RE: A Day in Technical Documentation History

Subject: RE: A Day in Technical Documentation History
From: "margaret Cekis" <margaret -dot- cekis -at- comcast -dot- net>
To: "'William Sherman'" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>, "'Bee Hanson'" <beelia -at- pacbell -dot- net>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 28 May 2016 20:26:57 -0400

William Sherman said, "...If companies viewed this document not as the $500
item they sell it for, or the $1000 of free support they don't have to give
away, but as the protection against the $10,000,000 lawsuit, maybe they
would think better of publications departments."
___________________________
William:

I worked for BRK Electronics, the company that made First Alert and other
smoke detectors. Every time they were sued, they added more warnings to
their user guides. They had one weird case where someone took a commercial
wired-in detector, and installed it using an extension cord. Then they
converted their attic to a bedroom, and covered the extension cord that ran
across the floor with a rug. Eventually, the use of a rocking chair on top
of the rug (and the extension cord) damaged the cord enough to cause a fire.
The company was not liable because the installation violated all the safe
installation instructions.

I agree that we should remind companies about liability issues. That is
easier to do in traditional engineering-run companies that already have a
legal staff or a consultant law firm who reviews their products and
documentation for legal issues. It's much harder in internet- and
marketing-focused companies who consult lawyers only to support their IPOs.

Margaret Cekis, Johns Creek GA

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and content development | http://techwhirl.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives


References:
Flare-only shop?: From: Nancy Allison
A Day in Technical Documentation History: From: William Sherman
Re: A Day in Technical Documentation History: From: Bee Hanson
Re: A Day in Technical Documentation History: From: William Sherman

Previous by Author: RE: LinkedIn job listings - any tweaks available for better suggestions ?
Next by Author: Re: integrating authored content with generated API docs
Previous by Thread: Re: A Day in Technical Documentation History
Next by Thread: visio (2007) stencil - for server+key, server+certificate ?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads