Scientific Articles in Internet Homepages: Assumptions Upon Lay Audiences    

This article studies a set of scientific/technical articles published in Internet homepages. Focusing upon current trends on genre theory and the functional approach deployed by Halliday and Martin [1], linguistic features and schematic structure are analyzed in relation to more standard genres. The structural analysis suggests that these kind of texts imaginatively realize and assume the standpoint and main tenets of a lay audience that just consumes specific genres, most being analogous to the persuasive, manipulative, amusement-oriented genres of TV news stories, tabloids, and commercials. It is pondered that much of the "technological utopianism" (term used by Kling [2] surrounding the ever increasingly standardized Internet discourse turns the Internet into a productive vehicle to sustain technoscience as modern myth by spreading and forging that utopian imagery into the audience's consciousness, and that scientists are taking fruitful advantage of the utopian, futurist, and often sensationalist accounts of the Internet as a formidable frame to advertise themselves and the deeds achieved in their laboratories.

Gonzalez-Pueyo, Isabel and Alicia Redrado. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>Research>Publishing>Online

Review: Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age  

If you like to think about your work philosophically, or even if you don't, David M. Levy's book tackles some of the big questions in our profession: paper versus digital, reading versus viewing, libraries versus the Web, brick and mortar schools versus distance education. And the great thing about the book is that he thinks you don't have to choose between one or the other in each of these apparent dichotomies; in fact, what's needed is a balance between the two.

Crawley, Charles R. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Reviews>Publishing>Online

A Shortcut for Selecting Online Publishing Tools for UNIX  

Online publishing is beginning to boom thanks to recent technology developments. On Unix platforms, the variety of tools available for developing online documents can be confusing. The confusion eases considerably when you realize that the tools are of two types: those that emphasize searching the document's text and those that emphasize presenting the document's information. A third type of tool, designed specifically for online publishing, will become available on Unix platforms soon. Someone looking for an online publishing tool can quickly narrow the selection by considering which of these types best fits the application.

Harvey, Patrick. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Publishing>Software>UNIX

Should You Check In Your Textbooks and Check Out an eBook?

The development of the electronic book (eBook) has offered an alternative to the traditional printed text medium. The advantages of the eBook, such as increased storage capacity (10-250 texts per eBook), decreased storage space and weight, and decreased cost of production to the consumer, make it an attractive option for consumers. In addition, previous research has indicated no significant differences exist for reading speed and reading comprehension between paper and eBook presentation (Selvidge & Phillips, 2000). It is therefore not surprising that the University of Michigan and Columbia University have already created and distributed electronic versions of textbooks for some of their major university projects (Epstein, 1999). However, if the eBook is to be considered as a viable alternative to the traditional book, then it is important to explore the usability of the device.

Selvidge, Paula, Angie Fryman and Shannon Riley. Usability News (2001). Articles>Usability>Publishing

Small Scale, Big Impact: Creating an Employee Newsletter  

Every few weeks we receive a flyer about a 'seminar' or a 'workshop' on newsletters -- now to write them, how to design them, how to produce them, how to improve them. Although we haven’t actually attended any of these seminars, they travel to many major cities, and the list of topics covered and the testimonials printed in the flyers are impressive. This phenomenon of the successful traveling newsletter seminar suggests that A) lots of people (hence organizations) are interested in creating or improving newsletters, and B) there’s lots to be learned about newsletters.

Anderson, Pamela A., Sally Nereson, and Dorothy J. Wiemann. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Document Design>Publishing>Newsletters

So You Want to Write a Book?  

Prospective authors, especially those writing books on technical communications, need an honest view of the publishing process. This panel dispels romantic myths about what is involved in writing and publishing a book so that potential authors hae a greater chance of getting successfully and profitably published.

Barnum, Carol M., JoAnn T. Hackos, William K. Horton III and Terri Hudson. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Publishing

The Soundproof Book: Exploration of Rights Conflict and Access to Commercial EBooks for People with Disabilities

This document will lay out the heated rights controversy concerning the use of synthetic speech -- Text-To-Speech (TTS) as it relates to the use of eBook publications by persons with disabilities.

Kerscher, George and Jim Fruchterman. OeB (2002). Articles>Publishing>Online>eBooks

Survey on Electronic Book Features  

While people may not want a radical departure from the paper book, they want to do things with electronic books that are not possible with paper books. For example, they want to 'personalize' their electronic book reading experience by changing the fonts, typefaces, and margins, moving illustrations and tables around the page, sizing images differently than text, and so on. In effect, people want to manage the presentation of information within the electronic book. This raises an issue because not only do people want to manage presentation, they want to add content to electronic books they purchased. For example, they may read a related article and want to add that content to the book. Adding content should not be viewed as simply creating an annotation or note but adding content that becomes part of the book and incorporated into the table of contents and index.

Henke, Harold. OeB (2002). Articles>Publishing>Online>eBooks

Technical Aspect of Next Generation Digital Library Project

Digital libraries are one of the central and most compelling applications for the 21st century's highly information-based societies. The development of such system needs three kind of technologies. First one is a system architecture that defines overall system structure and provides common services and interfaces. Second one is individual technologies that include search technology, retrieval technology, contents entry technology and so on. Third one is an integration technology that enables to combine individual technology as a system on the system architecture. The system architecture that plays a central role should be designed to have a interoperability to the international standards and de fact standards. Because digital libraries have to be open and inter-connectable.

Mukaiyama, Hiroshi. ISRDP in Digital Libraries (1997). Articles>Publishing>Online

Technical Writing and Publication Ethics  

A discussion of what one must and must not do in peer-reviewed publishing.

Fang, Shu-Cherng. North Carolina State University (2002). Articles>Publishing>Ethics

The Cultural Metamorphosis of the Internet. Hypertext and Publishing in the 'Digital Culture' (Notes Regarding Communicative Convergence)  

Focuses on the cultural significance of hypertext and online publishing possibilities for culture, education, research and communication.

Graupera Sanz, Marta. Tower of Babel. Articles>Publishing>Cyberculture>Hypertext

Thinking in Pixels: An Editing System for Electronic Texts    

On-line publication alters the relationship between editor and writer, creating a potentially more collaborative and fluid text. This article explores implications of increased publication options and examines conceptual distinctions among Fixed-Format, Electronic, and Meta-media Editors. We propose a keyboard editing/commenting technique that will work across platforms and software programs and in every mode of electronic communication including simple e-mail. This ASCII based system uses only four symbols in various combinations to convey all of the print editor's marks and also allows the editor or reader to insert comments in the immediate context. The result is increased efficiency and flexibility for writer and editor or teacher and student.

Kuhlenschmidt, Sally, Charmaine Mosby, Sally Kuhlenschmidt and Charmaine Mosby. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Articles>Publishing>Online>Methods

Three Types of Personalization

Last month, I said the definition of “personalization” has now broadened to include three non-traditional but growing applications: decentralized customization, one-off personalization, and functional VDP. This month, I will discuss an example of each.

Tolliver-Nigro, Heidi. On Demand Journal (2004). Articles>Publishing>Personalization

Time Well Spent: The Magazine Publishing Industry's Online Niche    

This article compares the uses of the print and online versions of the same magazine by its readership. Combining surveys of the readership and commercial data from the publisher and web designer, the study examines how one magazine has developed an online publication for its readers. Group Leisure is a niche magazine which has been in print for over a decade and online for two years. This article analyses the usage of the magazine in terms of age, gender and modal occupation of its readers and examines how their understanding of spending and saving time on the magazine underpins their perceptions of its value. The results and conclusions of this research have relevance to the publishing industry and to the study of online journalism.

Ingham, Deena and Alexis Weedon. Convergence (2008). Articles>Publishing>Online>Assessment

Towards a General Theory of the Digital Library

Debate about the digital library is clouded by emotion and self-interest. Emotion plays its part because the digital library is seen by some as a threat to the book, and a threat to the book is an attack on culture itself. Self-interest enters the fray because in the instability provoked by the digital library there will be winners and losers, whether in business, or the professions. Depending on your point of view the digital library can be the end of libraries as we know them, or the salvation of libraries as we know them.

Collier, Mel. ISRDP in Digital Libraries (1997). Articles>Publishing>Online>Emotions

Turning A Company Newsletter into a Pleasure Trip  

Advocates that given a chance, a tech-pubs team should adopt their company's newsletter. The questions that arise about this advocacy are: why should they do it? Will the benefits outweigh the additional workload? How should they balance their regular project-based activity with the voluntary responsibility? This paper answers these questions; charting out procedures and laying down guidelines to publish a successful newsletter, issue after issue.

Dandu, Vijayalakshmi and Shivani Seshadri. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Publishing>Newsletters

The Twenty Commandments for Submitting Articles

The acceptance rate for many freelance writers is between 25% and 40%. In my own experience though, I’ve had an almost 75% acceptance rate. But, it hasn’t happened overnight. From trial and error, I’ve picked up a few tricks that seem to make all the difference.

Klariti. Articles>Publishing>Writing

Variable Data Printing Among Y'All

Since starting this column back in June, I've had an overwhelming response from ODJ readers wanting to talk about their own variable data printing operations. This month, I begin sharing some readers' experiences and applications.

Tolliver-Nigro, Heidi. On Demand Journal (2004). Articles>Publishing>Personalization

Weblogs as a Bridging Genre    

Weblogs (blogs)--frequently modified web pages in which dated entries are listed in reverse chronological sequence--are the latest genre of Internet communication to attain widespread popularity, yet their characteristics have not been systematically described. This paper presents the results of a quantitative content analysis of 203 randomly-selected weblogs, comparing the empirically observable features of the corpus with popular claims about the nature of weblogs, and finding them to differ in a number of respects. Notably, blog authors, journalists and scholars alike exaggerate the extent to which blogs are interlinked, interactive, and oriented towards external events, and underestimate the importance of blogs as individualistic, intimate forms of self-expression. Based on the profile generated by the empirical analysis, we consider the likely antecedents of the blog genre, situate it with respect to the dominant forms of digital communication on the Internet today, and suggest possible developments of the use of weblogs over time in responsgenres.

Herring, Susan C., Scheidt, Lois Ann, Wright, Elijah, and Bonus, Sabrina. Information, Technology and People (2005). Articles>Publishing>Online>Blogging

What are eBooks Good For?

The internet and e-book technology gives you the power of independence-the power to create your own e-books and sell them online.

Van Buren, Chris and Jeff Cogswell. Design, Typography and Graphics (2004). Articles>Publishing>Online>eBooks

What Happened to Usability Interface

User Interface has been on sabbatical, but I am happy to announce that we have returned. Starting with this issue, the newsletter is online and ends our traditional newsletter format.

Dick, David J. Usability Interface (2006). Articles>Publishing>Online>Usability

What Shall We Do With the Publications?

Publications pages are often among the most popular pages on web sites, particularly government sites. But this handy convention has turned into a problem.

McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2004). Articles>Web Design>Publishing>Online

What the Blazes Is a Blog?  

'Blogs,' or Web logs, are the newest form of one-way and interactive online communication to hit the Internet. Most people would agree that a 'blog' is a regularly updated set of Web pages with a chronological set of thoughts and links. Starting around 1999, the blog movement has gained so much momentum that hundreds of thousands of Web logs and many different styles of blog now exist.

Archee, Raymond K. Intercom (2003). Articles>Web Design>Publishing>Blogging

Where Is Publishing Headed?  

As technology transforms the delivery of information, changes loom for the business called publishing.

French, Rob. Adobe Magazine (1996). Articles>Publishing

White Paper on Electronic Journal Usage Statistics  

Electronic journals represent a significant and growing part of the academic library's offerings. As demand for e-journals increases, librarians are faced with a new set of decisions related to acquisitions and services. Must libraries retain both print and electronic copies? Is the price of the electronic copy justified by its use? Do usage patterns show that some journals will be as heavily used -- or more so -- in 20 years as when they are published? Answers to these and other questions require statistics on usage, and in the electronic realm, such statistics must come from the publishers.

Luther, Judy. Journal of Electronic Publishing (2001). Articles>Publishing>Online