Geographically distributed software development projects have been made possible by rapid developments primarily within the data communication area. A number of companies recognize that distributed collaboration has great potential for the near future. The article describes the empirical study of a cooperative student project located at two different geographical sites. The project was carried out at two universities: one in Sweden and one in Finland. The initial goals were to give the students the opportunity to learn about the practical aspects of cooperation between two geographically separate institutions and to study specific problems anticipated by the teachers with regard to communication, coordination, language, culture, requirements' handling, testing, and bug fixing. The article focuses on communication and coordination within the cooperative project, as these were identified as the most significant problem areas. We also thought that these areas were the most interesting and the ones most likely to lead to improvements. The article not only describes our findings but also gives hints about what to think about when running similar projects, both with respect to project related issues and teaching issues.

The paper explores the feasibility of using computer networks as communication survey research instruments. Also covered are the use of computers and computer networks in survey studies; a listing of the advantages and disadvantages of network surveys as compared with mail, phone, and fax surveys; a description of the development steps of network surveys; and a comparison of differences in network survey forms. Research issues are also discussed.

Approaches to using visual language in a cultural context can be placed on a continuum, with global (universal) on one end and culture-focused on the other. Each approach reveals contrasting assumptions about three central design issues: perception, aesthetics and pragmatics. The global approach is characterized by attempts to invent an objective, universal visual language or to define such a language through perceptual principles and empirical research. The culture-focused perspective is founded on the principle that visual communication is intimately bound to experience and hence can function only within a given cultural context, to which designers must be sensitive. While the modernist, universal approach has been losing ground to the postmodern, culture-focused approach, the two complement each other in a variety of ways and, depending on the rhetorical situation, offer pragmatic benefits and drawbacks.

An empirical study was conducted to explore text editing performance in an actual work environment. The text editing performance of 12 experts and 24 novices was studied across several benchmark tasks using either a command-driven, PC-based or hard-wired text editing system. Experts were tested for performance and functionality; novices were tested for learning. Additionally, the keystroke-level model was applied to the performance tasks and the results compared to actual observations. The results indicated that the methodology of T. Roberts (unpub. Ph.D. thesis, Stanford Univ., CA, USA, 1980) could be easily applied to a work environment and provided useful information for the evaluation of text editing systems. The study identified several areas of the keystroke-level model that could be modified to provide a more accurate assessment of text editing performance.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The results of an empirical study made of the report-reading habits of a group of Westinghouse managers are presented. The author systematically documents two types of information: (1) how managers read reports; and (2) what managers look for in reports. Useful checklists for various types of reports are provided and a section on the responsibility of management in the reporting process is included.

It is argued that, with today's growing emphasis on audience analysis in technical communication, there needs to be a sharper focus on the informational needs of various audiences; much empirical study is needed to provide a fuller definition and understanding of the nature of these informational needs and how they directly affect the writing done. Effective upward management communication is directly dependent on the quality of communication moving downward in the organization to the staff, and on how staff is made to understand the decision-making role and informational needs of the management reader. Of all the people involved in technical communications, the manager of the writers may be best equipped to determine the informational needs of readers, especially those of upper management. A brief review of two empirical studies conducted by the author demonstrates the value of such studies and encourages others to undertake similar studies.

The author presents the results of a comparative study of experienced writers editing and revising at a word processor and with pen and paper. Seven writers performed four writing tasks, each of which provided several kinds of data. Among these are statistical analyses and graphs of a chronological record of changes made in both modes and summaries of interviews with the subjects after each writing task. Results suggest that the word processor directly alters a writer's composing style.