Structured blogging activity has accelerated, and has reached the important milestone where there is debate about whether it will amount to anything. If you are not familiar with structured blogging, the term itself should be enough to give you a good idea – think of structured editing, eForms, and blogging all mushed together. Structured editing has been around since the early 80s when companies like Datalogics, Texet, Arbortext, SoftQuad and others were developing SGML authoring and editing tools (I was involved in the Texet effort). The big problem then was the user interface. WYSIWYG was new, but the real issue was not that the tools were not graphical enough, it was that authors were not interested in tools that forced them A) to use a different tool, B) to use a tool that required them to do more work, and C) to use a tool that they were not convinced would provide significant benefits. Today many of us use eForm, HTML or XML tools and the interfaces are far superior, but A, B are still major hurdles to overcome. C is less of a problem, and maybe appealing applications based on ‘microformats’ will help even more. Perhaps the blogging tool plug-ins in the works will alleviate A and B, but winning the hearts of bloggers will not be easy. It will be far easier to do in the context of enterprise applications, but the difficulty should not be underestimated. I am a fan of structured blogging and authoring in general, but the concerns being raised are real. To catch-up on the pros and cons of structured blogging see posts from Bob Wyman, Charlie Wood, Paul Kedrosky,
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I had flashbacks as I sat in the DITA session at the Boston Gilbane Conference. True flashbacks. Back to the days of creating a complex automated compilation “system” to create context-sensitive help for a Windows-based manufacturing control application. Partnered with an object-oriented developer who had better things to do than “play nice” with a technical writer, we managed to build a routine based on Word macros, RTF, Excel, and DLLs to output coded Microsoft help files linked directly to RC files. Convoluted, but it made us proud.
The flashback was not about the coding, although I felt compelled to document the story. It was more about the writing methdology developed with my fellow technical writers. All about standard topics, we developed a core set of help panels based on chunking information into concepts, procedures, reference info (UI and dialog box help) and glossary items. We developed a simple hypertext strategy with non-negotiable rules for what should link to what — and when. (Ended up with a nice triangle graphic for a cheatsheet.) It worked so well that I wrote and delivered a help standards paper for ACM in…. 1993. Still lives!
So, back to the DITA session, which was excellent — CM4 featuring IBM and Autodesk — two real-life and useful stories of implementers from the documentation trenches. Bill wrote about DITA in practice back in October, noting that Adobe techdoc”ers” are also DITA users.
And finally, back to the point of writing methdologies (aka content strategy component,) which I believe is one of the key drivers of the rapid adoption of DITA. DITA = topics = chunking. It is as much a methodology as it is a technology. Information Mapping, Inc., well-known to techdoc folks as a longtime proponent of information organization = usability, clearly agrees. They have rolled their methodology quite nicely into Content Mapper, blending DITA in as well. Their entry into the authoring software market, full of vendors with equally strong heritage, is a good sign for those following the pulse of ECM as strategy (more on that later.)
Takeaways? Information architecture is hot. Technical writer with online help expertise = DITA fan. Getting information from those in the trenches is key — check out What’s New at Gilbane.com and register for a discussion on real-world DITA adoption on January 11th.
Hard to believe if you just joined us in Boston 2 weeks ago, but we are already deep into planning Gilbane San Francisco, which will be at the Sheraton Palace again this year. The dates are April 24 – 26, 2006. We are expanding our content coverage, and in addition to our Content Management, Content Technology and CTW Case Study tracks, we are adding a track on Enterprise Search, a track on Enterprise Blog, Wiki and RSS (and Atom!) Technology, and a special track on Automated Publishing for Marketers.
We have also added a new companion conference on Enterprise Digital Rights Management, which will be chaired by expert Bill Rosenblatt, Editor of DRMWatch.
To submit a speaking proposal for either the Content Management Technologies Conference or the Enterprise Digital Rights Management Conference, see the instructions, and don’t delay – we will be completing the program in January, and even though the deadline is January 9 we will be well along by then.
Nominations are open for 2 seats on the board of the Content Management Professionals Association. Nominations are open until December 21, 2005. If you are not yet a member, join. There are also openings on the CM Pros Management Committee. For more information about the openings contact Executive Director Laura Walker.
Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) and NEON Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: NEON) announced a partnership that will integrate FAST’s enterprise search solution, FAST ESP with NEON’s Shadow RTE mainframe integration platform. This integration will enable companies to find and act upon data residing in mainframe systems. Shadow RTE, a Mainframe Services Bus (MSB), is a technical architecture and consolidated development environment that enables customers to integrate mainframe resources into a Real-Time Enterprise. NEON’s partnership with FAST will enable customers to search all the data and applications that reside on the mainframe and utilize this information for various business applications and scenarios, including compliance and fraud protection. http://www.neonsys.com, http://www.fastsearch.com
Mondosoft announced that it has added XML conversion capability to its enterprise search suite, with the launch of MondoSearch XML Converter as an add-on to its site search engine, MondoSearch. The new MondoSearch XML Converter transforms XML documents to HTML and integrates with MondoSearch v. 5.2, allowing users to perform searches and display information stored in XML without adding extra applications. With the new MondoSearch XML Converter, system integrators and end-users can work in different programming environments and convert, manipule and index XML content directly from their Content Management System (CMS) or homepage to improve site search performance. MondoSearch XML Converter is available for free download by Mondosoft partners at
Quasar Technologies unveiled the latest version of its web-enabled, services-oriented publishing production management platform, GETREADY 3.0. With this release, Quasar Technologies extends automated workflow processes for commercial publications and corporate documents. GETREADY Release 3.0 incorporates new features to extend its collaborative environment to external users (eg. freelancers, creative agencies, etc). All object types can be managed from anywhere and different user types associated to specific objects can be combined. GETREADY automatically changes the object status based on the user type. Authorized users can now upload their own assets into the system, bypassing the normal administrator-controlled input channels if required. GETREADY 3.0 offers Boolean logic and text-abbreviation enhancements to its search engine which already includes visual image search and multi-lingual phonetic search. Metadata and digital asset management now have Boolean logic search facilities. Users can also search for content based on workflow criteria, such as status, workflow date completions and date ranges and by user. GETREADY searches contents of: Word, Excel, txt, rtf, and xml files as well as articles and metadata. GETREADY 3.0 offers a new feature for extracting previously published content into new formats, and re-publishing it quickly. This new functionality enables content to be extracted from a variety of sources and automatically compiled into a prescribed format. All content is dragged and dropped into the layout with the ability to rearrange sections or chapters at any time.
Five Across, Inc. announced the availability of the new Five Across Connect server product, with a built-in Community Engine. Available immediately, the new platform enables one-click syndication of media-rich content. With automated blogging, social networking, and file sharing features, the Five Across Connect server provides a way to create a dynamic web presence. New features in the Five Across Connect server include inbound (server-side) RSS feeds, automatic integration with Apple iTunes podcasting and videocasting subscription service, one-click syndication of text, photos, audio, and videos, and administrative utilities for building and running community sites. The Five Across Community Engine enables full-text and keyword searching across tens of thousands of user pages, demographic targeting, and allows users to connect with other users in a network.
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