Re: Issues with distribution of technical documents

Subject: Re: Issues with distribution of technical documents
From: Megan Golding <mgolding -at- secureworks -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 13:47:06 -0400

At 01:08 PM 6/26/01 -0400, SteveFJong -at- aol -dot- com wrote:

[snip]
Now: Should I be happy if a client with 1,000 end users (say) nationwide
gets
*one* (1) copy of the documentation set, and then never asks, or is
offered,
more? No, not at all! But what can we do about it?


Disclaimer -- My experience with free distribution
of documentation is limited to two industries:
industrial equipment (machine vision systems) and
Internet security appliances. As is typical, YMMV.

In my experience, two positives emerge from the
free transfer of knowledge: more informed
customers will buy more product from your company
and the documentation becomes a de facto part of
the product.

In a previous life at another company, I had a
very positive (and unique, I think) experience
with corporate philosophy on knowledge
distribution (both training and documentation.
The corporate philosophy stated that the best
customers are informed customers. To that end,
all training and documentation were distributed free-of-
charge.

In my experience, the free transfer of knowledge
(in any form) from a company to its customers
can only be positive. My question to those who
say providing proper documentation to all users
is too expensive, I ask, "How can a company expand
its market share when knowledge costs money?"

In addition, I would argue that for the documen-
tation to truly be a part of the product, we
should include it in the product. If a customer
owns 1000 licenses for the software, the cost
of providing the right documentation should
be included in the licensing costs.

I'd love to hear from the "other side of the fence"
about why charging for documentation (and
knowledge, in general) makes good business
sense.

Meg


Megan Golding | mgolding -at- secureworks -dot- net
Technical Writer | SecureWorks, Inc.



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References:
Issues with distribution of technical documents: From: SteveFJong

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