Poor documentation helps land Microsoft with a $1.35bn fine

Arjuna Krishna Das posted a link to an Information Week article on Microsoft’s fine from the European Union. http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206900497 “Specifically, the EC ruled that Microsoft was overcharging rivals for the documentation they need to make their server products interoperable with Windows-based PCs and servers. The decision was upheld last year by Europe’s second highest court…. Read more »

The ROI of documentation and support

In two conversations this week, the issue of “how do you measure the value of documentation?” has come up. The benefits of user documentation (reduced support calls, increase in the perceived value of the product, happier customers, better customer retention, increase product usage etc) can be identified, but it can be hard to measure them… Read more »

What is the value of user documentation?

One of the biggest challenges for technical authors is to demonstrate and assess the value of the work they do. This is is also true in some other professions as well, such as those in design. I came across an article by Suzan Boztepe on what exactly constitutes user value and how design can contribute… Read more »

Create User Documentation – Is this really what we’re doing?

One of our business partners, Dr Alan Rae, has written an excellent report on Web 2.0 early adopter research. In partnership with Brunel University, Alan’s company has been talking to some early adopters about how they have been using Web 2.0 techniques to punch above their weight. Again, it raises issues that relate to how… Read more »

Information Development

I’ve just finished reading JoAnn Hackos’s book, “Information Development”. It’s very good – probably the first book that a technical author should buy. Indeed, we’re making sure all our in-house authors have access to a copy of it. At 624 pages, it covers a lot. However, I felt it could have done with covering in… Read more »