Blogoforum - RE: Who the hell is phillhow

Who the hell is phillhow

My main interest is the delivery of technical support on the Internet. I will write mainly about that. The nature of "help" sites is changing from a very static Q and A format with users on one side and experts on the other; to a more dynamic distribution of information in well organized pieces that serve to educate rather than rather than just answer questions.

Right now there are 5 main types of help sites:

The contest or game style sites like Experts-exchange... Q and A taken to the extreme. These are on the decline in importance.

Conventional forums like Codingforums. Not a popular as they once were, and many are badly run or neglected. Some will survive, but only as a reminder of how things were.

Social news and discussion sites like Digg. These are very inconsistent in quality, and most like Digg fail to remain focused on the tech areas. They are sort of backward Q and A. Someone posts what they think might be an answer and the questions sort of find it through community voting. Right now these sites are the darlings of the geeks among us, but whether that is short term or long term is yet to be determined.

Collections. Collections of related articles, collections of downloads, collections of snippets, directories of sites or blogs. Sometimes the answer to a problem, but without much support. There have always been collection, there will always be collections. They may evolve to support different types of collections like del.icio.us; evlove further or turning into something a little more organized and usable.

Article and tutorial sites like Experts Round Table. The devlopment of permanent content generated from discussion, research and peer review looks like a good idea. It probably will not appeal to the Venture Capitalist, because it is the only current format where a small group of experts can compete with much bigger sites without needing advertising or big bucks; by generating a little buzz and making quality content available for free. Which reminds me to post http://www.expertsrt.com to give them a little buzz from here.

I am going to be up front and tell you that I think Experts Round Table and other sites trying a similar approach sre the future of tech help on the Internet. I'm not going to post links to the big sites with wal to wall ads and paid subscriptions. The greed owners and their VC friends already make too much money.

Over time I will be reviewing some of the help sites on the Internet with bias toward free sites, ad free sites, and sites that generate mostly original content. I will also comment on trends point out the good the bad and the ugly; and do everything I can to promote good article sites especially Experts Round table.

BTW, if you think you would like to be a tech writer; instead of hiding your work on a blog, contact a tech article site. Then you will get support and help developing your article. I know my friend COBOLdinosaur at Experts round table would be glad to hear from you.

See y'al later.

** If you need as answer ask anyone who calls thenselves an expert; I you want to learn find a teach, Mentor or guru. Experts only know the answer Mentors know why it is the answer. **

by philhow

January 30, 2007 2:32 PM
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