Opportunities for Face-to-Face Learning
Collaborating Virtual Style: Hints from STC's SIG Leaders
By Judith Herr, SIG Advocate, and Karen Mardahl, Comanager, AccessAbility Special Interest Group
In each issue of Tieline, a representative of the twenty-one STC special interest groups (SIGs) shares wisdom, hints, and lessons learned. Each is free to focus on a different aspect of facilitating STC communities—whether those communities are based on subject matter or geographic location. Currently, SIG leaders are exploring various collaborative tools and management styles to benefit their members and recruit new volunteers and leaders. Judith M. Herr, STC SIG Advocate |
In 2008, it is hard to imagine anyone who is not aware of the many challenges and opportunities arising from companies expanding outside their familiar geographic boundaries and exploring—for them—uncharted territory. This expansion is affecting communication and collaboration across all fields. New tools and approaches are popping up in the wake of these trailblazers.
The STC Technical Communication Summit, June 1–4 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, gives you an opportunity for face-to-face learning in these important topics. Look for details on the STC conference Web site at www.stc.org/55thConf. A good place to start is meeting with the SIGs at the welcome reception or throughout the conference in progressions, luncheons, or other meeting spots, including the very best kind: the spontaneous meetings over a cup of coffee after a scintillating question-and-answer period following a session.
Following are some examples of communities you may want to contact:
- Europe SIG, where members living in different European countries meet virtually to share their experiences of living and working in diverse cultures and using different languages on a daily basis.
- Usability and User Experience SIG, where members have long been thinking about the intersection of different cultures in the virtual world.
- Academic SIG, where intercultural communication is being investigated, researched, and integrated into technical communication studies as we speak.
- Management SIG, where members may be the front line facing the challenges of global collaboration in virtual environments—whether they are prepared or not.
- International Technical Communication SIG, where cross-cultural communication in virtual environments receives full attention.
These SIGs and others are tackling important topics in which technical communicators can play a role in shaping methodologies or simply learn the skills required to adapt to our ever-changing job market.
Before the conference, if you want a head start on topics of importance to virtual communities, we recommend Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools, by Kit Brown, Brenda Huettner, and Char James-Tanny. The authors discuss not only the tools to use when collaborating globally, but also the process of building and managing a virtual team.