Moving Forward

How will I take what I've learned in this class and move forward in a positive manner?

First, at the very least, I've become familiar with Johnson-Eiola's Datacloud and Bolter & Grusin's Remediation. I am actually interested in the issues brought up on both sides. Rearticulation and remediation are the playing fields on which my life exists and will in the future. As technology grows and improves upon itself, I will be able to acknowledge and understand what is happening, while it is happening. I may not like it, but I'll get it.

Second, I've learned how to find information about web design, code, software and hardware. I got my feet wet with reading computer manuals and navigated through the wealth of information on the O'Reilly disc. In the process of doing small assignments with our own web pages, I located a number of discussion boards that can provide all types information. I know that the answer to any of my online question is just a "click" away.

Third, I've worked my way in to the blogging world. I now have three blogs: Girl From the North Country, rearticulation and ROAD WARRIOR. "Girl From the North Country" was my Technical Writing and Online Documentation blog; however, it might change to an online journal. "rearticulation" is my Online Documentation individual project. I would like to continue to post as my relationship with the Internet continues to evolve. "ROAD WARRIOR" will be my summer, road trip blog and will most likely end when I get home.

Finally, the most important thing I learned in this class that will follow me forever is the idea that I'm not so stupid when it comes to technology. As long as I can situate myself within the existence of that technology--understand where I fit in--I'll be fine. I need to stop being scared of everything non-organic and start to deal with the fact that this is where the future is headed. Online doesn't just mean the Internet. In one way or another, we are all connected to something.

Response to a Classmate

Here is a link to Angel's blog: techwriterab

I've recently posted a comment on one of her entries.

The Experience of Blog Participation

Commenting on another person's blog--specifically someone I have absolutely no connection to--was a scary experience. I was thinking, "What if they disagree? What if they respond and embarass me?" "What if they just don't like what I have to say?" My writing process became a pained effort to make every word count when, in all reality, my comment was a response to an informal musing of the day. I worried about being meaningful, intelligent, and original, then proceeded to post my comment and hate every word of it. Even though it's electronic, I put myself on the line. I could, indeed, gain a new link for my blog roll; however, the fear of acceptance was the main emotion ruling my writing process. There's no face to read, no body language to interpret, no immediacy of response. If that person never addresses my comment to their blog, then my words will simply float in cyberspace. My stomach hurts now. Time to log off.

Extended Blog Critique

Jenny Edbauer, author of the Stupid Undergrowths blog, comments:

I have heard that if you are ever sucked underwater by a strong undertow, the worst thing you can do is to fight the pull. Of course, it will be instinctive to fight against the current pulling you under the water. You will try to stay above water, using all your energy to fight. But, in doing so, you will almost surely drown. What will save your life is to give into the wave. It's the most unnatural thing in the world--not fighting the very thing that threatens you. But if you allow the undercurrent to move you, there is a good chance that it will carry you under and back up again. You will live.

At many different points in my life, I've thought about this wave. And usually I find myself trying to fight it. But now I want to see what happens when I make the fatal strategy. What happens when I let the current carry me? What happens when you let the water pull you under?

All this is to say that I am, in some aspects of my life, giving up the struggle. You win, lady. I throw in the towel,. Like Al Smith said:

Firemen on the street, people all around
Now, I guess it's true
I'd just like to strike a match for freedom myself
I may be a white boy, but I can be bad, too

Sometimes you just gotta let go. Sometimes. It's good that I'm headed to the mountains tomorrow. Clear the head, come back, and face things again. That's life's 1, 2, 3 count, I suppose.

[Stupid Undergrowths]

I responded:

I remember taking a day trip with my parents to body surf the Youghagheny River (in Pennsylvania). I was fairly young at the time, maybe eight. We spent our time floating from one calm pond to another. When we got to the cusp of where the rapids began, my mother motioned for me to come join her on the banks. At once, I was sucked into the rapids and my first instinct was to struggle. I was bobbing under the surface, gasping deep breaths of water into my lungs, trying to stay above long enough to see where I was going. At some point, I remember my mother plunging both arms underwater and plucking me out—a look of panic with soft laughter in her face. In my unsuccessful fight with the current, I hadn’t realized that all I had to do was put my feet down and stand up.

I agree with the notion that “sometimes you just gotta let go”; however, I say sometimes you just gotta stand up. But there will always be those times when you have to considering staying where you are, dealing with what’s going on in the now, and facing things as they are. In any case, after reading this entry, I believe I’ve found one label I can attribute to myself: radical passivist. I have always valued the concept of walking away.

A Response to a Response

As TechWriterAB commented on my last entry, I will respond as best I can. I think it can be overwhelming to consider that as rapidly as technology changes, our definitions of that technology change even faster. By "our," I can only indicate a collective definition prescribed by any group of common users. Comfortable users of technology will most likely define their tools in a positive light; whereas, "recreational" users of technology will probably define their tools with a negative connotation. I agree "that meanings of terms are very subjective and open to interpretation."

This definition of terms takes me to the next comment in regards to the job of an information architect. In all reality, the title does not define the job--rather, our actions do. TechWriterAB call it "another term that actually represents a technical writer." They go on to say "We have many different titles and roles…no wonder it is difficult for others to understand what we do." I've often had the tech writer conversation with friends or family and had a difficult time explaining what it is that we do (or can do). The first thing most people assume is that I write stereo manuals and I am to blame for their relative confusion. So, we come up with these titles to help specify what it is that we do, when it is unavoidable that our jobs are still open for interpretation by anyone.

Often times, user experience testing is the only aspect of technical communication where folks outside of our field can be involved, gatekeepers and users included. Here, "the user is the person that we are creating our product for and obviously must be the most important factor." TechWriterAB comments, "While considering consistency, design choices, and needed information for the user we are ensuring that our product will meet the user’s needs." Again, a redefinition of terms occurs. We become more than just the scribe--we are the grand wizard, looking at the total user experience in an attempt to discover our audience's perceptions of use before, during and after.

Is it more productive to formulate a static understanding of what we do so our actions as technical communicators are always appropriately focused; or is it better to constantly bend and change how we define our profession?

10 Things I've Learned in this Class

1. Meaning is never fixed.

2. Technology is what we say it is.

3. Information architect is actually a profession.

4. Assessing the total user experience is paramount to developing products and services.

5. Other people--beside myself--feel uncomfortable/unfamiliar with online documentation.

6. Even Pixar considers pencil-and-paper brainstorming as a valuable step in design prototyping.

7. Learning the theory of online documentation is equally important as learning the practice.

8. New forms of media should attempt to supplement older forms, rather than replace them.

9. IF I had more time, I know now that I could learn a computer program by simply playing around for a few days.

10. Challenging the information and questioning the authorities presented to us by Dr. Mara is an intrinsic aspect of graduate-level studies.

Remediation Defined

"Remediation," it seems, has many different definitions, according to Bolter & Grusin. Simply put, it is "the representation of one medium in another." It is the blurring of lines between art forms. Mathematics informs linear perspective informs Renaissance painting informs early camera obscura works informs video informs cinema informs webcasting informs new digital media. It is the digital picture that looks like a photograph. It is amatuer webcasting that resembles a documentary. "Remediation" can be borrowing, refashioning, homage through montage, or replacement of one media to another.

"Our culture wants both to multiply its media and to erase all traces of mediation: ideally, it wants to erase its media in the very act of multiplying them." "Remediation" is concerned with the way we contruct and view experiences other than first-person. People need to see and resee the moments of their lives in as many forms as possible. We want the blending together of these various perspectives; we don't want to see the medium that brings us experience and memory. It's not the "what," but the "how" that remediation is concerned with.

What I don't understand in all of this is the importance of living in the "now." Virtual reality isn't an attempt to make life easier or to make media disappear altogether; for me, it's what we do to avoid reality itself. I guess I could go round and round forever debating virtual versus real. Why would you want a computer to discard its' GUI (in an attempt to virtually guide the user through a digital environment in a way that is "natural") when you can just discard the computer and experience the "natural" naturally? I don't know if that even makes sense. My belief is that, someday, when the world gets to the end of the line (i.e. virtual reality reigns supreme), we're going to find out that the only way to take pleasure in life is to allow your own, personal, daily perceptions to become the only medium you can trust.

Silly Blog Ahead

Things I Hate About My Flatmate

The Process of Articulation

As stated in the reading, "an articulation is ... the form of the connection that can be made between two difference elements, under certain circumstances." Specifically, articulations are "the ways that people understand, work with, and reconstruct technologies, and the ways that those activities both suggest and reflect changes in our cultures."

If we look toward everyday activities involving technology and attempt to make a connection to larger cultural trends, we may be more productive as symbolic-analytic workers. Part of this attempt to connect will include a rearticulation of "what we mean when we talk about communicating and working." If we discard the possibility that analyzing our everyday lives can help to anticipate and address this rearticulation, the symbolic-analytic worker will not survive. To prevent this from happening, we must "[understand] revolution from the inside."

Articulation, then, is a physical process, that allows for a deeper, intellectual understanding. Technology is invented. It is introduced for a specific purpose in a specific time and place; yet, we all manage to redefine technology as we want it to fit within our own specific lives. In this way, the technology is connected to our lives in a way that wasn't originally intended. The technology becomes whatever we want or need it to be. "Articulation ... offers a way of representing the possibility of resistance to dominant cultural formations."