Basic questions for in-the-field programmer

These are going to be easy points for someone, so you know, but please make it as worthwhile as you can.

So I'm a student at a local university and I am enrolled in a technical writing class where, this week, we have an assignment to interview someone actually working in our field of study (in my case, as a Computer Science major, that would be you folks) and ask them some basic questions which we'll write up.  I had someone already lined up, he was supposed to get back to me, and then he fell off the face of the earth.  There's not time enough to find anyone else (i.e. due asap) and I don't know people to call, so I figured this would be the next best thing.

I need someone who is currrently working in the programming field to answer a few very basic questions and give me a little background on where they work and what they do there.  You can post it as a response here, or you can email it to brian@pyrames.com.  Either way, I'll get you your points.

So here's the Q's:
1. What communities do you belong to?
2. What form does your writing take (memos, letters, proposals, etc.) and who are the audiences for these documents?
3. What is the most important thing that I should learn from my technical writing class?
4. Also, briefly, what is your background and your current place of employment?

Thanks again.  Normally I wouldn't go for this sort of thing, but I need this grade and I'm not about to lose out because of someone else's mistake.

-Brian Whitmer