Topic-based authoring has been a mainstay of technical information development since we first began developing help systems. We learned quickly enough that we couldn't split our existing books into help topics by making every heading level a new help page. Information originally designed with a narrative flow no longer made sense nor assisted users in finding exactly the content they needed. We had to rethink the type of information that our help systems should include and create a new set of standards for its development. The result is topic-based authoring.

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To make it easier for information architects who are creating specializations, it helps to have guidelines for specializers.

This guideline speaks in favor of creating a distinctive namespace for the new identifiers in a specialized module. It explains how to do so, and some of the consequences.

The content is based on an e-mail message from Eliot Kimber on February 8, 2006 to the mailing list of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee. Note: this was written quickly, for a language design discussion. Suggestion: edit for a less conversational style.

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These guidelines are primarily for information architects who are considering adding to the pool of DITA Specializations. Please add your own suggestions, marking with "Suggestion:" any contributions that you believe the community might need to come to consensus on.

Several categories of information are relevant:

• What a specializer needs to know about modules in DITA
• Where existing modules are catalogued

Some special topics are also provided:

• Whether to use namespaces when specializing