Offshoring, outsourcing, and the future of technical communication

In the United States information technology industry, the two words that scare employees the most are "offshore outsourcing. "Although the IT industry is undergoing the biggest change as a result of offshore outsourcing, the technical communication industry is beginning to feel the impact of offshore outsourcing as well. However, offshoring English language content development is much more difficult than offshoring call centers or computer programming. This paper presents the results of an interview with the president and COO of Sakson & Taylor, Inc., a corporate leader in the areas of technical communication staffing and consulting. The goal of the interview was to gain first-hand, corporate insight into the future of offshore outsourcing and how it could impact technical communicators, their careers, and their everyday job responsibilities.