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| DITA Newsletter | Volume 1, Issue 10, May, 2008 |
| Features in this issue | (see the web version at www.ditanewsletter.com) |
- DITA Version Compatibility
- DITA Conferences - Discounts and Free Tickets
- DITA Storm Desktop Editor
- Webworks ePublisher Platform integrates Open Toolkit
- DITA Open Toolkit 1.4.2
- What's Your D.Q.? (Business Case for DITA)
- DITA Tools Survey - coming soon
- oXygen Editor 9.2 adds Author version
- Quark Dynamic Publishing System
- DITA Tools from A to Z
- Hidden Cost of DITA
- DITA Maturity Model Q&A
- DITA Users Now in 34 Countries
- Upcoming DITA Events
DITA Version Compatibility
Following a suggestion by Kay Whatley, DITA News has begun to collect the current DITA version compatibility for all DITA-related tools.
DITA vendors have been contacted and a preliminary table reports which tools are DITA 1.0 compatible, which 1.1 (or both 1.0 and 1.1), etc.
The URL for the Version Compatibility Table is www.ditanews.com/tools/compatibility/
See the Tools A-Z section of DITA News for links to the tool vendors.
DITA Conferences - Discounts and Free Tickets
DITA Users will be holding a lottery for free tickets to major conferences featuring DITA this spring, including:
- the Gilbane Conference on Content Management Technologies conference June 18-20 in San Francisco, CA
- the X-Pubs conference June 22-24 in London, England
- the new DocTrain Life Sciences conference June 23-26 in Indianapolis, Indiana
These free tickets are worth from $999 to $1299 and are an exclusive benefit for paying members of DITA Users. See Why Join DITA Users.
All members need to enter the drawing is to send an email to editor@cmsreview.com saying you will attend the conference if you win a free ticket. We don't want these valuable prizes to go to someone who will not be able to use them.
So join DITA Users today and include your request to be in the drawing for one or more of these conferences in the comments section of your order. If you are already a member, send an email request to editor@cmsreview.com.
Don't forget that members of DITA Users get discounts to most major conferences that more than offset their annual membership dues. That includes the three conferences above.
DITA Storm Desktop Editor
Inmedius will be showing DITA Storm Desktop at DocTrain West 2008. DITA Storm Desktop is a standalone XML editing solution to create and publish DITA documents in a self-contained environment on a single workstation. Installed locally on the end user’s computer, files are accessed, edited, saved and published from local or network drives, regardless of Internet connectivity. With DITA Storm's WYSIWYG editing capabilities, authors with little or no DITA or XML knowledge can create valid, structured content.
Webworks ePublisher Platform 9.3 integrates Open Toolkit
ePublisher 9.3 supports and builds on the standards-based architecture of the DITA Open Tool Kit. ePublisher 9.3 gives you the capability to add additional formatting features to your DITA content that aren't available using the OT. ePublisher is not dependent on any particular version of the OT, and it works with any DITA XML editor.
ePublisher 9.3’s ability to merge information authored in DITA-XML, Adobe FrameMaker, or MS-Word makes the transition to DITA-XML more cost-effective as a user can easily test and prototype DITA using a subset of their documentation while still developing quality output for customers.
DITA Open Toolkit 1.4.2
Robert Anderson reports that version 1.4.2 of the DITA Open Toolkit is now available from the DITA-OT project page at SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dita-ot/
Based on community input, the 1.4.2 package is now available in three versions:
- 1. The "Minimal" package contains only the core processing code.
- 2. The "Standard" package contains the core processing code, plus demos, documentation, and samples.
- 3. The "Full easy install" package contains the standard package plus external libraries useful for many toolkit processes (such as Xalan and ANT), as well as a batch file to setup a local build environment. In DITA-OT 1.4.1 this was known as the full version; in release 1.5 this package will complete the transition to the name "easy install".
A new section of the DITA.XML.org Knowledgebase will track news on the DITA Open Toolkit
What's Your D.Q.? (Make the Business Case for DITA)
Your DITA Quotient estimates the value of DITA for your organization.
Simply answer ten yes/no questions about content management, structure, reuse, single-sourcing, localization, markup, conditional processing, modularity, task-orientation, minimalism, and standards.
You get a printable profile of your D.Q., which you can use as a checklist of questions about your structured content strategy and to compare yourself to industry averages. DITA Consultants are using the D.Q., along with an estimate of the DITA Maturity Model level, to analyze a client's business case for DITA.
Get your DITA Quotient now (fill out an anonymous online form - no registration required).
DITA Tools Survey
The first Annual Survey of DITA Tools will be distributed to six DITA communities this week.
- the main community mailing list dita-users@yahoo.com (1900 subscribers),
- the official OASIS community at DITA.XML.org (1300 members),
- the DITA News/DITA Users community (600 members),
- the STC (13,000 members),
- the TECHWR-L mailing list (2500 subscribers),
- the Content Wrangler Community (a social network with 1600 members)
The survey will ask for a profile of the user, and then collect usage statistics and critical comments on more than three dozen DITA-related tools.
<oXygen/> 9.2 adds Author version
<oXygen/> now offers a simplified version of the tool suited for authoring.
There are people that are not developers or there are times when you are not interested in the development features of <oXygen/> and you want just to do XML editing. <oXygen/> Author removes the development features offering a more simple interface for XML editing.
A DITA maps manager allows viewing and editing DITA map files. It also acts as a project manager allowing you to easily open different topics/concepts for editing.
<oXygen/> Author is available also as a separate product, both as a standalone application and as an Eclipse plugin.
The DITA Open Toolkit was updated in the <oXygen/> XML editor DITA authoring framework to the latest version 1.4.1.
Quark Dynamic Publishing Solution
Quark announced at the recent AIIM/On Demand conference that they are "Revolutionizing Publishing. Again" with the introduction of their Dynamic Publishing Solution.
The DPS is an integration of authoring, managing, and publishing tools that will likely cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and put Quark in competition with companies that offer automated publishing solutions. Their focus will not be tech docs, but high fidelity design/layout where dynamic content is required.
The main components are their Quark Publishing System (QPS) and QuarkXPress Server, but the surprise move is the integration of your choice of XML editor, including In.vision Research Xpress Author for Microsoft Word. Quark will sell Xpress Author directly. They hope to convert some of the 300 million Word users into structured XML content creators.
Because Xpress Author (note the similar but not identical name to QuarkXPress) ships preconfigured with DITA and other XML standards, the DPS will provide high-fidelity print and multi-channel outputs from component DITA topics.
The Quark Dynamic Publishing Solution will accept content created in many tools, including their desktop publishing flagship QuarkXPress and QuarkCopyDesk, as well as competitors Adobe InDesign and Adobe InCopy, and basically any XML editor/author tool.
Quark will partner with Alfresco to integrate an open-source enterprise content management system in the DPS.
DITA Tools from A to Z
DITA News is now offering a limited version of the article "DITA Tools from A to Z" from the special DITA issue of STC Intercom Magazine.
Paying members of DITA Users and STC can get the full copy of the article, with its extensive feature tables.
Hidden Cost of DITA
In the same special DITA issue of STC Intercom, XML Strategist Sarah O'Keefe warns that DITA may not be the best solution for companies that already structure their content - if their content model cannot be easily transformed to match the DITA content model.
DITA Maturity Model Q&A
The DITA Maturity Model defines the industry's first graduated, step-by-step methodology for implementing the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). Incremental adoption is one of DITA's most attractive features. Users can start quickly and easily with DITA using a subset of its capabilities, then add investment over time as their content strategy evolves and expands to cover more requirements and content areas.
The authors of the DITA Maturity Model -- Michael Priestley, lead DITA architect for IBM and co-editor of OASIS/DITA 1.0 and Amber Swope, principal consultant in Content Lifecycle Solutions at JustSystems - discuss the genesis of DITA, the stages and the impact of using the DITA Maturity Model, and the path to universal knowledge management.
With a new member from Italy, DITA Users is now in 34 Countries
Since April 2007, the DITA Users international membership organization has provided basic online DITA editing and a personal workspace folder for free to hundreds of tech writers around the world getting started with DITA.
DITA Users is NOT a social network (although you can locate other members easily), it is a productivity tool.
A full $100/year membership includes the choice of the leading book on DITA or a desktop DITA Editor to complement the web-based DITA Storm editor.
The book (a $50 value) is JoAnn Hackos' Introduction to DITA - either the original edition by Kylene Bruski and Jennifer Linton or the new Arbortext Edition.
The desktop editor is the $48 Academic Edition of the <oXygen/> XML Editor, now at version 9 with full DITA support.
Desktop editors communicate with web servers via FTP or WebDAV (distributed authoring and versioning). DITA Users can now WebDAV-enable individual members' workspace folders.
Most DITA authoring tools offer WebDAV, some as a premium only available in their Enterprise Editions (for example, Syntext Serna and XMLmind).
DITA Users still offers a $50 discount membership without the book or desktop editor. Benefits include a WebDAV-enabled folder and discounts on major DITA conferences.
Anyone with a WebDAV-enabled DITA authoring tool can use it on their DITA Users document sets. These include two docsets from IBM and the docset from Comtech Services in the Introduction to DITA book. They can also create their own projects.
Practically speaking, anyone already invested in an advanced DITA authoring tool may be beyond the need for the "DITA from A to B" learning offered by DITA Users. But the new access method may make online training valuable for small tech pub groups who can now use their familiar tools (like Arbortext Editor or XMetaL Author) on the DITA Users website, as well as use innovative tools like the web-based DITA Storm, while their teams get started with DITA.
In any case, DITA Users member fees underwrite our network of DITA support websites, including this newsletter. So please consider joining today.
Upcoming DITA Events
May 6-9, 2008DocTrain West 2008
The theme of the 2nd Annual Documentation & Training West Conference is Web 2.0 and Its Impact on Communication. The event takes place May 6-9, 2008.
Join DITA Users and enter a drawing for a free ticket ($995 value) to DocTrain West 2008. If you are already a member, don't forget to ask for your DITA Users discount to this conference when you register.
See the program schedule
June 9-13, 2008Adobe FrameMaker 8: DITA Publishing Boot Camp
Bright Path Solutions will offer a special DITA-oriented version of their FrameMaker training class.
June 18-20, 2008The Gilbane Conference - San Francisco
Content management is more important than ever. But even as organizations are working to get their hands around rapidly growing and increasingly diverse collections of content, new web technologies are providing opportunities to create, manage, share, and deliver richer content more easily, sometimes cheaper, and often quicker.
Topics to be covered in-depth include:
- Web Content Management (WCM)
- Enterprise Search, Text Analytics, Semantic Technologies
- Collaboration, Enterprise Wikis & Blogs
- "Enterprise 2.0" Technologies & Social Computing
- Content Globalization & Localization
- Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
- Enterprise Rights Management (ERM)
- Publishing Best Practices
- XML Content Strategies
X-Pubs - Component Content Management, DITA, S1000D
How can XML and component based content systems fundamentally change how our
content consumers see and experience information?
Presentations on:
- Web 2.0 / multimedia delivery
- Task-based Information Architecture
- Innovative training and eLearning delivery
- Innovations in presentation and collaboration models
- Getting the most out of user-driven content
- Effective workflow design
Who should come?
X-Pubs 2008 is for Team Leaders, Technical
Communicators, Product Managers, Learning Content professionals, and so on who
are looking to improve the way content is reused and communicated inside and
outside their organisation.
Join DITA Users and enter a drawing for a free ticket (380BP value) to X-Pubs 2008. If you are already a member, don't forget to ask for your DITA Users discount to this conference when you register.
About DITA Newsletter
DITA Newsletter is published by DITA News, one of a network of websites in support of DITA. It is available online at www.ditanewsletter.com.
Each of our websites is optimized for some community-oriented function.
DITA Users - helping members get started with topic-based authoring
using a web-based editor (DITA
Storm), the Open Toolkit on the server, a personal workspace folder on the
web with three starter DITA docsets, and a private member directory to locate
other DITA Users.
ditausers.org
DITA Infocenter - the DITA architectural and language specifications,
and the Open Toolkit User Guide, in an Eclipse Help format.
ditainfocenter.com
DITA News - a blog aggregator, a mailing list, and this newsletter on
DITA.
ditanews.com
DITA Blog - a group blog for DITA information developers (based on
WordPress).
ditablog.com
DITA Wiki - over 600 pages of resources in a format that encourages
comments and discussions (based on MediaWiki).
ditawiki.org
Please consider joining DITA Users today. Membership is $100USD/year and includes your choice of either: Introduction to DITA by JoAnn Hackos or an Academic License to the <oXygen/> XML Editor, with WebDAV access to your workspace folder on DITA Users.
Your membership fee supports our network of websites, including this newsletter. Discounts on DITA conferences and workshops more than offset your annual membership fee
