Web 2.0

Disrupting the Machine: Web 2.0 Power to the People

While reading the texts for this week I could not help but to think about a conversation many of us had about Michel de Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday Life. The main question that was posed was about the possibility of “tactics” being enacted within structures (like the web) that are inevitably constrained. In other words, because the capabilities of any particular information platform are predetermined and only customizable within a particular set of parameters subversion is limited. However, it seems many of the articles were actually illustrating how web 2.0 makes it possible to use technology for purposes that it was not originally designed for. For instance in, Karl Stolley’s article, “Integrating Social Media in Existing Work Environments: The Case of Delicious,” he claims “The customization and integration of Delicious that I present here, then, can also be applied to other SMAs, which collectively provide a model of how technical communicators may ‘‘subvert’’ and ‘‘open up’’ a centralized system ‘‘and find ways to build in support for activities that it excludes’’ (Spinuzzi, 2003, p. 204)” (351). He continues to suggest a very specific way to use Delicious that will help technical communicators better understand the end user.

Because I am particularly interested in the issues of the “digital divide” and access I cannot help but to consider two important issues with this kind of “subversion” and/or social action. First, if social media applications are being used to rally support for social action then access to such technology is going to only increase in importance. Obviously, an additional concern is that access is not necessarily enough in and of itself because users need to also be comfortable with the utilizing the technology and/or know where to find it. Second, what is considered subverting? In other words, is Harfouh’s recount of using MyBO a type of subversion? Or is it a fully appropriate use of such technology? Certainly the fact that Chris Hughes, Director of Online Organizing, for the Obama campaign was also one of the founders of Facebook suggests that the use of the technology was in line with the goals, as well as the intentions of use, for the platform. I do not mean to suggest that Obama’s campaign was subversive I just wonder if it is in danger of being considered so because it used the web in ways that had not been done before. If the campaign efforts were considered subversive would that leave room for the stronger and more dominant communities that already have a large presence in technological fields work to silence more effectively small grassroots efforts?

CCR 760 week 8...really? Already....

Tech Communicator as an Information Designer

I find that in many aspects of writing definitions are difficult to agree upon. When asked to describe what I do or what I teach I often find myself struggling to come up with a concise and appropriate description. Part of this complication is because what I do and/or teach is constantly evolving. This is particularly true if I’m trying to describe the role of “rhetoric” in what I do. So, when reading the texts for this week I realized that technical communicators probably always had a difficult time defining what they did and it has only become more complicated as communication technologies have changed.

Carliner provides early evidence of this when he states, “The Vienna-based International Institute of Information Design (1997) admits that information design ‘can be hard to define, because it is an interdisciplinary approach which combines skills in graphic design, writing and editing, illustration, and human factors. Information designers seek to combine skills in these fields to make complex information easier to understand’”(43). However, he doesn’t seem to accept the-it’s just too difficult to describe-approach and continues by adding, “Because design is focused on solving problems, a design theory must provide more than a series of guidelines about discrete characteristics of the solution; it must focus designers on identifying the problem and supplying a framework for identifying and considering the interrelated issues that must be addressed in a solution” (44).

Although Carliner goes on to describe a more detailed and structured framework and acknowledges both the benefits and the drawbacks to such an approach the difficulty of “definition” is echoed in Abers text.

Because I find most of the “definitions” reader/user-centered and the focus on purpose and context, I can’t help but to feel that writing (whether technical or otherwise) defies definition. As texts become more “visual” and readers become my diverse what and how we write will continue to change. This difficulty for definition is both ironic and liberating. I find this liberating because it allows us as teachers and researchers continue to be relevant and interested in what we do and how we do it.