[austechwriter] Re: XML again
- From: "HALL Bill" <bill.hall@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 16:56:05 +1000 (EST)
Andrea,
Be sure to see my post from earlier today under the heading The Overwork
Phenomenon. It was half aimed at your problem.
To follow up on Michael's comments (I should note that we used his
company's services when we were first moving into structured authoring
in '98 or '99, but so far as I know not since), I would certainly agree
with the 25-50% time wasting fighting word processor formats. Even
though we have not yet moved them into a content management environment,
we have still found it quite cost effective to move technical manual
authoring from an MS Word environment into a FrameMaker+SGML
environment.
If you want more ammunition and ideas for an analytical framework for
your business model go into the Techwr-l archives and follow the
structured documentation holy war that took place in late 2000. The war
started on 7 November 2000 with a relatively innocuous question from a
newbie about implementing the new technology of content management:
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/0011/techwhirl-0011-00454.html
. The thread can be followed forward in time using the [Thread Next]
links before spawning several more threads. It then jumps to a new
thread at
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/0011/techwhirl-0011-00606.html
. The response that starts the war is
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/0011/techwhirl-0011-00654.html
. Further threads can be followed sequentially by using your browser to
search the thread index
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/0011/index.html for the string
"real value". The war heated up further when I joined the argument
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/archives/0011/techwhirl-0011-00772.html
. The issue of the value of the new technology was where most heat was
generated. The list owner eventually banned some of the participants
when the debate became too personal and vitriolic.
Regards,
Bill Hall
Documentation Systems Analyst
Head Office, Engineering
Tenix Defense
Williamstown, Vic. 3016
Phone: 03 9244 4820
Email:bill.hall@xxxxxxxxx
URL: http://www.tenix.com
Honorary Research Fellow
Knowledge Management Lab
School of Information Management & Systems
Monash University
Caulfield East, Vic. 3145
Phone: 03 9903 1883
Email: william.hall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
URL: http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/km/
=20
-----Original Message-----
From: mhalter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:mhalter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Thursday, 14 August 2003 3:16 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [austechwriter] Re: XML again
"I think Michael has hit the nail on the head - unless I can convince
the=20
boss that there is some substantial financial benefit in doing this and=20
doing it properly, it won't happen."
Andrea, Arbortext have a ROI/Cost saving tool kit/calculator you can=20
download from: http://www.arbortext.com/html/cost_savings.html
Site Snip - "The Arbortext Cost Savings Toolkit - Did you know that=20
authors spend up to fifty percent of their time on a documentaEUR(tm)s
appearance=20
instead of its content? You can as much as double the productivity of
your=20
subject matter experts by automating the publishing process and
relieving=20
them from responsibility for page layouts and design. And the savings
are=20
compounded when multichannel publishing is involved."
Cheers,
Mike
Michael Halter
Absolute Data Group Pty Ltd
Ph. 61 7 3832 6888
Fx. 61 7 3832 6999
Mobile. 61 7 0404 867 351
www.absolutedata.com.au
<Write IT Once></Take IT Anywhere>
"Andrea Tappe" <A.Tappe@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
14/08/2003 09:48 AM
Please respond to austechwriter
=20
To: "Austechwriter Group (E-mail)"=20
<austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
cc:=20
Subject: [austechwriter] XML again
Hi everyone,
Thanks for you helpful tips. Bruce, Sonja, Peter - unfortunately, it has
=3D
been decreed from upon high that the Tech Writer Shalt Use Word. I am =3D
not real happy about this, as I've put in three proposals that we switch
=3D
to AuthorIT (I've been pushing for it ever since you first recommended =3D
it to me last year Sonja - Michael must be sick of me by now!). I've =3D
used FrameMaker in the past too, and would be quite happy to use it =3D
again.=3D20
I think Michael has hit the nail on the head - unless I can convince the
=3D
boss that there is some substantial financial benefit in doing this and
=3D
doing it properly, it won't happen. I did put a cost/benefit in each of
=3D
the proposals - God knows, I had dozens of examples of times when the =3D
cost of making minor changes was completely out of proportion to the =3D
scope of the change - but it didn't seem to sink in. I guess this sort =3D
of ties in with our need to ramp up our sales skills so that we can =3D
convince people that we are more than 'slightly brighter than average =3D
secretaries'!
It would seem that the primary lure of XML is that it is seen as 'cheap'
=3D
if you get it with Word and also 'easy'. I'm getting somewhat nervous =3D
now, as I can see that if I fail to deliver the goods, the failure will
=3D
probably not be attributed to M.S. and their half-a$$ed fiddling with a
=3D
perfectly good standard......
Also - comment in response to Christine and Steve - we recently got a =3D
Commander phone system, which circulates calls around the office. If the
=3D
receptionist doesn't answer the phone in 5 rings, guess where the phone
=3D
rings next? Go on, you'll never guess........
Thanks and regards
Andrea Tappe
Technical Writer/Webmaster
QSR International Pty Ltd
613 9840 4939 (ph)
613 9840 1500 (fax)
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