Knowledgebase Articles

BYU Independent Study is creating a Knowledgebase--which is basically a fancy way to say that we are pooling all of the knowledge of every worker at Independent Study and putting it all in one place. It's kind of like Wikipedia for BYU Independent Study. In order to make this knowledgebase work, we have a special team (of which I am a part) to write tons and tons of articles, addressing every single issue that any student anywhere may need help with. Ever. It's kind of mind-blowing to think of how many articles we will be writing in the next two months.

We've only been writing articles since last Friday, and already I want to shoot myself. Writing articles is not as fun as you would think it is. It is one of the most boring tasks that you could have at Independent Study, I'm just sure of it. I would rather be talking to an angry mother who's trying to get her son graduated by Friday, but the son has to submit his portfolio assignment, request the final two-way express, and by the way the only proctor in their area is not available to administer the test. That should tell you just how much I hate writing these articles.

I'm going to give you a little example of what goes through my mind as I sit down to write a Knowledgebase article.

"Ok, I'm at work, I'm kind of awake, and my computer has finally loaded all of my programs, so what should I do? How many calls are there? Oh, none. Well, I guess I'll get started on the articles...but maybe I've got some important email from my professors. I'll go check Yahoo first."

I go and check Yahoo, and delete the four Spam emails that have found their way into my inbox.

"Well, no pressing matters from school. Maybe there's something good in my Gmail account."

There's nothing in my Gmail account.

"I can't go to Facebook to 'check on my English class group', so I guess I can start working on the articles." (P.S. My English Lit class really does have a Facebook page that why have to contribute 500 words to per week)

I open the program where our Knowledgebase will live, I open the Google Doc that tells me what articles need to be written, and I open the Excel spreadsheet that has all the information for the article (there's a lot of windows open on my computer by this point).

Then I just sit for a while.

Deep breath. "I am going to write an article now. Come on, Ashley, claim one of the articles in the Google Doc." I claim an article. "Good girl, now open a new article page and get it over with."

Eventually, I write three articles. Then I go to get a drink of water. When I come back to my chair, I just look at my screen. If I wait long enough, my phone starts to ring.

"A call! Woohoo!" I close all the article-related windows and take the phone call. It only lasts three minutes.

"Ah, dang it. Now I have to write more articles. How long to I have to keep writing these articles?" I look at my clock and it's only 8:30. I work until 12.

"Well, that's no bueno. Let's get to it, I guess." I write one more article.

"I can't do this any more. Please don't make me write any more articles." I look at how many articles I've claimed. I've claimed four, and my teammate has written six.

"Ok, I'm going to write two more articles, and then I'll be good. That's as much as my teammate has written, so that'll be good, right?"

I write one article.

"I can't take it any more! Do I really want to be on Special Projects? I can tell my boss I don't want to be on the team any more. But this is great for a resume. But how many articles do I have to write? They aren't paying well enough to do this. But they are paying me."

I write one more article, and the cycle continues.

Ok, so that's a little exaggerated. But not by much.