Re: "content" vs "tools" - help!

[Win Day <winday -at- home -dot- com>]

Greetings, Jim!

Personally, option #1 sounds like you want to compete with the $15/hour 
computer installation guys at my local PC store.  But I have a distinct 
bias towards Option #2.  I recently finished an intense 8-month post-grad 
program in Interactive Multimedia.

Learning the stuff about dynamic websites is also closer to tech 
writing.  Most of the HARD work in creating dynamic websites involves 
content management!  I'm currently creating a database-driven online 
catalogue for a ceramics shop.  It has taken me 6 weeks of back-and-forth 
with the client (who is sweet but a computer novice, an old family friend) 
to be able to structure the database to deliver what we eventually agreed 
on for the content of the site.  I expect to have ALL of the design and 
programming done within a month.  It's an ASP site driven by an Access 
database (not the most scalable solution, but this will probably never be a 
high-traffic site).

When I was in the IMM program, most of my fellow students came from 
graphics/design backgrounds.  Their natural tendency was to focus on the 
"pretty" aspects of the industry.  The dot-com crash hit them hard, as most 
of them can't see beyond the "traditional" web design careers.

I feel there is a TON of work out there for tech writers with these 
specific skills.  Think knowledge management.  Think corporate 
intranets.  Think service-based companies who want to offer information out 
to the public.  The easiest way to manage and present this stuff is via 
technologies like XML.

Oh, and add VBScript to your list.  When you program an ASP site, most of 
the actual programming is done in VBScript.  Also, I don't know any Perl at 
all, and VERY VERY little about CGI scripting.

I don't know how much the certificate programs cost, or what exactly is 
covered (and in what depth) in Option #2.  To give you a basis for 
comparison, my IMM program covered:
* graphic design/development (tools = Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, 
Macromedia Fireworks)
* animation (tool = Macromedia Flash, language = ActionScript)
* digital audio/video (tools = digital still and video cameras; Adobe 
Premiere, Adobe AfterEffects, Sonic Foundry SoundForge)
* web design/development/programming (tools = Allaire HomeSite, Macromedia 
Dreamweaver, languages = HTML, DHTML, JavaScript, VBScript, ASP)
* multimedia authoring for CDs and Shockwave web applications (tool = 
Macromedia Director, language = Lingo)
* project management (tool = Microsoft Project)
* database design/development (tool = Microsoft Access)

This was a full-time, VERY intense 8-month program.  By intense I mean that 
by about the middle of each semester I was putting in 80-100 hour 
weeks.  You did NOT try to hold a job or even small freelance contracts 
while you were taking the program.  The cost?  Tuition alone was almost 
$9000 CDN.  By the time you add fees, books (LOTS and LOTS of books!), etc. 
I figure the 8 months cost me around $13,000 CDN.

That doesn't count the cost of the software.  I already owned Dreamweaver, 
Fireworks, Flash, Homesite, Project, and Access, although I've upgraded all 
of them since starting the program last September.  I've substituted other 
applications that I already owned for Photoshop and Illustrator.  I've 
scrapped the digital audio/vide for now, because I can't justify shelling 
out for the hardware and software this year.  And one of these days I'll 
fork out for Director, but I want a contract signed with a client first!

Was it worth it?  I think so.  There's an awful lot of work out there for 
people with these skills.  Most of it isn't advertised in the classifieds; 
you have to go and find it.  But it's there, and it pays well.

Win
---------------
Win Day

Multimedia Developer

http://www.creativeimplementations.com
mailto:winday -at- creativeimplementations -dot- com


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