DITA Rock Star Round-Up – Part I | DITA Chicks Blog. Rock Star Flickr:Adam Penney The DITAChicks recently attended the CIDM/DITA North America conference. It was a thrill to meet and chat with the big DITA Rock Stars. You know the ones – the names that are synonymous with DITA: Micheal Priestley, Don Day, Robert Anderson and Eliot Kimber. We were feeling a little star struck, being in the presence of such brilliant minds. The conference provided a great opportunity to meet up with other DITA-minded folks that we’ve met in the Blogosphere and the DITA User’s Group as well as introducing us to some new ones. Joe Gollner, Gnostyx Research Inc.: The Joy of Reuse: Content, Structure and Solutions The Content Philosopher is an Accidental Content Strategist. Severin Foreman, Altera Corporation: Being an Information Architect I always feel odd when someone comments on my title of Information Architect (IA).
Eileen Thournir & Hal Hamond, Landmark/ Haliburton: Using DITA Principles for Video A big thanks to CIDM and their staff. Like this: Choosing a DITA CMS · DITA Writer. Many DITA CMS Vendors, Many Different Potential Paths to Take(original How to select DITA CMS technology by Ave Maria Mõistlik, from Wikimedia Commons) One of the projects I have been working on for a while is a list of CMSes that claim in some way to be DITA-capable, done largely because no such list seems to exist elsewhere.
One of the things I have discovered in the process of surveying various CMS marketing materials is that it is a) often opaque, and as a result b) it is hard to nail down equivalent features between products. This makes it much harder for anyone to come up with a list describing what is merely “DITA capable” versus what is “DITA optimized”. All the more reason why anyone seeking to purchase a DITA CMS ought to come to the table with a good idea as to what they are looking for rather than relying solely on the claims of CMS vendors.
Here are my recommendations for the steps in selecting a DITA CMS vendor who best suits your needs. The basic steps are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. News - Tracy Baker Shares 20 years of Tech Comm Experience with Componize. Winning Componize-Sponsored Round Trip to Provence at CIDM Best Practices-San Antonio 2011 June 15, 2012 – Marseille, France – Tracy Baker, Senior Technical Communications Specialist at F5 Networks with twenty years of experience, recently crossed the Atlantic to visit the Componize Software offices in Provence. The trip was a raffle-drawing prize sponsored by Componize during September 2011’s CIDM Best Practices Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Baker’s visit comes just following Componize’s release of a new collaborative user interface that simplifies the use of DITA in enterprise-scale projects.
In addition, Componize is finishing up a revolutionary architecture, set to be released Fall 2012. Tracy Baker in Avignon, FranceBaker toured Marseille, spent an afternoon in nearby Aix-en-Provence, and finished her visit to the South of France in Avignon. “I had the opportunity to come to Avignon when I was in undergrad but it just didn’t come together. TB: It was just a huge change. Dynamic Assembly – an Emerging DITA Application | easyDITA. By Paul Wlodarczyk June 14, 2012 Authoring, DITA, Dynamic Content One new cool application of DITA in which we’re seeing increased interest is dynamic document assembly. The idea is this: someone (an end user, a sales person, a content publisher) needs to create a custom document. They decide what content is to be assembled based in one of two ways: They define some criteria – such as all content in a date range, about this subject, by this author, of this content type, in this language, etc. – and a query returns the topics they need.
They select the content by browsing a simplified repository of components they can assemble, and they check off the parts they need. The applications of dynamic document assembly we’ve seen include: In some cases (like a sales proposal), the sequence of content is important to the user (in which case they are effectively building a custom map). Are you planning or currently delivering dynamic assembly of DITA content? “DITA Today and Tomorrow” – Keynote Presentation from the Ixiasoft DITA CMS Conference · DITA Writer. – Posted on June 25, 2012Posted in: Conferences, News, Webinars Last Thursday I delivered a keynote presentation called “DITA Today and Tomorrow” at the Ixiasoft DITA CMS Conference. It went over well, despite some technical glitches involving a faulting projector cable at the beginning. I was asked by Ixiasoft’s CEO Éric Begeron to provide the presentation on this topic, which gave me a great opportunity to further explore why DITA has become the fastest-adopted XML documentation standard.
There were some 25+ people in attendance at this conference, all representing firms that have either been using Ixiasoft’s DITA CMS for a while, or who are just beginning the implementation process. So more later, and in the meantime enjoy another Prezi-based presentation! DITA for Beginners (Article from tcworld, March 2011) DITA | Rédaction technique – Rédacteur technique. Dans son article « Content Management – what are the real cost savings », JoAnn Hackos pose le problème : vous avez obtenu l’accord du management pour une migration vers DITA.
Votre Business case a démontré les économies potentielles. Les coûts de la migration Le challenge, maintenant, est de bien suivre la migration et les coûts : pas question de laisser dériver les marges, sans pouvoir suivre l’évolution des bénéfices. Quatre niveaux d’économies vous fourniront un cadre. Il s’agit de 4 pistes à suivre pour évaluer vos réductions de coûts. Au niveau de la publication, on englobe l’édition sous différents formats : pdf, aide-en-ligne, sur mobile, page web, etc. et la publication en plusieurs langues. En effet, les coûts de PAO peuvent fortement influer sur le coût final : pensez, par exemple, au formatage en plusieurs langues. L’argent gaspillé en formatage ! Répétez, répétez… il en reste quelque chose ! Vous pouvez maintenant développer votre stratégie : …et la révision / relecture. Www.congility.com/images/downloads/eventslides/2011conference/T1/Keith_Schengili_Roberts_Congility2011.pdf.
Companies Using DITA · DITA Writer. Companies Using DITA Mk IV Here is my informal list of firms that are using DITA XML in some form in their documentation efforts. The table is dynamic, so you can search for a particular company by name, industry segment, look up the descriptive Wikipedia link for that organization if it exists, or track down the location of DITA-using firms close to where you live. Wanting to “show my work” rather than just making wild claims, I also provide a link to whatever reference I was able to find that mentioned that that the firm uses DITA.
This list will be updated over time. If you are with a firm that produces docs using DITA, or see a correction that needs to be made, please let me know so that I can add your firm to the listing. Here’s the list (with 401 firms currently listed): Showing 1 to 407 of 407 entries Caveats: please keep in mind that this is an informal list, based on my own research. About the Author "DITAWriter" is Keith Schengili-Roberts.
Koala: Information science for aerospace & aviation: Doubts about Dita. By Gordon Dennis May 2011 Perhaps revisonary and indeed reactionary thoughts are inevitable whenever change is mooted . Concerning DITA, there's certainly a lot of ‘motor-boating’ going on (this may be identified simply by its characteristic sound of "but but but ....... "). It’s time to reflect for a moment that saying "No" is sometimes the simplest answer – some people actually believe that it’s always the best answer. After all, it absolves you of responsibility and puts off the time when you have to do something - hopefully until such time as someone else must bear responsibility.
On the other hand, saying “No” is also often not the best , most effective, or most efficient way of running things. Not that DITA is without issues. Also, the DITA Open Toolkit is an untamed beast – I’ll come to that in a minute. Having said all that, though, DITA is actually much better than its critics give it credit for: let's take a look at the competitive field: Can DocBook hack it? So what about S1000D? Koala: Information science for aerospace & aviation, blogs, news and events. 'Human Factors' Training Goes Mobile by Gordon Dennis; 02 August 2012 An advanced new method of deploying training material to the aviation industry is being launched by Air Service Training Limited (AST).
Masterminded by Koala, it will enable students to download training resources online for use on tablet devices as well as other computers. Once it's downloaded, students will be able to access the material any time they want, even if they are not connected to the internet. This is one of the first eLearning applications in aviation based on DITA. Single Source Document Publishing (and Content Re-use) with DITA by Gordon Dennis; 17 May 2012 In my last couple of Blogs, I've championed the cause of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture for building technical publications. The core concept of DITA is topic based authoring - the minimalist based concept where large publications are built up from re-usable topics rather than built as a monolithic block. How did we do all That? Three Witches. I’ve been asked to put together my short list of potential documentation tools and estimated costs by Thursday (12/22), and the goal is to have the new system in place by March.
Video in Online Help: DITA, HTML5, and Multimedia | DITA Best Practices: A Roadmap for Writing, Editing, and Architecting in DITA. DITA XML.org | Online community for the Darwin Information Typing Architecture OASIS Standard. DITA Tips and Tricks for Technical Writers | Tech Writer Today Magazine by TechWhirl. Tech Writer Today’s Technical Writing Tips and Tricks column is brought to you by Adobe Systems, Inc. Download a 30-day free trial of Adobe FrameMaker here. Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is a sweeping revolution in technical writing and training. DITA introduces a different way of writing; a way that satisfies the ways users look for information and is therefore more usable. Additionally, authors work more efficiently by being able to easily single source and re-use content. The overall user experience is more consistent because format is completely separated from content (format is handled on publish only, not by the authors).
And it’s no simple task. Understand the basics first. Stay on top of the DITA news. While a transition to DITA can seem overwhelming, it’s well worth the effort. A special thank you to Adobe Systems, Inc. for sponsoring our Tips & Tricks column. Localizing DITA – sliced bread is probably still better - NLDITA Winter 2011. This presentation examines some of the pitfalls of localizing DITA, not by taking examples from DITA but rather by taking examples from the Product Information Management (PIM) system from the European Medicines Agency – a standard-to-be that was discontinued in 2010. The PIM format was meant to be an XML format based on the concept of chunks that was to replace Microsoft Word DOCs as the product approval submission format for pharmaceutical companies.
There were two big problems: the chunks were too small (sometimes incomprehensible without context) and there was too much emphasis put on details. For example, PIM wanted to accommodate all the change tracking in a single XML format. Given that PIM was meant to be the format used by the European regulatory authorities, there was a lot of emphasis put on the translation aspects. Where Does DITA XML Fit When it Comes to Tech Writing Tool Use? · DITA Writer. Update January 27, 2012: Have changed the table info so that it is driven from a database — now you can sort and search the content of the tables, as well as seeing the full listing of tools in the survey.
The folks at self-selection bias are running their annual survey of the type of tools that technical writers use on a daily basis and how much they value them. I’d recommend that any tech writer out there take part in DITA Open Toolkit, since it is an open survey whose results are made publicly available. While this type of survey is prone to self-selection bias, given that the only people who would be interested in this sort of thing are other technical writers (and hoping that no-one is “stuffing the ballot-box”).
I decided to take a look at last year’s results to see how much impact DITA and its tools have made an impact on technical writing. From the 2011 WritersUA survey, here are the Top 20 tools, ranked by the most-used to the least: Showing 1 to 20 of 42 entries. DITAinfo Site Uses Open Source CMS to Display DITA · DITA Writer.