Friend or Foe? Web 2.0 in Technical Communication

Table of contents

Abstract

Cardinality in communication

User assistance in a Web 2.0 world

Technical Writing 2.0

Integrating Web 2.0 and user assistance

Cardinality in communication

The term cardinality is typically used in data modeling. It refers to the relationship between two objects and how they are connected. For example, a person should have a one-to-one relationship with a tax ID number (such as the U.S. Social Security number). But a person could have a one-to-many relationship with a phone number object (one person can have many phone numbers). The basic cardinality types are one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, and many-to-many.

We can apply cardinality to verbal communication:

One-to-one: A conversation between two people.
One-to-many: A professor giving a lecture to a hall full of students.
Many-to-one: A jury giving their verdict to a defendant.
Many-to-many: A group of people at a party, all talking simultaneously at the top of their lungs.

For written and technical communication, cardinality is more complex.

One-to-one

In technical communication, the most common example of one-to-one cardinality is phone-based technical support. The end user talks directly to a company support representative. One-to-one communication is usually quite effective—if something doesn’t make sense at first, you can ask questions to clarify—but it is also expensive.

Figure 1: Phone-based technical support is one-to-one communication. Click on the play button to view animation.

One-to-many

Traditional publishing, including technical communication and user assistance, offer one-to-many communication. An author writes content that is consumed by many readers. One-to-many communication is much more cost-effective than one-to-one communication, but when writing for a large audience, authors necessarily create information that’s more generic than a person-to-person conversation.

Figure 2: Technical communication is one-to-many communication

There are several ways of defining Web 2.0, but for technical communicators, the critical issue is that Web 2.0 shifts communication from one-to-many cardinality into many-to-one and many-to-many. The publishing channel is no longer restricted to professional authors; instead, anyone can provide information to anyone else.

Many-to-one

Many-to-one communication means that multiple people are providing answers to a single person. For example, Person A posts a question on a mailing list and receives offlist responses from a dozen people.

Figure 3: Many-to-one communication involves multiple people providing information to a single person

Many-to-one communication is arguably the least efficient method of communication because of the overlap in effort to provide answers to a single person. However, for the person receiving the information, it’s often the fastest and the highest-quality communication channel. When several people provide answers, a consensus often emerges for the recipient.

Many-to-many

Many-to-many communication is at the center of the Web 2.0 concept. Everyone is requesting and receiving information, and roles shift fluidly from information provider to information recipient.

Figure 4: In many-to-many communication, the distinction between information producers and information consumers disappears.

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User assistance in a Web 2.0 world