• From: Len Bullard <len.bullard@u...>
• To: Michael Kay <mike@s...>, 'Laurens van den Oever' <laurens@x...>, xml-dev@l...
• Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:20:49 -0600

Years ago we created a structured editing environment for a US Navy project.
The writers initially resisted it, one because he simply couldn't type and
used the typing pool, another because while he could type, he was a widower
much enamored of the typing pool.  

The change came when the entire set of digital manuals was produced
automatically by network scripts while the writers went home for the
weekend. Resistance varies by motivation.  So does acceptance.

len


From: Michael Kay [mailto:mike@s...] 
 
> But I don't think such motivation needs to be economic. It is 
> our experience that people will work in a controlled 
> environment if it helps them do their job.

I once worked on a project where people were initially very sceptical that
journalists could be motivated to produce better-structured copy. In the
end, it proved easy, because the better the markup they produced, the less
their copy got mangled by subeditors, and the more likely it was to be
syndicated. 

Achieving data quality always depends on making it worth the originator's
time and effort.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

 


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