Re: Video vs The Written Word

Subject: Re: Video vs The Written Word
From: Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>
To: procrastiwriter <procrastiwriter -at- googlemail -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2007 08:24:40 -0500

Advantages:
- WTFV may be easier to enforce than RTFM.
- Some people cannot read.
- Some people can but do not read.
- SMEs may believe their work is done when they've mumbled before a camera.

Disadvantages:
- Very hard to update.
- Bohhhring videos are bohhhhhhhhring.
- Snazzy videos are often content free.
- Hard to discuss the three major points in an hour-long video without re-watching the entire video. (You can't just turn to the second top-level head, but instead have to hunt for it in the unscripted ramblings that pass for video documentation.)
- If the quality is poor (as it usually is in amateur videos) each viewer must perform the sifting and integration work normally done by a tech writer. May have to invent questions to ask to learn material that should have been covered but wasn't.
- The handout for the video, if any, becomes the outline of the document that should have been written.
- If the quality is to be high, it'll cost as least as much to get it right as it does to write a set of docs.

Pitfalls:
- In any crime, the principle question is "Cui bono?" Who wants the videos, and what do they (personally) gain?

Maybe I am too old and out of touch. I have not watched TV since about 1985.

procrastiwriter wrote:
> Out of the blue, a few key people are hell bent on using videos (e.g.

Camatasia) over anything else and I fear that they see it as a way of not
having to worry so much about improving the written documentation. In
principle, I'm not against using videos for things like tutorials and
examples, but it's not area that I've explored before. I would be very
interested to hear what people think about using video tutorials in
technical writing, for example:

- When do you use them?
- What are the merits?
- What are the pitfalls/drawbacks?
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Follow-Ups:

References:
Video vs The Written Word: From: procrastiwriter

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