Re: Building a web site for documentation

[Sandy Harris <sandy -at- storm -dot- ca>]

"White, Bonita" wrote:
> 
> I would like to put together a proposal for creating a web
> site for the documentation.

As others have said, the first question is why. What wiil this accomplish
for your company? Is it useful for marketing? A convenience for your
customers? A time-saver for tech support, just give the customer a URL?

Is there a down side? Would making this material public expose weaknesses
in product or docs and cost you customers? Or give competitors useful
information? Or, heaven forbid, would it be useful to a terrorist wanting
to trash a customer installation?

Also, the question arises of how your dicuments would need to change or
be supplemented to work well on the web.  

> My documents are all created in FrameMaker which means that I can save
> them all as HTML docs.  And I know how to code in HTML, and also how to
> use FrontPage,

Good stuff, all relevant.

> and I know that I need an IP address to get started;

You need a suitable name, not just an address, but that probably isn't
a problem you'd need to solve. Assuming you are posting from work, a
quick check shows that your company has a web site. Talk to whoever
administers it. Likely they could easily set up everything you'd need.

If I've got the wrong company and you don't actually have a web site,
then methinks you should consider the question of what you want on
such a site. Likely the docs are far from being all of it.

> but I don't know what kinds of things I need to present to
> my boss to make this a feasible suggestion.

Basically, you need to make a business case, costs and benefits for
the company.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and 
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe.  http://ieeepcs.org/2001/

  +++  Miramo -- Database/XML publishing automation.  See us at  +++
  +++  Seybold SFO, Sept. 25-27, in the Adobe Partners Pavilion  +++
  +++ More info: http://www.axialinfo.com  http://www.miramo.com +++

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.