Editor's Note - February 2001

We're changing the format of the Editor's Note a bit.

We need your help.

There's a lot of terrific content available on TechNet, but we understand that it's sometimes just a bit hard to find exactly what you're looking for. (Okay, occasionally it's more than "just a bit hard.") We have some ideas on how to organize the content better, and here's where you come in.

The Times They Are A Changin'

We want to organize the site around how IT folks work, around the tasks you're faced with every day. (You'll still be able to find the same content arranged by product or via full-text search.) These tasks represent both the generic and the specific. The former is the traditional evaluate-plan-deploy-maintain cycle (some would say deploy comes before plan in their organizations – in which case you really need TechNet!). The latter might include such detailed breakdowns as "I need to deploy Active Directory; my organization has 1000-3000 PCs, and we have 20+ branches across a WAN."

"For Option 1, press 2 now!"

One option is to engage in a detailed study of how best to categorize these tasks. We could probably spend a year doing it, paper our offices with lots of cool charts, still not get it really right – and deliver this a year after you need it! (You don't know organizations that have done this, do you?)

Another option is to survey a small set of customers directly, couple that with thinking stemming from our own IT and consulting backgrounds, and try it out in at least a few areas. We'll still not get it really right – but we'll know 11 months sooner, and we'll get those course corrections underway quickly.

I know you'll tell us where we don't get it right.

TechNet Goes to the Taxidermist

Seriously, that's where we'll be asking for help. Once we start this effort, likely next month, we'll put up links in the rearranged areas for you to offer comments and suggestions specific about TechNet's organization. (They call it taxonomy, although our taxonomer is still trying to explain to her parents why Microsoft needs a taxidermist.) While we always welcome comments about the content per se, we'll really be looking for you to help us find content that we've misclassified, or to help us define more appropriate categories. (If there are taxidermy jokes involved, I don't think I want to know them.)

When we kick this off, I'll write another Editor's Note with more details. Meanwhile, let me know how we can continue to make TechNet even better. We succeed when we help you succeed.

Steven B. Levy
Product Unit Manager
Microsoft TechNet