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Colleagues,
When I suggest that there will be fewer tech writers
in the future, I mean that lots of work tech writers
do adds very little value. For example, doing
research. Yes, seeking information is largely, not
completely, a duplication of someone else's work. I
suggest that someday developers/engineers will not
mind (or will get paid for) storing information so
that a tech writer can find it, such as in an XML
file/template. That way, the search is no longer a
search. The information is all nicely stacked in a
place the writer can get to.
After all, don't we tech writers spend a lot of time
and get paid a lot of money for seeking information
that already exists? It seems fairly absurd to pay for
something twice. The absurdity just hasn't registered
to most companies yet.
This XML or whatever storage place can eventually,
through the work of tech writers, be made readable by
end users. It would be like a functional spec that
became transparent and intuitive enough to be readable
by anyone.
So I'm not saying that tech writers will disappear
altogether, just a high percentage of us.
Phil (techwritingprocess.com)
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