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This is practical experience speaking, from a company with
many remote writers & reviewers:
We get far fewer reviews voluntarily returned with email-distributed
review copies. Budget time for repeat follow ups.
As for form, no matter which options we give them, all our developers,
other misc. folks seem to like to read the PDF or HTML and return
comments in email with pg # citings. So, I've taken to distributing each
format, zipping the PDF if necessary (I try to send as small a hunk of
doc as possible to ensure maximum quality review), mention several
different alternatives (you can send me email with notes, fax me pages,
call me on the phone, or any other method that you prefer).
One or two of my best reviewers prefer to print out the pages & fax me
stuff (always targeted reviews!). I heard a rumor that a clutch of
developers at our company wouldn't open any attached doc, and they were
asking the project manager to cut and paste weekly project docs into
email instead of attaching. Fortunately none of them are offsite [:)]
This is my experience in the last two years at a handful of companies
where I was an offsite contractor and, more recently, an on-and-offsite
employee working with far flung SMEs.
Mysti Rubert
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