Re: Ques: Free User Hotline As Educational Tool?

[Sella Rush <sellar -at- APPTECHSYS -dot- COM>]

In the abstract, I think there are some good points about this idea.
Unfortunately, there are also a few negatives.  If they can be overcome, you
might have something.

1.  Quality control.  I'd bet that most companies would feel uncomfortable
about sanctioning documentation from someone outside the company.  At the
very least, they would feel the need to review it and make sure it is
accurate.  And now we're talking about potentially significant time for both
the initial research and the review process.  Third-party documentation,
however, seems to work, so maybe they could use this model.  How do
third-party doc authors ensure accuracy, how do they justify the time/effort
they must demand from the developer?

2.  Ego.  My documentation is perfect.  I sure don't want a bunch of
students digging into my user guides and telling me where I went wrong and
rewriting me. I can see this reaction coming from tech writers,
engineers/programmers who put out the docs, and entire companies who aren't
happy about any possible aspersion to their character.  For me personally,
it would take a conscious effort to put aside my feelings of ownership (it's
one thing to do it for co-workers or colleagues whose opinion you solicit,
quite another for strangers.)

3.  I'm not really convinced that the company is getting valuable feedback
for no effort.  If the customer needs help, they call tech support and ask
their question.  The company expends the effort to provide the support, and
if they're at all interested in feedback, they'll be paying attention.  What
does inserting a middleman into the process do for them?

4.  When users need help with a software product, isn't it usually true that
they are trying to do something specific, and they need to be told the
solution right then?  So, it is less likely that they would want to wait
around for some revised documentation when they can call the company's tech
support and get an answer right away that sends them on their way.

Sorry to be such a wet blanket.  Let us know how things work out.

(I still think a valuable job for student tech writers is to write
documentation for share/freeware.  Here they're meeting a *real* need,
because the developers so often write the help themselves.)

Sella Rush
mailto:sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
Applied Technical Systems (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington
Developers of the CCM Database

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