Electronic Documentation - a tangent

[Ken d'Albenas <kendal -at- AUTOTROL -dot- CUC -dot- AB -dot- CA>]

Well, this is a _discussion_ group, so here goes.

Yesterday's mail on Electronic Documentation (as distinct
from on-line documentation, in our current context)
rekindled a long-standing pet peeve of mine.  Who's
driving this trendwagon?  I've watched the wagon's
"progress" for some time, and it seems to be driven
not so much by customers and end-users as by technology
and sellers.  The customers and end-users, far from
driving it, are often getting run over by it.

Is it a self-evident truth that (paper)less is more?
Or is it just profit-driven Business Hype?  Are
technical communicators acting in their audiences'
interests by aiding and abetting the E.D. trend?
Well, the topic has been debated in other arenas
before, and I thought maybe it'd be worth some debate
in this worthy discussion group.

Like multimedia, sometimes the E.D. trendwagon is
purely technology-driven.  ("We have this really hot
technology, so damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!")

Other times it is needs-driven - but the needs are the
_seller's_, not the customer's.


As evidence, m'lud, I submit these excerpts from
yesterday's mail on E.D.:

1. "(It) is usually cheaper and faster to produce..."

2. " ...the marketplace may have to be weaned from the
    comfort and feel of hard copy documentation it is
    so used to."


Look closely.  Do you see the tail wagging the dog here?


Maybe there are _some_ customers pounding on the doors
and demanding that their software come paperless.  It's
true, some documentation sets are so mammoth that several
poplars have to die and a lot of diesel fuel has to be
burned just to print and deliver them in hardcopy.
That definitely cries out for environmentally
friendly alternatives.

But hey, lots of us have also been in meetings where
the push for electronic documentation was solely - and
aggressively - coming from the suits in the _seller's_
camp.  They can save their company $xxx,000 a year by
offloading the task of printing documentation onto the
customers.  Lay off the production staff without having
to outsource the work.  Maybe even top up the coffers
by selling some more printers, CD-ROM drives, and
document viewing software.

I don't call that progress; I call it the "let them
bag their own damn groceries" philosophy.

What I _haven't_ seen in support of E.D. is:

(a) much indication that hordes of customers/users
    are yearning to print the documentation on their
    own laser printers, run the single-sided printouts
    through their photocopiers to get 2-sided pages,
    and then bind the lot themselves.

(b) a lot of solid research proving that humans are
    just itching for the chance to spend still _more_
    time staring at their computer screens from a
    distance of a few inches to read more paperless
    documentation.



Now, I'm not crusading against electronic document
distribution in all cases.  Heck, some of my best
friends are electronic documents!  But there's a
side to the E.D. trend that I haven't seen mentioned
lately, and the Libra in me is saying that
something's out of balance here; that maybe - just
maybe - the tail is wagging the dog a little too
often.


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