The Art of Technical Communication
This blog is devoted to what we at YEDA call “the art of technical communication“. By that we refer to the fact that Technical Communication is that unique activity that provides a bridge between two very human worlds: the world of technology, the world that is continually created through man’s capacity to produce tools and methods to achieve certain ends; and the humanistic world of understanding, of comprehension, of knowledge - the world that can only truly be experienced on an individual level on the part of each particular human being.
Both of these worlds - the brute technological and the “human” world of understanding - truly define Man and his uniqueness. The art of technical communication is none other than the art of being able to bridge these worlds through explanation and instruction. To successfully fulfill its task, it requires many skills - ability to express oneself in writing, graphic ability, psychology, and information handling, to name the most obvious. But more than that, like any art, it requires devotion and enthusiasm. Only these last two can motivate the “artist” to continually search for new ways to coax the maximum meaning out of the technology itself - for the technical communicator, in a sense, bestows meaning on the work of technology by explaining it.
In blogging about this “art”, we’ll be looking at a wide variety of technologies, methods, issues, and even philosophies - the primary criterion for inclusion will be, in the final analysis, how much it inspires us to continue to develop our capacity for bridging those worlds of technology and understanding.