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Technology Stocks : Fatbrain.com Inc. (FATB)
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To: get shorty who wrote (257)9/2/1999 1:13:00 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor  Read Replies (1) of 332
 
It's been my experience that most tech companies go out of their way to make their documents available for free.

Thats true but that isn't the issue... its the distribution. It is in Oracle's best interest for example to get these structural docs out there to every university in the country. There are tons of white papers on every nichey thing in the world and these things really don't belong on the corporate website.

Beyond that, there is the issue of product documentation which consists of about a million manuals (which are necessary but generate no revenue) that need to be produced, stocked, managed through the inventory system etc., updated constantly, a big hassle and again no economic benefit for the producer. Lately companies have been moving to CD-Rom distribution but even that is a hassle because every little change needs to be reflected in a new CD - this fatb system is much better, technology vendors do not want to be in the documentation biz! They just want to get their point out and thats it.

BTW the general book market is completely different I think... comments please... but it is the timeliness and constant changing of tech docs that make this model worthwhile, plus tech docs are better in electronic format anyway. Nobody wants bestsellers in electronic format.
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