Finding Help

Most people turn to the application's Help file. When they can't find the answer there, they turn to their co-workers for help. But what do you do when your co-workers don't have the answer?

The Web provides access to another kind of help: electronic discussion lists. These mailing lists are communities of knowledge available any time and anywhere as long as you have Internet access and a subscription. Discussion lists can be valuable sources of tips and techniques you can use on the job. If no one on the list can answer your question, you can search through the list archives for an answer. If you can't find the information that way, you can send a message to someone on the list that might be able to help.

Here's a real-life example:

John, a training specialist, was faced with a dilemma. His boss asked him to develop a short tutorial for the clerical staff in his office so they could do some simple authoring tasks. He wanted to show each step in the task along with the corresponding screen, but he didn't have an efficient way of capturing the screens he needed. Then John remembered seeing a posting on a discussion list about a software application that was easy to use and could be downloaded from the Web.

If only he could remember where he had put that information! After tearing his home and office computer files inside out, he realized that it was gone. Fortunately, he remembered who had posted the information.

Early one morning, I received an e-mail message from John asking about the software application I had written about on the discussion list. I immediately found the message in a file folder on my computer and forwarded it to him. A short time later I received his response: "Thank you! My afternoon task will be easier now."

Finding and sending the information only took a few minutes. Not only did John have the information he needed; he also discovered a tool that would help him accomplish a task that would have taken hours to do.

Discussion lists work through give and take. Subscribers who actively exchange information and knowledge benefit the most from these lists. Some discussion lists have an archive of previous messages on the Web to capture that knowledge for future use.

Here are two discussion lists on training and development topics that I subscribe to:

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