Oprah finally made me happy! I am kind of neutral about the idea of Oprah's book club...I have friends that hate it, I have friends that love it. I dont really care either way. I like seeing how she waves her magic wand and millions of people plow to the bookstore to buy the sacred Oprah Book of the Month. They have stacks and stacks of the books with Oprah's stamp of approval beside the checkout at Wal-Mart, right beside the National Enquirer. Kinda odd.

But I got really really excited when I saw her choice for this go round...A Million Little Pieces by James Frey! It's a favorite of mine...and so gritty and daunting and un-Oprah like. Good job! I gave this book away for Christmas presents a few years ago. Its good. Go get it and read it. Not because Oprah said so, because Allyson said so!

We’ve been in this course entitled technical writing for about 2 months now, and although we’ve discussed the many applications of technical writing—I still haven’t figured out what it is—literally. We’ve mainly used applications like power point and used assignments to display an end product of the technical writing process.

I think if technical writing were taken literally it would mean something more like “technical communication.” When the genre is put in those terms, it makes me think of instant messenger, which I think is a perfect example of all of the aspects of technical writing at large. The program employs technology to communicate, using a visual method to encompass verbal statements.

The idea for this blog came when I heard about IM being used in the workplace for communication amongst employees. This makes sense without even reading the article. How many desk jobs have you had where the first task you take it upon yourself to complete is downloading AOL Instant Messenger? While these types of programs are normally a distraction to workers, companies have realized their abundance. They may as well think of ways to apply the apps functionally, because their use is inevitable.

There are instant messenger formats for every type of operating system imaginable. A Google search for “instant messenger” turns up about 14,300,000 results. You can use IM on a cell phone or Blackberry, giving you the ability to take your buddy list with you anywhere. Companies can eliminate extensive phone bills by interfacing via instant messenger. This program allows them to save money and document their conversations between employers and other companies for future reference. Sometimes people aren’t the best verbalizing their opinions, so instant messenger allows those people to ponder questions and replies. This visual method both eliminates and improves conversations simultaneously. Analyst Robert Mahowald states: "In the next few years, IDC expects instant messaging--once the plaything of teenagers--to continue to grow into its role as a substantial business collaboration application." The application’s ease of use and availability has been persuasive in influencing people to use it.





I found this while browsing for info--I thought it was pretty funny...

INSTANT MESSENGER HANDBOOK