Re: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered?

[Brian Gordon <elasticsoul2003 -at- yahoo -dot- ca>]

Well, I'll provide another reason. Many of us are the
lone TW at a company. Unless I know a tool very well,
I do not want to recommend it. It's a personal risk,
especially when I haven't been in a position very
long, and it's a risk to the project, especially one
with tight deadlines and budgets. 

Previous project, for example, I was asked to
recommend a product for creating interactive training
courses. I selected Norpath Elements Studio, a
commercial product that turned out to be incredibly
buggy. I was trying to save the company I was
contracted to a bit of money. Instead, deadlines
slipped and my reputation suffered (as did my stress
level!). I would have been better, in that situation,
to pick a known-good product like Macromedia
Authorware. 

Now: new project, new company, and I have to choose an
authoring tool to create help. My first choice was the
industry leader, RoboHelp. The only reason I
ultimately selected AuthorIT was because the future of
RH is uncertain, and many people whose opinion I
respect on this and other lists suggested AIT. 

So far, so good, but it was still a professional risk
for me, and not the type I like to take. I would
rather be suggesting better ways to present
information, to educate the users, and so on, not
risking future contracts and a recommendation based on
my best guess as to which software to use. 

To be candid, I could have selected RH and nobody
would have blamed me if it didn't work - just as
nobody will congratulate me if the software I choose
does work. However, you can be damn sure I would be in
for it if the non-industry-standard tool I selected
caused project problems. 

When I was an employee, I had time to experiment with
new software on company time. As an independent, any
such playing about must be done on my own time. 

All the best,
Brian

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