RE: Infocenter /rant off

["jt" <jt@xxxxxx>]

| -----Original Message-----
| From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
| [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Steve Landess
| Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2003 10:29 PM
| To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
| Subject: Re: Infocenter /rant off
|
|
| Maybe the Focus Groups are helping!
|
| Steve

Well, Steve..

That could be part of it!

But I recalled this thread from about a year ago:

| -----Original Message-----
| From: midrange-l-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx
| [mailto:midrange-l-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Vern Hamberg
| Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 3:24 PM
| To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
| Subject: RE: How to search WITHIN a book in the InfoCenter?
|
|
| I must say that Jerry has been very responsive to this concern. And brave
| enough to stick his neck out on this list. Kudos.
|
| Vern
|
| At 02:01 PM 12/3/2002 -0600, you wrote:
|
| >In the V5R2 version of the Information Center, we provided a
| more granular
| >level of search access.  Basically, each topic can be searched by itself
| >from the Advanced Search page.  We did not provide that level of
| >granularity in the previous versions.
| >
| >Regards,  Jerry Barry
| >
| >DDR/004-2E101  8/553-3666  (507)-253-3666
| >IBM iSeries User Technologies T/CEM


Now I don't know what Mr. Barry's role in all this is, or if he had ANYthing
to do with the improvements at Infocenter, for a fact.

But what I do know is that the solution (either focus groups or
participating in this kind-a forum) is, in essence, the same.

It's called listening...  Listening to the customer.

And Al makes a point:  It's not just that the fancy search-engine still
provides a LOT of misses, and "a lot" is subjective...  But when you're
looking for something specific and you got customer's breathing down your
neck waiting on a solution, and you KNOW you have SEEN it, then
navigate-5-levels-deep and breadcrumbs don't help much a-tall.

Having things organized in books and chapters would help (I believe)...  But
(if I read Al correctly) all the fancy gizmos in the world don't make up if
the CONTENT is lacking in quality (and quality is hard to accomplish on
(what I'd heard was) a shrinking budget, no doubt).  I'll hafta give the
InfoCenter another whorl (on a dial-up modem)-; because I appreciate they've
made a strong effort to TRY.

Probably works well if you're browsing around for general info and getting
exposed to new ideas and such...  But does it quickly answer specific
questions when yer under the gun??