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RE: Web Hosting Your Company's Documentation - Pros and Cons
Subject:RE: Web Hosting Your Company's Documentation - Pros and Cons From:"Dan Hall" <dhall -at- san-carlos -dot- rms -dot- slb -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 9 Aug 2001 08:38:37 -0500
My experience: Ugh!
We're currently in the middle of trying to fix a muddle, created by doing
this very thing (poorly). It is a great idea. Once we've fixed our problems
(created by a lack of planning by a prior regime), I know that this will
offer our customers a great value.
My advice:
Have a plan.
Not just a migration plan for how to get all your docs on the 'net and
accessible, but a detailed plan and set of processes for maintaining them
once you get them there. There are going to be a great many issues that
you'll have to decide about - it's better to get everything sorted out now
than to try and make these decisions on-the-fly.
A few good questions to ask...
About the server:
Who will be responsible for maintenance of the server? Will IT commit to
making sure that both hardware and software are up-to-date? Who will decide
what is "up-to-date?" What percentage of uptime is required by your
customers? Can IT support that? How prompt are they in fixing problems now?
Is this likely to change? What security issues are there for your company,
who will be responsible for them, and how will they be addressed?
About the interface:
Who will be responsible for the web interface? Tech Pubs or Web Dev? Will
you use a simple HTML form? Will the docs (or at least the pointers to the
docs) reside in a database? Will you need search functionality? Will you
need scripting? Who will make all these things happen? Do you have the
expertise within Tech Pubs? Where will ongoing development take place? Will
it be live, or in an internally accessed development directory?
About the documentation process:
What are your processes for updating the on-line information? Who will be
responsible for making sure that the current revision is available through
the web? What will you do with obsoleted information? Where will it be
archived? Will customers who have older systems/products have access to the
appropriate information? How will you/they differentiate between versions?
About formats:
What formats will you offer? pdf? HTML? These two are sort of a minimum, but
require different processes if you want them to be indexed and searchable
by a search engine. How will you handle this? How will you address the
differences in formats, specifically navigation between docs/doc sets?
These are a few of the questions I wish they'd asked before they did what
they did here. I hope they can help you avoid some of the problems I'm
currently experiencing.
If you'd like more info about what we're currently doing, contact me off
list.
Good Luck!
Dan
Dan Hall
Sr. Technical Writer
SchlumbergerSema GTSRN
All the opinions, errors, sarcasm, and wit (if any) expressed in this
e-mail are solely mine. SchlumbergerSema takes neither credit nor blame
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-72045 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-72045 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of
Michael_Cohen -at- hyperion -dot- com
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2001 8:19 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Web Hosting Your Company's Documentation - Pros and Cons
Greetings all:
I am a relative newcomer to this fine list and I'd like to get some of your
thoughts on a topic I haven't seen discussed anywhere:
Hosting your company's documentation on a Web server that all customers
access remotely.
I'm interesting in hearing about your experiences in this area , good and
bad. My company delivers many varieties of documentation with our
client-server software products: print, PDF, winhelp, and browser-based. We
are considering providing access to our docs via a Web server that is
hosted onsite. Customers would access the documentation they need from
where ever they are, and it would enable us to add an additional bullet
item to our marketing literature. Some larger companies already do this,
such as Microsoft and IBM.
Any thoughts, opinions, experiences, etc. would be greatly appreciated.
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IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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