I am hearing strong rumors that IBM is about to commit the type of corporate facepalm that is the stuff for future textbooks. Apparently Redbooks are no longer going to be a thing and the organization disbanded. If there’s one thing that has differentiated IBM in the mainframe space has been the quality of its documentation and, in particular, the type of HOW-TO information contained within Redbooks and Redpieces. These documents turn a “that’d be nice to do” into a proof-of-concept and finally into production. In doing so, they must be responsible for millions or billions of dollar in revenue to IBM.
Many of the topics of Redbooks cover are complex and even intimidating. They provide a step-by-step approach to learning and implementing using a group of people actually doing what they’re writing about. This is invaluable. I hope these rumors are untrue but if not I think we should all be shouting from the roof until someone with some sense realizes how shortsighted this decision is. Neale ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
