What is it:
DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an XML based international standard that was initially developed by IBM for technical documentation, is now publicly available and is being applied to technical documentation in many industries
DITA is particularly well suited to situations where there are multiple variants of a similar product and/or the documentation is produced in multiple languages. This is because DITA enables content reuse through modular reusable topics to a greater extent than previous standards.
DITA requires topic types (i.e., Task, Concept, Reference) to be defined prior to conversion.
DCL Capabilities:
Source data evaluation - is DITA for you?
DITA System Integration
Content Business Rules Development
Conversion of data & documents into DITA compliant XML
Development of DITA bookmap and glossentry wrappers
High volume bulk conversion
DCL Experience:
Completed multiple DITA conversions in the following industries:
Life Sciences
Manufacturing
Oil & Gas
Semiconductor
Software
Telecom
Authored chapters on 'Legacy Data Conversion' in Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing and in the 'XML Handbook' by Charles Goldfarb.
Differentiators:
In-depth experience with DITA
Capability to implement content reuse program to identify reusable data modules for process efficiency improvements.
Languages:
Experience with most foreign languages including Latin based and double-byte characters.
Experience with Unicode.
Process:
Two-phase process consisting of:
1. Project Engineering
a. Analysis of Source Materials
b. Creation of Business Rules (Conversion Specification)
c. Hand-Tagged Sample
d. Pilot Conversion
2. Production Conversion
a. Combination of automated conversion and manual processing
b. Multiple levels of Quality Assurance
c. 24 x 7 Web-based Tracking and Reporting
For More Info:
Data Conversion Laboratory, Inc.
http://www.dclab.com
phone: (800) 321-2816 x267
e-mail: DITA@dclab.com