Cladonia Exchanger XML Editor: Not For DITA

February 28, 2006 Blog No Comments

In this review of Cladonia Exchanger XML Editor, Writer’s UA, Autralian technical writing expert Tony Self discovers that not all XML editors are equal. “Having spent some time working with Exchanger XML Editor,” Self writes, “I can attest to the claim that this is a good, solid, well-featured and extensible XML editor. However, the software is not suitable for authoring documents.” “A good authoring environment allows the user to focus on the text rather than the code. With Exchanger,” Self writes, “you just can’t escape from the code. I started Read the full article…

STC Amazon.com Listing Errors

February 27, 2006 Blog No Comments

Single sourcing—writing something once and using it often—is a hot topic in technical communication circles. The folks at the Society for Technical Communication (STC) might promote the idea to its membership but they obviously are not single sourcing articles from its Technical Communication (TC) journal to Amazon.com (where they sell individual copies of articles from TC in electronic format). Notice the typo in the title (below). Is this a case of garbage-in/garbage-out? Or is it human error (a mistake produced by rekeying the information into the Amazon.com system)?

AIIM Turns Permission-Based Marketing On Its Ear

February 26, 2006 Blog No Comments

In these days of opt-in email subscriptions, and permission-based marketing, it’s surprising to see a trade organization that serves the enterprise content management industry bucking the trend. But that’s exactly what the folks at AIIM appear to be doing, perhaps unintentionally. Recently I received an email from DOC.1Pro, a monthly email newsletter provided by AIIM. Because my inbox is already chocked full of information I don’t read, I thought I’d unsubscribe from DOC.1Pro. I scrolled to the bottom of the email expecting to find the now commonplace “unsubscribe” link, click Read the full article…

DITA Success Story: ICOS Vision Systems and SiberSafe – An Interview with Patrick Willekens

February 21, 2006 Blog No Comments

In this exclusive interview with TheContentWrangler.com, Patrick Willekens shares lessons learned, success factors, and recommendations for others who are thinking of making a move to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). TCW: Tell us a little bit about yourself, Patrick. PW: I graduated in 1988 in Leuven (Belgium) as a civil engineer with masters in electronics and completed an MBA a couple of years later. I worked most of my life as a product manager. During the early 90s, I worked eight years for Mentor Graphics (chip design software sector). Read the full article…

IKEA Improved Search? Not So Fast!

February 20, 2006 Blog No Comments

A recent article in Line56 gave kudos to retailer IKEA for the company’s actions to improve its website search function. Previously, Line56 wrote: “Some weeks ago, Line56 called attention to a serious flaw in retailer IKEA’s online search process. At that time, searches were pegged to internal product names rather than situated within natural-language taxonomies. Thus, a search for “sofa” would pull up IKEA products in the “Soda” kitchenware family rather than actual sofas. The company has addressed this issue. Today, a search for “sofa” pulled up actual sofas and Read the full article…

American Internet Usage Statistics

February 16, 2006 Blog No Comments

Who Uses The Internet Percentage of U.S. women who use the Internet: 69% Percentage of U.S. men who use the Internet: 75% Age of Internet Users Percentage of those ages: 18-29 that use the Internet: 84% 30-49 that use the Internet: 83% 50-64 that use the Internet: 71% 65+ that use the Internet: 30% Race/Ethnicity of Internet Users Percentage of white/non-Hispanics that use the Internet: 73% Percentage of black/non-Hispanics that use the Internet: 60% Percentage of English speaking Hispanics that use the Internet: 79% Where they live Percentage of those Read the full article…

IBM Task Modeler For DITA Maps

February 15, 2006 Blog No Comments

IBM alphaWorks has announced availability of IBM Task Modeler, an Eclipse-based software tool for modeling human activity as a hierarchy of tasks and related elements. According to the Task Modeler website, “task modeling is integral to design practices such as information architecture, user experience design, and instructional design. Much of human activity is goal-oriented. Consequently, users approach any interactive system with well-formed expectations about the scope, names, and structure of the tasks that it should support. Designers use task modeling to identify these tasks in order to design information architecture Read the full article…

DITA 2006 Conference Boasts Big Speakers, Sponsors

February 15, 2006 Blog No Comments

Don’t miss the upcoming DITA 2006 conference—a global gathering for those who want to learn about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). The three-day conference is being presented by Bright Path Solutions and is co-sponsored by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). The roster of presenters for this first-time event reads like a who’s who of technical communication. The headliners include IBM DITA experts Dave Schell, Don Day, Michael Priestley, and Susan Carpenter. The all-star line-up also includes DocBook Technical Committee Chair and XML evangelist, Norman Read the full article…

Understanding the Rapid Adoption of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture

February 13, 2006 Blog No Comments

The Gilbane Report has released a new content management white paper entitled Success in Standards-Based Content Creation and Delivery at Global Companies: Understanding the Rapid Adoption of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). Authored by Bill Trippe, this paper looks in detail at two major companies

Real World Content Challenge: Hargreaves Hams Labeling Prank

February 8, 2006 Blog No Comments

A 2005 survey of technical writers conducted by TheContentWrangler.com found “getting content approved prior to publication” was a content workflow problem for 66% of survey respondents. Results from the same survey revealed related content management workflow problems including “preventing inaccurate content from being published” (67%) and “skipping steps in content creation and publishing workflow in order to meet deadlines” (65%). If these results are indiciative of the content problems being faced by many organizations, then it’s no surprise that Manchester UK meat manufacturer, H R Hargreaves & Sons, failed to Read the full article…

CM Pros Africa: Call for Participation

February 6, 2006 Blog No Comments

Content Management Professionals (CM Pros) has announced the formation of the CM Pros Africa Community. Interim community leaders Rana Allam, David Pearson, and Eric Osiakwan are heading up the newly formed community, whose mission “is to provide content management professionals with networking opportunities, a forum for exchanging and examining content management topics of interest, promoting and professionalizing content management in Africa.” According to organizers, The CM Pros Africa Community will also provide a central source for media comment on the content management industry and forward the CM Pros international mission Read the full article…

Planning for DITA Success: How to Set Up the Right Team and the Right Strategy

February 6, 2006 Blog No Comments

In Planning for DITA Success: How to Set Up the Right Team and the Right Strategy, a new two-part white paper from The Rockley Group and Blast Radius, the authors map out many of the things you need to do to prepare for long-term DITA success. Topics covered in the white paper: The business case for DITA The birth of DITA What makes DITA better than traditional XML? Making the transition to DITA: Factors for success Assembling the right DITA implementation team Determining your resue strategy Putting your plan into Read the full article…

$3,500 A Page: And You Wonder Why Pharmaceuticals Are So Expensive?

February 2, 2006 Blog No Comments

By Lisa Woods Technical reviews are an essential part of the documentation process, but unwieldy, inexpedient, and iterative reviews can serve as red flags for systemic problems in an organization. These problems have nothing to do with the quality or importance of a document, but as the author, you can use them to identify and head off damage to your document and the company, and to respond strategically. I was assigned to write an overview of a computer system comprised of in-house computer applications. This overview was a regulatory requirement, Read the full article…

Structured RSS Feeds Help Search Engines

February 1, 2006 Blog No Comments

Resources of a Resource (ROR) is an XML format for describing the content, objects, and the structure of a website so that search engines (and other web applications) can better understand and locate information. According to producers, “For example if you are selling products, ROR enables you to document your product names, descriptions, prices, images, availability, affiliate programs, etc. Or if your site or blog provides information on a given topic, it allows you to describe how this information is organized (sitemap, topics, categories, new information, archive, blogroll, etc).” The Read the full article…