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DITA Newsletter
DITA Newsletter 1.10
by bobdoyle Posted at
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:
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:
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 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, 2008 DocTrain 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, 2008 Adobe FrameMaker 8: DITA Publishing Boot Camp Bright Path Solutions will offer a special DITA-oriented version of their FrameMaker training class. June 18-20, 2008 The 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:
Join DITA Users and enter a drawing for a free ticket ($995 value) to the Gilbane Conference. If you are already a member, don't forget to ask for your DITA Users discount to this conference when you register. RegistrationJune 22-24, 2008 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?
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.
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| DITA Newsletter | Volume 1, Issue 9, April, 2008 |
| Features in this issue | (see the web version at www.ditanewsletter.com) |
DITA Activity Shows Strong Growth
One indicator of the spectacular growth in DITA adoption over the past few years is the activity on the dita-users@yahoo.com community mailing list:
Click on any link to see the messages from that month.| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 401 | 565 | 527 | |||||||||
| 2007 | 313 | 251 | 472 | 399 | 320 | 276 | 307 | 411 | 269 | 335 | 319 | 363 |
| 2006 | 179 | 170 | 316 | 220 | 269 | 303 | 288 | 250 | 247 | 293 | 226 | 202 |
| 2005 | 65 | 8 | 59 | 76 | 118 | 148 | 73 | 69 | 110 | 104 | 189 | 203 |
| 2004 | 28 | 20 | 27 | 20 | 83 | 86 | 48 |
DITA Conferences - Discounts and Free Tickets
DITA Users will be holding a lottery for free tickets to major conferences featuring DITA this spring, including:
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 saying you will attend the conference if you win a free ticket. We don't want this valuable prize to go to someone who will not be able to use it.
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 JoAnn Hackos CMS/DITA 2008 conference this month in Santa Clara, CA. See the events section below for details/.
Justsystems Dynamic Documents as Applications
Justsystems is promoting a new strategy for leveraging DITA in its “document as application” vision and dynamic documents. They will present at Content Management Strategies/DITA North America 2008 to be held April 7–9, 2008, at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, CA.
In “Applications and Documents Collide: The Emergence of Dynamic Documents,” (Monday, April 7, 4pm.) Amber Swope, principal consultant for JustSystems, will discuss the emergence of “dynamic documents” as the new application context that gives users an interactive, real-time, fully contextual view of their business. Through a series of rich real-world application examples, this presentation will provide a new lens for reconsidering what were once very isolated domains of applications and documents. It will also provide a framework for thinking about key business processes sitting at the intersection of content and data, business applications, and documents.
Leximation DITA-FMx 1.0 in Public Beta
FrameMaker users looking to get more out of FrameMaker 7.2 or even the latest FM8 should check out the long list of features that Leximation's DITA-FMx 1.0 adds to your existing tools.
DITA-FMx 1.0 includes a number of additional features over the standard functionality provided in FM8. For a comparison of these features, see the FrameMaker DITA Feature Comparison.
DITA-FMx 1.0 is available to download now, with installation instructions here.
Inmedius DITA Storm Developer 2.0
Inmedius announced a new DITA Storm Suite, with four distinct software solutions, each designed to meet specific organization requirements. If you need a simple, easy to use DITA editor, or require an editor within a full-featured management tool, the Suite offers a spectrum of solutions to fit your needs:
DITA Storm™ Developer is a full featured, embeddable XML editing solution that enables authors to quickly and easily create and edit DITA-compliant content in WYSIWYG mode -- regardless of DITA or XML expertise. As easy to use as a word or text processing application, authors are able to create and edit content in a familiar environment. The Web-based editor is entirely implemented in JavaScript™ and simply embeds into virtually any Web Application or Content Management System, ensuring the entire DITA documentation lifecycle is supported.
DITA Storm™ Desktop is a standalone DITA Editor with single source publishing.
DITA Storm™ Professional is a DITA Editor with a fully customizable library.
DITA Storm™ Enterprise is a DITA Editor with a content management system.
Inmedius offers a color brochure with an introduction and overview for the DITA Storm™ Suite
You can try the DITA Storm web-based DITA Editor by joining DITA Users and getting your own online workspace folder. Join Today!
Syntext Serna WYSIWYG XML Editor 3.6
Syntext Serna Release candidate V3.6 includes the following enhancements:
Eliot Kimber to Keynote Open Publish 2008
Eliot Kimber, senior solutions architect at content solutions and services firm Really Strategies, Inc., will keynote Open Publish 2008 in Baltimore on April 23rd. Eliot will discuss sustainable XML for publishing applications using the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) standard. XML applications for publishers have struggled to realize the full potential inherent in the technology. While larger publishers could make the investment necessary to realize significant return on the use of XML technology, smaller enterprises simply could not. The DITA standard changes this equation and Eliot will illustrate how publishers of all sizes can capitalize on this standard to maximize content re-use and rapid product prototyping.
"The DITA standard should make all publishers really excited," stated Kimber. "The old SGML siren song of re-usability is now finally and truly a reality." Originally created for technical publishers, the DITA standard is now gaining traction in more traditional publishing environments thanks to new tools on the market.
One Year Old and nearly 550 DITA Users Members from 33 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.
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
Content Management Strategies/DITA North America 2008
Are you planning to roll out an enterprise-wide content management system? Reusing content to decrease the costs of Global Product Deployment? Moving your content to the Web and dynamic graphics? Moving your content to DITA? Outputting to multiple media from a Single Source of content? Managing modular, topic-based content for assembly into multiple deliverables? Wondering how you are ever going to find enough time to do everything that needs to be done to restructure and invigorate all that legacy content you’re sinking under?.
Come for cost effective ways to produce and manage content and increase the value of information for customers. Content Management Strategies/DITA North America, in its 10th year, remains the premier conference if you are managing technical and business-oriented content throughout the enterprise.
At CMS/DITA North America 2008, you’ll join a returning community of information developers, product developers, and publishers who value building and managing core content as much as its presentation and delivery. See the conference schedule, especially the DITA Track.
Open Publish 2008
Open Publish 2008 is an event focused on both the management and implementation issues relating to publishing technology based on open standards.
The most effective way to learn about technology is in person! So while there are many avenues for continual skills development on a day to day basis, Open Publish is a once a year immersion in the open technology standards, business and human factors that are driving change in the publishing process. See the conference schedule
DocTrain 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.
See the program schedule
Adobe FrameMaker 8: DITA Publishing Boot Camp
Bright Path Solutions will offer a special DITA-oriented version of their FrameMaker training class.
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:
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
http://www.ditausers.org/membership/how_to_join/
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| DITA Newsletter | Volume 1, Issue 8, March, 2008 |
| Features in this issue | (see the web version at www.ditanewsletter.com) |
DITA User Group Meetings
Research Triangle Park DITA Users Group
Wednesday, March 20 at 5:30-6:30 PM
The RTP DUG is being revived. They will meet at
Systems Documentation, Inc.
1005 Slater Road, Suite 220
Durham, NC, 27703
Contact Kris Eberlein (keberlein at sdicorp.com) for more information.
Silicon Valley DITA Interest Group
Wednesday, March 12 at 7:00pm PST:
Topic: Roundtable Discussion
Location: NetAppliance. 495 E. Java Drive Bldg 3, Santa Cruz conference room Sunnyvale, CA 94089 (Google Map)
Thursday, March 6 at 7:00pm EST:
Presenter: Rhys Griffiths, AMD, an information architect and team lead with AMD working with XML- and CMS-based solutions for over 5 years
Topic: MIgrating to XML/DITADITA Conferences - Discounts and Free Tickets
DITA Users will be holding a lottery for free tickets to major conferences featuring DITA this spring, including:
These free tickets are worth from $999 to $1299 and are an exclusive benefit for members of DITA Users.
All members need to enter the drawing is to send an email saying you will attend the conference if you win a free ticket. We don't want this valuable prize to go to someone who will not be able to use it. 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 JoAnn Hackos Workshops, like the DITA Bootcamp this month in Redwood City, CA. See the events section below for details/.
DITA, XML, and Structured Authoring at WritersUA Conference
At the March 16-19 WritersUA Annual Conference for 2008 in Portland, Oregon, a number of sessions will highlight how DITA, XML, and Structured Authoring enable a much more consistent and economical production environment.
Specialization Tutorials
Eliot Kimber presented his Specialization in Real Time Tutorial at the Boston DITA Users Group
Eliot has now given his real-time specialization tutorial to DITA user groups in Austin, TX and Boulder, CO, and Boston.
You can see the video at media.skybuilders.com/DITA/KimberSpecialization/.
Eliot's Powerpoint presentation slides are at www.ditausers.org/tutorials/specialization/KimberBDUG.ppt
Bob Ducharme has prepared a specialization tutorial for IBM developerWorks. It requires that you register for a free IBM ID and password.
www.ibm.com/developerworks/edu/x-dw-x-ditaspecial.html
We have added these two tutorials to a dozen more specialization tutorials on the DITA Users site.
www.ditausers.org/tutorials/specialization/
DITA with XDocs XML CMS
Nenad Furtula and Jim Tivy of Bluestream presented at the Silicon Valley Digital Interest Group on February 13.
You can download this Flash presentation from:
www.ditausers.org/tutorials/cms/xdocs/
Practical Uses for DITA
PTC will present two online webinars this month on DITA applications. See the Events section below for dates and registration links.
Now 516 DITA Users Members from 32 countries
The DITA Users international membership organization now provides basic online DITA editing and a personal workspace folder for free. Since free memberships were restored on January 1, the growth rate is back to 50 new members a month.
The full $100/year membership will include 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
DITA Boot Camp
JoAnn Hackos Workshop Series
Redwood City, CA
This workshop includes a complimentary copy of the Introduction to DITA: A Basic User Guide to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture book.
In the DITA Boot Camp program you'll get the core values of
DITA Users registration discounts: Members contact Lovonya Thomas at lovonya@comtech-serv.com to receive a 10% member discount.
March 11, 2008Practical Uses for DITA
Part 1: Service Manual Application
Presenter: Peter Velikin ~ PTC Director Product Marketing
WritersUA Annual Conference for 2008
The WritersUA Conference includes many cutting-edge topics. As part of your conference registration you receive printed Conference Proceedings and admission to the Exhibition, Peer Showcase, Product Demonstrations, Networking Lunches and a Networking Reception. See the news article above for session details.
March 26, 2008Practical Uses for DITA
Part 2: Product Documentation and Training
Presenter: Jeff Filo ~ PTC Curriculum Development Manager
See the DITA News Events Calendar for future events.
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
http://www.ditausers.org/membership/how_to_join/
# | skyLink | skyWriter | Comments (0)
| DITA Newsletter | Volume 1, Issue 7, February, 2008 |
| Features in this issue | (see the web version at www.ditanewsletter.com) |
DITA User Group Meetings
Tuesday February 12 6:30 (networking), 7:00 (presentation):.
Eliot Kimber will present his "DITA Quick Start"
Eliot has given his real-time specialization tutorial to DITA user groups in Austin, TX and Boulder, CO. Don't miss this extraordinary learning opportunity. Check out Eliot's presentation style at www.ditausers.org/tutorials/basics/kimber/
Place: Endeca Technologies
101 Main Street, 10th floor
Cambridge, MA
Visit the DITA.XML.org User Group page to RSVP before Monday Feb. 11.
Central Texas DITA Users Group
Wednesday February 27, 2007 7:00 - 9:00 pm Central CST:.
Ann Gentle of BMC will speak on "What does DITA have to do with Wiki? — Part 2"
Presenters:
Lisa Dyer - Lombardi Software
Alan Porter - Quadralay WebWorks
During the September 2007 meeting, an ultra-condensed overview of topics discussed during the 2007 Best Practices Conference revealed an area of strong interest in the CTDUG community: is there a way to use Wikis to capture DITA content? Anne Gentle of www.justwriteclick.com fame put together a two-session deep-dive into this exciting area of expertise.
Research Triangle Park DITA Users Group
Wednesday, February 27 at 5:30-6:30 PM
The RTP DUG is being revived. They will meet at
Place: Systems Documentation, Inc.
1005 Slater Road, Suite 220
Durham, NC, 27703
Contact Kris Eberlein (keberlein at sdicorp.com) for more information.
Silicon Valley DITA Interest Group
Wednesday, February 13 at 7:00pm PST:
Presenter: Nenad Furtula of Bluestream.
Topic: Using DITA with XDocs XML CMS
Location: NetAppliance. 495 E. Java Drive Bldg 3, Santa Cruz conference room Sunnyvale, CA 94089 (Google Map)
Thursday, February 7 at 7:00pm EST:
Presenter: Michael Priestley, DITA Architect at IBM.
Topic: What's new in DITA 1.1, concentrating on reuse capabilities.
Location: IBM Software Lab, 8200 Warden Ave Markham ON (nearest major intersection is Hwy 7 and Warden)
DITA Maturity Model
Amber Swope of JustSystems, Inc. and Michael Priestley of IBM Corporate User Technologies have authored a whitepaper that answers these DITA questions: How do you know where to begin? How do you plan for and manage the required investment and associated ROI? How do you move the enterprise content strategy from the back room to the board room and develop a framework for success?
See the events section below for a webcast on this topic.
Refresh Software SR2 Content Management Solution
Refresh Software SR2 is a lightweight web content management solution that offers the simplicity of Web 2.0 architecture and supports industry standards such as XML and DITA.
DITA Share
DitaShare by Content Technologies GmbH is a DITA-based solution based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. It offers collaborative Single-Sourcing and re-use of DITA topics and DITA maps, as well as publishing of conditional variants. DitaShare includes an integrated version of Altova Authentic 2008, a free web-based XML content editor, allowing authors and editors to work productively from any location using only MS Internet Explorer. Optional web-based editors include JustSystems XMAX, Xopus, and DITA Storm. DitaShare supports any stand-alone text editor in upload and download mode. Dedicated, standalone, XML editors, including MS Word 2007, Adobe FrameMaker 8 and JustSystems XMetaL, can be integrated seamlessly with DitaShare
Other SharePoint solutions are DITA Exchange and In.vision DITA Enterprise Suite
SiberSafe now available as a hosted service
SiberLogic announced SiberSafe On-Demand, a hosted service delivering online XML content management functionality at a low monthly cost, with no risk.
SiberSafe On-Demand delivers SiberSafe XML CMS as an ASP service via high speed internet access to a hosted server in a fully secure data center. DTD choices include DITA, DocBook, or MIL-STD 2361, complete with sample templates and stylesheets.
Other on-demand SaaS (Software as a Service) DITA solutions include Astoria On Demand, Bluestream XDocs, DocZone, and Trisoft Infoshare.
Now 475 DITA Users Members from 31 countries
The DITA Users international membership organization now provides basic online DITA editing and a personal workspace folder for free. Since free memberships were restored on January 1, the growth rate is back to 50-60 new members a month.
The full $100/year membership will include 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
DITA Maturity Model Webinar
DITA Users on SecondLife
JoAnn Hackos Workshop on DITA
DITA Users members contact Lavonya at 303-232-7586 to receive a discount on Hackos Workshops.
See the DITA News Events Calendar for future events.
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
http://www.ditausers.org/membership/how_to_join/
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| DITA Newsletter | Volume 1, Issue 6, January, 2008 |
| Features in this issue | (see the web version at www.ditanewsletter.com) |
DITA User Group Meetings
The next Boston DITA Users Group will be in February.
Monday February 10 6:30 (networking), 7:00 (presentation):.
Eliot Kimber will present his "DITA Quick Start"
Place: Probably IBM Research Lab
First Street
Cambridge, MA
Central Texas DITA Users Group
Wednesday January 23, 2007 7:00 - 9:00 pm Central CST:.
Ann Gentle of BMC will speak on "What does DITA have to do with Wiki? — Part 1"
During the September 2007 meeting, an ultra-condensed overview of topics discussed during the 2007 Best Practices Conference revealed an area of strong interest in the CTDUG community: is there a way to use Wikis to capture DITA content? Anne Gentle of www.justwriteclick.com fame is putting together a two-session deep-dive into this exciting area of expertise. Watch this space for more details!
Research Triangle Park DITA Users Group
Wednesday, January 23 at 5:30-6:30 PM
The RTP DUG is being revived. They will meet at
Place: Systems Documentation, Inc.
1005 Slater Road, Suite 220
Durham, NC, 27703
Contact Kris Eberlein (keberlein at sdicorp.com) for more information.
Silicon Valley DITA Interest Group
Wednesday, January 9 at 7:00pm PST:
An introduction to the new DITA Troubleshooting specialization, presented by Carolyn Henry and Dan Dionne of IBM.
Open Toolkit User Guide 1.4.1 Available
Anna van Raaphorst and Dick Johnson have completed the latest version of their OT User Guide. They have posted it (in PDF and CHM) on their website VR Communications.
The OT User Guide is a must read for those installing their own version of the Open Toolkit.
Michael Priestley Online DITA Course
The online course will run from February 4 to March 21. It consists of pre-recorded lectures and demonstrations with assignments, workshops, and discussion, covering:
Tuition is $553.50USD. For enrollment details, go to UC Extension in Silicon Valley.
Eliot Kimber Quick Start Tutorial
Presented at the XML 2007 conference in Boston. Recorded, encoded, and available at DITA Users Tutorials.
This tutorial provides a quick start introduction to the DITA specification with a focus on how to create and process DITA-based content as well as key DITA concepts including modular writing, re-use, linking using maps and relationship tables, and specialization. At the end of the class students will be prepared to evaluate the applicability of DITA to their own documentation and publishing requirements and start experimenting with the authoring and production of DITA-based content using any XML editor and the DITA Open Toolkit.
PowerpointQuicktime files are large, so they may take some time for progressive downloads to start playing.
While watching the video, open the Powerpoint in a separate window to see the slides perfectly. You then can advance the slides when Eliot does, or navigate them separately.
Bluestream XDocs at 1.1 release
Bluestream announced the 1.1 version of their XDocs XML CMS.
Gershon L Joseph, Director of Technology and Single Sourcing Tech-Tav Documentation Ltd., and Secretary, OASIS DITA Technical Committee, Secretary, OASIS DITA Translation Subcommittee, said, “We have thoroughly reviewed XDocs 1.1 and are very impressed with its maturity and stability. The team producing XDocs understands their target market and has fine-tuned their product to provide a powerful system that authors find intuitive and easy-to-use. We’ve found that publishing performance far exceeds that of most other CMS products. DITA support is truly built into the product, making XDocs a very serious out-of-the-box DITA CMS solution.”
DITA Exchange 1.9
DITA Exchange announced th latest release of their solution, which implements the DITA standard on top of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) and is sold on a per seat per month basis as a SaaS solution or as an internal solution.
DITA Exchange operates in a complete browser-based environment thereby lowering the entry barrier for SME's. Nobody needs to understand XML or DITA to write meaningful DITA content in DITA Exchange. The average training required is 4-8 hours depending on the type of user.
Mif2Go revision 50
Omni Systems announced that Mif2Go is at revision 50.
Mif2Go was praised on the dita-users mailing list for converting legacy documents. Labeling headings with "concept", "task" is not necessary if you use MIF2Go to convert unstructured FM content to DITA: MIF2Go can determine the correct infotype automatically, based on the styles used in the "body" section of the topic. For example, if you have a Heading2 followed by steps, MIF2Go will convert this to a task topic. Pretty nifty! (Yves Barbion)
DITA Users Memberships Now Free
The DITA Users international membership organization now provides basic online DITA editing and a personal workspace folder for free.
The full $100/year membership will include 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.
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
http://www.ditausers.org/membership/how_to_join/
# | skyLink | skyWriter | Comments (0)
| DITA Newsletter | Volume 1, Issue 5, December, 2007 |
| Features in this issue | (see the web version at www.ditanewsletter.com) |
DITA User Group Meetings
Central Texas DITA Users Group
Wednesday, December 12, 2007 @ 7:00-9:00 pm CST:.
Eric Sirois of IBM Canada on "Using DITA for Eclipse Infocenters." Eric will give this presentation from Canada via the web. This will be an extremely valuable session for anyone who is considering using DITA to consolidate corporate information on a centralized web site, or for delivering component-based information.
Silicon Valley DITA Interest Group
Wednesday, December 12 at 7:00pm PST:
Year-end wrap-up social at Buca di Beppo restaurant in Campbell
Agenda: 7:00-9:00 - Dinner and DITA. Please RSVP to Scott Prentice by December 11 (or sooner) if you're planning to attend. They need the list of all attendees ahead of time for reservations.
Robert Anderson on Extending the Open Toolkit
We recorded Robert Anderson's remote (from Minneapolis) presentation at the Silicon Valley DITA Interest Group November meeting. We captured it (in Cambridge) with our Elluminate Academic Office. We converted it to a Flash movie using Camtasia Studio 5. It is available here with a table of contents.
Have you given a DITA presentation? Would you like to go through it again? We can record your voice and add the presentation to our stock of tutorials to help others get started with DITA. Contact Bob Doyle.
DITA at the XML 2007 Conference
The IdeaAlliance XML 2007 Conference theme was "XML in Practice". XML 2007 featured a Documents and Publishing Track, with important presentations on DITA as a fine example of XML in practice.
The opening presentation, by Eric Severson of Flatiron Solutions, argued that DITA is taking the world by storm (PPT). Entitled "Practical Lessons for DITA Implementation," Severson had an excellent slide that compared DITA to DocBook, showing how Topics are assembled by Maps and DocBook is a monolithic document.
Eliot Kimber of Really Strategies reported on the conversion of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) rules and regulations to DITA. The Financial Accounting Foundation (mandated by government but supported by industry and sales of regulations to publishers) wanted to produce a new codification of the U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, for which a DITA-based but highly specialized XML application was developed. FASB knew they wanted to go to XML. They considered DocBook and some other mature standards. They considered a custom XML development, which Kimber had done many times in his career and knew would be very costly and time consuming. But they settled on DITA, for cost reasons and because DITA met requirements better than the alternatives.
Kimber did the overall design and the specializations needed. One or two FASB staff worked on it, and a small team at Ovitas provided the dynamic delivery from their business process portal backed by the e:CLS (empolis) CMS. Tibor Tscheke reported on the work at Ovitas (PPT). The authoring tool was PTC Arbortext Editor. This portal will provide updates to publishers in XML. FASB soon will offer a new public-facing web information portal, generated from the original DITA topics, using a Fatwire Content Server and Oracle XDB database.
John Hunt of IBM reported on the work of his OASIS subcommittee on Learning and Training Content Specialization.
Eliot Kimber than led an all-afternoon DITA Quick Start training session. We videotaped a large part of this tutorial and will post it on ditausers.org/tutorials.
Several attendees contributed conference writeups and comments.
DITA Open Toolkit 1.4.1
Robert Anderson announced the release of version 1.4.1 of the DITA Open Toolkit, now available from the DITA-OT project page at SourceForge.
This release consists primarily of small bug fixes and minor enhancements. It also includes several patches submitted by users over the last year, some of which were unintentionally left out of the 1.4 release.
Several posts to the dita-users mailing list at Yahoo indicate people are having some trouble getting the OT 1.4 installed and working properly. We are all looking forward to updated installation documentation and a new edition of Anna van Raaphorst and Dick Johnson's very valuable Open Toolkit User Guide, now expected as early as next week.
<oXygen/> XML Editor now DITA-compliant
Version 9 of the <oXygen/> XML Editor now has comprehensive DITA support.
The main feature of version 9.0 is a CSS-based visual XML editor allowing WYSIWYG-like editing of XML documents. <oXygen/> allows you to work with XML frameworks (DocBook, DITA, TEI, XHTML, etc) easier than ever before. Version 9 adds a new concept called Document Type that allows you to provide ready-to-use support for a framework or an XML language and share it with other users. This version also brings improved error reporting for validation, additional side view helpers, some component updates and a number of other features.
<oXygen/> is a complete cross-platform XML editor providing the tools for XML authoring, XML conversion, XML Schema, DTD, Relax NG and Schematron development, XPath, XSLT, XQuery debugging, SOAP and WSDL testing. It has visual editing support for DocBook, DITA, TEI, and XHTML.
The integration with the XML document repositories is made through the WebDAV, Subversion and S/FTP protocols. We are excited about WebDAV access because DITA Users workspace folders can now be WebDAV enabled via HTTPS. <oXygen/> also can browse, manage and query native XML and relational databases.
The <oXygen/> XML editor is also available as an Eclipse IDE plugin, a unique XML development feature. With Eclipse tools for DITA like the IBM Task Modeler, and Eclipse Help as our tool to create the DITA Infocenter, we are enthusiastic about <oXygen/> and Eclipse.
XMLmind XML Editor now DITA 1.1 compatible
The DITA add-on for XMLmind XML Editor now fully supports the DITA DTD 1.1. It includes its own minimal copy of DITA Open Toolkit version 1.4. It fully supports CALS tables and simpletables. It also supports conrefs.
Pixware, the XMLmind developers, say they are planning more DITA support but that the current level is to encourage those integrating XMLmind into various DITA XML CMS.
DITA for Enterprise Business Documents
On 3 November 2007, the DITA TC resolved to form a DITA for Enterprise Business Documents Subcommittee. The new subcommittee was proposed by Michael Boses of In.vision Research and Ann Rockley of the Rockley Group, who will be subcommittee co-chairs. Initial membership includes Peter Meyer of Elkera, who developed the related Business Narrative Markup Language (BNML).
Their proposal said "In the past year, a growing number of organizations have come to believe that DITA not only provides the best basis from which to start addressing their requirements for structured authoring of narrative business documents, but that characteristics of DITA simplify the usability issues as well. The DITA standard is so compelling that the absence of a sub-committee focus on narrative business documents has not stopped several organizations from embarking on the use of DITA for this purpose.
"Many of us who are currently engaged in DITA-based business document projects feel that this is an ideal time for the DITA technical committee to support the efforts of these business users with standardized approaches and experienced-based guidance. A background document has been uploaded to the OASIS site and may be accessed by interested parties."
New Benefits for DITA Users Members
The DITA Users international membership organization will soon be offering new benefits to its members.
A $100/year membership will include the choice of the leading book on DITA or a deskto