I’d Rather Be Writing - Tom Johnson

Wow! Great post. Thanks for listening to my podcast.

You know, it’s funny you mention the blogs. Offline, Mike Hamilton told me he’s working in the little time he has to himself in putting out his mikehamilton.com blog. We were talking about technology, and next thing you know, we’re whipping out our phones and showing applications off, etc. etc.

I’ve got to post a picture of his favorite cell phone application - reminder to myself.

You say that Adobe and MadCap are “both blog shy,” and that “Adobe has basically outsourced its blog to the development team in India.”

IMO, the Adobe Tech Comm product team has one of the better blogs among tools vendors (http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm). Plus forums on the Adobe Web site, and user-contributed content in the Adobe Developer Center (http://www.adobe.com/devnet).

Is a blog any less valid or useful if the blogger is in India? Is a product any less viable because the product team is in India? These are perhaps uncomfortable questions for writers based in North America, but we must address them in today’s global economy.

Note that the contributors to the Adobe Tech Comm blog are Adobe product managers for the Tech Comm Suite, FrameMaker, and RoboHelp. They normally staff the Adobe booth at major tech comm conferences (e.g., STC and WritersUA). I encourage you to make an effort to meet them and share your ideas in person.

Tom — I’m grateful for your balanced response. I think there are some erroneous assumptions commonly made by writers in North America: for example, that any India-based operations are “outsourced” and (assumed to be) under the direction of U.S.-based management. I’m seeing more India-based operations with nearly complete responsibility for all aspects of product development and marketing. I’m planning a session at the STC Summit in Philadelphia to address the changing global business environment and (hopefully) to dispel some of the common misconceptions about global teams.

As for getting more tech comm leaders into the blogging scene — there are lots of ways that these leaders contribute to the profession. Participation in standards bodies (like OASIS and W3C) comes to mind. Publishing books and newsletters is another positive contribution, as is volunteer leadership of organizations like the STC. Academic research is important, and often overlooked. All of these activities are time-consuming, and many don’t necessarily provide publicity or exposure. But all are important for the continued growth and evolution of our profession.

I think it’s great when established leaders blog, but I understand why many choose not to. I also think much of the really appealing blog content is being generated by former “non-leaders” — those who have valid, insightful opinions, and who have become recognized in our profession through their blogs.

Alan,

You raised an interesting point. Exactly where does that outsourced concept drop off into international business is a good thing to speak of, and sounds like it would bring clarity into a fuzzy world.

My concept of outsourcing is where a (typically) stateside employee’s tasks are handed over to an employee or group hosted outside the (typically) United States.

Yet in a clinical viewpoint this would be a simple cost cutting measure to a global company. So why would it not be transparent and spoken towards?

In reviewing the Adobe acquisition of Macromedia through the SEC filed documents it was interesting to note that Adobe does not list the quantity of stateside employees like Macromedia did. Therefore, discovery or comparison of actual outsourcing that occurred after the merger versus previously held overseas positions is rendered opaque.

It’s also interesting that the Adobe RoboHelp technical support team formerly located in San Diego was, by my terminology, outsourced in the summer of 2007. The only indicators of this however, are local print media (San Diego Union-Tribune) articles and blogs such as mine.

Sounds like another thread is needed here unless you have one on your site. I’ll add it to my feed reader.

My conclusion is that although none of us wants to discriminate against other nationals or seem to prefer stateside business versus a better (or perceived better) global product, the facts remain that there are trade deficits in knowledge and skills. These are measurable, and this concerns all of us in technology trades where our data is easily transported.

After all, what makes any of us think that our innovation is competitive if, at the end of the day, our knowledge is commoditized from let’s say a $90/hour rate to a $10/hour rate. The market does correct itself because unerringly clients are burned and realize that they do get what they pay for, however it’s still a bitter pill and guess what?

We tend to vote with our pocketbooks. Tech Support jobs previously held stateside farmed out to India? Ok, it’s definitely going to be factored into my decision making process as an American consumer.

There’s a backlash going on about outsourcing and it’s not about ethnicity. It’s about clear and concise communication across several fronts - a marketplace being heard, products staying competitive, and that good old corporate value of Corporate Authenticity.

It’s also a cultural backlash. Nobody likes to fear for their job right before Christmas and New Year’s yet the Adobe office in San Diego just laid off an undetermined number of people. I bet it wasn’t just one person either. Culturally, that seems insensitive.

The thread that’s developing about outsourcing and a global economy is interesting, but now I’m confused. How do you see Adobe’s development of RoboHelp? Is the work not outsourced to a development team in India, or is Adobe simply a global company with locations that include India? What are your views on this move by Adobe?

By the way, in case you missed it, a while back I interviewed an Indian writer in Bangalore, India.

Here’s an interesting article about Adobe’s expansion in India and their focus on technical documentation.

Adobe to invest $200m in five years

NEW DELHI: Having established itself as one of the most important R&D centres for Adobe Systems worldwide, Adobe India is now drawing up plans to expand its capacity in India. The company’s business plans include expansion of capacity, increasing sales force, doing more R&D out of India and focusing on e-learning, online gaming and technical communication.

Already, 25-30% of Adobe’ worldwide R&D is being done from India. The company now plans to increase that share substantially. “We have already said we plan to invest $200 million in India in the next five years,” says Naresh Gupta, MD Adobe India.

The company is in the process of expanding capacity in its Noida facility from 900 to 1,500 in the next four months and to 2,000 in the next two years. Similarly, capacity at the Bangalore campus will go up from 400 to 800. “We also plan to increase our salesforce by 50% in the next three years,” says Gupta.

In fact, the India operations is very critical for Adobe’s overall growth. So far the company has filed more than 50 patents from here. Nearly all global Adobe products have a contribution from India. While some have been completely done out of the India R&D centre.

The company now plans to focus on three key areas of growth. These include: E-learning, technical documentation and online gaming. “E-learning is poised to grow at 45% worldwide,” says Gupta.

I think it’s great that the focus is on technical documentation and e-learning.

Actually I think it’s great in a global sense that we have a competitive market. It starts getting political when we’re looking at constantly having to push the edge in innovation yet we are under many more constraints (or could easily be under those constraints with a stroke of the pen).

I’ll be looking forward to my time reviewing the Annual Report for Adobe to see where this focus fits. It is exciting, however I am cautious in my praise because it does represent a change in the knowledge management market that I’m not sure will help users at the end of the day.

Sounds like a great topic for a blog post though!

Alan, Tom,

Feel free to comment on my blogpost/thesis paper! I’d love to have you crunch the numbers I found and see what results.

There’s more than a passing probability that I made a math mistake. I haven’t done ratios in five or eight years…

…Much of the really appealing blog content is being generated by former “non-leaders” — those who have valid, insightful opinions, and who have become recognized in our profession through their blogs. (seecomment| see Alan’s blog) In other words, people who don’t hold high-up leadership positions are often the ones with more interesting blogs. At first this seems a contradiction: one would think people in high-up positions would have more interesting