Joe Welinske is the president of WritersUA (formerly WinWriters), a company devoted to providing training and information for user assistance professionals. Joe has been involved with software documentation development since 1984. The focus of his work is producing high quality seminars and conferences for the user assistance community.
The WritersUA Conference for Software User Assistance has drawn thousands of attendees in sixteen years. This includes representatives from 43 U.S. states, six Canadian provinces, and 23 other countries. The WritersUA Conference has been expanded around the world in cooperative efforts with other user assistance training providers. These events include the Australasian Online Documentation Conference held in Australia and the Online Help Conference - Europe.
Joe was the publisher and managing editor of the Online Help Journal. This publication was founded as the printed WinHelp Journal in 1994 to provide subscribers with the latest news and techniques concerning professional Help system development. Joe has also taught at the University of Washington in the Department of Technical Communication, the University of Santa Cruz, and Bellevue Community College. He regularly provides featured talks at chapters of the Society for Technical Communication. Joe is currently serving in his second term as President of the Puget Sound Chapter of STC.
Together with Scott Boggan and David Farkas, Joe authored two editions of the popular and pioneering book Developing Online Help for Windows 95. Joe also makes regular contributions to major publications. Developing HTML Help appeared in the November 1997 issue of PC Magazine. "Beyond Help,"
his article from the April 1995 issue of WINDOWS Magazine, gave a comprehensive introduction to Windows Help development.
Joe received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1981, and a M.S. in Adult Instructional Management from Loyola University in 1987. In his spare time he likes to travel and write.
