Trust the tech writer content publisher UE UA guy person documentalist
Blogs, white papers, F1, Tech Notes, Knowledgebase, Forums, MSDN, DevWiki, what else? Did I miss anything? I'm sure I did and those are just the ways to get stuff from Microsoft. There are so many ways to get information these days, to say nothing of the idea that a good UI needs very little docs. Or is that wrong?
But how do you choose how to give your information to your customers i.e. the reader. Sure you want to be expedient, efficient. But what about effective? With the various customer-facing possibilities, anyone can push information to the public anytime. In fact, most Microsoft employees are encouraged to do this as a mutual benefit to the customer and to the company.
I think it's easy enough to see that benefit but, in the service of effective communication, please, think twice. Then, if you still want to blog, go ahead. But why not enlist the help of your friendly, neighborhood technical communicator (content publisher, provider, tech writer, etc.) They want to help. They want to understand the message and help shape it so that it leads to less confusion for fewer people. It won't be perfect, but it will be better. And it's hard to take it back.
Francis "no spam" Langlois
