Future Of Technical Communication-Resources

Future Of Technical Communication

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Do some research to answer this question: What 5 to 7 references on this topic would be the most useful for technical communicators to consult? Start your search at http://tc.eserver.org, which has bibliographic records for thousands of STC-published articles and papers, as well as thousands of other references.
Provide basic bibliographic information for the references you found, with links to where the source material can be accessed on the Web. Write a brief note on each reference describing what makes it worth reading.
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Here is an STC 2003 Conference Proceedings paper (PDF) titled "Exploring Our Future: Technical Communication in the Year 2013" by Marie Highby and Beau Cain. "Along with reviewing literature, we sought anecdotal input from the profession’s practitioners and conducted a survey, which asked four questions about qualifications, paper, single-sourcing, and anticipated trends."

Comments

Ev, you raise some interesting points, but I think the numbers are off. From what I understand, and I may wrong on this, the overall STC has a much higher retention, return, and new member rate than the 80% that you mentioned have walked away (if you meant in the past year or so that the BoK has been going).

From last year to this we have:

To-Date Renewals of existing members: 5,392 (47%) [note that renewals continue to September and there is marketing into July, so we are in good overall shape]

This is about 78% of what STC had projected. STC expected a loss (the economy is not a simple fix) but the numbers to this point are already closing in on expected totals. So far, so good.

There is good news in the new member numbers as well. STC has 915 new members so far this year. That's putting the count at about 6300 members in total, at present. Not stunning, but a lot better than I personally thought it could have been. The hope is that STC has 10,000 or so members by the time all is said and done, so it is about 60% of the way there with 6 more months to go with promotions, signups, and general growth.

While there is a lot of work to do on things like the BoK, support for communities, and a serious review of where STC stands, and what needs to be done to come back, there is also an incredible amount that has been done on projects including the BoK.

Personally, I've been guilty of not doing as much as I wish I could have on a project like the BOK, but I know others are putting in huge effort. As with any volunteer group it can be tough to get things to move ahead. But I think that it is happening. We just need to be involved, supportive, and pro-active in what we do.

On the Canadian front I know that many of the chapters are working together to move ahead with projects and plans for the next year, and I would hope that the US chapters find themselves in a similar situation. Generally I think that we have found working as a team we can do a lot in Canada for the STC, and I would love to see that idea continue to grow.

Ev,

We see the portal as a condensed and selective encyclopedia, whose function complements that of a library.

The founder and director of the TC Library, Geoff Sauer, gave a presentation with me at the 2010 annual meeting of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing. Geoff discussed the TC Library, and I reviewed the history and status of the STC TCBOK Portal. Our mutual goal was to clarify the differences in the two projects and to show how their on-going development could be inter-linked to gain mutual benefits. Carolyn Rude responded to our presentations and moderated questions from the sizable audience (standing room only, and half a dozen were standing).

The audience was not one inclined to view any project uncritically; pointed, skeptical questions were raised, but they were matched by several generous, positive commentaries from leaders in the academic community. Indeed, we are delighted that a few academics have made the portal the focus of course projects, and the content developed by students, under the supervision of their professors, will begin to appear on the site shortly.

You described the STC TCBOK as a “massive effort.” Thank you. The project has been a concerted effort by many volunteers. But we also recognize that to realize the vision in the project charter, we will need more active volunteers to contribute their time and knowledge.

You mention “putting content behind expensive firewalls.” We agree that making information freely available is crucial, and so the highest levels of information on the STC TCBOK Portal are and will remain freely available to all who have access to the Web. I encourage you to read the charter for the STC TCBOK Portal: http://stcbok.editme.com/Home#Charter.

David Dayton

Hmm, no comments for almost a year. Hardly a vibrant community.

As others have noted, the STC BoK is competing with an online universe of higher quality material that is always readily available for a better price (e.g., free). This looks like an attempt to monetize and franchise inferior content, to the detriment of members and the profession. The functional TC BoK is thriving here:

http://tc.eserver.org/

While this massive effort was being developed, about 80% of STC's members walked away. Will putting content behind expensive walls bring them back, especially when better material is being developed and released daily, FOR FREE? I think not.

The technical communication profession will continue to evolve and assume newer faces. As we move into the future, loads of new products and services will come to the market for our use. You may not use some or all of the features of those products and services without a manual or guide. So, there will be continuous demand for technical communicators. With more chunks of content being delivered, there will be need for editor specialist to inspect, modify and deliver the right and appropriate content to the end users. This means that demand for editors will increase as we see it for technical communicators now.

We can expect a change in the tools that we use to communicate to the end users / specialists. There will be a drastic change in the technology that will be used for technical communication. The basic print media may become obsolete. People will use facilities like wiki and blogspot as standard modes for document deliverables. As quoted somewhere, the technical communication will become an independent office function like sales, finance, etc. The core activity of this department would manage the overall technical communication activities of the organization.

Saul,

I like the idea of segregation on this page. Would you propose three simple links? e.g.

Ideas on the Future from thought leaders in TC

Ideas on the Future from members of the TC community

Comments and published articles on the future by people outside of TC

- Joel Kline

Suggestion--have three versions of this page--one for members to share their visions, a second for thought leaders in the field, and a third for peple outside of the field. Submitted by Saul Carliner