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I've seen the word 'authoring' used with regard to preparation of CD roms. Workstations with
CD rom drives that can be written to are commonly marketed as "authoring" stations. This makes
me wonder if 'to author' has taken on the meaning of 'to produce documentation for delivery on
CD-rom'. And, if so, does the person responsible for production of the CD-rom necessarily imply
the person who wrote the documentation? Here, we prepare the files and transfer them to the
person who creates the CD-rom. He uses the authoring workstation, but is not the author of any
of the documents. On the other hand, one could well be author and user of an authoring workstation.
So, it appears new technology may be changing the meaning of an old word, but who can be sure
which meaning is intended when they hear it?
My $.02.
Jill Burgchardt
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