This paper argues that online communication products should employ item-to-item collaborative filtering algorithms to equip readers with the best potential sets of information that fits their specific contexts. Many online resources are utilizing item-to-item collaborative filtering algorithms which harness the decisions of users to affect their experience. Examples include the recommendation engine used by Amazon.com to help steer customers to products they might enjoy, the "Music Genome Project" used by the internet radio platform, Pandora, and various user interfaces that quickly determine the best user experience to present each individual user.

This article initiates a discussion about the global impact of peer-to-peer (P2P) user-assistance strategies and mechanisms and looks specifically at the forums for open source software (OSS) systems. Through a brief study of the interactions among international users of the forum, this article presents ideas on how commercial organizations and technical communicators can become valuable members of these new communities that are gaining prominence in global use.

This article considers a case in which editors created for themselves an amount of power and authority within an organization through technological innovation. Using retrospective analysis and e-mail interviews, the author discusses his own previous experience as a technical editor at a U.S. Government-run research facility when electronic editing was introduced and used. The introduction of electronic editing, the author argues, was an example of technological innovation, which, as other researchers have demonstrated, can create authority within an organization.