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Subject:RE: Literate/Illiterate (WAS: Documenting installers?) From:Jay -dot- Malone -at- ser -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 26 May 2004 08:11:55 -0400
Eric Dunn responded to one of my posts, writing:
Jay Malone wrote:
HE: Not to direct criticism at Jay, but loaded terms like
literate/illiterate
and technical/non-technical have to be used with restraint. In whole Jay's
post seem non-critical, but much of the terminology used in the thread
certainly seems judgmental.
ME AGAIN: Not at all. I didn't take any offense at Eric's reply, nor do I
intend to deflect his criticism. We're actually making the same points. I
was talking about computer-literacy, which is an acceptable term that
doesn't carry any sort of value judgment or negative connotation, or
whatever, at least by me. For that matter, neither does literacy-literacy,
or technical vs. non-technical. I'm not sure why Eric interpreted me as
saying that to be technical, you had to be a computer person. In fact, my
post stated exactly the opposite. What I was trying to say is that the title
sys admin (a computer-person title) didn't mean in that environment what I
thought it meant. These were counseling and human relations types who had no
real interest in computers, but yet were thrust roles where they had to
install software and do systems maintenance, and needed a lot of help to do
it.
Not because they weren't smart, but because their interests and expertise
were elsewhere, in this case human relations. I am neither shocked nor
indignant, as Eric suggests, about this.
ME:> *They all had a minimum of a master's degree. (job requirement.)
> *They knew a lot about their subject matter -- the non-
> technical aspect of their jobs.
HE: And what is the non-technical subject matter? If they were ex-military
with masters degrees. I'd expect them to be a highly technical group. It's
just it would seem that computer expertise isn't necessary to their core
job functions.
ME AGAIN: The military does plenty that has nothing to do with any kind of
technology, be it defense-related or not. These folks all had masters
degrees in counseling, human resources, psychology, etc., and their
expertise was in this area.
Jay
Jay Malone
Independent technical writer and editor
on-site at SER Solutions in Dulles, VA
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