

Internationalization and Localization Project Manager

Organized and managed translation of documentation and software into numerous languages; including Spanish,

Japanese, Korean, Urdu, and Thai. Established, monitored, and m anaged localization budgets of up to $350,000.

W orked with and coordinated international organizations to develop and localize documentation.

W orked with writers and other managers to establish writing styles and standards that resulted in

documentation that could be more easily translated, saving the company both time and money.

Researched, evaluated, selected and supervised translation services (both in-house individual contractors

and translation companies). Coordinated the translation workflow between Comverse and the vendors.

Principal Technical Writer

W rote hardware and software manuals describing the installation, configuration, and maintenance of UNIX based

telecommunications products for both U.S. and non-U.S. land-based and wireless telephone service providers.

Designed and wrote procedure manuals for customers, field service, and QA.

Documented ASCII and GUI applications used to configure, administer, and maintain telephony software

and hardware.

Developed training programs for internal users and customers.

Documented ISDN, SS7, and E1/T1/R2 and other signaling protocols.

On-line Documentation Conversion, Project Lead

Managed the conversion of legacy documentation into to SGML resulting in a savings of over $300,000 per year .

Planned, and implemented the transition from a paper-based documentation set to 100% CD-based.

Assisted in the writing of DTDs. Wrote style sheets for SGML/XML browsers that were used to format

and structure the documentation set.

EDUCATION

M.A. Degree, Northeastern University Pascal programming, Boston University

B.A. Degree, Gordon College Publishing Procedures, Northeastern University

Various management development and technical training courses

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