Beyond the Bleeding Edge Technical Sessions  

Perlin summarizes several presentations on new technologies given at STC's 49th Annual Conference in Nashville.

Perlin, Neil E. Intercom (2002). Articles>Technology>TC

Facing the Frontiers of Advanced Technology, Global Integration, and Communication  

Poetic phrases emerge from the root word techne, such as pyrotechnics, advanced technology, and technical communicator. Your role is likely to expand. You might become involved with international standards or the computer network. You might create interactive multimedia information.

Geary, Carol C. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Technology>TC

From Technical Writing to Technical Communication: Looking to the Future

This paper focuses on the technical communicator’s role as it relates to computer technology.

Fisher, Julie L. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>TC>Technology>History

From the Moon to the Microchip: Fifty Years of Technical Communication    

Explores technologies and technical writing discussed in this journal over the past 50 years. Describes how computer technologies were applied to gain efficiency in production. Notes that single sourcing and content management focus on text creation.

Durack, Katherine T. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Technology>TC

Historical Patterns in the Scholarship of Technology Transfer  

Offers an historian's view of the development of the scholarship about technology transfer over the past half century, interweaving two primary threads. First, it identifies events and circumstances that have influenced and shaped real-world efforts to move technology in its many guises across boundaries— national, geographic, institutional, organizational, social, or otherwise. These historical situations have had a profound impact on the efforts of American policymakers and leaders in business, government, universities, and nongovernmental organizations who deal with technology transfer. These circumstances have produced significant changes of emphasis in the definition of technology transfer at different points in time.

Seely, Bruce E. Johns Hopkins University (2003). Articles>TC>History>Technology

The Issue of Archiving and Obsolescence

We can be almost certain that CDs will be obsolete in about five years. But what should we do about it?

Pinkham, Gordon. MetroVoice (2004). Articles>TC>Technology>Standards

It's Not the Tool, It's the Writer

This blog post ponders whether or not technical communicators are sometimes too enamoured with the tools, and because of that lose sight of what's best for the reader.

DMN Communications (2008). Articles>TC>Technical Writing>Technology

The Need for Technical Communication in IT Departments

Although many would not believe such to be true, there is a vast amount of communication that must be done in the IT world. This is even truer when the IT organization is involved with a regulated industry (e.g., pharmaceutical). In general, procedures and practices that went into the development, installation, and use/maintenance of a system require documentation and the communication of outages to the user community are also important. Among the more specific areas are help documentation, user instructions, code comments, installation instructions, and maintenance procedures/schedules. When a problem arises, it is often necessary for the IT professional to explain exactly what happened and provide the resolution in a coherent, layman-termed method, whether it be verbal or written (or both). Unfortunately, not all IT professionals are capable of doing this.

Mardekian, Beth. MetroVoice (2004). Articles>TC>Technology>Collaboration

Operating at the Edge of Technology    

This article was originally going to discuss design issues for online documentation and help to be displayed on handheld devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs) and Web-enabled cell phones. The tiny screens and limited or nonexistent storage and processing would make design a challenge. However, by the time I began writing for this special section of Technical communication, the industry had changed so much that the original article was no longer relevant. Instead, I will look at those industry changes to examine the risk of operating at the edge of technology. Note that this article is a not a traditional journal article. Instead, it's a practitioner's commentary based on 4 years of working with handheld devices, giving presentations, and developing multiple WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) programming courses.

Perlin, Neil E. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Technology>TC

Rhetoric, Technology, and the Internet: What Corporations Can Learn From the Case of Lotus Market Place  

Current focus on creating a National Information Infrastructure by increasing the capacity of the Internet computer network will have direct implications for companies who produce technical products and services. More and more organizations are already using the Internet to talk with customers, assess user needs, and provide product information. Yet corporations may not be familiar with the communication style of computer networks. A protest in 1990 over a Lotus Development Corporation product illustrates how the traditional fact-driven corporate communication style might clash with the more emotional and informal style often assumed on computer networks.

Gurak, Laura J. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Technology>TC>Online

Staying on Top of Technology  

Staying on top of new technology is a challenge for many information design and development groups. We in the InfoDesign group in DuPont met that challenge by holding monthly 'Technology Topics' sessions to try to address that need. Each Tech Topics session is a meeting dedicated to exploring one or two currently relevant, technology-related topics.

Hansen, Lauren Y. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>TC>Technology

Technology Sets the Pace: Evolution of Technical Communication

Technical communicators will take on increasingly important roles as technology becomes ever more sophisticated. After all, we must be able to use this equipment once it is installed.

Marriott, Tony Rhodes. Boston Broadside (1991). Articles>TC>Technology

Understanding Capital Equipment  

The purpose of this presentation is to explain capital equipment costs, budgeting and capital equipment purchase.

Caernarven-Smith, Patricia. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>TC>Technology

Talking Tech with Newbies and Older Generations

Tech newbies, and often these are people from an older generation than us techies, are easily overwhelmed by technology. Why do we expect them to get it? It's not their business to get it, it's our business to get it and then translate it to them. Do we think we are impressing them with all our knowledge? Chances are we are intimidating them. We need to stop, slow down and listen, ask questions, understand where they are coming from and then meet them where they are at. It isn't condescending or patronizing to slow things down and start with the basics.

Banner, Jeb. SmallBox (2009). Articles>TC>Collaboration>Technology