Is the Price Right? The Education of the Design Client

Jeff Fisher advises us on how to educate our client base about the cost, value and time investment of design services.

Fisher, Jeffrey P. Graphics.com. Design>Collaboration

Is Wiki Under Your Radar?

Your staff may already be using one of the most productive collaboration tools ever built.

Dickerson, Chad. InfoWorld (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Content Management>Wikis

The Issue of Quality in Professional Documentation: How Can Academia Make More of a Difference?      

This article recommends strategies academics can use to contribute to an issue of great interest in industry: how best to define, measure, and achieve quality documentation.  These strategies include contextualizing quality definitions, advocating the use of multiple quality measures, conducting research to identify specific heuristics for defining and measuring quality in particular workplace contexts, and partnering with industry to educate upper management about those heuristics and the benefits of promoting technical communicators to the strategic role of organizational “gatekeepers of quality.”

Spilka, Rachel. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Documentation>Collaboration>Technical Writing

Issues in the Design of Computer Support for Co-Authoring and Commenting  

This paper reports on a project to develop a “work in preparation” editor, or PREP editor, to study co-authoring and commenting relationships. As part of the project, we have identified three issues in designing computer support for co-authoring and commenting: (1) support for social interaction among co-authors and commenters; (2) support for cognitive aspects of co-authoring and external commenting; and (3) support for practicality in both types of interaction. For each of these issues, the paper describes the approach the PREP editor takes to address them.

Neuwirth, Christine M., David S. Kaufer, Ravinder Chandhok and James H. Morris. ACM SIGGROUP (1990). Design>Software>Collaboration

Issues You Will Confront When Using Third Parties To Build Out Sites

Nearly every ecommerce site revolves around a database to support inventory, listings and transactions. Building out the database can be a challenge. Here is what to expect.

Pires, Halstatt. Ezine Articles (2006). Articles>Web Design>Collaboration>E Commerce

It's about the Community Plumbing: The Social Aspects of Content Management Systems  

In the summer of 2003, we worked on creating a general description of Drupal--an open source content management system (CMS)--for the "About Drupal" page on drupal.org. While Drupal is clearly within the class of applications known as content management systems, we felt that to describe it with that term alone would not present a clear picture of the breadth and range of Drupal's capabilities. Thus, the final description ended up describing Drupal with a total of four characteristics, although notably not distinct content management; weblog; discussion-based community software; and collaboration. Why is it then that the term CMS alone would not suffice? The word "content" places much emphasis on the product over process; it fails to emphasize the social use of CMSes, a mislabeling which places too much emphasis on the content itself at the expense of the communication and collaboration the better of these systems implement. In order to better understand how CMSes are being influenced by the precepts of social software and their role in creating social networks online, this presentation will: explore Drupal's social software features, narrate its genesis as software serving a community; and explain the influence of the community itself on Drupal development and the software's influence on the community that creates and uses it. In composing this text, we draw on the coauthors' unique perspectives. One of us is the founder and lead developer of Drupal, and the other a researcher in Computers and Writing and a participant in the Drupal community.

Lowe, Charles and Dries Buytaert. Kairosnews (2005). Presentations>Content Management>Community Building>Collaboration

It's More Than E-Mail: An Overview Of Inter-Networking  

Although global computer networks have existed for many years, they have grown explosively only in the last few—particularly the one called the Internet. ARPANET, the forerunner of these network, was set up to aid communication between the government and people doing defense research in universities and industry. The network got a major boost in the late 1980s when the National Science Foundation created NSFNET, linking the five NSF supercomputer centers with networks at university campuses and the ARPANET. Continuing advances in reliability, speed, capacity, and ease of access have made the Internet an international medium for information exchange.

Hibbard, Jeffrey L. and Eric J. Ray. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Collaboration>Online>Government

It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know: Work in the Information Age  

We discuss our ethnographic research on personal social networks in the workplace, arguing that traditional institutional resources are being replaced by resources that workers mine from their own networks. Social networks are key sources of labor and information in a rapidly transforming economy characterized by less institutional stability and fewer reliable corporate resources. The personal social network is fast becoming the only sensible alternative to the traditional 'org chart' for many everyday transactions in today's economy.

Nardi, Bonnie A., Steve Whittaker and Heinrich Schwarz. First Monday (2000). Articles>Workplace>Collaboration

It’s the Communication, Stupid: Lessons in Communication-Driven Product Development  

Changes in software design and development are creating new opportunities for technical communicators at DDS. Writers have become an integral part of product teams, evaluated on their ability to help get products out the door. In some cases writers’ deliverables have themselves become full software development projects. As technical writers take on new roles they’re getting increased visibility, more interesting and varied work and a chance to move up ladders outside of the traditional technical writing group.

Dykstra, Peter. STC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Communication>Collaboration

An Iterative Approach to Better Working Relationships

Discover creative solutions to inter-personal problems in the workplace using an iterative approach: observation of moment-to-moment interactions to assess the effectiveness of our responses. We will present six options for resolving conflicts, clarifying when and how to use each through case studies, work in small groups, and simulations.

Ziff, Joel D. Usability Professionals Association (2004). Presentations>Collaboration

Journal of Computer Mediated Communication

A journal which publishes research into CMC.

JCMC. Journals>Human Computer Interaction>Communication>Collaboration

Just a Cog in the Machine? Implications for Technical Communicators

This article explores the implications of choosing to work as a cog in the field of technical communication. The author includes perspectives from cog-colleagues and manager/cogs, and touches on concepts of ownership, recognition, and egoless communication. She recommends exercises in discipline-specific poetry and editing in a workshop setting as practical ways to work toward detachment.

MacQueen, Lisa Clare. Orange Journal, The (2002). Articles>TC>Collaboration

"Just the Boys Playing on Computers": An Activity Theory Analysis of Differences in the Cultures of Two Engineering Firms      

Using activity theory as a supplement to genre studies, this article explores a case of the disintegration of a traditional engineering firm. It focuses on the causes of such disintegration and the role of different types of communication in serving as sites where contradictions can be brought to visibility and resolution. The authors' goal is both to show the power of activity theory in illuminating issues of tension, contradiction, and dissonance that lead to the breakup of the original organization into two separate firms and point to fundamental differences in the cultures of traditional engineering firms and software design enterprises.

Artemeva, Natasha and Aviva Freedman. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>Collaboration>Engineering

Keep Pesky Business Types at Bay by Focusing on the Strategic Goal  

If you have ever been forced to deal with business types who have no technical know-how, then you know how these types can work against IT's progress. Here's how to improve your business/IT communication by concentrating on the strategic goals.

Hardin, Ken. TechRepublic (2003). Careers>Business Communication>Project Management>Collaboration

Keeping In Touch--Staying Online  

As technical communicators, we need to reach out and 'keep in touch' with customers if we want to provide truly user-friendly documentation. If we include our customers in the document development process, and convince them that they are an integral part of that process, we increase customer satisfaction. In this panel, writers will discuss practical, step-by-step approaches they use to gather customer comments.

Jacobowitz, Barbara E. and Peggy A. Yates. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Collaboration>Correspondence

Key Content: Developing a Personal Tagline

It is a helpful exercise to develop a tagline for yourself, in the same way that professionals in a previous generation were encouraged to develop a mission statement. With shortening attention spans, today's professional needs only a few-word tagline to fit in the sound bite of management's smaller time slots.

Albing, Bill. Carolina Communique (2007). Careers>Portfolios>Workplace>Collaboration

Key Open Source "Best Practices" Supported in the Tigris Project

Software developers spend a large part of their time communicating with each other.  Clear and effective technical communications are needed to keep the team in synch and to allow individuals with key knowledge to apply that knowledge where it is needed. One tenet of the open source community is that techincal communications should take place in public forums.   Mailing lists are the backbone of open source communications.  Beyond that, open source projects need support for precisely communicating technical details and for group decision-making.

Tigris (1994). Articles>Collaboration>Open Source

The Knowledge Editor(SM): Innovative Editorial Solutions to Meet Your Quality Objectives  

This paper represents over 30 years cumulative work experience, as both corporate staff members and as consultants, and shares recommendations for providing highly valuable editorial contributions. The authors also introduce a new concept for innovative editorial methods that meet the technological and productivity challenges facing today’s information design organizations.

Holland, Mary T. and Kristen Sutton. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Editing>Collaboration

Knowledge Management: The Collaboration Thread

Knowledge management is a thick web of themes from a variety of professional disciplines. The field is populated with people who resonate with the ideas first articulated by Larry Prusak and Tom Davenport, Tom Stewart, Carla O'Dell and others. "Getting the right information to the right people at the right time." Isn't that what information architecture and the information sciences are all about? "Leveraging the intellectual capital of the organization." Isn't that HR turf? "Harvest and refine reusable intellectual artifacts." Hello? Are there any technical writers out there? "It's about connecting people with people and supporting them with technology." Does anybody know that research in computer-supported cooperative work began in 1984?

Anklam, Patti. ASIST (2002). Articles>Knowledge Management>Collaboration

A Lack of Coordination is Why Technical Support Isn't Working  

Technical support relies heavily on users' abilities to perform tasks, and we're all more than familiar with the difficulty involved with assisting inexperienced computer users. Most widespread worms and viruses take hold and spread due to poorly maintained systems, commonly home systems found on broadband networks.

Yarden, Jonathan. TechRepublic (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Collaboration>Help

Leadership in Collaboration: Film Making and Interaction Design

There are useful parallels between making films and making web sites or software products. We'd be wise to study how they manage creativity, and how our divisions of effort, and means of collaberation, compare and contrast.

Berkun, Scott. UIWeb (2002). Design>Collaboration>Interactive>Multimedia

Leadership in Collaboration: Filmmaking and Interaction Design

For projects of importance, you need divergent skills to succeed. It is not possible to find an individual with all of the skill sets needed, nor would you want to. To create a first rate website or software product, you need many tasks to be done in parallel, which means that more than one person has to be working at them. As soon as two or more people are involved, the dynamic for how decisions are made, and how work gets done, becomes important. Any group of people can do work together, but it takes the right approach and team philosophy for that group to produce good work. Collaboration is critical in any creative pursuit involving groups of people, from filmmaking, to urban architecture or even web and software development.

Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2002). Careers>Management>Collaboration>Interaction Design

Leadership Through Empowerment

Assigning responsibility without sharing authority is like making someone a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but leaving out the bread. They know what they're supposed to chew, but have absolutely no way to handle, no way to manage the project.

Juillet, Christopher. Boston Broadside (1990). Articles>Management>Collaboration

Learning at Work: The Role of Technical Communication in Organizational Learning    

Concludes that technical support is an important audience for customer documentation and a source of knowledge. Proposes that technical communicators produce documentation that meets the needs of technical support and taps into that knowledge.

Wahl, Scott. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Collaboration>Workplace