Still, using documentation is always the last resort-users are more likely to ask each other for help rather than consult a text (online or print). I have a hard time recalling an instance in which a student consulted a printed document unless I forced them to. Ironically, or perhaps tellingly, these same students are either professional writing students or computer science students, many of whom will be employed writing such documentation.
The difficulty of most online help is that it explicitly isolates users from each other. I'm not calling for a return to the traditional master/apprentice model, because its structure skews power away from learners and toward masters. But a collaborative model of online help might allow users to work with each other, contributing advice or asking questions based on their own varying levels and areas of expertise. The strength of the little machines model makes this idea seem a little odd-who, after all, would want to spend their time answering questions about software, design, complex troubleshooting configuration, or writing processes?
But if we look at the willingness with which people do engage in such discussions in existing online forums-USENET lists, MOO/MUD spaces, listserves-we can begin to see the possibility of poking holes in the barriers that construct online help as an isolated, individual space.
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