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There has been some discussion on the requirement for technical
communicators to learn programming or variations thereof in order to master
the tools that are required for information management.
There is a strong trend these days toward knowledge management and more
sophisticated information capture, storage and delivery mechanisms. This is
happening because of information overload -- there is just too much
information, valuable information and potential intellectual assets to cope
withh otherwise. From knowledge bases to document warehouses and
information management systems, we're seeing the development of tools that
allow quicker storage and retrieval of information. Along with that are
applications that provide enhanced contexts for this information.
What all this means is that the intelligence and behavior of data
structures and manipulation is increasingly being handled by the TOOL
instead of by the USER of the tool. As design guru Donald A. Norman would
put it, the knowledge is in the design, not in the head. The tools are
becoming "smarter".
Why is this happening? A number of reasons:
1) Downsizing and early retirement incentives are causing the loss of
knowledgeable and experienced people. If the business knowledge is in the
tool, and not exclusively in the person's head, a less-skilled or more
junior employee can perform the same function as a more experienced person.
2) The information overload backlash means that the less information we
have to keep in our heads or deal with on a daily basis reduces our stress
levels, and makes us more productive. It also gives us more time. Far
better to have an "agent" program do things for us such as web searches,
than to spend the time doing it ourselves.
3) If the tool is smart enough to perform complex functions at the push of
a button on an inteface, then training costs are reduced, as are support
costs.
You see the impact on technical communicators? We may have to write less
documentation, but we'll be more involved in design stages and usability
checking. We'll need to be able to design the most efficient structure for
the information being manipulated.
Our jobs won't go away, they'll just get reshaped to complement the new tools.
--Beth
Beth Agnew
Sr. Technical Writer
InSystems Technologies Inc.
Markiham, Ontario
