RE: Another question I've had for years...

["diotima" <diotima -at- myway -dot- com>]

earlier diotima wrote: i've been asked this question during an interview once. the thought that ran through my head during the interview was: hmm, their developers are uncooperative? now whenever this topic comes up i find myself wondering why it is that i never have this problem. here's a few things i come up with. ...



james wrote: A better definition would be that the subject matter experts that I have dealt with view the knowledge in their heads with a certain right of ownership - even though this would be proprietary information. On a few occasions, I have had developers complain to their managers that they were too busy to waste their time with a tech writer.



diotima writes: you?ve lost me there. "a better definition would be that the subject matter experts that you have dealt with view the knowledge in their head....?" sorry, i don't understand your definition. i'm not even sure what you're defining. and i certainly don't understand your point.



earlier diotima wrote: i don't think of anyone as a sme. or if i ever do, it is only for a few seconds as i'm trying to locate the appropriate people. ...



james wrote: This is a matter of semantics. I've met techie people who weren't the brightest bulb in the marquee, but they still knew more about the subject than I.



diotima writes: you?ve missed my point entirely... it looks like you interpreted me as arguing that smes weren't "experts." if you read my original text again, it think it's pretty clear what i'm saying.



earlier diotima wrote: i don't really have this "us vs. them" dichotomy that many other tech writers seem to have.



james wrote: I've never seen tech writers display an 'Us vs Them' attitude, it's usually the engineers. Or, more generally, the full time employees. And I don't see this across the board. Some companies that I have worked for have treated me like an FTE from day one.



diotima writes: if that's what you?ve seen, then fair enough. i was talking about my experience, seeing first hand or reading topics from the technical writers on "how to get information from smes." at times these discussions make me think of those old mutual of omaha's wild kingdom" shows: "bill and i crept closer to the small herd of yellow-spotted engineers grazing near the pond. we were careful not to scare them away. the yellow-spotted engineer can run at speeds of up to 60 miles an hour."



-diotima



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