The articles in this issue of Intercom focus on breaking boundaries and finding complimentary roles for which technical communicators are well suited—roles in delivery, knowledge management, teaching, and business.
In his article, Todd DeLuca calls technical communicators who work beyond just producing content to delivering it to users “technical deliverers.” He shows how a technical communication department went beyond the traditional boundary of producing content and entered the realm of publishing and reporting, for a result of more visible and accessible content.
Christina Mayr and Liz Herman believe that technical communicators strive to write usable documentation that provides the best and easiest solution. This means being part of knowledge management initiatives within an organization. In their article, they show how a work team became involved in the knowledge management systems of its organization and improved their user documentation and entire user experience.
Michael Opsteegh explores the variety of academic positions that are available to the technical communications practitioner and explains multiple methods for breaking into teaching technical communication. He examines how a practitioner’s skill set relates to teaching, explains the variety of educational settings and academic positions, and offers advice on how to apply and prepare for a teaching position.
Three columns in this issue also focus on breaking boundaries.
Alan Houser, guest columnist for Ray Gallon’s Standard Deviation column, has written “Finding Standards in the Wild.” He asks, “How can one judge the success of a standard?” and also whether the ISO standards can become more widely known and adopted among technical communicators. Elizabeth Oderkirk, guest columnist for Kirk St.Amant’s Student Perspectives column, provides a case study of Twitter use at Michigan State University, offering some best practices learned. I especially want to extend a sincere “thank you” to long-time columnist Neil Perlin who is retiring his Beyond the Bleeding Edge column after 14 years. His final column focuses on breaking boundaries by extending skills into new areas such as mobile, apps, augmented reality, the Internet of Things, and business.
Finally, check out two articles in the Society Pages about new Gold member savings (price drop to $395) and Summit attractions in Anaheim in May 2016.
