I am currently pursuing a PhD in Technical Communication and Rhetoric. What in the world does that mean?
Technical communication is the umbrella under which technical writing falls. Technical writing itself fills a very recent gap that opened during the mid- to late-1800s; this gap grew even larger with rapid technological innovations. These new technologies led to a need for people to be able to communicate how to work with them. Engineers aren't writers; writers aren't engineers. There needed to be some sort of bridge-people who could liaison between technology, engineers' information, and the regular person.
Technical communication became a full-blown field of study with the availability of graduate degrees, with the inclusion of critical theory into the discipline, and with the growing need for research rigor. (How, for instance, do I know that my documentation about the development of a server is functional without testing it on other people? That would require research.)
With the .net boom, technical communication has enjoyed a heyday--so many people who use computers and the Internet need to know how to do specific functions. So much information can be tracked about what people are doing as they interface with technology. These are things that a technical communicator can study, interpret, and convey.
Metadata. Where does metadata fit in?
At the moment, the field of technical communication conflates social tagging with metadata. I have read a lot about technical communicators' conception of metadata, and I've discussed it with other technical communicators, and everyone thinks that social tagging=metadata. They don't realize a few things.
Controlled vocabulary.
Authority.
The role of metadata in digital preservation.
Digital preservation. (Where will all this stuff we've written be in 10 years? 20 years?)
Right now, I plan to put these pieces together so that disciplines besides Library Science can understand how metadata, digital preservation, Web surfing, and social inter-function.
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Oh yay Ana! Go out and educate others on the importance of metadata! True metadata, that with an authority file (that works like authority SHOULD work).
ReplyDeleteI'm all for social tagging but I think much can be lost without the authoritative metadata...but you've heard me rant before (bless your heart).