Multimedia conversation

[Paul Beck <Paul_Beck -at- 3MAIL -dot- 3COM -dot- COM>]

I'll bite on this one Ann.  Maybe we can carry this one further over the
holidays!
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Ann asks:

Colleagues out there:

Why should we as technical communicators use multimedia?  What gains will there
/ might there be?  What losses?  Who will really benefit and who will lose?
Bill Horton (in latest issue of TC) says that, like it or not, we have to
become multimedia experts (or as close to that as possible).

ANSWER. or at least food for thought:

I wouldn't go as far as BillH.  Like it or not our field is changing.  However,
multimedia is fast becoming one of those buzz words that means basically
nothing but sounds good.  I have discussions here with my peers about how our
professions as technical communicators (another rapidly becoming buzzword) are
moving from the verbal towards a more graphic approach.  This does not mean
that I expect to become a technical illustrator or graphic artist.

What it means to me is: as we move away from a 3-dimensional book form of
communication to the at-first-glance 2-dimensional on-screen form, a paradigm
shift is taking place in how we view the (oh, oh, here's another buzz word
workin' its way into my speechifyin') hyper- or cyber- or some kind of
informational universe.  I see this as much like the concept of the Internet,
but not as mystical as some people would like it to be.  The shift is not just
in the act of writing, but it takes the form of the processes required to
produce online or mulitmedia, or whatever we will be calling it in the rapidly
approaching future.

Not to start a flame war, and with all due respect to Bill Horton and his
efforts at educating us all, but Bill Horton and the rest of us should get our
heads out of the balloon help or online help concept and lose the page-based
document concept.  The field has moved well beyond that and it is catchup time
unless you've moved with it.  Take a look at multimedia as we know it today -
we have to lose the film and video based approach as well, because there is too
much time spent on what looks nice, but contains very little information.  The
paradigm is shifting beyond the surface structures of page-based and moving
graphic representations.  Perhaps the mix should contain all of it?

PLB
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Ann asks:

Where should we place our development efforts related to the many forms of
media around us?  Virtual reality / lab applications for users?  Desktop
videoconferencing?  Collaborative technologies?

ANSWER, or at least food for thought:  Yes!

PLB
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What needs are most important to meet when designing, documenting, and using
these systems for new forms of communication?  (yes, of course we are user
advocates -- let's dig deeper -- what specific user needs and why).

Food for thought:

Here is a hint:  The user is changing.  Instead of just using the information,
the user is becoming dynamically involved with the information available on
systems today.  The user is at this time able to change that information for
their own needs and the cloud of needs that other users form around threads of
information categorizations.  We are doing that right now on the Internet.  I
do not know how we can meet these needs as technical communicators, but part of
this hint is that by answering the question you asked through email I have done
something akin to what I am trying to describe.
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Paul L. Beck
Sr. Writer/Technical Communicator
Paul_Beck -at- 3mail -dot- 3com -dot- com - Where I wear the title.
paulbeck -at- netcom -dot- com - Where I am when I choose not to wear the title.

"If any of my ideas are worth a million bucks, pay up NOW!"


PS - I will be on the Internet during the holidays.  If you want to converse
individually, contact me at my netcom address.  I won't be in the office from
Dec 24 through Jan 3.