In 1959, Calvin Mooers, a researcher into the science of Information Retrieval, developed Mooer’s Law: “An information retrieval system will tend not to be used whenever it is more painful and troublesome for a customer to have information than for him not to have it.” Its original meaning meant: people will avoid an information system… Read more »
Category: Technical Authors
Failure in technical communication
JK Rowling made a great commencement speech recently at Harvard University – on the topic of failure. Failure is something that stalks the world of technical authors. Failure affects our clients. Users often have to feel they have failed before they call up online Help. It is said that Microsoft nearly renamed “Help” in Vista,… Read more »
Open source economics
In this video, Yochai Benkler explains how collaborative projects like Wikipedia and Linux represent the next stage of human organization. Is he right? Could the same economic rules be applied to the technical writing projects, where there is a large user base?
Confessions of a technical author – What can technical communicators learn from David Ogilvy?
David Ogilvy was an advertising genius who distilled his successful concepts and techniques into a bestselling book I’ve just finished reading, called “Confessions of an Advertising Man”. I wanted to read his book, because I often find it useful to look at other professions and ask whether their ideas could be applied to the world… Read more »
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 »