A Dozen Years after Open Source's 1998 Birth, It's Time for OpenTechComm

Brian Still

doi:10.2190/tw.40.2.g

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Apr 2010

A Dozen Years after Open Source's 1998 Birth, It's Time for OpenTechComm

Brian Still Texas Tech University

Abstract

2008 marked the 10-year Anniversary of the Open Source movement, which has had a substantial impact on not only software production and adoption, but also on the sharing and distribution of information. Technical communication as a discipline has taken some advantage of the movement or its derivative software, but this article argues not as much as it could or should. We have adopted Open Source Software (OSS) to manage courses or websites; we have, following the principles of Open Source, made some intellectual resources available; but we have not developed a truly open—open to access, open to use, and open to edit—pedagogical resource that teachers of technical and professional communication courses at every level can rely on to craft free offerings to their students. Now is the ideal time to consider developing OpenTechComm. This article makes the case for why and how it could be implemented.

Journal: Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published: 2010-04-01
DOI: 10.2190/tw.40.2.g
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Open Access: Closed
Topics: writing pedagogy technical communication professional writing
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A Dozen Years after Open Source's 1998 Birth, It's Time for OpenTechComm

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

References (19) · 3 in this index

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