On Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 10:18 AM, Ted MacNEIL <[email protected]> wrote: >Timothy Sipples recently posted that it was incorrect. >He is the first IBM'r to say something about these 'plans'. >Until I hear it from an official IBM source, it is a rumour.
Or a "rumor", in the US :-) Count me firmly in the "this would be a stupid, stupid idea" camp. HOWEVER, here's the reason it might at least be on the table: - Redbooks cost money -- residencies, staff time, etc. that likely is not directly recovered by any paper copy sales - Books like the Dummies, "The Missing Manual", et al. provide the theoretical equivalent of Redbooks for other platforms Ergo, if you're a beancounter, it would be easy to say "Let's stop doing this for free and let the market figure it out". What's missing, of course, is the intangible value to the entire IBM sales and support process of having Redbooks. Off the top of my head: - increased commitment from customers who are involved in residencies - reduced support costs when customers can figure things out themselves - reduced documentation costs from Redbooks that replace major documentation updates, especially cross-document - improved perception of usability, leading to more customer satisfaction and thus more sales So it's not quite as clear from the beancounter side of the street, since those last are impossible to quantify. But since both Timothy (on IBM-MAIN) and Alan (on IBMVM) have stated that there is no official statement of direction, then the good news is that it's not even a rumor at this point -- it's fiction. What we need to worry about is it becoming reality down the road. ...phsiii
