[TCP] certification (was: ranting STC)

[Kevin McLauchlan]

Gene Kim-Eng responded to Ned:
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ned Bedinger" <doc at edwordsmith.com>
> 
> > While I'm confident that certification alone could never 
> result in TWs 
> > having cartel powers (cool if it could), still, as I think you say, 
> > certification could be awarded by a TW organization that 
> somehow comes 
> > to represent tech writers in the marketplace.  That's a 
> more potent (and 
> > dangerous) situation, with the potential to control the 
> supply of TW 
> > (the commodity).  

> Don't hold your breath.  In the absence of a law that requires me 
> as a hiring manager to only employ "certified tech writers," the 
> supply of people available to mw to fill a tech writing position 
> will continue to include anyone I choose to consider, i.e., 
> anyone with technical knowledge who I think I can make a tech 
> writer out of.  That's my whole point about the "value" (or lack
> thereof) of certification.

Ah, but Ned's view is not as far-fetched as you might think.
The thing that such people would aim for, aside from 
the control over training and entry by aspiring TWs, would 
be to secure government collaboration in keeping their lot on top.
So, they would lobby for the adoption of regulations and standards 
whereby any government department would be required to choose 
only among Guild-Certified TWs to fill positions. Then, government 
contractors and suppliers. After that, it's not a big stretch to 
general products and services for civilians and:
"If something goes bad, and a lawsuit is looming, you'd better 
be able to say that at least you hired Guild-Certified tech 
writers to create your product and procedural documentation."

In other words, get themselves and their followers established 
as the only real 'due diligence' option - all others are of 
questionable quality (they said so, and the government agrees) 
- and if you didn't choose the government-approved "brand name", 
well, "Damages are automatically awarded to the plaintiff in the amount of
$$$$$$$$.00"

Bit of a stretch? Yep. But it's early days. Just wait.   
No big conspiracy required; just certain types of people doing 
what comes naturally, taking the next step, and the next...

Getting back to that foot-in-the-door thing about lobbying for 
government-preferred or required status, remember that special 
interests seeking government blessing often have the advantage 
over the unorganized mob who just want to live their lives unmolested. 
That advantage is, first, the very fact of organization. A 
dues-collecting organization has greater resources to allocate 
toward lobbying than any single member of the public (whether s/he 
happens to be a TW or not).
That is, while you and I, individually have jobs and family life and 
other commitments, a lobbyist in the pay of a special interest group 
has nothing else to do. Their days are spent researching and making 
contacts and pressing the flesh, and their evenings are spent doing 
the rounds, picking up strategic bar tabs, etc., and all of it legit 
business expenses. 

Another big advantage is that Mr and Mrs VotingPublic don't care 
one way or the other. If there's no tax-dollar appropriation being 
demanded, why should they even become aware that one band of technical 
writers is seeking a government-mandated dominion over the rest of 
their kind? They don't.  So, you and I would get no support for 
"don't tread on me", and politicians and bureaucrats would see 
absolutely no public resistance to (nor even awareness of) an issue.

For that matter, if somebody from an interest organization was 
setting up meetings with underlings and functionaries at your 
state or national government offices, and with politicians, to 
push changes that would affect your livelihood, would you even 
know about it? Before it became a fait-accompli?

You'd find out when somebody pointed you to a photo of the 
new prez of your new leadership alongside a politician or bureaucrat, 
one hand shaking the politico's hand, the other hand brandishing 
a set of shiny manacles... symbolic of course.... with your name 
on 'em.

Well, ok, things like that don't happen overnight, so you and I will 
be retired before the pieces fall into place. 

Some of the relative youngsters in the craft, who have a "don't 
tread on me" bent, might delay the inevitable by setting up their 
own competing organization. But eventually, the execs of the two 
groups would arrange a merger... "for efficiency"... and then the 
names of anybody who'd ever been on the membership rolls would 
be claimed as support for formation of the Guild and for seeking 
government blessing.

Kevin (conspiracy-theories-R-us   :-)

The information contained in this electronic mail transmission may be privileged and confidential, and therefore, protected from disclosure. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to this message and deleting it from your computer without copying or disclosing it.