Podcast: Trends in Technical Communication

April 25, 2010   »   10 Replies

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Length: 45 min.
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This podcast on Trends in Technical Communication is a recording of a presentation I gave at the Missouri State University Workshop for Teachers of Technical Writing on April 22, 2010. Although trends in technical communication could cover a variety of topics, I chose to focus on four trends: hybrid roles, social media, collaborative authoring, and multimedia. Here’s the description of my presentation:

In a sea of ever-changing technologies, tools, and methods for documentation, technical writers often find themselves gasping for air trying to keep up. At the lead of the current trends, the following topics continue to gain traction: multimedia, such as screencasts and other video content; wikis, as well as other collaborative authoring tools and methods; hybrid roles, especially with usability, quality assurance, and audiovisual tasks; and finally the messy, fragmented content of social media, which stands in sharp contrast to structured authoring.

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10 thoughts on “Podcast: Trends in Technical Communication”

  2. Krista

    Thanks for coming to Missouri State! I was at the conference and I really enjoyed your presentation. I also thought it was very true to what I have discovered looking for jobs since getting my bachelor’s degree. I am now getting a master’s and trying to focus on online mediums for communication.

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  4. roseacea

    Hi Tom, enjoyed your podcast as always.

    I had to chuckle when you quoted a surprisingly high statistic of your audience who listen to your podcasts on their PCs—because I was doing just that! But normally I put them on my mp3 and listen while I’m riding public transport or doing housework.

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  7. Ellis Pratt

    Hi Tom

    I’ve got a new mac laptop and, finally, listened to this podcast.

    I think there is a crisis of confidence in the technical writing community, and there’s uncertainty over the value of what they produce. The consequence of this is Technical Writers look to other areas where they may be appreciated. It also leads to recruiters emphasising technical skills over writing skills, because it’s actually something they can measure. As more content is published on the Web, and can be measured in lots of different ways, I think we’ll a reassessment of the value of Technical Writers.

    It’s a lot easier to acquire technical and domain knowledge skills than technical writing skills, so I would argue it’s more important to have someone with great writing skills. I would argue, in the UK at least, that Technical Authors have always done more than just writing – they’ve been doing information design, content strategy as well.

    Great presentation, Tom.

    Regards

    Ellis

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