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No, this article is not really about the future; it is about the present, because the future is already upon us I see it evident in the following trends that will affect those of us who work in the field of technical communication.
One trend is the use of computer-based automation. It is evident in every aspect of our work, not simply in the production of documents, which has moved from hand drawings and typewritten memos in the early days of my career to automatically generated documentation, email, and instant Web publishing, but in every stage of document development. Authors can not only post PDF files and HTML pages directly to a world wide audience on the Web, they can draw from a large quiver of tools on the development end of the process as well.
Whether it is with automated and template-driven authoring environments with built-in version control tools or with automatic generation tools (for software reference documentation), many of us now use software during content development. Part of the challenge we face is to integrate the automation that makes our work more efficient with the original creativity that allows us to add value to the deliverable content. We cannot simply allow these tools to do the writing for us – we have to continue to be responsible for the quality of what we produce. We need to learn to use these tools to augment the creative process. This tools-oriented aspect of our work now becomes another skill we master along with our ability to organize information and develop content from scratch.
Another trend is the sharing of knowledge across disciplines. Previously, disciplines were considered separate, so chemistry and physics and biology and engineering all had their own departments at colleges, their own professions in industry, and their own terminology. Now, interdisciplinary areas such as nanotechnology and bioinformatics mix these previously siloed fields. I believe that technical communicators will play a vital role in helping that sharing. Knowledge that spans disciplines, that challenges organization of information, that brings teams of experts together, will need our expertise. The word interdisciplinary will become superfluous as all projects will span previously separate fields. Collaboration will be the norm, not the exception.
Many of you have heard me say that Bill Horton’s prediction that companies will need a team of talent to create the user documentation has come true. The part that has not come true is that the team is not a collection of experts each in their own media, but a lone writer that must do it all. You know, it is funny that as documentation teams break up into smaller entities, there is even more collaboration across them. For example, I am using the Internet to communicate with engineers and developers (SMEs) who are spread out across the globe within a corporation. I also communicate with fellow technical writers around the world (peers) outside of the corporation. I am using the Internet to communicate with the editor of this article to make it better! It is as if we are becoming part of ONE BIG enterprise, each member more individually discrete than before. Pass the computerized-cameracell- phone. Make sure that I can connect to the ‘net. The challenge for us is to learn to be a smaller entity (lone writer) that can work within any given bigger entity (global enterprise) at any given time. We are fragmenting in our specialization and specific work tasks while becoming interconnected as never before.
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