The April issue of Intercom includes three articles on international technical communication. Allen Brown has written an article about trust in virtual teams around the globe. He provides an overview of the factors affecting the creation and maintenance of trust in virtual teams, along with strategies technical communicators can use to develop trust among team members. In her article, Myriam Siftar explains how technical writers can benefit from cross-cultural training, especially by keeping translation in mind. She asserts that cross-cultural training can provide us with critical knowledge of cultural differences that affect tone and word or image choice when writing and designing documents. Kirk St.Amant’s article reconsiders social media in global contexts. He explains that not all cultures use social services in the same manner, and that the use of social media in global contexts goes beyond translation. He defines a range of factors from geopolitical to cultural in explaining proper use of social media in global contexts.
Other articles in the issue include an update by Marta Rauch on best practices for enterprise gamification and recommends a gamification design framework based Kevin Werbach’s book, For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business. And in her article, Carol Leahy has written on the core soft skills technical communicators need to gain influence, such as socializing with coworkers and other organizational teams.
I’m pleased to announce that they next two upcoming issues of Intercom will be guest edited. The May issue has been edited by Derek Ross of Auburn University and focuses on ethics. For the June issue, Jack Molisani of Prospring Technical Staffing has collected articles focusing on power and gaining organizational influence as a technical communicator. These are going be excellent issues on timely topics.
Are you interested in writing an article for Intercom? Visit http://intercom.stc.org/ for the editorial calendar, deadlines, and instructions on submitting. Or simply email me with your ideas!
