Guiseppe GettoPh.D. Candidate

Rhetoric and Writing

Lansing/East Lansing, MI• Lots of non-profits and community-based

organizations and individuals i.e. neighorbhood organizations, teachers/schools,

food co-op, mentoring programs

Michigan State University (East Lansing)• Capital Area Community Media Center

Media creation, technology consulting, project management, tech/media workshops, service-learning students working with community orgs

• Graduate program in Rhetoric/Writing• WRA 135: FYC and service-learning class

Me/my colleagues• Activism/volunteering experience• Invested in community outreach and

multimedia writing• Service-learning and FYC teachers

My dissertation• Collected data on the collaborative writing

processes of students doing multimedia projects with community partners

Infrastructure=organizational structure + cultural practice • (Star and Ruhleder, Grabill, Cushman, and

Devoss)• i.e. CACMC, 4-H Mentorship Program, Central

Elementary art classroom, CAL Documentary Lab, classes in Rhetoric/Writing (taken), classes in WRAC (taught)

Local public=publicly active community• (Long, Matthews, Dewey)• i.e. a public is a community that purposefully

rhetorically effects other communities

Multimedia writing=remixing/remediating various modes of writing for rhetorical purposes• (Halbritter, Cushman, Wysocki, Bolter and

Grusin, Selber, Michel, Sheridan, and Ridolfo)

Capacity building=adding to an organizations ability to do work• (Craig, Flicker et al)

Infrastructures can be repurposed to remix/remediate in different ways, ways that build various capacities of community organizations

• WRA 135 – Writing: Public Life in America Service-learning through writing/civic engagement

<Becomes>

• WRA 135 – Rhetoric/Writing: Citizenship, Service-Learning, and Community media Service-learning through multimedia writing

Website for 4-H Mentorship Program

Video for Eric Staib, Art Teacher at Central Elementary School

Collaboration was very different than existing studies have shown

• The success-based model (Knievel) There is something called ‘successful collaboration’

which is knowable ahead of the writing situation

• vs…the iterative model??? (Getto, forthcoming) Collaboration is always already a kairotic endeavor Writers make do with materials, people, knowledges

available What will be successful is not known until completion

of writing process Success becomes evident through iteration

From one group’s member check video

2 student groups studied + 1.5 semesters taught=some impact on local infrastructures• Increased literate/rhetorical abilities of local

organizations• New version of WRA 135• Local non-profit leaders learning how to be

community partners for service-learners• Students learning how to work with each

other and community partners

Infrastructures are pervasive and rhetorical

• Work, school, social life, community organizations All structures and practices that affect a writer’s ability

to write in various, future situations

• Building sustainable infrastructures is probablistic (and hence rhetorical), meaning:

It’s never certain Changes aren’t permanent Foregrounding certain practices (iterative collaboration,

valuing knowledges of all those involved, capacity-building) maximizes probability of success