Re: The Wave of a TW's Future: (was RE: Tools & Technologies)

[Iggy <iggy_1996dp -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

> Steven's comment makes me pause and say "Hmm." With
> all of the discussions
> world-wide about XML, what will our jobs look like
> 20 or 25 years from now?
> What will our profession look like? Will we find
> ourselves in one of two
> groups: (a) Content Experts or (b) DTD/DTP Experts?
> Will we need to arm
> ourselves to be both (a) and (b), or will we need to
> choose one and
> specialize?
> 
> Will XML lead us in 20 to 25 years, or will we TWs
> lead XML?
> 
> Again, Steven's comment about focusing only on
> content just caught my eye.
> 
> Thoughts?


Interesting question. I *hope* professionalism drives
technological advancement, but who knows...

25 years ago, did you think tech writers would be
working in an XML database structure, publishing to
print, PDF, web, online help, PDA, cell phone
messaging, and pager network formats? OK, supposing
these technologies were even a semi-realistic idea?

Projecting 25 years in advance is hard to do. Not to
use an odd analogy, but look at Enterprise and what it
had to work with (being the prequel to the original
campy series). When the original series was created,
they used big boxes as instruments and glowing lights
for computers. Our current real-life technology blows
that away. Now Enterprise, set 150 or so years from
right now, needs to make things look futuristic enough
for today's standards yet primitive enough to make the
original series still make sense.

I think subject mastery and the ability to communicate
will prevail, but how we do it will most certainly
change. How, I don't know, but given the advances over
the past 10 years, it's sure to be interesting finding out!

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals.
http://personals.yahoo.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Announcing new options for IPCC 01, October 24-27 in Santa Fe,
New Mexico: attend the entire event or select a single day.  
For details and online registration, visit http://ieeepcs.org/2001

  Your monthly sponsorship message here reaches more than
  5000 technical writers, providing 2,500,000+ monthly impressions.
  Contact Eric (ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com) for details and availability.

---
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.