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Subject:RE: Creativity and Single Sourcing From:garret -dot- h -dot- romaine -at- exgate -dot- tek -dot- com To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Tue, 26 Oct 1999 10:29:40 -0700
At the Single Source Summit yesterday in San Mateo, Ginny Redish addressed
the idea of creativity with regards to single sourcing.
Some of the managers in attendance felt that asking writers to be rigorous
with styles, tags, and format might be tough to set up, as it could, well,
stifle creativity.
Her thought was that with single sourcing (or database publishing, or
content management, whichever you prefer to call it) writing should be
divorced from format issues where creativity sometimes creeps in unintended.
After all, she pointed out, writers aren't just paid for their prose.
They're also paid to be creative in investigating the needs of the user and
the goals of the publication. The reason we make a good living is that we
are adept at determining what the user requires, and then following through.
So with single sourcing, writers should be freed up to pay a lot more
attention to some of the bigger issues.
It sounded a lot better when she said it...but she made a lot of sense.
Garret H. Romaine
Tektronix, Inc.
MBD Worldwide Customer Communications
garret -dot- h -dot- romaine -at- tek -dot- com
(503) 627-1114
