Re: Mosaic as an online documentation viewing engine?

[Richard Lippincott <rlippinc -at- BEV -dot- ETN -dot- COM>]

Steve Jong asked about the use of Mosaic as a method of delivering on-line
data.

I don't have a lot of experience with this, but our company is taking a look
at the method for the future. I see a big advantage, two big disadvantages, and
a huge grey area.

Advantage: Tech writers will be able to provide instant updates for customer
use. All we'll have to do is update a file in one place and the users will
have immediate access.

Disadvantage #1: If the customer connection breaks, the customer is out of
luck. Worse, if our connection breaks, ALL customers are out of luck.

Disadvantage #2: Response time on Mosaic is far slower than the response time
on a hard drive. Customers who are used to the instant gratification of
clicking on the help button will have to adjust to waiting.

Grey area: I'm unclear what happens to copyright status once you post some
info on the 'net. I may have a perfectly legal right to access your data,
and sell paper docs to your customers at half your price. Or, your competitor
may have a perfect right to access your docs, and build a training course
for your equipment (thus, your customers pay your competitor to get training
on your equipment)

It's quite possible that the grey area issues I've mentioned have already been
resolved, and that I'm not up to date on the info.

Rick Lippincott
Eaton Semiconductor
Beverly, MA
rlippinc -at- bev -dot- etn -dot- com