atw: Re: Should we give the users what they want?

Just to chime in on the value in Twitter part:

For me personally, I see networking value in Twitter, as it's a bit more 
casual than assorted email lists, user forums, or organisation SIGs (such 
as in STC or IEEE). 
There's also been value for users of certain tools in getting support 
responses from their vendor on twitter - I know some of the MadCap support 
team are on twitter, and follow and are followed by their users (amongst 
others). Thanks to twitter, some MadCap users have found out that a recent 
patch release has fixed an issue they are having (not sure of the full 
details, but something along these lines happened to Tom Johnson - I 
remember seeing the exchange at the time). 

There's people I follow on Twitter who I've never met, people I've met 
briefly, people I'll be hunting down to meet in person at the STC 
conference in Atlanta, and people I know and count as friends. A lot of 
the tweeps I am following are technical writers overseas, and it's 
interesting to read (in 140 chars) about their challenges, what they're 
working on, their moments of ideas and realisation. It's a great way for 
more introverted people to network - and you've got to be brief due to the 
char limit! 

Is it the most crucial thing in my professional or personal life? No, but 
it is exposing me to new and different ideas, and helping me learn more 
about the industry which I'm passionate about all around this world. 

KT

Kirsty Taylor 
 kirsty.taylor@xxxxxxxxxx
Mincom. The People. The Experience. The Vision. 
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From:
"Christine Kent" <christine_kent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To:
<austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date:
11/03/2009 04:40 PM
Subject:
atw: Re: Should we give the users what they want?
Sent by:
austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx



Oh dear, you are still point fingers at one another and being 
disrespectful
of difference of opinion.  It is unbecoming, but definitely a sign of our
times.  (Let those who have ears, hear.)

I have to agree with you Tony.  I have stayed out of phase 2 of this 
debate
because no-one seemed to grasp why I thought Geoff's question was invalid.
It is along these same lines.  We have bigger fish to fry.

I have absolutely no doubt that we are going through a paradigm shift.  I
have been doing my darnedest to stay in tune with what it is by getting on
to Facebook (the value of which is now apparent to me) and Twitter (the
value of which still eludes me) and doing lots of other Web 2.0 things. I
am not doing this to be fashionable, or to pretend to be young, but to 
stay
employable and useful into my old age.

I think it is like a major, tectonic plate shifting, earthquake - we have 
no
idea what the final new configuration will look like till things stop
shifting - all we can do for now is keep our balance, and avoid wasting 
our
energy trying to stop the earthquake.

I also have absolutely no doubt that our corporate world is teetering in
sympathy with the banks and insurance companies, and everything else that 
is
teetering.  I suspect there will be massive changes made to the world of
work in the next few years, with or without us.  Again, though, I have no
crystal ball (or at least, it aint showing me this) to know what it will
look like when it happens.

So the only positive thing I can do is keep myself flexible so that I can
adapt readily to change and not be overwhelmed by it.  This means I also
avoid wasting time trying to shore up the "ancien regime" when it is 
already
dead as a dodo.  Any grammatical or linguistic rules I apply, I apply
because it suits me or my readership, not because it is "right".  Right is
currently a very rapidly moving target indeed.

That being said, to my perceptions, a lot of what is happening currently 
IS
asinine, but I will allow the possibility that I am the one whose thinking
is out of tune with the changes.  However, I don't think this IS an age
thing.  It's a Zeitgeist thing - its just incidental that one person is
young and another is old - at these times.

Christine 


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