STC and words

[Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

You know what I enjoy most out of this recent debate:

Some of the same folks who will nitpick and spend 100 posts analyzing the meaning
of words...are pretty lenient on the word COMMUNICATION or WRITER when it comes
time to slap a title on themselves or their social club of choice.

Communication means to convey something. Without something to convey, there is no
communication to be done. Hence first there is content, then there is
communication of said content. Content is the raw material that allows
communication (and communicators) to exist. You are NOTHING without content to
communicate. 

Now, you can focus on the mere act and methods of communicating. But that's
synonymous with analyzing the value of shipping routes based on the ships used
with no regard to what those ships haul. A huge oil tanker can haul a billion
gallons of oil (lots of money) or a billion gallons of cat urine. Since nobody
wants a billion gallons of cat urine - its pretty flipping stupid to sit around
and talk about the amazing single-tanker system you've developed if you keep
sending cat urine to people. So what goes inside the tanker is of utmost
importance to the tanker's value as well as the entire process of conveyance. A
cat urine hauling tanker is of virtually no value and hence not even worth having
around. 

So when I hear people who are supposedly masters of the English language tell me
that content has nothing to do with communication and that STC isn't misleading
people by virtually ignoring content - I laugh out loud at the profound,
philosophical absurdity of such nonsense.

STC is a community of people who are generally consumed with the METHODS of
communication. There is very little (if any) discussion about the actual
information communicated. Therefore, the "Society of Technical Communications" is
really the "Society of Communication Methods." Since only methods are talked
about. Certainly technical has no place their since technical implies details and
content. 

Therefore, the name STC is misleading. I have no problem with a society of people
who are focused on communications methods. That's great.

What I have a problem with is a society that primarily discusses communication
methods telling me they're really discussing communications as a whole. 

A society should be aptly named to properly COMMUNICATE its purpose. 

Andrew Plato 



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