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> a) I would like to know if any one is providing off
> site TWservices.
I do. This is how I've generally done business since 1995. (It wasn't
exactly what I had in mind, but I've found it easier to line up clients
elsewhere than here in the Corvallis area.)
> b) If yes,
> what kind of work do you get.
I mostly write engineer- or syssadmin-oriented technical and sales
documentation, from scratch, for semiconductors and network products.
These come mostly from overworked folks at companies that don't have a tech
pubs department, or don't have any technical folks in their tech pubs
department, and who need someone who can figure out complex products and
write them up without much support. I'm an electrical engineer by training,
and have a lot of system administration experience as well, so it's possible
to dump the engineering spec on my desk and run, while still getting a
creditable draft out of me.
> c) I would also like to know about changes and all.
My biggest problem is getting my clients to review documents at all. They
tend to be horrendously overworked and have any number of three-alarm fires
burning already, so I get feedback more or less at random. But that's all
part of the fun-filled world of high-tech startups. I take them as they
come and charge by the hour. If changes seem ill-advised or bogus, I call
the client up and talk about them. Usually there's an underlying issue that
I wasn't previously aware of.
> d) How do you reach your clients.
Whatever works. Most prefer email. Some are always on the go and prefer
that I call them on their cell phones. Source material and drafts are
typically sent back and forth as email file attachments, though I have had
clients that gave me VPN access to their networks and others that preferred
FTP directories to file attachments.
On one recent contract, I was actually on-site two days a week, so all
avenues were open to me, but that's rare. Frankly, harried start-up folks
don't have a lot of time to spend thinking about tech docs, and one of my
services is to allow them to do so as little as possible.
