Are there any non-technical jobs...

[volvoguy]

On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 08:06:43 +0100, sparkes <sparkes at westmids.biz> wrote:

> I'm not picking on Aarron as you and the guys are doing a great job on
> the wiki I looked at it the other day and it's really growing into
> something useful.
> 
> *BUT* adding stuff to the wiki is not a web design thing it's an
> information architecture thing.
> 
> I hate to be a pedant but it's distintions like this that stop use poor
> web developers starving and all the work going to kids in their bedrooms.

No offense taken. I was mostly just trying to point out that
non-technical people shouldn't be afraid to get their hands dirty on
the wiki. I AM a web developer, and I understand the importance of
information architecture. I just know from experience with wiki on my
own sites that the first step is the most difficult. When people see
lots of useful information being added en mass, it's easier for
non-techies to look at it and say, "hey, I could go in and proofread,
or make the formatting prettier, etc."

I'm probably what many would call a web design snob - and also one of
those poor web developers that is losing ground to the "Frontpage
army". I read W3C specs for fun, and could probably recite much of the
information there from memory. Maybe even backwards! :-) I learned
quickly though that a wiki doesn't need to be concerned with technical
proficiency - it needs fast typists the most in order to stay current,
and a much smaller group (or just one person) to help steer the
arrangement of the data. HTML formatting isn't really that difficult,
and wiki formatting is significantly simpler yet.

I think the whole wiki idea has become so popular because it allows
almost ANY member of the community to be involved - and I think it
helps improve the feeling of community when that happens.

Wait... What was my point? :-) Oh yes - You are absolutely right that
the architecture of the information is important - probably THE most
important, so people can easily find the information they came to the
wiki to get. Like any other project though, there is a wide variety of
skills needed to make it a success, and I didn't want anyone to feel
like they couldn't contribute just because they don't have mad web
design skills. Does that make any sense? I should have gone to bed
hours ago. :-)

Aaron