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Subject:Re: What's on topic From:mpriestley -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM Date:Wed, 16 Aug 1995 16:11:15 EDT
Beverly Parks writes:
>To me, "protect data integrity" sticks out like a sore thumb in
>the primarily administrative list of items in a). Almost like it
>was forced in there with a crow bar just to prove a point.
One word: ISO9000
(or is that two words? quick, check the standards...)
I used the wording from the previous post, which is why it sticks out like
a sore thumb. At least at my workplace, automatic backups and data management
strategies are daily trivia that I mostly ignore. Perhaps I take them too
much for granted.
The ISO9000 standards apply to every employee here, which is why I tend not
to think of them as being specific to techwriters. A programmer with two
months worth of work tied up in a 3.5" disk is just as concerned as a writer
in the same situation. The IS department serves them both by ensuring regular
backups of all data in shared systems, and providing facilities for personal
computer backups as well.
Now, I see protecting the integrity of data on floppy disk as falling into the
same continuum with protecting the integrity of data elsewhere in the company.
In other words, it affects everyone in the company, and is not the particular
concern of writers alone.
For comparison: if I were having trouble hooking up a tape backup drive to my
IBM P90, would this be the right place to ask for help? Even if it turns out
there's a resident expert on CMOS who can help me out in a second, it is still
an off-topic post. Even if a bunch of people find it interesting, it is still
off-topic.
All that said, I think the line _is_ blurry. Document management _is_ of
concern to writers, and certainly data integrity is an aspect of document
management. Is it enough of concern, though, to warrant a discussion thread
on techwr-l? In addition, would lead sleaves for disks be part of any normal
document management system?
I hope I've clarified my position somewhat,
Michael Priestley
mpriestley -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com
Disclaimer: speaking on my own behalf, not IBM's.
