RE: STC and words

[Shea Michael EXT <Michael -dot- Shea -dot- extern -at- icn -dot- siemens -dot- de>]

Andrew,

While no one will disagree with you that without content a document is useless, communication is not content. Communication is the means to transport content.

>From Merrian-Webster:
 
 com·mu·ni·ca·tion

1. The act of communicating; transmission. 
   The exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior. 
    Interpersonal rapport. 

2. The art and technique of using words effectively to impart information or ideas. 


Both the what and the how of communication are equally important to end users. In your own tanker example you aptly point out that a tanker without oil is worthless. But by the same token a billion gallons of oil sitting on the dock is equally worthless without a tanker. 

Extend the metaphor and we can say that a poorly constructed tanker that leaks or is slow or even sinks on its way to market does not serve its customers, just in the same way that a well constructed tanker delivering contaminated oil fails to server its customers.

I grant you that some novices spend time fussing with fancy fonts. The venerable readme.txt is a clear and straightforward means to transfer information. But is it the best way to communicate to all audiences? It may be, but that is what the rest of your peers are trying to find out, through experimentation and hard work.

Michael Shea
XpressLink Documentation
c/o ICN AS BA ST2

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-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Plato 
Subject: STC and words

<snip>

Communication means to convey something. Without something to convey, there is no
communication to be done. Hence first there is content, then there is
communication of said content. Content is the raw material that allows
communication (and communicators) to exist. You are NOTHING without content to
communicate. 

Now, you can focus on the mere act and methods of communicating. But that's
synonymous with analyzing the value of shipping routes based on the ships used
with no regard to what those ships haul. A huge oil tanker can haul a billion
gallons of oil (lots of money) or a billion gallons of cat urine. Since nobody
wants a billion gallons of cat urine - its pretty flipping stupid to sit around
and talk about the amazing single-tanker system you've developed if you keep
sending cat urine to people. So what goes inside the tanker is of utmost
importance to the tanker's value as well as the entire process of conveyance. A
cat urine hauling tanker is of virtually no value and hence not even worth having
around. 

<snip>

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