Gotta Run Now!

C'était bref, mais court.

Sad to say, I have decided to depart from Flock and from open source endeavors in general. I'm going to ride off into the sunset. Not on a horse — No, I want one of those light green vespas.

During this period of relative quiet between milestones, it has become clear to me that Flock doesn't need a principal writer. I've done a lot of writing at Flock, and helped Eli conduct usability studies; I've even written the staff biographies. But I'm not doing much design, and design is what I love to do, and what I do best.

Although nearly all software companies insist on referring to what I do as "technical writing," I'm really an instructional designer. I analyze the users, figure out what they need to learn about a piece of software, discover how they like to learn, break down their objectives into sets of simple tasks, and, finally, make it easy for them to find the smallest bit of knowledge that will let them continue on their way, doing whatever it was they were doing before they were rudely interrupted by a lack of information.

Much as I like working at Flock, where I get to be among smart, interesting people all day, and where I've learned more in the past six months than I did in the previous four years, I'm not doing enough design to keep me challenged and engaged. And I have concluded that open source projects, in general, are not structured to take advantage of my particular skills.

I know, I know, open source equals open community and everyone gets to contribute. But Flock is my third open source project, and I find myself back in the role I didn't like at Mozilla, and that I was just starting to dislike at Eazel when it folded. I have become a "wordsmith." Not that there's anything wrong with that! Actually, I like the sound of the term "wordsmith," and I am flattered when people refer to me that way. (I'm not so sure I'm worthy of the term — Geoffrey is more of a wordsmith than I am, in the sense that he forges new words — good ones, too!)

Here's my role as a wordsmith: during the intense three or four weeks before a major milestone, people bring me word-deprived objects: dialog boxes, menu items, error messages, etc. They ask me to come up with coherent text. I can do that, no problem. But I'd rather be in on product design from the beginning, at the point where features are designed and named.

It seems to me that a wordsmith provides a service: you bring me a dialog box that needs to be re-worded, or a wiki that needs to be re-organized, or a release notes document that has committed apostrophe abuse, and I fix it up.

A designer, on the other hand, works with a team to create something new.

While I don't mind providing a wordsmithing service, what I really like to do is design.

You may remember one of Apple Computer's early television ads for the Macintosh. The ad showed a big, daunting stack of books — representing all the manuals a customer would get with an IBM PC. Suddenly, an elegant, slim, white volume dropped from the sky and landed softly on the table — the Macintosh manual.

Apple understood, early on, that the manual was part of the product. This understanding was reflected in the position of the Apple publications group within the larger company. As an instructional designer at Apple, a writer is involved early in a product's cycle. The writer is there for planning and execution, and of course, for the party at the end.

I'm not saying that Apple is a mecca for writers. But at Apple, the book that goes in the box, and the UI text and help system that go in the machine, have to look good. Apple's words are on the front line of communication with customers, and Apple knows that. Apple's manuals and help systems win awards as a result.

And I'm not saying that good design can't come from open source projects. I think that remains to be seen. Flock has a shot at it. Flock is currently looking for a good User Experience person to hire. (If you know of any, send them to flock.com.) If open source projects in general, and Flock in particular, can figure out the magical re-structuring that allows non-engineers to be part of the core team, then they may become the mecca for designers.

I'll be watching and cheering from the wings.

Good luck, Flockers! And thanks.

P.S. I'm not giving up blogging. I will continue to write in this space. Maybe Geoffrey can come up with a new name for "Vera's Flock Blog."