Culture, Communication & Cyberspace: Rethinking Technical Communication for International Online Environments

The increasingly global nature of the World Wide Web presents new challenges and opportunities for technical communicators who must develop content for clients or colleagues from other cultures and in other nations. As international online access grows, technical communicators will encounter a range of challenges related to culture and communication in cyberspace. These challenges include how to design content and develop services for online distribution to a culturally diverse audience of users; how to address cultural and linguistic factors effectively when collaborating with international colleagues and clients via online media; and how to develop effective online teaching and training practices and materials for use in learning environments comprised of culturally diverse groups of students. The contributors to Culture, Communication and Cyberspace examine these challenges through chapters that explore the different aspects of international online communication. The contributing authors use a range of methodologies to review a variety of topics related to culture and communication in cyberspace. In so doing, the authors also examine how business trends, such as international outsourcing, content management, and the use of open source software (OSS), are affecting and could change practices in the field of technical communication as related to online cross-cultural interactions.

Kirk St.Amant is an Associate Professor of Technical and Professional Communication at East Carolina University, where he teaches courses in professional communication in international contexts. His research interests include international online communication, international virtual workplaces, and international outsourcing practices. Filipp Sapienza is a usability and web programming consultant based in Denver, Colorado. He holds a doctorate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and publishes research about multiethnic usability, XML and structured content development, immigrant and bicultural Internet users, and Russian cultural theory.