Documentation 3.0
The trends in documentation of the past 20 years are under heavy influence of the development of internet technology. Like with the web – where we distinguish between Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and 3.0 - we can see three phases in documentation. I will call them Documentation 1.0, Documentation 2.0 and 3.0. Where Documentation 1.0 is - like Web 1.0 - very much centered on individual products and information, brings Documentation 2.0 a process-driven approach with a focus on re-use. The customer-driven approach of Documentation 3.0 is a logical next step. But why should we change the way we create documentation? First of all the world is changing and so are our users! Things that seem obvious to one individual, don't make any sense to others. Take for instance this photo (shown to the left). It shows a young model holding a camera. In her perception, you hold a compact camera this way. Truth is that she is holding a 1970's Olympus Pen EE-3, a camera with a viewfinder instead of a LCD scr...
