Hyperviews Online

Bill Dranall is exploring the relationship between content management and information design in the Orange County STC (OCSTC) newsletter, TechniScribe. The current installment is on page 6 of the December, 2007 issue:  http://www.ocstc.org/pdf/ts122007.pdf

A DITA collaboration solution is available for SharePoint 2007 Server, DITA Exchange. The DITA Exchange Product Fact Sheet is available: http://194.192.14.222/_layouts/dx/DxPublic/dx/DxFactSheet-2007-04.pdf

UC Davis has a web content management initiative, and did a survey on CMS use in universities. The project web site is at http://cms.ucdavis.edu/index.html

The University Web Developers mailing list (http://www.usask.ca/web_project/uwebd/) is reported to have discussions on use of content management systems.

Web Content Management - CM Pros Fall 2007 Summit. November 26, 2007, Boston, MA. http://www.cmprosevents.org

The focus is Web Content Management Technologies and Their Impact on the Way We Work. The Fall 2007 CM Pros Summit, takes place November 26, 2007 (in conjunction with the 4th Annual Gilbane Conference on Content Technologies Boston) at the Westin Copley Place. Early bird registrants save $100 on registration by September 30, 2007.

Web content management software has made it possible for organizations to increase workplace efficiency through collaboration, eliminate unnecessary waste through automation, lower cost of production through process improvements and workflow routing, and, perhaps most importantly, make possible the delivery of relevant content with pinpoint accuracy, increasingly, on demand. When localization and translation enter the equation, these benefits grow exponentially.

Where can organizations find the knowledge needed to take advantage of these powerful, paradigm-shifting technologies? The CM Pros Fall 2007 Summit is an excellent starting place. (more…)

If you’re in need of comprehensive information about today’s content management systems, try these sources:

http://www.cmswatch.com/ (offering a report comparing nearly 30 systems, both open source and commercial enterprise systems)

http://www.opensourcecms.com/ (listing available systems)

http://www.cmsmatrix.org/matrix (providing comparisons)

Enterprise systems currently in use include:

• Vignette - V7 Content Management
• Documentum (EMC) and Documentum Web Publisher
• IBM - Workplace WCM
• RedDot (Open Text)  and RedDot CMS
• Interwoven - TeamSite
• Oracle - Stellent Web Content Management

Dr. JoAnn Hackos, content management expert, advises on what organizations need to know to move legacy documentation to DITA in an exclusive interview: http://www.dclab.com/DCLNews0903.asp#LSTORY2

Part of the charter of the Online SIG is using content management to organize and present STC information. Hyperviews Online is published using an open source content management system, WordPress. We have published and linked to articles on content management, and we continually gather resources on the subject. Web resources are listed here, including web sites and web glossaries, magazines, and resource lists. (more…)

These tools are said to be able to represent, graphically, the nesting of levels of elements and sub-elements within a DTD file:

TIBCO’s TurboXML shows the structure tree and can ceate example XML files

XML Spy, but you may have to turn the DTD into a schema first.

LiveDTD provides easy navigation among the various DTD components via hyperlink. but not visualization

CM Professionals, the international content management community of practice, is changing its public image with the December 7 launch of its new public-facing website: http://www.cmprofessionals.org/

“The outcome of our latest website questionnaire told us that our members wanted an improved website. Having a new website and better tooling was already our ambition, so we did our best to provide one to coincide with our Fall Summit, 27 November 2006”, says STC Fellow Ann Rockley, CEO of The Rockley Group (Canada) and former CM Pros President.

The contents of the CM Pros website has been brought back to the essentials and the navigation is made much more accessible. Members already responded enthusiastic on the new graphical design, made by Studio Zipper. (more…)

Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), a division of the American Library Association. 2007 LITA National Forum: Technology with Altitude: 10 Years of the LITA National Forum. Denver, Colorado, USA. October 4-7, 2007.

Presentations will have a technological focus and pertain to libraries and/or be of interest to librarians. The scope of the conference call for papers included:

1. Social Computing: social tools, collaborative software, gaming technologies…

2. New Media: wireless connectivity, iPods, handhelds… (more…)

By the STC Online SIG. Originally published February 2006. Revised September 2006.

Based on input from Destry Wion, member, Online SIG web team

There are many open source systems that provide functionality that a dynamic site for an STC SIG might need. To select a system, match the objectives and requirements for the dynamic SIG site to each candidate open source system, and choose a system that supports the maximum number of site objectives and requirements without customization.

The major activities in selecting an open source system are described here. (more…)

Edukalibre is a project funded by the European Commission under the Socrates/Minerva program, to promote information and communications technology in education.

The main goal is to explore new ways of producing educational materials, based on the practices and procedures observed in libre (free, open source) software development.

Find more information and try the system at http://edukalibre.org/. The formats are Latex and DocBook. There is integration with the learning management system Moodle. Conversion to HTML and PDF is reported to be available.

by Marcia Poulsen, member, Central New York chapter and Online SIG

The feedback I’ve received on my presentation, originally posted on this site Aug. 5, has inspired me to revise it. The updated version is entitled “The Three Core Topic Types: Concept, Task, Reference” (PPT, 4.5 MB).

Thanks to all who contributed thoughts.

This is a presentation made by Ian Koss to the Suncoast Chapter in Tampa, Florida, on August 3, 2006, posted by chapter president Tom Johnson.

Ian Koss is founder of Ink19, which was at one time one of the largest free music magazines in the U.S. His team began publishing in the early 90s in the traditional print medium, but changed to an online format as the Internet emerged. In this 40 minute podcast, Ian explains how the online medium required their writers to rethink and restructure their writing.

Ian talks about such topics as the transience of print versus the permanence of content online, attention spans, online structure and layout, metadata, search engine optimization, semantic markup, single-sourcing and XML, readership anonymity, tracking users, profitability, banner ads, linking, designing for a range, milisecond judgment, the sense of incompleteness, and unpredictability.

The file is 16 megs. I recommend that you download it to your computer by right-clicking the Download link (yes, the small one on the bottom right) and selecting Save Target As. In Firefox, just click the file and download it using the Download Manager.

You can then drag the file into your MP3 player and listen to it wherever you may be — driving, working out, waiting in line or anyplace you choose.

Listen Now:

 Writing for the Online World: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (256)

by Marcia Poulsen, member, CNY chapter and Online SIG

Should writers use gerunds in topic titles, for example, “Balancing the Checkbook”?

There’s been some excellent, thought-provoking discussion on STC’s Online SIG list on this question recently. It’s a question that I’ve wrestled with for a while, not just for online Help but for topic-based writing in any medium. I’ve read everything I could get my hands on about topic-based (modular) writing, I’ve studied examples of online Help, and I’ve debated this question with anyone who’s interested.

Here’s what I’ve found. (more…)