LEAD STORIES:
Digitized History & Unsolved Mysteries; A Woman's Search for her Grandfather and a New Use for 19th Century Glacier Photos

JoAnn Hackos on Moving Legacy Documentation into DITA: An Interview

EXTRA:
Upcoming conferences

OTHER NEWS:
Digital Pen and Paper that Reads Doctor Handwriting Speeds Drugs to Market

No More Pencils. No More Books. No More . . .

If You Thought Google was Interesting, Wait Until You See Web 2.0

Simplified English - Maybe Not So Simple?

Do You Need a Content Strategist? Do You Even Know What One Is?

ASIDES:
Open the Window

FAVORITES:
Popular articles from recent issues

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

LEAD STORIES

Digitized History & Unsolved Mysteries; A Woman's Search for her Grandfather and a New Use for 19th Century Glacier Photos

There's more to digitizing data than just the business case. While the justifications for many digitization projects center on the hours and dollars saved finding critical information, the case sometimes transcends dollars, particularly with some of the historical collections that are being digitized around the world. Digitization makes these unique collections findable and accessible to people who would never be able to travel the thousands of miles to see the originals. But why would anyone want to look at an old index from the 1939-40 World's Fair, or photographs of glaciers taken in the 1890's?

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JoAnn Hackos on Moving Legacy Documentation into DITA: An Interview

In this exclusive interview, Dr. JoAnn Hackos, content management and information design expert, gives her best advice on what organizations need to know about moving legacy documentation to DITA. Dr. Hackos, who is president of Comtech Services Inc., and the director of the Center for Information-Development Management has written five books on the field of content management and Web communication. Her latest book, Information Development: Managing Your Documentation Projects, Portfolio and People (Wiley 2006), is the new bible on managing the document development life cycle.

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EXTRA

Upcoming conferences

Mark Logic 2007 User Conference
Visit the DCL Exhibit May 15-17, 2007, Hilton San Francisco Financial District.

OTHER NEWS

Digital Pen and Paper that Reads Doctor Handwriting Speeds Drugs to Market

New technology is cutting the time it takes to get new drugs to market and improves patient care in hospitals and nursing homes. Digital pen and paper speeds product launches and gets treatments into the hands of the patients by making pharmaceutical trails more efficient and accurate. The pen captures written data with a camera device and even converts hand writing into character text.

The success of the digital pen and paper technology has already been seen in residential and home health care settings. The technology reduces errors and increases efficiency by allowing caregivers to complete their documentation as they traditionally do i.e., with pen and paper, without having to rekey the information into a computer at a later time.

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No More Pencils. No More Books. No More . . .

Well . . . kids shouldn't get everything they want, but kids world wide should have access to the same educational resources. And laptop programs are bridging the digital divide with wireless high schools in the US and low cost laptops for developing nations. These programs are more about teaching kids how to find information and learn through experience, rather than teaching them specific software skills.

Empire High School (Vail, AZ) built its new facility entirely around wireless technology, while Bolton HS (Alexandria, LA) is getting its feet wet by starting digital programs a few grades at a time. And in Nigeria, kids who have never seen a light bulb are getting turned on to the Internet with $100 laptops provided through nonprofit/government partnerships. The laptops are coming to kids who would otherwise have no textbooks at all.

Related links:

apple.com: Notebooks Replace Textbooks at High-Performing School

townstalk.com: Bolton students getting laptops instead of textbooks

news.com: Plugging Africa's kids in to $100 laptop

If You Thought Google was Interesting, Wait Until You See Web 2.0

At the recent Web 2.0 Expo, Tim O'Reilly, who coined the phrase Web 2.0, was interviewed by WIRED magazine on the future of the Web. When asked what trends will dominate Web 2.0, without hesitation he answered software services; with another caveat. Not only is it important to develop rich internet applications, but to consider the network effects of those applications and the data bases they create-not to mention owning and controlling the data to get the best use of it by customers and would-be customers. Amazon gets it, and so will you.

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Simplified English - Maybe Not So Simple?

Before you choose a content management system, take a look at the quality of your content. Are your writers using the same vocabulary to describe the same processes in every case? Are your translations revealing ambiguous terms, costing you more money to send back through translation?

Simplified English, or controlled language, is an international specification for technical documentation, specifically used in the aerospace and defense industries, but can assist any organization in developing better written communications. The standard is maintained by the ASD Technical English Maintenance Group, which has a Web site full of useful information and updates.

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In the past it's been hard to find resources to help writers understand and learn Simplified English. But in recent months another source of information about Simplified Technical English has become available in the form of a free 112 page booklet, Simplified English, The New Language in International Business. For a free hardcopy, delivered to your real mailbox, register at the Tedopres Web site.

Click here to register

Do You Need a Content Strategist? Do You Even Know What One Is?

Don't worry, this article tells you what you need to know. Content strategy is the art of knowing how to write (or organize) content that makes relevant connections for your users. Content strategy can go beyond Information Architecture, though the two roles are interrelated.

Well-seasoned strategists can develop or revise content that is easier to reuse and more efficient to produce using metadata contexts; create content that is more relevant to your users; and develop a comprehensive collection of content that relays the message you mean to send based on your research and company objectives page after page.

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ASIDES

Open the Window

Language can be confusing, and when it comes to the language of technology it's easy to get your backend mixed up with your ASCII. So who do you call for help? IBM, of course. Read these funny interactions between help line technicians and customers.

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QUOTE OF THE MONTH

This month's quote:

FAVORITES

Popular articles from recent issues

Hawaiian Homestead Technology Centers Cultivate Social Return on Investment Using 21st Century Tech to Preserve Ancient Ways (Part 4)
http://www.dclab.com/21st_century_tech4.asp

If These Walls Could Talk: Unlocking the Interoperability of SCORM, S1000D, and DITA
http://www.dclab.com/scorm_s1000d_dita.asp

New Survey Indicates Reuse Top Priority
http://www.dclab.com/dia_edm.asp

Content reuse - a major factor in assessing ROI for content management (part 2)
http://www.dclab.com/ann_rockley_roi_ii.asp