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Subject:Re: Trends for Technical Communicators? From:Gwen Barnes <gwen -dot- barnes -at- MUSTANG -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 4 Mar 1996 16:21:06 GMT
Been there done that <g> I watched my profession (typography and graphic
design) come under fire in the 1980s from DTP, just as my predecessors,
the Linotype compositors, weathered the onslaught of computerization in
the 70s.
Those who survived each barbarian invasion (in the 70s, women, in
the 80s, Mac users) did so by learning to use the new tools, then making
the most of their technical knowledge and experience to teach it to the
newcomers and help clean up the mess, for a healthy fee, of course.
One should not expect to hold a monopoly on information (see Harold
Innes) or technology forever. Think how programmers reacted to things
like Visual Basic, which made Windows programming slightly more
accessible to the masses. It's either a threat, or ... an opportunity.
Tech writing is the *last* area where I would expect its practitioners
to feel threatened by evolving technology.
Cheers, 805-873-2500
Gwen gwen -dot- barnes -at- mustang -dot- com
MSI * Connecting the world WWW, Telnet, FTP: bbs.mustang.com
@DISCLAIMER@ ` Free speech online `
