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LEAD STORIES: Using 21st Century Tech to Preserve Ancient Ways (Part 3): High Tech in Klawock, Alaska DITA Writing Survey: Lack of Standards among Authors is Serious Issue EXTRA: OTHER NEWS: ASIDES: FAVORITES: LEAD STORIES
Component Content Management: Overlooked By Analysts; Required By Technical Publications DepartmentsFebruary 27, 2007: DCLnews
Selecting the right content management system (CMS) can be critical. Too often, CMS shoppers skip critical steps in a mad rush to get their projects started. They jump into the purchasing cycle without having analyzed organizational needs nor having performed a content audit. Often, they mistakenly rely on marketing materials and analyst reports to help them decide which system to purchase. In this quick read article, Ann Rockley and Steve Manning of The Rockley Group explore why it's important to manage components (i.e., single topics, concepts or assets) of your documentation, rather than just managing whole documents, in order to create greater consistency and accuracy, and reduce creation, delivery, and translation costs.
They use a recent analyst report as an example and define a much-needed category of content management that is more-often-than-not overlooked by analysts.
Using 21st Century Tech to Preserve Ancient Ways (Part 3): High Tech in Klawock, AlaskaFebruary 27, 2007: DCLnewsPrevious issues introduced readers to the partnership between DCL and the Native American Document Conversion Program (NADCP), which created over 300 jobs among remote Native American populations that face high unemployment. We told you about the challenges faced by some of our partner tribal organizations building high-tech facilities, building their work forces in these remote locations, and the positive effect the program has had on the tribal members.
This issue focuses on some of the faces of success--the workers
themselves who have found a sense of pride in their work and
the work of other tribal members, workers who have gained
new skills and increased their income through their
willingness to learn and the opportunity to succeed. The
previous issue introduced Michael Brown from Tlingit
and Haida Technology Industries (THTI), who runs the
facility in Klawock, Alaska. This issue gives you more
of Michael's story and also introduces a young woman
named Trish Woods-Ellison, another exceptional worker from
THTI.
DITA Writing Survey: Lack of Standards among Authors is Serious IssueFebruary 27, 2007What are your most serious documentation issues? A recent survey by DCL finds "insufficient standardization of content among multiple authors" the most serious issue among technical writers (64.4%). Other serious issues included: high translation costs (57.8%), inability for writers to reuse content among multiple deliverables (53.3%), and the need for delivering content in multiple output formats (51.1%). When evaluating solutions to content challenges, technical writers in the survey rated "ease of use for writers" as a "very important" requirement (80%). "Ease of use for 'consumers'" ranked a close second with 78% of respondents ranking this factor as "very important". EXTRA Upcoming conferences
18th Annual Workshop on Medical Communications: Medical Information, Medical Liaisons, Contact Centers
OTHER NEWS Top Ten Predictions for XML in 2007February 13, 2007: IBM developerWorks
"There'll be new billion-dollar businesses on the Web in 2007, and most of them will use XML," says Elliotte Rusty Harold at IBM developerWorks as he looks into his
XML crystal ball and makes his predictions for 2007. "The question that must be answered is no longer 'Why XML?' but 'Why not XML?'.
On his radar screen are improvements to search, new publishing protocols, web forms, Open Document Format, browser wars, and the Semantic Web.
How Best-in-Class Companies Meet Product Launch Dates 100% of the Time - Aberdeen StudyJanuary 2007: Aberdeen Group
The Aberdeen Group recently released a benchmark study, "Next-Generation Product Documentation: Getting Past the 'Throw It over the Wall' Approach", aimed at identifying the strategic documentation management approaches used by "best in class" organizations. According to the findings, 83% of best-in-class companies -- those that meet product launch dates 100% of the time -- use structured XML authoring to produce documentation content, are 51% more likely to use translation memory tools (to interactively find and suggest already translated text and close matches to technical writers), and are twice as likely to use 3D graphics and Web-based 3D visualization tools (to reduce the amount of text requiring translation).
OASIS Opens DITA/S1000D Discussion List
January 2007: Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
OASIS has opened a new discussion list intended to facilitate an effort to graft S1000D type modules onto the DITA type hierarchy. The result would support content that's completely interoperable and provides a relatively good transform target (because of similar semantics and structure). This approach will have significant long-term benefits toward interoperability of content and authoring tools between the two standards. OASIS members and non-members alike may subscribe to the list and join the conversation. To subscribe, send a message to: dita-s1000d-discuss-subscribe@lists.oasis-open.org.
Wake Up to the 'Daylight-Saving' BugFebruary 16, 2007: CNET news.com
Starting Daylight Savings Time (DST) early used to be so simple - newspapers would just print the reminder on a different day. These days, an act of Congress to move DST, creates a world-wide scramble for software patches to adjust computers, phones, alarm systems, airline schedules
and probably a few more things no one's thought of.
Yet One More Attack on the Notorious "Doctor's Handwriting"February 21, 2007: eweek
Among all the sparkling automation, doctors still write orders by hand, and technicians still manually transcribe instrument readings into patient books. An Austin, TX tablet PC maker teamed with Intel to create the C5 MCA (mobile clinical assistant) to get past all that. Also new industry standards are coming along to help the process.
Automating the transcription process, and increased access to information, promises to reduce errors and lower costs - both critical elements to the health care industry. While this technology is already successfully used in such diverse areas as engineering, airplane maintenance, and overnight delivery services, its been more difficult to implement in the health care industry due to such issues as government regulation, the widely varying sources of information, and concerns about litigation.
Further helping the process will be additional standards in the industry. A health IT standards group released a new, more-comprehensive standard for electronic health records on Feb. 21. The standard, released by Health Level Seven, is the first that specifies functional requirements for electronic health-records systems to win approval from the American National Standards Institute, a key standard-setting body.
ASIDES Shakespeare: "To convert, or not to convert: That is the question"Discover what Shakespeare would have to say about converting PDFs. Understanding the Semantic Web
A Kansas State University professor has created an excellent YouTube video designed to demonstrate how the web is changing the way we create, manage, and consume content. This is definitely one of the best explanations of the new publish/subscribe model at the heart of the Semantic Web and its relation to HTML, XML, and structured content. Watch the video...
QUOTE OF THE MONTH "In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." - Theodore Roosevelt,
FAVORITES Popular articles from recent issuesFebruary 27, 2006
Using 21st Century Tech to Preserve Ancient Ways (Part 2)
DITA or S1000D - Which One Works For Me?; And is Either One Ready For Prime Time
Content Management vs. the Brain Drain Headache
When to Wiki, When to Blog - is either ready for your business?
Adobe PDF Conversion: How, For Whom, And When?
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Content Management Strategies/DITA North America 2010 Conference,
2010 ATA e-Business Forum,