NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper Thirty Two. A New Era in International Technical Communication: American-Russian Collaboration

Abstract

Until the recent dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party exerted a strict control of access to and dissemination of scientific and technical information (STI). This article presents models of the Soviet-style information society and the Western-style information society and discusses the effects of centralized governmental control of information on Russian technical communication practices. The effects of political control on technical communication are then used to interpret the results of a survey of Russian and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists concerning the time devoted to technical communication, their collaborative writing practices and their attitudes toward collaboration, the kinds of technical documents they produce and use, their views regarding the appropriate content for an undergraduate technical communication course, and their use of computer technology. Finally, the implications of these findings for future collaboration between Russian and U.S. engineers and scientists are examined.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1993
Accession Number
ADA271169

Entities

People

  • Madelyn Flammia
  • Michael L. Keene
  • Rebecca O. Barclay
  • Robert H. Burger
  • Thomas E. Pinelli

Organizations

  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Corporations
  • Education
  • Engineers
  • Governments
  • Human Behavior
  • Information Systems
  • Launch Vehicles
  • New York
  • Political Systems
  • Scientists
  • Teamwork
  • Technical Information Centers
  • Technology Transfer
  • Universities
  • Ussr

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Library and Information Science
  • Theoretical Analysis.

Technology Areas

  • Space