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Subject:Re: Why would an editor use internet? From:Patrick O'Connell <patricko -at- EICON -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 6 Oct 1994 10:20:00 PDT
I'd find it hard to argue for a full-strength Net connection(*) strictly on
the basis of usefulness to our Pubs department. Right now the chief benefits
to me/us are from this (techwr-l) and the winhlp-l mailing list, and the
occasional file FTP'd from Microsoft or assorted other megacorps and
vendors.
(*) A 24-hour live connection with the ability to do stuff like FTP, as
opposed to a once-nightly UUCP mail and news drop/pick-up.
I wonder if right now the Net isn't more useful, in terms of stuff you could
actually hold up and show to your manager, to a)marketeeers and b) software
developers themselves. A home page on the Web is more useful to the former
for pre-sales purposes than it currently is to the tech editor for
distributing a company's documentation (yikes!). For the latter, I know my
company has certainly taken advantage of the huge amount of public-domain
source code out there.
But try convincing your manager of the value of things like "being connected
to a large group of our peers in the global community." I think the Net will
likely become more useful to us in future as a means to communicate with and
get resources -- information or whatever -- from big market players like
Microsoft. Especially if your manager is as conservative as my ex-manager
used to be.
PatO'
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|\| Patrick Brian O'Connell ! Intermediate Writer,Eicon Technology|
.|| These are my opinions, not ! Corporation / (B) 514-631-9825 x2250|
\| Eicon Technology's. ! Net:patricko -at- eicon -dot- com |
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P.S. The correct title of the Paul Heckel book is The _Elements_ of Friendly
Software Design. I have a copy and title notwithstanding, I think it has a
lot to offer to tech writers.
