ATTW 2009 : : Beyond Work? Technical Communication in Professional,
Community, & Social Networks

12th Annual ATTW Conference
March 11th, 2009
San Francisco, CA

Traditionally, teachers and researchers of technical writing have
concentrated on writing in workplace settings. And rightly so. But the
spread of information technology into all areas of social life means
that, increasingly, technical communication practices and genres arise
and collide in social spheres other than the workplace. Combine this
trend with an increasingly mobile work environment in which people are
working from home or from the neighborhood coffee shop rather than an
office or shop floor, and an increasingly global workforce that spans
multiple time zones, and you have the basis for dramatic shifts in the
contexts, practices, genres, and purposes of technical writing. Some may
see a threat to our identity, while others may see opportunities for
work to have broader cultural and economic relevance.

The ATTW invites you to consider the movement of technical communication
beyond the traditional workplace. We seek papers and posters for the
12th annual conference to be held April 2, 2008 in San Francisco, CA.
The conference will include 15-minute individual papers, 3-person
panels, and posters that report new research, theory, and pedagogy that
address issues including, but not limited to:

* Just how tied to the notion of "work" and "workplaces" is the field of
technical communication? Are we prepared to deal with shifts in how our
work may be valued if the contexts in which our work is taken up (and
therefore, the criteria by which that work is valued) change?

*What might we learn from decidedly non-work contexts that are
nonetheless sites where writing is crucial? What might research on
multiplayer online gaming environments where users from different
cultural backgrounds come together in ad hoc teams to collaborate on
complex, goal-oriented tasks reveal? How might the simple but effective
content management practices that prevail in fan community blogs and
wikis translate to other organizational contexts?

* How are mobile technologies and distributed work environments changing
technical communication practices? How do our time-honored practices and
research hold up in the face of these shifts? What implications for
curriculum and pedagogy should we consider?

*How have economically-driven changes in workplace environments -
globalization, outsourcing and/or the use of contract technical writers,
mobile/nomadic or coworking trends across a wide variety of knowledge
work categories - influenced technical communication and the teaching of
technical communication?

*"How well do traditional models of technical communication and the
workplace fare today? Do our foundational theories related to rhetoric,
genre, or ethics remain as valuable as they have proven to be in the
past? Are there moments in our history that might serve as touchstones
or object lessons given current conditions?

300 word proposals that adapt or challenge these topics are due October
31st, 2008. Proposals can be made in one of three formats: (1)
Individual, 15 minute paper presentation; (2) Three-person, 45-minute
panel proposal, or (3) Poster presentation, day-long publicly displayed.
Submit proposals via the ATTW website [www.attw.org ]. Information and
updates will be posted to the [ ATTW-L ] email discussion forum. For
additional information, contact Bill Hart-Davidson at Michigan State
University [hartdav2@msu.edu]. New teachers of technical and
professional writing are particularly invited to attend the conference,
as are CCCC attendees interested in technical writing.

http://cms.english.ttu.edu/attw/conference/2009-conference-cfp