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Object-Oriented Technical Writing: Theorizing and Operationalizing Content Management Systems

Object-Oriented Technical Writing: Theorizing and Operationalizing Content Management Systems. George Pullman & Baotong Gu Georgia State University gpullman@gsu.edu bgu@gsu.edu ATTW Conference New York, March 21, 2007. Overview . Challenges and Promises

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Object-Oriented Technical Writing: Theorizing and Operationalizing Content Management Systems

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  1. Object-Oriented Technical Writing:Theorizing and Operationalizing Content Management Systems George Pullman & Baotong Gu Georgia State University gpullman@gsu.edu bgu@gsu.edu ATTW Conference New York, March 21, 2007

  2. Overview Challenges and Promises Defining Content Management (CM vs. CMS) (Dis)Placing the Rhetorical Context Reinventing the Role of Writers and Editors Separation of Form from Content From Tools to Implementation Pedagogy, Anyone? Some Inconclusive Thoughts Case Analysis

  3. Defining Content Management • “a system-based approach to indexing content, ensuring that it can be accessed through all platforms and providing direct publishing mechanisms” (“Cracking content management, p. 5) • “a set of tasks and processes for storing, managing, publishing and repurposing all forms of digital assets throughout their lifecycle, from creation to archive, on any digital platform” (Jefferey-Poulter, p. 157) • “a platform for managing the creation, review, filing, updating, distribution, and storage of structured and unstructured content” (White, p. 20) • “a process of collecting, managing, and publishing information to whatever medium you need” (Boiko, 2005, p. xv)

  4. Defining Content Management Challenges: System or Approach? • System managing people? • People managing system? • People managing content? Promises • Simplified content • Streamlined process • Revolutionized approach

  5. (Dis)Placing the Rhetorical Context Challenges • Shift away from the audience • Writing concerns not only the text but also the means and mechanism of production (Grabill and Hicks) • Shift of emphasis in rhetorical cannons from invention to arrangement, memory, and delivery Promises • An epistemic perspective on technical communication • A reconceptualization of users and audience

  6. Reinventing the Role of Writers and Editors Challenges • Devaluing of technical writers and editors • Reducing the role of technical writers to assembly workers Promises • A re-conception of the notion of authorship and the writer/reader relationship (Erin Smith) • A re-conceptualization of writer’s role: from the creator of content to the manager of information • New roles for technical communicators: member, manager, owner, reviewer, in addition to graphic designer, code developer, content manager, and usability/accessibility expert (Kuralt and Williams)

  7. Separation of Form from Content Challenges • The rhetorical choice of one data structure over another (Karl Stolley) • Decontextualized chunks of content and challenges to the conventional rhetorical expertise of technical communicators (Rebekka Andersen) • The potential conflict between developing “content as discrete blocks of information” and developing “text as coherent, unified passages” (Gattis) Promises • Reconceptualizing and revamping our technical communication practice

  8. Redefining Technical Skills Challenges • A new set of technical skills • A shift from tools to implementation (Clark and Anderson, 2005) • A higher demand for managerial capabilities • A greater need for collaborative relationships • A shift from creation of content to its delivery Promises • An expanded set of technical skills

  9. Pedagogy, Anyone? Challenges • What should we teach? • What to do with rhetorical skills Promises • Reconceptualized pedagogical approaches (the need to teach students how to analyze the technological situation and then select the most appropriate technological strategies: to discover technology’s limitations, to interrogate tool availability within and without an organization, and to articulate alternative software selections) (McShane)

  10. Some Inconclusive Thoughts • The introduction of CM and CMS’s promises a change of revolutionary nature in our conceptualization of the field of technical communication and what we teach. • We’re not venturing into a totally foreign land by going into content management, so there’s no need to panic. • There’s a glaring lack of involvement in CMS design by technical communication practitioners, teachers, and researchers. • Research in some areas within our discipline, such as single sourcing, knowledge management, and course management, is already paving the way for our inevitable involvement and participation in cm research.

  11. Case Analysis

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