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On 7 Nov 2012, at 14:58, Tony Chung <tonyc -at- tonychung -dot- ca> wrote:
> How long would this take, and at your hourly rate what would it cost to research and build a custom application? Then count the cost of recreating all the manuals from scratch (possibly factoring in rewrites, redesign, and other improvements. Submit the three options as a business case, assessing the risks and recommending your chosen solution, then let management decide.
>
> Maybe the original manuals aren't worth the money and should be rebuilt.
>
This is why I said in my OP
>
> My university will not pay for the conversion (they couldn't care less about how we produce learning materials, or how long we spend doing it - one of the benefits they get of being an educational employer I suppose….).
You see, the whole concept of 'time & motion' (as they used to call it when I were a lad) is wholly irrelevant to educational employers. Productivity is
i. not measured; and
ii. most of the work I create is done in my own time, not theirs.
And that's because the quality of what I produce is not calculated by the educational bean counters. Only by the teachers and the students, whose opinions don't figure in the way that 'staff' and 'customers' do in other organisations.
So, to answer Tony's question - how long it would take me isn't an issue. It's more of a case of whether I have the requisite skills - and right now I don't know enough about what is required to know whether it's within my skill set. I would be willing and interested to learn, and I would - if I were successful - be interested in making any script or app open-source for others. However, I don't know enough about what files and formats need converting to make .qxp files open in InDesign. If anyone can give me some pointers, I'd be happy to investigate further on my own.
