RE: Out of Work Tech Writers - Unite!

[Goober <techcommgoober -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Hi Ed (and Techwr-l),

I see nothing wrong with your endeavor whatsoever. In
fact, I applaud it. My somewhat lost point was that
it'll be near impossible to come up with a cure-all
(or cure-most) solution because of the vast
differences from company to company and workflow to
workflow. But yes, definitely give it a shot! As I
said, if nothing else, it adds some knowledge and
experience to those working on it.

> There are any number of vendors touting a solution,
> but there is in fact
> only a number of disparate tools that each do only a
> fraction of the
> functionality implied by a problem of this size. I
> propose that we will not
> find a solution in any tool, process or vendor, but
> that we will find a
> solution only when we combine our different needs,
> views, experiences,
> knowledge management practices, tools, work
> processes, vendors, et al.

Right, but that solution you may find will not be a
one size fits all solution. If it is, well, you have
yourself a wonderful candidate for success. :)

> Even the "solutions" that come the closest
> (DocBooks, Arbortext, etc.) fail
> to address the primary barrier to success - which is
> the intransigent
> attitude and resistance to new practices ingrained
> in the minds of many IT
> workers. A solution to these issues will require a
> true paradigm shift - a
> change to the basic thoughts and behaviors of the
> entire development
> organization.

Right. That's been the root of the problem for many
years (since dawn of time? *g*). Some of the reasons
for hesitance are money, time, and resources.
Sometimes you can't get around all three for buy-in.

> Only when we create a solution that addresses most
> if not all of the
> problems AND arrives in the mind of the beholder
> with a brilliant flash of
> "Oh yeah - this'll work for me!" will it be adopted.

And much of that will remain on the implementation
side, not the solution side, I'm afraid. Despite the
solution, there will still be the change barrier...

> My proposal is that we out-of-work folks have all of
> the requisites AS WELL
> AS the time and interest - a combination difficult
> to find among the
> employed populace.

And I applaud that whole-heartedly. I'd love to jump
into this, but I've got contract work to produce. :(

> However we do this, as an open-source initiative,
> where the only requirement
> for contribution is the willingness to do it, or as
> a basis for a book, with
> or without a profit motive, whatever...everyone
> involved will benefit.

Good luck! Do report in with progress! It sounds like
a cool project.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  Your monthly sponsorship message here reaches more than
  5000 technical writers, providing 2,500,000+ monthly impressions.
  Contact Eric (ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com) for details and availability.

Check out RoboDemo for tutorials! It makes creating full-motion software
demonstrations and other onscreen support materials easy and intuitive.
Need RoboHelp? Save $100 on RoboHelp Office in May with our mail-in rebate.
Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.