by Joab Jackson, Government Computer News
Service-oriented architecture aims to turn computational processes into services so they can be used for missions beyond their original scope. Now, an emerging Extensible Markup Language (XML) product promises to do the same for text. Developed by IBM and later released to OASIS as an open standard, the Darwin Information Typing Architecture, or DITA, is an XML Document Type Definition that can be used to mark up different sections of documents so they can easily be found later and reused in other documents.
Although IBM first came up with DITA for its technical documents, it could be used across a wide range of organizational material, said Ann Rockley, who leads the Rockley Group consulting firm. Rockley spoke at the recent Gilbane content management conference in Washington. Perhaps the most surprising thing about Rockley's presentation is how easy DITA is for end users. Most good DITA-aware editors look like a version of Word loaded with organizational style sheets, she said. Each document has different sections, specifying title,
author, and the different topics and subtopics. Each topic or subtopic can be specified by the user or an organizational list of topics compiled in a component management system; these topics are indexed for later retrieval. Reuse can happen in a number of different ways. Frequently reused snatches of text, such as boilerplates, definitions or policy statements, can easily be called up and placed into documents. Another good use is for what Rockley called multichannel documents, where one basic piece of text has to be used in multiple forms, such as in a brochure, on a Web page or for a white paper.
Read the complete story.
Service-oriented architecture aims to turn computational processes into services so they can be used for missions beyond their original scope. Now, an emerging Extensible Markup Language (XML) product promises to do the same for text. Developed by IBM and later released to OASIS as an open standard, the Darwin Information Typing Architecture, or DITA, is an XML Document Type Definition that can be used to mark up different sections of documents so they can easily be found later and reused in other documents.
Although IBM first came up with DITA for its technical documents, it could be used across a wide range of organizational material, said Ann Rockley, who leads the Rockley Group consulting firm. Rockley spoke at the recent Gilbane content management conference in Washington. Perhaps the most surprising thing about Rockley's presentation is how easy DITA is for end users. Most good DITA-aware editors look like a version of Word loaded with organizational style sheets, she said. Each document has different sections, specifying title,
author, and the different topics and subtopics. Each topic or subtopic can be specified by the user or an organizational list of topics compiled in a component management system; these topics are indexed for later retrieval. Reuse can happen in a number of different ways. Frequently reused snatches of text, such as boilerplates, definitions or policy statements, can easily be called up and placed into documents. Another good use is for what Rockley called multichannel documents, where one basic piece of text has to be used in multiple forms, such as in a brochure, on a Web page or for a white paper.
Read the complete story.
