[AUUG-Talk]: Personal Contributions - AUUG's Value Add

[Enno Davids]

Wow... my first name's not David, but my surname is close, so allow me to
observe...

On 10/2/06, David J N Begley <d.begley at ieee.org> wrote:
>
> Quoting Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org>:
> who quoted Dave, who quoted Dave, who quoted Dave (help I'm stuck in a
> loop)...

...

> >> from first to third place.  I thought it was a trick question (ie
> >> the answer was web) until I saw the sample answers.

...

> > Well, that's an odd definition of "self-reliant", relying upon
> > unsubstantiated sources etc.

...

> There is certainly nothing wrong with trusting the Web for an answer
> if, for example, the publisher happens to also be the author of the
> software with which you are currently experiencing difficulties;  this
> doesn't doesn't guarantee that the answer is correct, though.

...

> Mailing lists, oh yeah - what was that about unsubstantiated sources?  ;-)


So it seems to me that a lot of what you guys are, for want of a better
word, debating is bogged down in the semantics you associate with the
various nouns you've been bandying about.

One man's Web is (say) a vendor support page whilst another man's
unsubstantiated source is slashdot (or digg!). Peer review may or may not be
a rigourous process of review by like professionals as practised by various
journals or it may again be a less formal process of review by the equally
befuddled as found on a mailing list or in a forum. (Yes I know that's
unfair... but it sounds cute!)

And I think the original question was just posed as a survey of where people
turned for information, not necessarily an invitation to confess your
information gathering sins, if indeed they should even be called that.


And just to stay on topic, for myself I find that where I turn for
information depends most on where I am. At home I still most often grab a
book off my shelf. At work, I will reach for a browser or man page as often
as not unless the topic is likely to be in the half dozen or so O'Reilly
books on the shelf in my cube). If a suitable subject matter expert is at
hand or I can think of one who might be inclined to answer I will pass along
a question, then there are the mailing lists and other lesser (to me)
sources. Mostly my choice tends to be informed by how quickly I need the
answer (can I tolerate an hour, a day, a week) and what degree of trust I
want to place on the answer I get.

I doubt you guys are all that different.


Cheers,

E.