Multimedia Writing

A blog about issues in content development for multimedia by a Ph.D. candidate researching these issues.

Stolley, Karl. MultimediaWriting.com. Resources>Writing>Multimedia>Blogs

A Techne for Artful Choices in Digital Writing  

The techne I envision for digital production deliberately makes things more difficult for designer users, whether they are teachers or students. This is a hard sell, particularly to teachers who feel intimidated enough by technology of the consumer ease variety. But we should remember that rhetoric, unless it takes the form of a Mad-Lib, is not easy. A techne of digital production is an effort to remove the disproportionality between effort and consequences: only when we earn the knowledge of production from a designer user standpoint can we more fully take responsibility for what we do with it. Digital writers must do the hard work of fashioning their content into a sound structure, developing unique presentational designs, and considering audience interaction with their finished works.

Stolley, Karl. Purdue University (2006). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Online

Integrating Social Media Into Existing Work Environments: The Case of Delicious    

This article offers an example case of technical communicators integrating the social bookmarking site Delicious into existing work environments. Using activity theory to present conceptual foundations and concrete steps for integrating the functionalities of social media, the article builds on research within technical communication that argues for professional communicators to participate more fully in the design of communication systems and software. By examining the use of add-ons and tools created for Delicious, and the customized use of Rich Site Syndication (RSS) feeds that the site publishes, the author argues for addressing the context-sensitive needs of project teams by integrating the functionality of social media applications generally and repurposing their user-generated data.

Stolley, Karl. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2009). Articles>Workplace>Collaboration>Social Networking

Online Design

A graduate seminar in the theory and practice of structuring and designing information for web-enabled devices. This course emphasizes web standards, accessibility, and rapid prototyping.

Stolley, Karl. Illinois Institute of Technology (2009). Academic>Courses>Web Design>Information Design

Publication Management

A graduate seminar in intensive work developing and using systems to manage documents delivered electronically and in print using single-sourcing technologies. Theory and practice of managing publication projects across groups and organizations.

Stolley, Karl. Illinois Institute of Technology (2009). Academic>Courses>Document Design>Publishing