T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
---|
275.1 | A filter for information overload | VAXUUM::FARR | | Wed Apr 22 1987 16:43 | 24 |
|
I think many people share your wish to stay informed and your
frustration in accomplishing that. Help is on the way.
Stay tuned for a CUP newsletter that will focus on
writing, editing, and production tools and techniques.
Here's an example of some items that will be featured
in the newsletter:
- Advances in online documentation and CDROM
- Ongoing status of DOCUMENT and SGML, DOCUMENT and DDIF,
DOCUMENT and graphics editors
- Close examination of writing for a multi-national
company: avoiding cultural bias, creating international
products, etc.
- Profiles of people who are discussing an expanded
view of documentation; looking beyond product-based
documentation
For more information, contact me at VAXUUM::FARR.
Julie
|
275.2 | Don't forget the fringe | CUPOLA::HAKKARAINEN | Crisis? What crisis? | Wed Apr 22 1987 17:27 | 1 |
| Will someone digitize The Far Side as well?
|
275.3 | more info | 38299::THERIAULT | | Thu Apr 23 1987 11:06 | 98 |
|
RE: .2
Pardon the ignorance, but what's "The Far Side"?
RE: .1
Sounds like a worthwhile newsletter, and I'm definitely interested.
I'll stay tuned to this channel for news of availability.
RE: .0
I appreciate the replies so far, and find them useful.
I just want to make sure the scope of the question is clear, and
report a couple of examples, so others can be saved some pain.
* I browsed through a copy of the course material for
"Introduction to DIGITAL for Engineers" -- excellent!
(I plan to take it as soon as I can manage it, even though I've
been with DEC for a couple years now.)
It includes (not an exhaustive list):
** a lot of good stuff on corporate culture
** some info on DEC products
->** The 1986 Engineering Guide
Document Identifier: EL-ENGRS-OM-00-0 Rev E. 31-Mar-1986
ABSTRACT: This guide presents general information about Digital
and specific information about Engineering. Included are
descriptions of most engineering, marketing, manufacturing,
sales, and service groups. The Guide also includes name and
subject indexes.
APPLICABILITY: This guide is intended as a reference source
for new engineers or anyone requiring information about design,
development, test, support, or production efforts at Digital.
[Ain't *that* a kick in the head? This seems to be a *great*
place to start information hunts... What a treasure! ...
and to think that I'd never heard of it until a couple days
ago...]
* I stumbled across CLT::SYS$PUBLIC:SURVIVAL_GUIDE_86.DOC, another
great find, describing, among other things, all of the projects going
on in the Software Development Technologies Group (including Commercial
Languages and Tools), and who the project leaders are.
There's also a section on Management roles -- isn't it great to
have *some* idea of what's expected of you?
* I am in the Artificial Intelligence Technology Center, which consists
of four groups:
Artificial Intelligence Applications (I'm in this one)
Artificial Intelligence Technology (lisp, ops5, prolog, ...)
Intelligence Systems Technology (xcon, expert sys/manufacturing,...)
Artificial Intelligence Marketing
I had a decent idea of what the other groups were doing, but ISTG
was a bit of a mystery. After some *serious* hunting, I managed
to get hold of what they call E97's (why?) -- descriptions of
all projects, including project leaders and plans! I won't publish
a direct pointer, but knowing what to ask for is almost the whole
battle -- it took some serious sleuthing.
* As for info about AIAG, I managed to get someone to consolidate common
materials in AIAG::AI$ROOT:[AIAG...]
There are subdirectories for papers, project-review slides, monthly
status reports, ...
Each item in the monthly report contains a one-paragraph description
of what it is, in addition to the status for that month.
I'm not sure how much of this information is/will-remain public...
It was just set up yesterday, so it's not fully populated yet.
This info may help some other poor unfortunate save some time in
getting/staying informed. I'd like to see other groups posting
pointers to similar overviews or repositories of information...
It would also be nice to have access to repositories of info of
a corporate-wide nature -- especially on-line. Ideally, this would
include all of the corporate-culture things, like:
* <I assume "The Far Side" would be a good thing to include>
* Sayings of Chairman Ken
* Pragmatic Negotiations
* Internal Memos for Engineers (Russ Doane's great tips)
* Matrix Organizations
* Bootcamp
* Committee Rules
* A study in corporate cultures: DEC
the myth:
The Philosophy
A Cultural Operating Manual
the reality:
Herospeak
(Reesa Abrams)
* <other tips on writing, making presentations, career planning, ...>
* <useful bibliographies; pointers to more info>
* <Master indices into all of this material>
Is it time to start a new notes file?
Is there an appropriate one already? -- I'll wade through the list
again when I get a chance.
Thanks to everyone (so far, and in advance) for any information
that can be of help. I offer another apology to DOCUMENT developers
for the misuse of their notes file...
|
275.4 | | CUPOLA::HAKKARAINEN | R.I.P. Mr. Greenjeans | Thu Apr 23 1987 11:29 | 4 |
|
"The Far Side" is a cartoon syndicated in many U.S. newspapers.
kh
|
275.5 | what's the goal? | VAXUUM::KOHLBRENNER | | Thu Apr 23 1987 12:29 | 14 |
| Gee, after reading about all that stuff in reply .3, I am more
convinced that a policy of "actively avoiding information that
is not pertinent to my job" is the only way to get any work done.
For some time I've maintained that "If I don't need to know it,
I don't want to know it." That occasionally gets me into trouble,
but it makes me much more productive the rest of the time.
Of course there is a balance to be struck between running with
blinders on and running with a blindfold on...
It's kind of like driving your car down the road and insisting that
you look closely at each and every tree, fencepost, bird, vehicle,
etc. You'd better be driving pretty slowly if that is your goal.
|
275.6 | ahem -- here's why... | 38299::THERIAULT | | Thu Apr 23 1987 14:05 | 51 |
| RE: .5
The goal, for me, is simple. Most of the time, I can do my job
with locally-available info -- I've been here for a couple years,
and still know very little about what's going on in DEC beyond the
boundaries of my own group. In a way, that's great, but in another
way, it's pathetic.... When I *do* need information, it takes *so*
much time/trouble to hunt it down (because it is not readily available)
that I lose time in the hunt that I could otherwise devote to working.
Sometimes it is just too much trouble, so I go on in ignorance.
Can you imagine how much needless duplication of effort goes on
in this corporation? and how many projects die that might have
turned into strong products if they'd been integrated or developed
synergistically with others? how many things are done from scratch
or in a less-than-execellent (I would have said half-***ed, but
I want to be polite) manner when there are tools in existence or
in development that they could have used to make their jobs easier?
Do you have to spend most of your life wading through notes files
to become/remain informed? What I'm looking for is a way to
*effectively* become and remain informed about what's going on beyond
my cubicle.
Let's take an example we can all relate to: I had never heard of
DOCUMENT just a couple weeks ago. Our group uses LaTeX (which I
think is a crock), and of the time I could allocate for writing,
a substantial portion was wasted on fiddling around with typesetting
instead of concentrating on what I wanted to express.
Massive ignorance? I confess... but there was no hint of such a
product in my immediate environment. Until recently, I almost never
looked at notes files, but that appears to be the only way to get
useful information. Unfortunately, that useful information is hidden
amidst reams of garbage, not well organized or indexed, full of
contradiction, replication, and irrelevant and obsolete information.
I didn't ask for that information so I could spend all my time wading
through useless information; I asked so I would know just where
to go for the information I need, when I need it -- and so I can
browse when I can free up some time to find out things I'm not
specifically looking for. It's nice to develop software, but it's
not so nice to develop it in a vacuum, independent of some higher
corporate strategy, divorced from all other software already
(being) produced, and ignoring tools/techniques that can make
development more productive.
I think that even though it takes me some time to collect this
information, it will make me more effective and productive in the
long run (and probably in the short run, too -- even with the time
loss...) Making the information public may save some other poor
soul the trouble. If others pooled a bit of effort, we could all
benefit without a major time-sink for anyone.
|
275.7 | yeah, maps are needed | VAXUUM::KOHLBRENNER | | Thu Apr 23 1987 14:24 | 7 |
| Hmmm....
Maybe it is hopeful people, like you, who will bring some
order to the chaos. Perhaps I've simply given up on
dealing with the chaos.
Are we in a forest? All I can see is trees...
|
275.8 | Take a look at this. | MARTY::FRIEDMAN | | Thu Apr 23 1987 15:21 | 3 |
|
ANCHOR""::NET$LIBRARY:EASYNOTES.LIS
|
275.9 | I work for DEC, not for an isolated cost center! | CLOSET::KAIKOW | | Thu Apr 23 1987 16:03 | 10 |
| re: 275.6
I FULLY agree.
It's a wonder that DEC stays in business operating the way it does.
Too few employees realize that they work for DEC, not for an isolated cost
center.
Hmmmm, this is not the right place to discuss how to run an organization.
|
275.10 | NOTES, by itself, not sufficient | CLOSET::KAIKOW | | Thu Apr 23 1987 16:05 | 7 |
| re: 275.8
NOTES are a fine tool but it is rarely properly used.
It needs, among other things, the capability of TOPIC MODERATOR.
Such a request has been entered in the NOTES wishlist conference,
I think that it is at CLT::vaxnotes_V2.
|
275.11 | Some answers... | 38299::THERIAULT | | Fri Apr 24 1987 09:44 | 49 |
| (I'll try not to repeat anything said earlier...)
RE: .9
BRAVO! A corporate citizen! Thanks for the support. Let's do
something.
RE: .10
We'll have to make do with what we have and try to make sure we
get something better. Thanks for the pointer.
RE: .8
Thanks for the pointer. I happened to know about that one already,
but someone else may find it useful. (If the reply was sarcastic,
note how I am relatively unphased, and willing to take a few sucker
punches to get what I'm really after...)
RE: .7
Thanks for this note, Mr. K. (what's your first name, anyway...).
It shows a refreshing lack of arrogance and a willingness to
think/introspect that I wish more people had. [I've been described
both as an incurable optimist and a hopeless pessimist, a dreamer/cynic
(they all blend somewhere along the line, anyway...), but never
"hopeful". I try to be a realist -- it's just that reality can
be really funky at times :-).] Don't give up on dealing with the
chaos -- do something about it, and it will become manageable.
I believe there are a lot of people in this corporation who feel
the same frustration, and with a small catalyst, it takes only a
few strategically placed ones, each investing a tiny but coordinated
effort, to eliminate this major problem. That catalyst consists of:
*) A reinforcement of the feeling of frustration/need that they
almost certainly have felt.
*) An indication that lots of others have felt the same way
*) An approximate assessment of the cost to the corporation of this
problem -- opportunity cost, direct bottom-line loss, employee
dissatisfaction, productivity losses, etc.
*) A comfortable feeling that someone is willing to sacrifice something
substantial to improve the situation
*) A feeling that a small contribution on their part will solve
part of the company-wide problem.
I'll post another couple of replies to address some of the issues
that need addressing. Right now, I'm getting a bit nervous about
my machine crashing...
|
275.12 | re: .4 | ASGNQH::BALD | John B. Stranger in a strange land | Fri Apr 24 1987 14:25 | 2 |
| Wait a minute. Hold everything. When did Mr. Greenjeans die?
|
275.13 | Yeah, R.I.P. | VAXUUM::KOHLBRENNER | | Fri Apr 24 1987 15:48 | 3 |
| a few days ago. A nice interview with Capt Kangaroo on public radio
in which it was pointed out that he was the gentle character that
he played on the program. ---
|
275.14 | | CLOSET::KAIKOW | | Fri Apr 24 1987 16:52 | 3 |
| re: 275.12
I think that it was 2 days ago.
|
275.15 | See how useful this is, already? | 38299::THERIAULT | | Mon Apr 27 1987 11:38 | 1 |
| :-)
|
275.16 | Changing DIGITAL strategy, and how we fit in. | 38299::THERIAULT | | Mon Apr 27 1987 11:52 | 38 |
| DIGITAL is undergoing a major change from producer/seller of widgets
to provider of solutions. This has tremendous impact on how we
will be doing our jobs. Essentially, knowing what's going on in
other parts of DEC will become a minimum requirement for effective
performance of our jobs. Isolationists will lose.
The transition has already started in marketing. Sales reps now
have to discuss the customer's business problems and propose an
appropriate configuration of hardware, software and services for
solving those problems. (If you don't believe me, ask someone in
marketing. I did. In fact, I'm working on an "expert system" to
help them out...) This means that our sales force is trying to
propagate the illusion that we have what it takes to solve customers'
problems.
Naturally, our documentation should reinforce that illusion. So,
you writers will have to put everything in an appropriate perspective.
The new DECwindows standard may help you out a bit, since products
will now at least superficially resemble each other.
Now for the software developers among us. You know our management
is much too wise to let our customers look past the veil to find
a bunch of independently-conceived/developed hacks pasted together,
when they expect to find elegant, integrated solutions. So of course
this transition from widgets to solutions will propagate to software
development, too.
We know SDT's products are well-planned and consistent, but what
about the rest of us in the corporation? We should be seeing much
more communication, coordination, and shared planning/design/development
efforts across organizational boundaries. Point solutions will
be okay as experiments, but proper integration/synergy will be
necessary for such an experiment to become more than a toy --
especially if there is to be any hope of release as a product.
If you've been laughing at these requests for information, stop
a moment to look around... maybe you'll be searching soon, too.
|
275.17 | How YOU can solve this problem, quickly/easily. | 38299::THERIAULT | | Mon Apr 27 1987 12:18 | 65 |
| Here are a few steps for solving DIGITAL's internal corporate
information management problem, followed by some discussion.
You will note that the steps for getting information should take
only a few minutes' investment. A system will evolve for using that
information more effectively and conveniently.
0) If you don't feel your organization is worth knowing about, do nothing.
Maybe it will quietly fade away, and you can find a worthwhile
job elsewhere. The rest of us don't care to be bothered with
dead-ends, anyway. (Better yet, post something sarcastic, so
we can all appreciate your biting wit and value to DIGITAL.)
1) If you feel there's some shred of value to your job, find an
up-to-date document describing your organization, with a couple-page
overview of each project, including project leader, current status,
and plans. Please post a pointer to a readable version of the
document, spelling out the full name of your organization in
the reply's title. That is exactly the kind of information the
rest of us need convenient access to.
If it doesn't exist, that says something sad about your management.
If it exists, and you don't know about it, that says something
sad about you.
2) If you know of some other useful, but unrepresented, work going
on within DIGITAL, please post relevant information about it,
or prod someone else to.
3) If there are interesting pet projects going on in your organization,
or interesting ideas that you'd like to explore, but lack the
time/resources, post pointers to summaries of those, too. Someone
else may be able to help out in some way. You know that's the
way the best products get started...
That's all it takes, folks! It's no hopeless dream...
I volunteer to spend any time I can afford to sift through it and
do my best to organize it in as usable a form as possible. With
a bit of work, we can generate a few alternative master indices
into it to make directed search more effective.
What we need is a "living document" because this thing must be
up-to-date for maximum utility. To reach its full potential is
an exercise in corporate information management stretching the limits
of our database management, information retrieval,
indexing/report-generation, browsing/navigation, text processing,
and even so-called Artificial Intelligence techniques.
If we solved our own corporate information problems adequately,
we could package the tools we developed for it, and I'd stake my
job on the assertion that other corporations, world-wide, would
be knocking down our doors, money in hand...
After all (as Kamesh Ramakrishna pointed out), when we solved our
own networking problems, we sure had a dandy bunch of products --
look at what that's doing for us now...
And as Del Prothero said, "Where the pain is ... is where you'll
find the most progress in solution-building." Let's do something
about it.
Note to DOCUMENT people: if we get any useful information from
this, I'll move the stuff elsewhere, so it doesn't clog up your
notes file. Thanks for not putting up a fuss so far.
Dan
|
275.18 | | DECWET::KOSAK | | Mon Apr 27 1987 18:59 | 39 |
| Groups doing documentation should find these interesting. I've
been working to get our group producing totally compound documents,
and it's coming together very well. I recently put together a couple
of memos describing the cost savings we expect to realize by doing
this (as compared to producing documents using traditional methods).
Both memos can be found at DECWET::DISK$WORK3:[kosak.public] and
were produced using DOCUMENT (of course). One contains illustrations
and is available in PostScript format only. The other is available
in PostScript and LN03 format.
Filenames:
ONLINE_ILLUSTRATION.PS
----------------------
describes cost savings we expect to realize on our project by doing
all illustration online. It includes a few sample illustrations
produced with GRED. Many of the CUP groups have already seen this
one so if it sounds familiar don't bother with it, it's nothing
new.
TYPESET.PS or TYPESET.LN3
--------------------------
compares estimated costs of setting up and producing final masters on
an APS Micro-5G, a Linotronic L300, (both photo typesetting machines)
and a Varityper VT-600 (a 600 dot per inch plain paper typesetter
that works with PostScript files). We're going to evaluate a VT-600
as soon as we can get one in here (PO is being cut now). If it
works out we should be able to save the company a substantial amount
of money.
These give a fairly good idea of what we're up to, but I'm also
in the process of putting together a Production and Illustration Guide
that describes how our group operates. I'll post a pointer to that
when it's ready for distribution, probably sometime in June.
Hope this is what you had in mind,
-- Craig
|
275.19 | Yes! | 38644::THERIAULT | | Tue Apr 28 1987 09:16 | 17 |
| A million thanks! That's exactly what I had in mind!
... especially the "Production and Illustration Guide that DESCRIBES
HOW OUR GROUP OPERATES..."
(If you can slip a few words [or a diagram!] into it, telling where
your group fits in organizationally in DEC, that would help, too.)
Would you mind slipping a copy of the source in the same directory (no need
to post another pointer). We don't have a PostScript machine, and
looking through the source would be better than seeing nothing at all.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I hope others follow your lead... <<<<<<<<<<<<<<
In things like this, it's always hardest to get the first few responses.
That takes a bit of courage on the part of the people responding
(or a bit of beating about the head)...
Thanks again,
Dan
|
275.20 | More information... | 38644::THERIAULT | | Fri May 01 1987 08:49 | 75 |
| RE: .19, .17
Craig and I had some VAXmail communication...
He won't be making the sources available, primarily because they are
signed, (essentially) finished documents and he wouldn't want anyone to
modify them and distribute them under his name.
This is very reasonable, and print-ready versions are *much*
better than nothing. DVI files would be even better...
With appropriate browsing tools DVI for documents would-be/are quite
sufficient, and would help solve a number of related (potential)
security problems.
You can add access control to the list of things
mentioned in .17 that would be necessary to engineer into a suitable
information system. After all, that information is very valuable
to the corporation, and we want to keep it within DIGITAL, in a
way that protects its integrity, without stifling access to people
who need it. ...a few real-world trade-offs we must address.
About browsing tools:
* Craig mentioned an effort under way for a DECwindows-based online
document reader that may suit our needs.
See COLORS::ONLINE_INFORMATION for details.
* We somehow got DVI2VWS on our cluster. It's great for looking
at DVI files, but it ran out of font space when I tried to look at
the DVI file for my slides. That will probably be fixed soon.
See DOCUMENT note 410 for info on this previewer.
* M1 was a fantastic, VWS extension of FLIP, for browsing through
documents. (I think the name VIOLA was used for the corresponding
project.)
* Is there still any active development in this area?
* When can we expect usable results?
* Is DOCUMENT still compatible with these efforts (I seem to remember
these things as DSR-based.)
About corporate information management:
* I was just looking at the Distributed Information Systems group's
CHARTER(?)(1986) (I'd previously looked at its projects, which are mostly
database software like RDB, TDMS, DATATRIEVE), and found things
like:
"develops software products to manage departmental and corporate
information"
"provide data management in a distributed environment"
"DISG strategy calls for increasing emphasis on OLTP and other
high-end (complex) applications and the tools required for operating
in that environment. The applications require strategic focus
on high-performance run-time environments, distributed database
systems, and dictionary management/control services."
"works with the rest of SDT to create a common set of object
definitions, an Element Database, to allow better integration
of languages, tools, and information management products."
There is even some mention of "expert based" software...
* looks like we have a good substrate to build on, and maybe they
have/will focus some of their efforts at the high end...
* We have the technology. We can rebuild him, better than he was
before... (Pardon the attempt at the 6 million dollar man quote)
About some other private communications:
* Everyone I talk to seems to agree that we need (more effective)
access to information about what's going on within DEC, and has
become extremely frustrated by attempts to become informed, even
about specific topics.
* Just yesterday, at a AAAI planning meeting, Charles Smith (Educational
Services) and I accidentally discovered we'd both been having
independant development efforts on the same topic -- a Services
Advisor. We will be meeting to learn more about each others'
work in that area, and see if we can pool resources. I can't
tell you how much I *HATE* wasting my time and effort...
We can't function effectively as a corporation if we rely on lucky
accidents like this, instead of effective communication channels.
About getting more information, here:
* Come on, people! Help out, will ya?! We *ALL* need this...
|
275.21 | More Sources of Information | 38644::THERIAULT | | Fri May 01 1987 13:16 | 28 |
|
aitg::hardware.dvi -- Future Digital Hardware -- Bruce AITG::Foster
(great survey...)
Management, at least in Engineering, apparently have a "Yellow Book"
and a "Green Book" describing all projects in Engineering. These
are very private -- probably to keep them from falling into enemy
hands. Maybe if you're really nice, your manager will let you take
a peek in one of them...
The VMSinterest mailing list is a source of timely information
via SQM (Software Quality Management?)
There is also a DIGITAL Information Systems mailing list that may
be useful to us.
If you feel like exploring, there may be a way to do it:
* with all the clustering going on, groups seem to be using their
names (like AIAG, ISTG, AITG, CLT, ...) as a cluster alias.
* it seems like the SYS$PUBLIC logical is viewed as semi-standard
within DIGITAL
* people also tend to put public stuff in their decnet accounts,
as in the first example above...
This may make poking around more feasible, and may be used as a
The info above represents a certain amount of investment of time
(little of it mine), and people may save each other lots of time
by sharing the results of their efforts... (hint, hint)
|
275.22 | a .LN3 reply to .2 | GNUVAX::MCNULTY | Learning is Returning | Thu May 14 1987 10:52 | 234 |
| |