Re: Please describe value of Information Mapping

Subject: Re: Please describe value of Information Mapping
From: "Bob Doyle" <bobdoyle -at- skybuilders -dot- com>
To: "Bill Swallow" <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2008 17:09:34 -0400

Hi Bill,

Not before I was born!

I was at Harvard doing graduate study in the 1960's when Bob Horn developed
the ideas of structured writing.

Have you read John Brockmann' s Millwrights and Shipwrights - HIstory of
Tech Comm?

Although help systems have always chunked information, the idea that there
are common structures - information types - in many types of technical
documents, that those common structures should be handled in a standard way
to improve the end user experience, seems to me a definite contribution to
tech comm.

It is definitely not something just anyone can do by "common sense."

The whole MInimalism movement in the 1990's showed that the average
technical document was just not being read or used.

Do you agree with that? If so, shouldn't we all try to benefit from proven
research that tech docs can be improved by following good practices and
document standards?

Maybe you are just so young that Structured Writing and Minimalism are
everyday common sense to you? If so, that's fine. But I am in my seventies
and still learning that I can do things better if I study the best practices
in a profession.

Cheers,

Bob





http://www.amazon.com/Millwrights-Shipwrights-Twenty-First-Century-Communication/dp/1572730773/r
On Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 4:40 PM, Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> > Information Mapping introduced the idea of Information Types, among
> them
> > Concepts, Procedures, Processes, Principles, Structure, and Facts.
>
> Those ideas were around before any of us were born. Information
> Mapping merely saw an opportunity and seized a market by productizing
> those age-old common sense practices.
>
> --
> Bill Swallow
> HATT List Owner
> WWP-Users List Owner
> Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
> STC Single-Sourcing SIG Manager
> http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
>



--
Bob Doyle
Editor In Chief, CMS Review - http://www.cmsreview.com
Founder, DITA Users - http://www.ditausers.org
Former Technology Advisor, CM Pros -
http://www.cmprofessionals.org/membership/cm-profiles/bob-doyle
Contributing Editor, EContent Magazine -
http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleIndex.aspx?ContextSubtypeID=71
President and CEO, skyBuilders - http://www.skybuilders.com
77 Huron Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: +1 617-876-5676 Skype:bobdoyle
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Follow-Ups:

References:
Please describe value of Information Mapping: From: Tim Mantyla
Re: Please describe value of Information Mapping: From: Bob Doyle
Re: Please describe value of Information Mapping: From: Bill Swallow

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