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> There is nothing inherently unethical about "playing politics". ALL
> governmental officials (for example) do it. Yes, I know that some
> percentage of them are crooks, but many are among our greatest
> citizens.
<snip>
> Do technical communicators need to "play politics"? You betcha. Tom
> DeMarco said that "Analysis requires the negotiating skills of Henry
> Kissinger" (not an a-by-letter quote). (Structured Systems Analysis
> and Specification, by Tom DeMarco. Yourdon Press, 1979). Our, as I
> would state it: Task Analysis requires a lot of give-and-take
> (especially on larger scale projects).
Not necessarily. Much of task analysis requires nothing more than simple
observation. Some of the fine points may need explanation by the source
person, and if that source persion feels that knowledge of the task falls into
a turf that needs protection, then yes, there has to be some skilled
interviewing. Most of what technical writers do, however, has little relevance
to turf and therefore to politics, and a great deal more to do with the very
simple 'how does this work?' types of explanations.
Classic examples of turf protection are in companies where there is some sense
of elitism in the development of certain kinds of products. Time and time
again experience has taught companies that holding information hostage to turf
wars has resulted in the rest of the world passing the turf-holders by. A
corollary might be the current attempts to take down all web pages related to
the Trench Coat Mafia, and the fact that independent mirror sites are springing
up just as fast as others are being taken down by the ISPs. The point is that,
especially nowadays, protection of information - except for things like
copyright, and even that is under attack - is fast losing ground.
I'd posit that the "I have the information and you don't and therefore I'm the
better person" school of turfdom is a dying breed, being quickly bypassed by
those who understand that what's important is not only that you have the
information but that you know what to do with it.
