[FM Discuss] Discussion about "Bridging the gap between software quality and software education"

[Andy Oram]

I have a lot of thoughts, and maybe this list isn't the best place for them. I could put up the article as a wiki. I'm glad I shared it here before publishing it, because it might be wrong (as Adam or Anne suggest) or I might just have to distinguish between different types of documentation/education projects that have different needs and different chances of success.

Would you guys like a wiki?

Andy

----- Original Message -----
From: Anne Gentle <annegentle at justwriteclick.com>
To: discuss at lists.flossmanuals.net
Sent: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 10:20:20 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [FM Discuss] Discussion about "Bridging the gap between software quality and software education"

Yes, let's not perpetuate the myth that "technical writing is boring." Most
certainly it is not, although apparently Tom Johnson gets that question
quite often. He has a discussion here:
http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/02/13/is-technical-writing-boring/.
Lots of discussion ensued.

Personally, I can't say it's "fun" all the time, but I can say it's
enjoyable when you're working with good people using tools that help you
infuse feedback and continual improvements that truly help people. I'm
motivated by time savings, efficiency, altruistic intentions, attention
generation, and so on. Likely the same motivations are in play for actually
writing the software - though often the software was written to solve a
basic problem (Apache to serve web pages). My point was that writing
documentation can solve a few different problems, and "education" may be too
broad.

Thanks for the thought-provoking article!
Anne