@conference {959,
	title = {Modeling Genre Ecologies},
	booktitle = {20th Annual International Conference on Computer Documentation},
	year = {2002},
	month = {2002},
	pages = {200{\textendash}207},
	publisher = {ACM Press},
	organization = {ACM Press},
	abstract = {The genre ecology framework is an analytical framework forstudying how people use multiple artifacts {\textendash} such as
documentation, interfaces, and annotations {\textendash} to mediate their
work activities. Unlike other analytical frameworks, the genre
ecology framework has been developed particularly for technical
communication research, particularly in its emphasis on
interpretation, contingency, and stability. Although this
framework shows much promise, it is more of a heuristic than a
formal modeling tool; it helps researchers to pull together
impressions, similar to contextual design{\textquoteright}s work models, but it
has not been implemented as formally as distributed cognition{\textquoteright}s
functional systems.
In this paper, I move toward a formal modeling of genre
ecologies. First, I describe the preliminary results of an
observational study of seven workers in two different functional
teams of a medium-sized telecommunications company (a subset
of a larger, 89-worker study). I use these preliminary results to
develop a model of the genres used by these two teams, how those
genres interconnect to co-mediate the workers{\textquoteright} activities, and the
breakdowns that the workers encounter as genres travel across the
boundaries of the two teams. I conclude by (a) describing how
formal models of genre ecologies can help in planning and
designing computer documentation and (b) discussing how these
models can be further developed.
},
	keywords = {activity theory, compound mediation, genre, genre ecology, tracing},
	author = {Spinuzzi, Clay}
}
@article {963,
	title = {Genre Ecologies: An Open-System Approach to Understanding and Constructing Documentation},
	journal = {ACM Journal of Computer Documentation},
	volume = {24},
	year = {2000},
	note = {+ pdf rhet+ pdf 702
},
	month = {2000},
	pages = {169{\textendash}181},
	abstract = {Arguing that current approaches to understanding and constructingcomputer documentation are based on the flawed assumption
that documentation works as a closed system, the authors present
an alternative way of thinking about the texts that make computer
technologies usable for people. Using two historical case studies,
the authors describe how a genre ecologies framework provides
new insights into the complex ways that people use texts to
make sense of computer technologies. The framework is designed
to help researchers and documentors account for contingency,
decentralization, and stability in the multiple texts the people use
while working with computers. The authors conclude by proposing
three heuristic tools to support the work of technical communicators engaged in developing documentation today: exploratory questions, genre
ecology diagrams, and organic engineering.
},
	keywords = {contingency, decentralization, documentation, ecology, genre, open system, stability, system},
	author = {Spinuzzi, Clay and Zachry, Mark}
}
