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LEAD STORIES: Making Friends with Your DITA-Unfriendly Documents OTHER NEWS: GREAT WEB SITES YOU'VE PROBABLY NEVER SEEN: ASIDE: FAVORITES: EXTRA: LEAD STORIES How the Irish Government Tricked 6,500 Workers into Using XML, Without Their Knowing It
December 12, 2007: DCLNews
Any organization that has experienced change, knows that change can be difficult and met with resistance, doubly so when introducing an XML authoring environment. Who can blame the authors, really, when IT folks and executives start talking about "tag" this and "XSLT" that. The last words a busy technical publications department wants to hear are "new software." But some savvy members of the Irish government and some XML industry experts found a way to introduce workers to XML by talking less about tools and technologies and more about fixing what needed to be fixed in order to make their jobs easier.
Making Friends with Your DITA-Unfriendly DocumentsDecember 12, 2007: DCLnews
OTHER NEWS Will Amazon Finally Re-Kindle eBooks?November 19, 2007 Cnetnews.com
One day on the geek list, the next day they're everywhere. It was true with TV's, fax machines, Video Recorders, cell phones, and more recently Palms, Blackberrys, iPods and GPS's. Something happens to get you to the tipping point, and then suddenly it's "you don't have an X yet????" But you hardly ever know what the "something" is until afterwards. Amazon's new Kindle just might be that something to make eBooks ubiquitous - time will tell. Will Amazon finally accomplish what Sony and countless others have been unable to? The Kindle is easy to use, stores 200 books (with the option to add memory for up to 1000), costs $9.99 or less per download, and doesn't need to be hardwired to your desktop (this might be the key). Amazon already has more than 90,000 titles to choose from at the Kindle Store. Oh, and if you mess up and lose your copy of War and Peace, Amazon stores everything you buy in an online database so you can just download it again. Most significant might be whether the Kindle has the horsepower to go beyond the novel - to support the professional needs - research articles, contracts, instruction manuals, etc, - that would really change the world. Read what some popular sources are saying...
Amazon debuts Kindle e-book reader News.com
Yesterday's Innovations, and What to do with ThemNovember 22, 2007: Wired.com
We don't want to rain on the new technology parade, but while talking about the latest tech-bling, what do we do with last year's technology we're replacing? Recent news has shed a ghostly light on what is being done with our old cast-offs, some reporting that even children as young as five are working in unsafe and toxic recycling grounds mining components and bits of copper for cash. Read what Tony Long, copy chief at Wired News, has to say on the topic. Then check out this list of donation programs from the EPA's ecycling Web site that could help greatly reduce the waste in the first place.
Generation X. . . Y. . . and now V?
November 18, 2007: PCWorld
A New study by Gartner Inc., coins the term Generation V. It's not about age, but virtual savvy. This new generation isn't limited by its birth date, but rather consists of "multiple demographic age groups who make social connections online - through virtual worlds, in video games, as bloggers, in social networks, or through posting and reading user-generated content . . ." And for companies who want to reach (i.e., market to) these Gen V-ers they offer a bit of advice such as marketing to personas rather than a person, hiring Gen V like-minded employees, and the scary prospect of shifting investment from the known to the unknown customer.
Microogle Books versus Open ContentNovember 9, 2007: Yale Daily News
Yale's libraries have agreed to allow Microsoft to digitize 100,000 volumes despite the fact that many universities have chosen to digitize their own collections rather than get caught in the Microsoft-Google crossfire. Some of the US's most prestigious eastern universities (including Brown, M.I.T, and Tufts) are honked off by the way the scan and search giants limit each of their book collections to their own search engines. The colleges formed a consortium and recently joined The Open Content Alliance, "a nonprofit organization aimed at making collections as accessible as possible." Of course, they are backed by Yahoo, so who knows how open the content will really be. Read how some critics suggest that Yale sold out its principles to save a few bucks.
In the November edition of DCLNews, we incorrectly referred to the name of the featured interviewee on XML and S1000D and posted the wrong audio file link. The correct name is Steve Mulvaney of Rolls-Royce. We thought it was compelling enough to run again for those of you who may have missed it. In his live interview Steve uses terms like "intelligent data" and "interactivity" to describe the advantages of using XML at Rolls-Royce, and reveals the vision Rolls-Royce has for using S1000D to document both civil and defense aerospace products.
To listen to Steve's interview click here.
GREAT WEB SITES YOU'VE PROBABLY NEVER SEEN
Not that we needed another reason to go digital, but Marvel Comics has come up with one. By launching Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited, the classic comic company hopes to entice a new generation of comic fans. First, by introducing them to the classics like the first original run of X-Men, issues 1-100 of Amazing Spider-Man, and issues 1-100 of Fantastic Four; and secondly, by using an on-line reader that turns the pages for you. That should appeal to the Millennials (roughly, those born after 1983). And for a limited time, you can view 250 samples for free. That should appeal to everyone.
ASIDE Geek Gifts for ProcrastinatorsDecember 2007: Geek.com; November 2007: CIO.com; November 2007: Engadget.com
While there is no shortage of on-line holiday gift guides for the geeks on your list, we've whittled it down to the few we thought were the best. Geek.com provides you with a wide variety of ideas for everyone from the übergeek to the not-so-geeky ranging from external hard drives to the Leatherman Skeletool. CIO.com's list, on the other hand, is strictly for the little geek hiding in us all, with a short list of the five best tech-bling gifts of the year. For a more exhaustive list try Engadget.com where they break it down to gifts for him, her, and the kids.
FAVORITES Popular articles from recent issuesDecember 12, 2007
Is XML a Prerequisite to a Content Management System (CMS)?; A Point-Counterpoint Discussion
Fully Automated Legacy Conversions to XML, and other Urban Myths: An Interview with Michael Gross, DCL's CTO
9.5 Secrets for Managing DITA XML Migration
S1000D: Six MORE Reasons to Consider It for Your TechDocs
DITA-izing Your Documents: Five Issues to Think About When Converting Your Legacy Publications to DITA
EXTRA Upcoming conferencesDIA EDM Visit the DCL Exhibit February 5-7, 2008, Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Philadelphia, PA
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