Word

I didn't like Excel.

I didn't like Word.

So I decided, you know, Adobe Illustrator, it is.

But over the 20 years, we celebrated 20-year anniversary about two years ago now.

And when we think about, OK, well, what does that mean? That's ensuring that not just we have ramps available, but that our websites are accessible, meaning that our images have alt text so that folks that are using screen readers know what the image is, that the website itself is produced in a way that a person that is using a keyboard to maneuver through the screen through the website can follow along accordingly.

And as well as PDF forms or Word documents that have any information for the public that it's screen reader friendly.

That's to say that it's not just about a facility or ramp or sidewalk being accessible, but access to information is equally important.

And so having a digital platform that is accessible to the community ensures and tells our constituents that we are doing what we need to do to ensure that they have the information that everybody else has as well.

So that was how it came about.

So it's funny to think of now because I can't really access the person I was when I began writing it, where I opened a Word document, a blank Word document, began to just write without really knowing what I was doing.

But I did have this very keen instinctual sense that writing it as fiction was the right thing to do.

And

[clears throat]

So I have in front of me a seven-page Word document, which is Rob's fact of the week, okay? Which I'm gonna try and-

For fuck's... [laughs]

I'm gonna try and translate this fact of the week, and I think Rob's, Rob's plan is that, Rob's wish is that by the end of this, you are gonna say, "I'm sorry, Rob." Um-

And we've seen it over the years, the challenge between mapping the technology to the business process without doing it for the sake of technology.

Now, if you're in a business, how do you identify it? It's actually quite very practical to identify you You know, if you start maintaining a spreadsheet out-of-site system or you start typing letters in Word and you have to carry data over from a system into those documents, there you're already seeing signs where we are sitting with information and systems in different places.

And I mean, when I normally consult with a business and I look at that, I say, yes, you've got the systems, um you know but where are you using them how do they work together um you know as they transformate or information that transfers and i think one of the things that i've backed up with a lot of businesses might be you know skipping and not thinking about is that even your inbox is a silo of information um you know the whatsapp message that you are what's happening your client and which is not on a business watch account but on your own it's a private um you know silo of information so yeah that's literally how you know i think it happens in businesses and when you add and add and add a system just because you think it's going to make something better you start losing the value um of what your business you know is about and what it needs to do um and yeah i think that's an important point for us to make a decision and on you know how do you how do you start and especially now before we go into ai before you're using ai maybe a good time to have a look at what your business process is about today

Yes, I can't agree more with that.

This is it, you know?

Dude, now that it's, uh, you know, I can't touch the book anymore, right? I went-- I just finished the, the final, final, uh, what they call copy editing, and that's, that's at the point at which your publisher sends you a PDF, not a Word document.

Once you get out a Word document and it goes into PDF, you're easing toward the point at which you can't touch it anymore, and I just passed that point.

I got, like, a three-page version of the PDF, and they're like, "Oh, we, we have a couple questions about this or that," right? Fact-checking shit and references and whatnot.

[laughs]