Online Communities for User Assistance Professionals

Online communities have become a very valuable source of assistance for answering questions unique to our industry. This article provides an introduction to online communities and describes how to access a few of the most useful sites.

Martin, Chuck. WritersUA (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>Help

Online Education Horror Stories Worthy of Halloween: A Short List of Problems and Solutions in Online Instruction    

This article examines many surprising problems that arise in the process of distance education using the Internet and describes ways in which instructors and administrators can solve these problems. The information in the article is based largely on the experience of educators at Utah State University who have been exploring distance education for the past six years by teaching a wide range of online courses via the Internet. As a result of this varied online teaching, we have encountered a broad spectrum of challenges to which we have tried to respond and from which we have tried to learn. The solutions described are generalizable to other programs using online delivery for instruction.

Hailey, David E., Keith Grant-Davie, Christine A. Hult. Computers and Composition (2001). Articles>Education>Online>Collaboration

The Open Company Manifesto

Users can improve information flow. They can create robust markets, and they can help fix the problems that a company faces. This can happen at an astonishing speed. If the gateway is open, and the company allows users access, those users will quickly tell the company what they are doing wrong. When users are invited to wallow in the information flow, they will crack the company into shape.

Rhodes, John S. WebWord (1999). Articles>Management>Collaboration

"Open Source" is not a Marketing Term

Open source software development is not just about providing the source code for your application. It is much more about building a community around a shared project. That takes time. I think the biggest myth about open source software is that you say 'hey, I'm open source now' and suddenly thousands of qualified people give up nights and weekends to work on your code.

Balog, Tarus. Adventures in Open Source (2007). Articles>Collaboration>Open Source>Methods

"Operation Butterfly" and Other Adventures in Cooperation Between Industry and Academe: When Rip Van Winkle and Shirley Temple Join Forces, the Sky's the Limit!  

This article, as well as our conference presentation, catalogues a year in the symbiotic relationship between the Orlando Chapter of STC, the University of Central Florida's technical writing program, and the student-run technical communication club, Future Technical Communicators (FTC)--and the ways in which this powerful partnership has helped sustain many of the chapter's varied and successful initiatives that led to its designation as a Chapter of Distinction in 2003. In this article, authors Bonnie Spivey and Dan Voss report on the UCF-STC legacy, the development of the chapter's new mentoring program, their contribution to educational outreach/ fundraising, and the numerous ways in which these institutions are working together.

Spivey, Bonnie and Daniel W. Voss. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Industry and Academy>STC

Organization in the Way: How Decentralization Hobbles the User Experience

Contrary to all the books, articles, Web sites, and workshops that suggest otherwise, the biggest problem in user experience design today is not one of practice. Any competent practitioner can dip into the current toolbox of methods and create a satisfactory product. Right now, the biggest obstacle to good design is poor organizational structure. The fundamental makeup of most organizations runs contrary to producing quality designs, and as organizations get larger, this becomes increasingly apparent.

Merholz, Peter. Adaptive Path (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Web Design

Organizational Implications of the Future Development of Technical Communication: Fostering Communities of Practice in the Workplace    

As the profession of technical communication develops and evolves, practitioners are forming formal and informal organizational structures that support collaborative communities. These organizational structures are emerging within commercial companies and professional societies such as the Society for Technical Communication. This article describes evolving methods and best practices that technical communicators can apply in the workplace to create an environment that supports effective communities of practice. We identify specific techniques and best practices, including methods of assessing the effectiveness and business impact of communities in the workplace, and interventions for improvement. We also reference a specific technical communication organization, Data Management (DM) User Technology at IBM Corporation, as a case study of ways to implement an organizational infrastructure that supports both skill-based communities of practice and multidisciplinary goal-based communities.

Fisher, Lori H. and Lindsay Bennion. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Collaboration>Management

The Orlando Chapter/University of Central Florida Partnership: A Win-Win-Win Scenario!  

The twenty-year partnership between the Orlando Chapter and the technical writing program at the University of Central Florida (UCF) has reached new heights in the past two years. This paper reviews several highly successful programs that have either grown directly out of the UCF-Orlando Chapter partnership or which have benefited from and been improved by it: (1) an annual scholarship program; (2) student projects that benefit the chapter (or feature the chapter as client); (3) strong student support to the STC AccessAbility SIG; (4) an annual fund-raising initiative; (5) an educational outreach initiative to Central Florida high schools, and (6) a highly successful formal mentoring program pairing students with professionals.

Lippincott, Gail and Jennifer Selix. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Collaboration>Industry and Academy>STC

Out of the Trenches and into the Field: Leaves of Absence for Writing Teachers

Those who teach mainly writing have a particular need for avenues of career growth because their tasks are especially repetitive and personally draining. One such avenue can be a year's leave of absence in industry.

Pfeiffer, William S. ADE Bulletin (1987). Articles>Education>Collaboration

"Paper" Revisited  

Introduces new technologies intended to lessen office reliance on paper and discusses their potential effects on technical documentation.

Perlin, Neil E. Intercom (2001). Articles>Collaboration>Online

Passion Matters

In creating the site for a client, the magic ingredient was passion. My client's passion added fuel to my own, and I was immediately catapulted to an even higher energy level than usual designing his site. This magic ingredient was being reflected in the client's web site.

Kaiser, Shirley E. Wise-Women (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Web Design

The Physics of Reviewers

Subject-matter experts, managers, and other reviewers tenaciously resist our nagging to review documents properly, often delaying reviews until it's too late to do a good job. It's not that they inherently oppose quality control; rather, the problem's in the amount of work required to review something thoroughly, and 'work' is a physics concept. Conveniently, reviewers--like falling objects--follow the same laws of physics as the rest of the universe, and understanding those laws helps you predict reviewer behavior and take appropriate countermeasures.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Geoff-Hart.com (2001). Articles>Editing>Collaboration

Picture This: An Effective Relationship Between Writers and Illustrators  

Writers and illustrators often find themselves in an adversarial relationship rather than working toward a single goal. The main reason for this is that writers don’t know enough about how illustrators work. By learning more about the similarities between the process of writing and illustrating, by reviewing the main characteristics of technical writing, and by treating illustrators as professional colleagues, writers can implement a strong collaborative work environment in which to create effective, accurate documentation.

Gadomski, Kenneth E. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Collaboration>Graphic Design

Planet Blog: Bringing Development Communities Together

Explains how RSS feeds from weblogs can be aggregated to enhance communication among groups of software developers, and how XML/RDF can be used to describe multiple communities.

Dumbill, Edd. IBM (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Community Building>Blogging

Planning a Community: The Value of Online Learning Communities in Technical Communication  

Businesspeople, faculty, and students can participate in learning communities in a variety of ways. Online learning communities provide benefits to individuals and the group, even if a community uses only low-tech communication tools. Learning communities are important because they create a human connection often missing in our Internet communication and allow people from diverse locations and backgrounds to share information and experiences. Effective learning communities celebrate diversity and create a supportive environment for members working toward a common goal.

Porter, Lynnette R. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Communication>Collaboration

Planning and Leading a Successful Review Meeting  

Experienced and novice technical communicators can plan and lead successful review meetings by following this 4-step process: l—Plan ahead. 2—Use an agenda as a road map. 3—Wrap up. 4—Follow up. Although a faceto- face meeting is often the easiest way to get formal feedback on an information product, there are situations in which you should not hold a meeting. If a meeting is appropriate, however, there are specific things you can do to prevent or handle typical problems. Leading a successful meeting involves making a series of conscious choices to make better use of everyone’s time.

Hansen, Lauren Y. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Editing>Collaboration

Plural Authorship and the Thesis: What Graduate Students Tell Us About Collaborative Writing  

Most graduate students at the Air Force Institute of Technology's School of Logistics and Acquisition Management write their theses as a team project. However, the Institute has gathered no systematic information about how students manage their collaborative thesis-writing processes. This research gathers descriptive quantitative and qualitative data from 1992 graduates concerning how they composed the teem-authored thesis. In addition, this research extends the collective vocabulary concerning collaborative writing, particularly when applied in academic settings.

Rice, Rodney P. and John T. Huguley, Jr. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Writing>Collaboration

A Polythematic Real-Time Synergistic Hybrid Data Telecommunication System for Scientific Research with Bidirectional Fuzzy Feedback Peer Review by Expert Referees    

Heterogeneous research environments, interests and locations do not necessarily coincide, thus hitherto the primary method of communication amongst researchers has been email. In this article a novel unified polythematic, real-time, synergistic, data telecommunication system is proposed with peer-reviewed, bidirectional fuzzy feedback for research scientists, to facilitate scientific information exchange via the extensible markup language (XML) on multiple scientific topics, e.g. in mathematics, physics, biology and chemistry.

Petratos, Panagiotis. Data Science Journal (2003). Articles>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication>Collaboration

Practical Tips for Working with Global Teams  

Save team members time and conduct meetings and other steps in the project process effectively by integrating these tips for working with team members scattered in various locations.

Nesbitt, Pamela and Elizabeth Bagley-Woodward. Intercom (2006). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration>International

Preparing Students to Work with Technical Staff  

Technical communication programs should help students prepare to work with technical staff as well as develop writing, analysis, and communication skills. This presentation identifies assignments faculty can use to help students prepare to work effectively with technical staff: learning about what the writing technical staff do; learning about working in technical settings; interviewing faculty and staff; writing about science and technology for different audiences; editing a research article manuscript; learning about data networking; shadowing a technical professional; publishing a newsletter incorporating graduates’ observations and suggestions; having technical staff as well as technical communicators as guest speakers; and participating in STC.

Samson, Donald C. Jr. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>TC>Collaboration

Preparing Your Staff for Content Management  

Few changes are as potentially uncomfortable for technical communicators than implementing a content management system. Freeman explains why, and offers advice to managers on how to address writers' concerns.

Freeman, Bret. Intercom (2005). Articles>Content Management>Collaboration

Process of Knowledge Building in Educational Departments

In an educational department members are both drowning in information and craving knowledge. The department's information base is either scattered or unclassified. The business world understood this scenario and has brought a change to their knowledge infrastructure by including knowledge management (KM) systems. Educational departments, too, need to rethink their knowledge organization strategies. Therefore, a conversion from information to knowledge becomes imperative.

Rao, Abhijit. ASIST (2002). Articles>Knowledge Management>Collaboration

Project Characteristics and Group Communication: An Investigation      

This research study examined the effects of technological complexity on project group communication. The same project teams performed three separate projects involving the development of an HTML website, the development of a local-area network (LAN), and the development of blueprints for a wide-area network (WAN). Each of the projects exposed groups to a different level of complexity. The results of the study indicated differences in group information sharing, group communication focus, and group gatekeeping activities. In each of these cases, the groups had greater communication with the less complex project task, the HTML project. The study did not find significant differences in group communication concerned with member withdrawal or group conflict.

Roberts, Tom L., Paul H. Cheney and Paul D. Sweeney. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (2002). Articles>Collaboration

Project in Partnership Across Borders - Bridging the Communication Gap

The whole process and structure of globalisation is still very fragile indeed. As international business and international relations converge, businessmen will need to learn much more about diplomacy and diplomats will need to become more knowledgeable about business

Harris, Anke. TC-FORUM (2001). Articles>Collaboration>International

The Public Library as a Meeting-Place in a Multicultural and Digital Context: The Necessity of Low-Intensive Meeting-Places  

The purpose of the paper is to develop an improved conceptual framework for researching and discussing the public library's role as a meeting-place in a multicultural and digital society.

Audunson, Ragnar. Journal of Documentation (2005). Articles>Collaboration>User Experience