Conference 7.286::digital

VAX Notes has another advantage--they are a product that a large
number of Digits find important (to their life if not their work).
It was easy for them to get lots of people to try out their product,
look over their documentation, make suggestions.  Products are normally
lucky to get a few people active in the field test.  Having notes
can help with the field test, but only if you get people interested.

						B.J.
(Of course, VAX Notes had some other advantages:  Several years of
experience and suggestions based on the previous versions of notes
and a good development team.)

    The following is quoted by permission of the author, who was reacting
    to the fact that the "master list" of announced Easynet conferences is
    being maintained by a volunteer on his own personal time, not as part
    of his job. 

          <<< LSTARK::SYS$SYSDEVICE:[NOTES$LIBRARY]EASYNOTES.NOTE;3 >>>
================================================================================
Note 13.5               HOW ABOUT POPULARITY INDICATOR?                   5 of 5
CURIE::ANKER "Anker Berg-Sonne"                      11 lines   9-APR-1986 11:33
                      -< What! No funding and staffing? >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                It is shocking and dismaying  that  the  primary internal 
        many  to many communications vehicle within  the  corporation  is 
        managed on donated time.  Somebody ought  to  staff and fund this 
        effort.    Engineering  is the primary user and  contributor  and 
        therefore  should  fund  the  management  of  the corporate notes 
        registry.
        
                Thanks for the great effort that you are doing and  count 
        on my personal support.
        
        Anker

    I don't think that Engineering management (read Jack Smith and staff)
    considers Notes important as an engineering communication vehicle.
    It seems to me that the only chance we have to correct this oversight
    is via bottom-up feedback.
    
    One potential vehicle for getting this ball rolling is to use the
    Software Tools Review Board's funding mechanism for seed money.
    This vehicle cannot be used for sustaining the effort, but it could
    raise the consciousness of Engineering management.
    
  --Simon
    

    European Information Services has agreed VAX NOTES to be an official
    tool for computer conferencing within the IS people in Europe. To
    me, this is a first step towards this direction.
    
    Didier

    DIS/CT has agreed to take over support of EASYNOTES.LIS. This is
    a step towards support of Notes as a company-wide tool. Based on
    my tenure as EASYNOTES.LIS maintainer, I have some opinions about
    what is really required (or at least desirable) for full support
    on Notes (not the product) as a useful tool. It's a bit more then
    keeping the list up to date and maybe hosting EASYNET_CONFERENCES.
    
    EIS agreeing to use VAX NOTES is nice. Funding real notes support
    may become visiably needed if more groups take notes on as official
    tools. 
    
    		Alfred

    	I wonder (out loud ~\~) how far off the first VAX Notes cost
    center is ... I mean a cost center that is administrated, managed,
    and all productive work done using Notes and other network tools
    to make all CC employees 100% telecommuters. As VAXen get smaller
    and cheaper, this could save the company significant money (savings
    in office space, productivity, employee satisfaction, employees
    not needing as much money if they can live in obscure, cheap areas,
    etc.). 
    
    	Now, manager's have the authority to let their employees
    work at home, maybe come in for weekly meetings, right? It seems
    that it would be to everyone's advantage to go the next logical
    step, right? 
    
    	Ed

NOTES and its user community get by just fine on donated time, and always
have.  Why bother with the expense and fuss of officially committing an
overhead person to the task when the volunteer system is working just fine?

--PSW

    I agree entirely with .-1.  Once a bueaucracy to "manage" notes
    gets established, the next step will be to justify their existence
    by "controlling" it.  Among the things I would not be surprised
    to see out of a formal organization are
    
    	---> mandatory registration of notes and noters
    
    	---> access restrictions based on organization or position
    
    	---> CC chargebacks on heavily used files
    
    	---> monitoring recreational notefiles for excessive
    	     on-hours use
    
	---> etc, ad nauseum.

    Perhaps I'm paranoid.  I'd rather not find out the hard way.

    The notes community is inherently decentralized, autonomous,
    and slightly anarchic.  I would like to see it remain that way.

    							/PGJ

    It's ironic that the author quoted in .2, Anker, is a prime example
    of someone who donated his time to provide an extremely useful tool.
    Perhaps he was pulling my chain.
    
    Many good things in DEC were donated, and for these we should be
    thankful.  As a manager, I feel something isn't quite right here.
    What benefits the DEC community at large, DEC management should
    be willing to pay for.  In a way, some management is paying for
    all these volunteer efforts, knowingly or otherwise.  I would feel
    much better to know that management supports these volunteer efforts,
    and that the volunteers get recognition for their efforts.
    
    Perhaps one thing volunteers share in common is that their reward
    comes from the satisfaction of doing the work, and whatever
    appreciation they get from their peers, rather than recognition
    from management.
    
    Another thing to keep in mind is that not all volunteers want to
    make a career out of it.  The more people use one's "product," the
    more time one is likely to spend in "supporting" one's user base.
    It may not take too much time to maintain one's hack, but there is
    the real possibility that at least some people assume that one gets
    paid to do the job and to answer questions about the "product."
    
    Fortunately, there are quite a few volunteers around who help out
    with answering questions about Notes.  Volunteer help works very well
    indeed.  On the other hand, if a Notes novice knows nobody who knows
    anything about Notes, it sure would be nice if there were an
    ENET::NOTES_EXPERT to send mail to or call up on the phone.
    
  --Simon
    

One way or another DEC is paying for the volunteer efforts. Even though
most volunteers try (and usually try *hard*) to keep their efforts out
of work time, it is not always possible. There are often phone calls,
mail messages and even personal visits from people who assume that what
you are doing is part of your job. Work time gets taken up.

Also there is the issue of burn out. People have to pace themselves. One
can't go all out with their real job and their midnight hack at the same
time. At least not for very long. One of the things this means is that
volunteer efforts may get pushed aside when real work (or vacation) get
in the way. For example, if DIS does not take over EASYNOTES.LIS before
I go on vacation (I expect that they will have it by then) then the list
would go un-updated for possibly three weeks. What happens if a volunteer
leaves DEC? Or just quits supporting his effort?

One also has to wonder how long informal appreciation from peers can
sustain a volunteer. Recognition (ie $$$) from management can help
extend things. I know that at least one famous DEC hacker/toolmaker has
left DEC because informal appreciation no longer made up for the lack of
financial appreciation.

I support:

a)	Some effort by management to recognize volunteer efforts.

b)	A funded (at least part time) Notes answer/contact person.

		Alfred - volunteer

I've started a new note (108) on the topic of recognition for
midnight hacks.

Martin.

.9      No, I wasn't pulling your chain.  The big difference between what 
        I'm doing and  managing  the  notes directory is that I can treat 
        Sedt as a hobby.   If I don't have time or energy to work on it I 
        just don't.  Managing the corporate notes registry is a chore and 
        should be paid.
        
        Anker

    This is only a draft and has not been fully approved let alone
    put in the book. There are enough people giving input on this
    policy that it is likely to be changed.
    
    		Alfred

    
    let's not restart this discussion.  please see note 111 (around
    .185) for a very lengthy discussion of this policy.

    --Simon, "Absentee moderator"
    

	For those who are curious, I deleted my note #77.13 to save disk
    space.  It was what I mistakenly thought was hot news, but anyone who
    is familiar with the disscussion in note 111 would find it to be more
    of the same same sort of panic-inspired drivel accompanying the famed
    "USE OF COMPANY RESOURCES" memo.

	I have to admit that I wrote it shortly after discovering this
    conference having come running here for answers.  Since my note was
    77.13 was set hidden anyway, I didn't see much point in leaving it
    on the disk occupying those precious bytes.  No applause, just throw
    money.

						-DAV0