Between 2005-2007 I wrote a "touching DITA" series of introductory articles about aspects of DITA use for the ISTC Communicator magazine.  I attach the articles here in case they are of value to anyone in the DITA community. (Note that although much is still the same now, the DITA, the Open Toolkit, and Task Modeler have moved on a bit since the articles were published!)

1. ISTC Communicator Summer 2005 - DITA introduction.pdf

"Darwin Information Typing Architecture"
[This article] provides a brief introduction to DITA, an increasingly popular method for authoring topic-based information sets.

2. ISTC Autumn 2006 - Maps and modelling.pdf

"Touching DITA: maps and modelling"
You’ve read about DITA but it’s all so intangible. [This article] shows how you can get your hands on DITA maps for information modelling.

3. ISTC Winter 2006 - DITA open toolkit.pdf

"Touching DITA: using the Open Toolkit"

[This article] shows how to use this free toolkit to build various outputs from DITA source and add special processing.

4.Communicator_Spring_2007_screen_03.pdf

"Touching DITA: writing a task topic"

[This article] shows how to use a DITA task topic to describe something that your readers want to do, as an example of writing in DITA topics.

5.  Communicator_Summer_2007_03.pdf

"Touching DITA: reusing content"
[This article] summarises the case for reusing content and then provides an overview of the range of levels at which DITA facilitates reuse.

6.  Communicator_Autumn_2007_p42-44.pdf

"Touching DITA: linking to other content"
[This article] explains how you can control the creation of links from a DITA topic to other DITA topics and also to external resources.

7.  Communicator_Winter_2007_DITA_to_Eclipse_Help.pdf (last draft copy)

" Touching DITA: delivering to Eclipse Help"
[This article] shows how you can use DITA for integrated components of information delivered in the Eclipse Help system.