CambridgeDocs announced that it would provide out-of-the-box support for the DITA XML standard in all of its upcoming content migration and distribution products. DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an XML standard that is both a set of DTD’s (Document Type Definitions) and an architecture for re-using and dynamically assembling content. Developed by IBM, DITA is widely regarded as an ideal architecture for fragmenting XML content and enabling content re-use. CambridgeDocs’ xDoc Converter product will include sample content and templates for transforming Microsoft Word content into DITA XML, including transformation into DITA topics and topicmaps. These samples can be customized to convert any legacy content, such as Microsoft Word, Framemaker, HTML, and PDF files, into the database DTD or into their own DTD-based DTD’s and architecture. The sample templates will also automatically break up DITA topics into separate XML fragments and generate a DITA topicmap for the source content. The fragmented content can then be put into an XML repository, Enterprise Content/Document Management System or other XML based publishing system. By combining xDoc Converter with the DITA Toolkit available from IBM, the fragments can then be re-displayed or re-assembled into new documents.
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The International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) begins testing this month on NewsML 2 Architecture, a proposed standard for news exchange formats. Developed by a consortium of more than 40 of the world’s major news agencies and news system vendors, NewsML 2 Architecture is based on XML. The basic goal of the NewsML 2 Architecture is to provide a single generic model for exchanging all kinds of newsworthy information. Not only will this give news agencies and software developers a unified method for handling news, but it will also provide an XML framework for a future family of IPTC news exchange standards covering such diverse specialties as sports, entertainment and financial news. Under the IPTC model, text, photo, graphics, video or any combination of media types, can be bundled into packages that neatly wrap the news content, information about the content and a management layer. Senders can make the XML wrapper as simple or complex as desired, tailoring the final package to the exact needs of their customers. As with all IPTC standards, when work is completed NewsML 2 standards will be released for use without payment or royalties. In addition, it is compatible with the World Wide Web Consortium’s “Semantic Web” framework, building a universal data exchange using XML and other standard tools. NewsML 2 Architecture Version 1.0, Experimental Phase 1, will end on 15 February 2006. Although testing is generally intended for IPTC members, non-members may be invited to join. All documents and specification files for the current draft of the NewsML 2 Architecture are available at http://www.iptc.org
So I will be participating in Wednesday’s webinar with Idiom and Blast Radius, “DITA Directions: Topic-Oriented Single Source Publishing for the Web and Beyond.” Most of my presentation will be based on our upcoming white paper, Success in Standards-Based Content Creation and Delivery at Global Companies, which is subtitled, “Understanding the Rapid Adoption of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA).” The white paper focuses on two highly successful case studies of DITA in use at Adobe and Autodesk. Both of these companies have already produced tens of thousands of pages of documentation and Help using DITA. In both cases, the documentation is being simultaneously, or near simultaneously, released in more than 15 languages. The case studies are impressive and offer a lot of insight for other companies who are considering going down this path.
We continue to be struck by the rapid adoption of DITA across the product support marketplace, and are starting to see uses of DITA outside this specific application. We are hard pressed to come up with other document-management or content-management standards or technologies that have enjoyed such rapid adoption and widespread use. So one of my slides, sampled below, has a litle fun with Gartner’s now classic Hype Cycle chart. Has DITA avoided the Hype Cycle, where the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” is followed necessarily by a steep drop to a “Trough of Disillusionment”? Here we are in the midst of the hype over DITA (indeed, the standard was only formally published in May 2005), and the case studies show productive work being done in advance of the approved standard. Impressive, don’t you think?
Bob Doyle at CMSReview has once again generously devoted his time and resources to record and produce one of the events at our recent Boston conference. David Berlind from ZDNet, who has tracked the controversial Massachusetts decision to standardize on OASIS‘s ODF on Between the Lines (a blog you should subscribe to) in more detail than anyone, interviewed lobbyist Morgan Reed from the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) before a live audience at Gilbane Boston. ACT, who lobbies for small businesses, but also Microsoft, is against the Massachusetts decision – Morgan was gracious enough to submit to David’s penetrating skepticism. Bob Doyle says he keeps this interview on his video iPod! Bob says you should use the QuickTime player. Here is the full interview, or you can choose chapters below:
Frank Gilbane – the Background
The Debaters – Morgan Reed and David Berlind
Lobbyist for Microsoft (MS) and Small ISVs
How Much Money Spent Lobbying Open Formats?
MS to Mass: Do you respect IP?
MS Press Release: Mass ODF Plan has failed!
By 2007 only ODF-compliant applications?
Does Massachusetts have any leverage with OASIS?
What if MS OpenOffice was chosen as standard?
Do MS and Internet Explorer encourage non-standard HTML?
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) announced it has acquired the FileLine Digital Rights Management (DRM) division of Navisware, a technology company bridging computer aided design (CAD) and enterprise intelligence. The acquisition will provide new capabilities for Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server to persistently protect business critical documents in PDF, Microsoft Office and CAD formats, independent of how they are stored or delivered inside and outside the firewall. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Navisware developed FileLine to provide DRM capabilities for a wide variety of document types critical to the engineering design process, such as CAD and Microsoft Word documents. These capabilities will be integrated into LiveCycle Policy Server, enabling organizations to apply policies directly to a broad range of documents such as financial, government, or engineering documents containing intellectual property for controlling how, when, and by whom the documents can be used. Additionally, managers and auditors can easily view an audit log of who accessed the document, and indications of improper usage or disclosure. This same DRM technology will help ensure that version control of documents is maintained when the document owner invokes immediate revocation or date-based expiration. Adobe LiveCycle Policy Server for applying policies to PDF documents is currently available. The new DRM capabilities for Microsoft Office and CAD documents are expected to be integrated into LiveCycle Policy Server and available in Fall, 2006. http://www.adobe.com/security
Blast Radius announced it will include bidirectional support for XML content creation in its upcoming release of XMetaL Author and XMAX. Prior to this release, XMetaL supported the creation of content in Cyrillic and Asian languages, such as Chinese, Greek, Japanese, Korean and Russian. This release now incorporates the additional support of Middle Eastern languages – Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew. As a result of this new capability, organizations serving audiences in those languages, such as financial services, consumer goods and electronics manufacturers, can capitalize on their content assets by translating web and print materials with higher quality and consistency. Typical XML-powered content localization projects yield enormous time savings due to better efficiencies introduced with localization systems and through parallel and componentized authoring and translation.http://www.blastradius.com
…with a subtitle of Technology, Process & Organization – The 3 pillars of adoption
Evolving governance, risk and compliance (GRC) management requirements (process) and a raft of new technologies to automate, coordinate, monitor and audit those processes are enabling, or shall I say forcing, significant shifts in organizational structure. While changes within finance, legal, HR, risk and compliance offices are certainly profound, IT organizations have a unique two-front battle on their hands. Obviously, IT has to get its own house in order – document and put into motion an effective and sustained IT governance program. This should not be confused with the second broader and more strategic challenge of application and technology expansion in support of finance, legal and the rest of their internal constituents. The critical importance of sustaining effective GRC programs and the central role of technology as an enabling catalyst makes the successful adoption of GRC technology one of the most important operational challenges of the day.
It is for all of these reasons that I am very excited about the recent work of the Open Compliance and Ethics Group and the soon to be announced OCEG IT Forum.
SoftLogica LLC announces WAPT 4.0, the new version of its load, stress and performance testing tool for web sites, web servers and applications with web interfaces. WAPT is designed to minimize the learning curve and give the user an ability to create a heavy load from a single regular workstation. You can create a basic test scenario and get meaningful information about your performance landscape in a matter of minutes. WAPT is able to generate up to 2000 simultaneously acting virtual users for an “average” test scenario using standard hardware configuration (Pentium 4 2GHz, 512MB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet). WAPT creates a test workload which is virtually the same as the load experienced by a web site in the real world. For example, for retail sites, some users may be surfing the catalog, others searching for a specific product and submitting an order, while an administrator may be updating the catalog. Basic and Integrated Windows (NTLM) authentication methods are supported. Graphs and reports are shown in real-time, thus helping to manage the web site performance testing process. The command line interface allows you to integrate WAPT into the existing development environment. XML files are used to store test scenarios and can be modified by third party software. WAPT supports different language encodings, so you can test web sites in virtually any language, including forms and dynamic content. WAPT is designed for Microsoft Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003. The 30-day trial version with full set of features limited to 20 concurrent virtual users can be downloaded at http://www.loadtestingtool.com
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