TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: And more on open source... From:Andrew Plato <gilliankitty -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 24 Feb 2003 19:36:35 -0800 (PST)
--- Paul DuBois <paul -at- kitebird -dot- com> wrote:
> I don't share Andrew's generally negative and pessimistic view of Open
> Source (though I suspect Andrew would characterize his view as "realistic"
> rather than as I have).
I suspect you see my attitude as negative because I take a administrators'
perspective of software rather than an users' perspective. I don't always see
software as a tool for ME to get a job done, I see it as a tool that must be
integrated, supported, secured, paid for and managed along with other tools.
As such, what appeals to users, isn't always a good choice for an environment
as a whole. Most users want unlimited Internet access at work. Yet from a
security and business perspective, unlimited Internet access is bad idea.
Users' Internet access should be restricted to legitimate business use and
closely monitored to ensure confidential material doesn't leak out and hackers
don't get in.
This is important to consider next time your IT admin says no when you want to
install WriterMasher 2000 or whatever OS software you just discovered. To the
IT admin, he doesn't need and can't afford to support yet another software
platform. Not to mention the bugs and worms that can accompany those products.
(Yes, OS products get infected too. A recent build of winpcap had a worm in
it.)
> However, I do agree with his comment about
> opportunities in his final paragraph. One thing that can help bridge
> the gap is the availability of high-quality documentation. And companies
> don't mind paying for this -- think commercial publishing if you're looking
> for opportunity.
Exactly. There is a big market for *understanding* in the OS community. People
want to understand these technologies.
I encourage everybody to go pickup a commercial book on an OS technology. Pay
CLOSE attention to the organization, delivery, and content.
You will quickly notice that most of these books are very heavy on conceptual
information and thin on procedures. That should tell you something about the
readers and the expectations of OS technologies.
Andrew Plato
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/
LAST CHANCE for this steal of a deal! Purchase RoboHelp X3 by February 28
and receive $100 mail-in rebate and FREE WebHelp Merge Module ($339 value)!
RoboHelp, the Industry Standard in Help Authoring, has won over 55 industry
awards. For more information please visit: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l2.
"RoboHelp X3 is simply remarkable." - George Bell, Techno-Vision Systems
---
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.
