Developing a Capacity Plan is vital if you want to understand how much capacity will be required to support your IT systems and, by extension, the infrastructure that supports it.

Think about it.

If you plan to install a new large-scale solution, for example, IBM WebSphere or SAP, you also need to consider the impact these will have on your existing systems.

1. Capacity Planning & Outsourcing

Another area where Capacity Plan is vital is outsourcing. Say you plan to outsource your Help Desk to a third party firm.

Well, for them to support the system technically (not from a business perspective) they need to prepare a Capacity Plan that details the technical requirements to support this solution.

2. Developing a Capacity Plan strategy

• Assess the current solution and component performance
• Identify constraints that may be imposed on the system
• Use this information to develop the Capacity Plan for component acquisition, configuration, and upgrade.
• Make recommendations on how the Capacity Plan should be maintained, monitored and updated as necessary.

3. Benefits of a Capacity Plan

Developing a Capacity Plan ensures that business and technical requirements can be supported by the infrastructure and application elements of the new solution. In this case, the Help Desk or the IBM back office solution.

4. Management Guidance

The Capacity Plan provides management with:

• Breakdown of the resource capabilities required to operate the solution
• Assessment of current capacities
• Estimates on the resources and services to be upgraded and acquired
• Projection of resource and services capacities that may be required by the solution
• Capacity Planning ensures that there is sufficient processing capacity to run these new applications and for some predetermined time into the future as your business expands.

A well-defined Capacity Plan takes into consideration the likelihood that your business will grow and provides the appropriate estimates so you can develop the systems in line with these projection and also budget accordingly.

5. Capacity Plan Risks

If your company runs out of system processing capacity at some point (for example, due to increased user numbers, higher business volumes), the system’s performance will begin to suffer and you may be faced to upgrade the system (and associated applications) or move to a different more powerful system/server to process these applications.

To ensure that these applications can process the application load at cutover, and for some period of time following this, develop and check your capacity plan.

Capacity Plan Template

The method and results of this study should then be captured in the Capacity Plan document.

By Gerry McGovern

Like all great self-service organizations, Starbucks knows that you should never keep the customer waiting.

The July 2006 like-for-like sales for Starbucks were lower than expected. This was rare for such a high performance company and resulted in an 11 percent decline in the share price after the news was announced.

According to Starbucks’ chief executive, Jim Donald, the reason why sales had not met expectations was because Starbucks was keeping its customers waiting too long. “We believe we are losing some espresso business due to longer than normal wait times in both cafes and drive-thrus during peak morning hours,” he stated.

And what caused this delay? Iced frappuccinos and other cold drinks.

“Customers are embracing these cold blended beverages as a morning staple to a degree that we had not anticipated,” Jim Donald stated. “We have recognized the opportunity to refine and improve our cold beverage station to make drink preparation more efficient and improve service over time but, in retrospect, we did not move aggressively enough.”

People are impatient.

They don’t want to have to wait a second longer than they absolutely have to. That is particularly so when they enter a self-service environment, because a key promise of self-service is that if you do it for yourself you’ll be able to do it faster.

You’re walking down the street. You’re hungry and thirsty. You approach two restaurants. One has a nice menu but it’s waiter-service. The other is self-service. It’s a decision between time, thirst, and taste. You choose self-service. You walk in and you wait.

There is a clock ticking fast in your head. You absolutely expect to be in and out of this place quickly. Because that’s what self-service is about and that’s what your website is about. A website that wastes time loses money.

People may like Starbucks but they hate to wait one second longer than they absolutely have to. A long queue is lost sales.

Self-service is forever married to convenience and speed.

The purpose of usability is to save the customer time. It took longer for Starbucks to prepare cold drinks than hot drinks.

Customers lost patience. Starbucks lost profits. A fast, convenient website gains customers. A poorly designed website loses customers.

I want to buy a new laptop. I used to buy IBM ThinkPads and was really happy with them. Lenovo took over the ThinkPad range.

Last year I went to the Lenovo website. I was a loyal customer.

I wanted to buy from them. The website was awful. I went to a competitor.

This year I read really great reviews of the ThinkPad T60 and X60. I go back to the Lenovo Ireland website. There’s a graphic on the homepage that has a picture of two laptops, with the heading: “The power of 2 in 1″. I click on the image. This website is soooo slow.

Finally, I arrive at a webpage with the heading: “Lenovo care”, which has nothing to do with selling me a laptop. I want to buy from Lenovo, but this website is making it really hard for me.

Starbucks knows-at a most senior management level-that in a convenience society, convenience is king. How long will it take other senior managers to realize that their websites have a direct impact on their organization’s performance?

About Gerry McGovern

Contact Gerry to develop your next Content Management Solutions at www.gerrymcgovern.com

Sarah O’Keefe (Scriptorium) discusses STC’s new dues structure: Dues are going up; Printed publications are no longer included in basic dues; No chapter or SIG membership are included in the basic dues.

She adds that while reaction is largely negative, she finds value from her STC membership and gives some examples and reasons to join/stay with the STC. I have to confess that I disagree her on most all points.

STC gives Sarah a channel to attract new customers; many prospective customers find her at STC organized conferences. For example:

“During an STC conference a few years ago, I was approached by representatives of a government agency to discuss a major project. (I found out later they had attended my session to see if they wanted to talk to me. I apparently passed that test.) That meeting resulted in a new customer and over $250,000 in revenue for Scriptorium.”

Why join the STC?

Sarah gives several reasons why you should join/stay with the STC.

Here’s my thoughts:

1. If STC succeeds, you are more likely to find jobs that pay well because your work is respected.

I honestly don’t see how the success or failure of the STC has any material impact on my career. I’ve never joined the STC and managed to work for Intel, IBM and others for almost 20 years.

If the STC closed, would technical writers across the planet get their marching orders or see a cut in salary? Don’t think so, tbh.

Re: your work is respected.

I think this depends on the company and people you work for.

STC membership doesn’t automatically earn you any respect, certainly not with the negative perception surrounding the STC, i.e. out of touch and broken.

Most HR and IT Managers are not aware of the STC and rarely if ever mention it in interviews.

2. You are less likely to be the first person laid off in a downturn.

Why?

Most HR Managers make their decisions on budgets, cutback and other factors.

It would be great if this membership gave an extra layer of protection but the reality is that if you’re going to get laid off, all the certs, degrees etc in the world don’t make one iota of difference.

3. You are less likely to find job postings that include general office work among technical communication tasks.

Not sure what this is about. Most job postings I see for technical writers don’t include ‘general office work’, which I assume means admin tasks.

You are less likely to be replaced by another, less skilled, less expensive writer.

Read this s l o w l y.

• We made cut-backs to the technical writing dept in my last company; most of the technical writing tasks were shipped out to Poland and India.
• These guys and girls were less skilled and less expensive.
• Actually, the last 3 months at the place was spent up-skilling the offshore team.
• The company needed to reduce costs, full stop.
• The quality of the tech docs is not great but the share price is up. Analysts are positive regarding the company’s stance on ‘fiscal controls’.

4. If technical communication is valued, your work is less likely to be viewed like a commodity.

Now this is an interesting point. Is it valued?

Most of us who write for a living value the written word —that’s why we’re here, right? —but not everyone shares the same enthusiasm.

You could also replace ‘technical communication’ with any other job title and make the same argument.

• If software development is valued, your work is less likely to be viewed like a commodity.
• If quality control is valued, your work is less likely to be viewed like a commodity.
• If network admin is valued, your work is less likely to be viewed like a commodity.

Links:

A mercenary view of STC: http://www.scriptorium.com

Broken STC Model http://www.idratherbewriting.com

Bill Swallow http://techcommdood.com/?p=309

Final Thoughts

Going back to Sarah’s point about drumming up work at events.

My take on the STC and other groups, for example, LinkedIn, is that their value is in proportion to what you put in.

The more effort you make, the greater the returns.

Those that make an effort to ‘use’ the STC (in the best possible way) are likely to see their careers blossom.

If you sit on your hands, then nothing is likely to come your way.

What do you think?

Is the STC value for money?

You can now download the FrameMaker 9.0.3 patch.

Mahesh (http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm over on Adobe does a great job of keeping us up to date with all things FrameMaker. This is available through Adobe Update Manager (AUM). This patch (9.0p250) must be applied on top of 9.0.2 (9.0p237) only. You can check for updates through Help->Updates Menu in FrameMaker.

Manish writes that the following workflows are now enabled and/or supported with this patch:

• API Command — The “New document command” in the quick access bar doesn’t get disconnected from the API command “F_ApiDefineCommand”.
• DITA — On converting DITA map, which contains nested topicrefs, to a book the content of the topic files was hidden in folder templates. In 9.0.3, the folder containing template will be labeled as: []
• DocBook — The starter kit unifies the XML and SGML applications and fixes various formatting inconsistencies in the XML application.
• Fonts — Opening/importing files created in FrameMaker 7.2 with virtual fonts applied to the text now correctly shows the text in FrameMaker 9.
• Markers — The correct Index of Marker(IOM) is generated for a file containing Markers that use structured building blocks.
• Memory — Memory leak shouldn’t happen while creating a book with FrameMaker components from DITA map.
• Message Box — FrameMaker doesn’t crash while displaying a message box during FA_Note_PreQuitBook notification, on the second call of F_ApiUpdateTextInset() and when F_ApiAlert() is called from within a FA_Note_PostQuitDoc notification.
• PreserveEntity FDK client — This can be combined with XSLT in XML applications to preserve variables and special character handling when documents are round-tripped between FrameMaker and XML.
• Spelling Checker — This allows words with special characters to be added to dictionary. It also shows the words with suffix “(s)” as correctly spelled now.
• Table Designer — FrameMaker doesn’t crash on switching on different tabs of table designer when context is set for book and panels are iconized.
• Tables — Table row element hides while using DITAVAL filter.
• User Variables — Deletion of multiple user-variables from Variable Pod should not crash FrameMaker.

Image courtesy of Adobe.com

Structured Documents

Manish adds that in structured document, now you can hide child elements even when in Show state if the parent element is hidden using conditional text. This is an additional option.

How Conditional Text works in FrameMaker 9.0.3

Download PDF on how Conditional Text works in FrameMaker 9.0.3

Get the PDF on Acrobat.com - https://share.acrobat.com

DPI resolution for PNG, JPG and GIF files

Adobe says that the dimensions and default dpi resolution for PNG, JPG and GIF files should not get corrupted when imported in FrameMaker.

FrameMaker 9.0.3 Release Notes

Technical information is at: http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2009/10/framemaker_903_available_now.html

Wording of this technical document

Some of the wording is a bit odd. It refers several times to features that ‘may’ work.

What do they mean it may work? When will it not work? And why not?

Maybe I’m just being picky but these vague statements don’t encourage me to believe that it actually works. It’s more like Adobe is saying “well, whatever, it might work…”

I find this a bit odd. Does it work or not?

C’mon guys!

For those involved in out-sourcing or off-shoring, Andy Rappaport discusses why outsourcing works for the IT industry but fails in the automobile industry. He writes that “the U.S. IT industry has been able to innovate over the past 20 years even while ceding leadership of component technologies and basic processes.”

For example:

1. Apple enjoys an unfettered supply of leading edge technology because its software, design, marketing, and retail prowess give it ultimate control over customer spending.

2. Amazon, Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, AT&T, and Qualcomm have used their investments in software, services, infrastructure, and intellectual property to do the same.

3. All use their market power to force upstream vendors to invest for them to make the inputs to downstream innovations and transformations cheaper and more plentiful.

4. As long as they innovate sufficiently to follow the flow of market value downstream, all are able to limit the eventual return and market power accruing to these upstream innovations.

However, he warns that this model breaks down “where U.S. companies and innovators do not naturally control downstream demand. Take batteries for electric vehicles. The U.S. has ceded both innovation in the critical building block (the battery) as well as leadership in the integration of these blocks into downstream value (competitive automobiles).”

Full article here: http://blogs.harvardbusiness.com

I’ve made a list of the top 50 technical writers with a web presence. Some of these you might know, such as Darren Barefoot and Tom Johnson. I have also added some other writers from India, Russia and Israel to reach out to a wider audience. I’m sure there are others that I’ve missed. Let me know and I’ll update the list.

This week’s new additions include Alan Houser, Char James-Tanny, Cheryl Locket-Zubak , Colum McAndrew, Joe Welinske, Michael Hughes, and Paul Mueller.

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Update:

Thanks to everyone who sent in other technical writers that I overlooked. I’ve now added:

Geoffrey Sauer, Addison Berry, Jean Hollis Weber, Jim Campbell, Sarah O’Keefe, Shaun McCance, Shira Stepansky, Svi Ben Elya and Scott Able

Back to the list…

Top 50 Technical Writers

In alphabetical order, here is the list.

1.  Aaron Davis and Scott Nesbitt http://www.dmncommunications.com

2.  Amanda Abelove http://www.abelove.com

3.  Amy Gahran http://contentious.com

4.  Andrew Brooke http://techwriters-world.blogspot.com

5.  Andy Schaub www.andyschaub.wordpress.com

6.  Aneesha Myles Shewani www.linkedin.com

7.  Anindita Basu http://writing-technical.blogspot.com

8.  Anne Gentle http://www.justwriteclick.com

9.  Apoorv Durga http://www.apoorv.info

10.Arden Gatlin www.liveperson.com

11.Avi Aharon: GUI Yourself http://gui-yourself.blogspot.com

12.Barbara Stuhlemmer http://techwriterblogs.com/doku.php

13.Berkun blog http://www.scottberkun.com/blog

14.Bill Albing http://www.keycontent.org

15.Bobbie Jo Morrell www.morrellimage.com

16.Bokardo.com http://bokardo.com

17.Chris Borokowski www.user-advocacy.blogspot.com

18.Dan Mabee http://managetechpubs.wordpress.com

19.Darren Barefoot http://www.darrenbarefoot.com

20.David Farbey http://www.farbey.co.uk (updated url)

21.Dawn L. Brown www.dawnsdesktop.com

22.Dr. Macro http://drmacros-xml-rants.blogspot.com

23.Edward W. Dodds http://edodds.blogs.com/conmergence

24.FastForward http://www.fastforwardblog.com

25.Gordon McLean www.onemanwrites.co.uk

26.Heather Leigh :http://blog.CrazyforWords.com

27.Ivan Walsh, Ireland www.ivanwalsh.com

28.Janet Swisher http://www.janetswisher.com

29.KJ Maas www.kjmaas.com

30.Laura Shaffer Mills www.redwriteblue.com

31.Liz Carver http://www.is-people.org

32.Mark Glinsky www.markglinsky.com

33.Mark Watson www.markwatson.com

34.Matt Anderson http://www.montagecomms.com

35.Mike Brannon www.mikeabrannon.com

36.Mike Unwalla http://www.techscribe.co.uk

37.Paul Pehrson http://blog.paulpehrson.com

38.Paul Stamatiou http://paulstamatiou.com

39.Prakash Rangarajan http://www.cloudtrance.com

40.Robert Wisbey http://www.robertwisbey.com/main.html

41.Robert B. Stepno www.stepno.com/bobres.html

42.Sarah Maddox http://ffeathers.wordpress.com

43.Seth Gottlieb http://www.contenthere.blogspot.com

44.Steve Borsch http://borsch.typepad.com

45.Steven Jong http://stevenjong.net/WordPress

46.Suresh Digital Dreams http://www.techpings.com

47.Susanne Dyrhage www.proz.com/profile/72014

48.Tim McGuinness www.timmcguinness.com

49.Tom Coates http://www.plasticbag.org

50.Tom Johnson www.idratherbewriting.com

New Additions

51. Geoffrey Sauer, EServer Technical Communication Library

Geoffrey Sauer, for his EServer Technical Communication Library at http://tc.eserver.org. Tom Johnson reckons that this is the most popular technical communications site in the world (http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2008/12/02/tceserverorg-the-most-popular-technical-communication-website-in-the-world/

Its readership data at http://tc.eserver.org/about/recent.lasso, shows that it serves 167,000 hits to over 22,700 visitors per day.

52. Addison Berry, Drupal documentation lead: http://rocktreesky.com

53. Jean Hollis Weber, documentation co-lead for OpenOffice.org: http://www.jeanweber.com

54. Jim Campbell, documentation lead for xfce desktop environment: http://j1m.net

55. Sarah O’Keefe, Scriptorium

President of Scriptorium Publishing, setup in 1996 to provide editing and production services to technical writing departments. In 2002, Sarah received her Certified Technical Trainer (CTT+) accreditation from CompTIA. Her presentations at international, national, and regional conferences (including STC, tekom, and WritersUA) have consistently earned high ratings. http://www.scriptorium.com/about/people/sarah-okeefe

56. Shaun McCance, Gnome documentation lead: http://blogs.gnome.org/shaunm

57. Esther Shira Stepansky – Technical writer, Web Site Administrator (Webmaster), and content contributor to http://elephant.org.il.

58. Svi Ben Elya – Founder of Elephant.org.il in Israel http://elephant.org.il

59. Scott Able – The Content Wrangler

“Content management strategist and social media choreographer with strengths in helping organizations improve the way they author, maintain, publish and archive their information assets.”  http://thecontentwrangler.com/about-2/

Update Nov 19^th

This week’s updates take up to 66, the year I was born, so that can’t be so bad.

60. Alan Houser – http://www.groupwellesley.com & http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/alan/houser

61. Char James-Tanny – www.helpstuff.com & http://www.linkedin.com/in/charjt

62. Cheryl Locket-Zubak  - www.workwrite.com and www.linkedin.com/in/workwrit

63. Colum McAndrew, The RoboColum(n) blog at http://notcolin.wordpress.com

64. Joe Welinske – President of WritersUA www.writersua.com/jwbio.htm

65. Michael Hughes – user-assistance.blogspot.com

66. Paul Mueller – www.useraid.com

Honorable Mention

I’ve also added these three sites as, while they are a great resource. I’m not sure who the editor is. Of maybe there are several people involved. If you know, please tell me and I’ll update.

1.  Svi Ben-Elya and the Elephant organization http://www.elephant.org.il (Thanks Svi!)

2.  DMN http://www.dmncommunications.com/weblog (Aaron Davis and Scott Nesbitt)

3.  Le Blog d’Habib http://elhabib.fakir.free.fr (still trying to find out)

Where did this list come from?

I was preparing a report on freelance technical writers and noticed how hard it was to find technical writing sites run by writers, most were recruitment site.

So, I dug a little deeper and began to find writers here and there. There is nothing scientific in this list. It’s based purely on the websites that came up on Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Other technical writers who may not have websites, such as those involved in the STC, didn’t make the cut. Nothing personal here it’s just that I have no visibility on their contribution to the tech docs industry so it’s hard to gauge their impact.

Add Me!

Let me know who I missed – maybe you should be here – with maybe a few words about your/their role.

I’ll update this list and, fingers crossed, we’ll get it up to 100!

• Review of Groundswell – Social Media Technologies Forrester Research http://bit.ly/Lsol9 #
• RT @StanChu Facebook Developer Garage Shanghai June 27 http://bit.ly/B3rzD #
• YAK WordPress open source shopping cart. Developed by SourceForge http://ping.fm/w502b #
• Stunning Twitter Timeline – Evolution of Twitter in the last 3 years http://bit.ly/rxe2r #
• Google Insights. Web Search Volume for Social Media http://ping.fm/YRPDB #
• Why XML automation might help prevent the next financial crisis http://ping.fm/FuD63 #
• eBay Tip – How to create an effective listing http://ping.fm/Oz2am #
• LinkedIn User Guide. Get the most from this social networking site http://ping.fm/vBjfy #
• 5 Ways Your Business Can Profit From Web 2.0 http://ping.fm/ymZR6 #
• Schwarzenegger issues total recall of California’s textbooks to help state avoid bankruptcy. http://ping.fm/d8SxA #
• How to Add Color to a Kindle http://ping.fm/kQMRn #
• New blog post: Word 2003 Tip – How to Change the Background Color in a Word Document http://bit.ly/w4x5z #
• New blog post: How to Change the Windows Desktop Theme http://bit.ly/uKCgg #
• DITA2wiki toolkit lets you publish DITA content (maps and topics) to a Wiki http://ping.fm/6IhVN #
• Dutch Gov. To Tax Online Media To Bailoit Print Media http://ping.fm/z972m #
• Wired – 5 Signs Obama Is a Geek http://ping.fm/8PG8z #
• Microsoft Open XML Format SDK 1.0. New file format based on XML called Open XML Formats. MSDN http://ping.fm/NsI6I #
• Web Publishing – XDocs DITA Component CMS includes XML editor and publishing engine http://ping.fm/llvVn #
• Bing – What’s New in Version 1.1b of the Live Search API http://ping.fm/CZAxH #
• Twitter Bait – The Analytics of a Viral Piece of Content http://flic.kr/p/6z4dEy #
• The Interface of a Cheeseburger http://ping.fm/08fXE #
• Twitter Bait – The Analytics of a Viral Piece of Content http://bit.ly/EJkmx #

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Hi Folks. Thanks to everyone who sent me in links on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture . I have gathered them all in this page. 

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FAQs about the DarwinInformation Typing Architecture

DITA experts Don Day, Michael Priestley, and Gretchen Hargis address the
topic architecture of DITA, tips and techniques, and general DITA
questions.

Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)

Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is a system of Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and conventions for authoring and delivering technical information.

Specializing topic types in DITA
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) provides a way for documentation authors and architects to create collections of typed topics that can be easily assembled into

 Specializing domains in DITA
This article shows you how to leverage the extensible DITA DTD to describe new domains of information

Migrating HTML to DITA, Part 2: Extend the migration for more robust results
Two part series on how to quickly migrate HTML topics to DITA, the author explains the details of migration, and shows you how

Introduction to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture

This document is a roadmap for DITA: what it is and how it applies to
technical documentation.

DITA Forum
Get answers to your questions in this DITA forum, hosted by Don Day and Michael Priestley, contributors to DITA and the papers that describe DITA and how to use it.

Generate DITA Java API reference documentation using DITADoclet

Combine DITADoclet and DITA API specialization to save time and still
produce quality API documentation directly from the Java source code

Migrating HTML to DITA, Part 1: Simple steps to
move from HTML to DITA

Get a quick start with DITA using available HTML topics Document options Document options requiring JavaScript are not displayed Free software for rapid results 

Implement a DITA publishing solution without
abandoning your current publishing system investments

XML-based information architecture for learning
content, Part 1: A DITA specialization design

Can topic-based DITA XML provide the basis for developing an information architecture for single-sourced

Why use DITA to produce HTML deliverables?
This article explores advantages DITA provides for producing HTML content

Tip: Easy command line processing with the DITA
Open Toolkit
The DITA Open Toolkit can transform your DITA files into a wide
variety of output types. When you first install it, it’s easy to get the
impression that you need to know Ant well to use it, but you can pack most of its available options into a single Java(TM) command line

An XML-based information architecture for learning content, Part 2: A DITA content pilot
Find out how topic-based DITA XML can provide the basis for developing an information architecture

Transform Eclipse navigation files to DITA navigation files
Eclipse navigation files to Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)
format.

Design patterns for information architecture with DITA map domains
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) provides maps for
assembling topics into deliverables. By specializing the map elements, you can define a formal information architecture.

DITA topic specialization
Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) topic specialization is and
the syntax

Subject classification with DITA and SKOS
Use a DITA specialization to manage the subject matter of your document
content

Transform Eclipse navigation files to DITA navigation files
This article provides an XSLT stylesheet for converting Eclipse TOC files to
DITA map files.

Generate DITA Java API reference documentation
using DITADoclet and DITA API specialization
Automatically create reference documentation from Java source with DITA API specialization

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The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is one of those topics that get mentioned in the tech writing community. Over here in Shanghai I’ve had a few meetings with companies wanting to get a handle on what’s involved and some URLs for them to look at.

I thought I’d share these with you. Many are from the IBM site as it is committed to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and is one of the drivers behind OASIS. If you know of any more, please let me know.

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• Specializing topic types in DITA article (developerWorks, updated September 2005).
• Read Erik Hennum’s article Specializing domains in DITA, which shows you how to leverage the extensible DITA DTD to describe new domains of information

Interesting article over on IBM DeveloperWorks where Elliotte Rusty Harold prognosticates what he thinks is in store for XML. For those of us in technical communications, the section on XML and structured authoring made me re-think my assessment of XML.

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Here’s an extract:

“Before a document can be published, it has to be authored, and here the fight is over. XML has won. All major office suites now save their documents in zipped XML by default.

These include Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, StarOffice, WordPerfect Office, and Lotus® Notes®. Even graphic applications like Adobe® Illustrator® can now save documents as XML. The most notable hold-out is Apple’s iWork, but look for it to join the parade in the new year.”

He adds that “For Microsoft, the nightmare of a younger, nimbler competitor overtaking them is also coming true.

The company was so distracted by Sun and Netscape that it failed to notice Google sneaking up on Office and Windows. GMail, Google Docs, and similar applications from a variety of sources are rapidly rendering the underlying operating system irrelevant.”

Read about The future of XML 

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Of all the technical writing tools I’ve used over the years, Epic Editor was probably the most impressive, especially when it came to doing tech documents that involved DocBook and Dita.

It was difficult to learn – no point pretending otherwise – but once I got the hang of it, I used it non-stop for over 2 years. Then I switched companies are haven’t had the opportunity to use it again. With that in mind, here is a brief intro to EPIC Editor, Ivan’s favorite XML Authoring Software!
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What type of document types does EPIC Editor support?

First up, let’s define a document type. According to EPIC it “refers to a collection of files that together create an application for creating and publishing documents.”

Examples of different document types include:

• Schema or DTD
• Stylesheet(s)
• Sample and template instances
• Configuration files
• Programming files that further customize the authoring or publishing environment

What document types are available in EPIC?

EPIC Editor supports the following types:

ATI XML DocBook — version of the DocBook DTD extended to provide profiling and equation editing.

• ATI Simplified XML DocBook Article — extended to provide profiling and equation editing.
• ATI Very Simple XML DocBook Article is a schema-based (.xsd) XML document type based on the ATI Simple XML DocBook Article. This document type has no DTD.
• ATI Catalog is an Arbortext-developed document type, based on DocBook 4.0, for catalog applications.
• Article is an article format based on ISO 12083.
• DITA Concept, Reference, Task, and Topic — the primary categories used for technical documentation.
• Book – book format based on ISO 12083.
• DocBook V4.0 – used for computer software documentation.
• News Release – format for preparing news releases.
• Correspondence – for business letter or memo format with several styles to choose from.
• General Purpose Document  - reports, books, and other types of documents.
• ATI-MIL-M-38784C – CALS standard document type.
• HTML V4.01 – for publishing information on the web.
• XHTML V1.0.
• Free-form XML – for creating valid XML documents that do not have schema or DTD declarations.
• ASCII  - standard unformatted text character set.

How does it work?

The interface is simple and lets you get at the XML tags very easily.

This screenshot shows the results of a test on the clarity of the document (ie its readability) and the number of words.

Next is the toolbar.

This offers a range of features that should keep most all Technical Writers satisfied if they want to develop nice, compliant XML and DocBooks.

Note that you can create tags, split sections, insert tags, and check their integrity.

EPIC Editor won’t let you add tags if they are in the wrong sequence. It this sense it can be very unforgiving – but it is simply trying to retain the integrity of the underlying code. Once you understand how XML works, it gets much more intuitive.

You can also import text files from your PC and add them to the document set.

Once you have the document ready, you can compile it to Windows Help or transform it to:

• ASCII
• DITA
• Docbook source
• XHTML

You can also add entities and prolog definitions, but this is more for advanced users.

Tip: you can also select part of the text and validate it only.

Here you can insert markups into the content, usually as tags.

Preferences

You can configure it in different ways. For example, you can ask it to show Attributes, Comments, and Tag prompts. Whichever suits your style of working.

This gives you an idea of how it checks the xml code. Work your way through the errors and fix each one after reviewing it.

Like I said, I haven’t used this for a while. Let me know if you’ve used it recently and seen any changes.

How does it compare to other technical writing tools you have used?
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In a recent survey, Scriptorium Publishing found that a majority of technical writers will be working in a structured authoring environment by 2010.

Structured authoring is a publishing workflow that defines and automatically enforces consistent organization of information. Implementations are generally based on Extensible Markup Language (XML).

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“Most of our consulting projects involve XML,” said Sarah O’Keefe, President, Scriptorium Publishing. “This survey shows that our anecdotal experiences, such as the importance of change management, match the industry situation.”

The survey, conducted in early 2009, had more than 600 responses.

Participants cited content reuse, document consistency, and cost/effort of developing content as the primary factors driving them into structured authoring.

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) standard was the dominant standard employed.

40 percent of existing implementations and approximately 60 percent of in-progress and planned implementations are based on DITA.

Implementations were generally quite successful.

90 percent of respondents with completed implementations reported that they had improved document consistency.

86 percent were successful in content reuse, and 70 percent reduced the cost and effort of developing content.

When asked about implementation problems, 37 percent cited difficulties with project management, including “failure to plan” and “insufficient analysis.”

“The survey validates our current methodology,” said O’Keefe. “We establish goals and metrics long before any technical work begins.”

Change management was a significant concern. Of the 16 percent who did not plan to implement structured authoring, one third cited the inability of the staff to adjust to a new authoring environment as a factor.

Staff turnover was also a problem for nearly 30 percent of past and nearly 20 percent of current implementations.

The survey data indicates that private, customized training improves outcomes by increasing the percentages of respondents who achieved their goals. Interestingly, private training also correlated with change resistance.

The 56-page report is available at  www.scriptorium.com

Emma Hamerm, Senior Consultant at eHamer Associates Ltd, looks at the common fears around moving from unstructured to structured content, (and needing to learn about DITA and XML – which frightens many people more than they’ll admit to). Emma will explore some similes and metaphors that will help us understand the impact of these new methods and technologies on our way of working. Along the way, she will look at the root causes of resistance to change, and help break through self-imposed limitations, by reframing the challenge of change, and focusing on long-term benefits. Duration: 60 minutes

In this webinar you will learn:

• to look at your situation from a different perspective
• tools and techniques to recognize emotional responses to change and their root causes
• simple strategies to help yourself and your staff and colleagues through the transition to a new way of working
• how to use narrative and dialogue to surface hidden tensions and fears and deal with them honestly and openly

Learning to Love Structured Authoring

Syntext has released a free edition of its XML editor.

This is designed for technical writers who work with DITA, DocBook and other common XML formats. To reduce time from the authoring process, composite documents are rendered using XSLT and XSL-FO to achieve a print-like appearance.

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The XML editor supports Entity and XInclude editing, along with
drag-and-drop and instant validation against XML schemas.

You can publish content to multiple channels in a variety of languages, with support for multilingual spell-check.

Serna Enterprise adds drag-and-drop from Microsoft Word and web
browsers, along with support for large XML documents. Users can insert and edit DITA constructs including conrefs, xrefs, related links and topicrefs.

The enterprise version also integrates with publishing engines,
along with support for enterprise configuration and customized APIs.

Serna Free is compatible with both Windows and Mac platforms.

The Enterprise edition carries a price of $560.

Here’s a roundup of some of this week’s news. Next week, I’ll add more info on upcoming XML authoring software releases and the new Google Wave platform.
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Adobe launches Flash Catalyst tool for rapid UI design

Adobe launched the beta release of Flash Catalyst, a new authoring tool that aims to accelerate the development of rich user interfaces with Flash. The authoring tool is a response to growing demand for more polished enterprise applications. It is intended to complement Adobe’s Flex development tool, which the company has rebranded as Flash Builder.

http://arstechnica.com

Google Docs now supports MS Office 2007 file formats

Google added support for Microsoft’s Word and Excel 2007 default file formats to its online Docs office suite. Support for PowerPoint 2007’s file format remains out in the cold. The firm has added .docx and .xlsx to the list of file formats Google Docs accepts for uploading documents.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/

How to Write Release Notes?
Our partners site, Klariti.com, released a series of articles on how to write release notes. “Release Notes cover what’s new, download and installation instructions, known issues and frequently asked questions. Creating Release Notes is fairly straightforward. Create a Release Notes template and re-use it on each release.”

http://www.klariti.com/release-notes-templates/how-to-create-release-notes.shtml

Jing Pro Released to mixed reviews
Techsmith, the makers of Snagit and Camtasia, two of my favorite technical writing tools, released a premium version of Jing, it’s online screen capture software. Feedback was mixed from the tech writing community.

Official Jing blog here: http://blog.jingproject.com and our review over
http://www.ivanwalsh.com/2009/06/review-jing-pro-–-record-hd-quality-videos-for-youtube/

5 Things I Want to Know about Project Natal

Microsoft released Project Natal, a motion sensing device that allows you to control video games and Xbox 360 menus with your body instead of a peripheral controller. Natal gives you voice and full-body motion control over your on-screen avatar using an RGB camera, depth sensor, multi-array microphone, and custom processor running proprietary software. Microsoft released the Project Natal software development kit to game makers who want to incorporate Natal functionality into their products.

http://www.pcworld.com

Hulu Desktop for Mac, PC

Hulu Labs lets you play with new products and services as they are almost ready for prime time. Among the new toys of everyone’s favorite piracy-busting online video service is Hulu Desktop, a bona fide client for the service running on both Mac OS X and Windows computers. Hulu Desktop delivers Hulu straight to your desktop with no browser required (though you will need Flash installed). Hulu Desktop is wrapped with a media-center-like bow, with a customized “lean-back” UI that can run full screen and even respond to Apple Remotes and Windows Media Center remotes.

Microsoft select St. Paul for Silverlight Offices

Gita Sitaramiah reports that Microsoft has leased space at Wells Fargo Place in St. Paul, for a software development office. The tech giant had also considered locating in Minneapolis, where it currently is operating in temporary quarters. Initially, Microsoft is leasing around 12,000 square feet of space on the 24th floor of the Wells Fargo tower, employing 26 people at the start. The St. Paul office is a key part of Microsoft’s intent to build around Silverlight, a Web browser application that competes with Adobe Flash.

http://www.twincities.com/ci_12511706?source=most_emailed

Review of Groundswell – Winning in a world transformed by social technologies

Groundswell was our book of the week and well worth a look if you want to get an insight into how social media works on a business level. In other words: how to make money from social media. Customers are writing about your products on blogs and recutting your commercials on YouTube.

They’re defining you on Wikipedia and ganging up on you in social networking sites like Facebook. These are all elements of a social phenomenon — the groundswell — that has created a permanent, long-lasting shift in the way the world works. Most companies see it as a threat. You can see it as an opportunity.”

http://www.ivanwalsh.com/2009/06/review-of-groundswell-winning-in-a-world-transformed-by-social-technologies/

Why Google Squared Makes Bing Look Good

Google Squared is a specialized search engine that creates meaningful data from large data sources and lets you compare this information by adding different attributes. Think Excel+Wikipedia+Search Engine = Google Squared. This is not Google’s finest hour by any means. Take a look at some of the results it produced.

http://www.ivanwalsh.com/2009/06/google-squared-confirm-that-richard-nixon-was-a-quaker-obama-is-a-zombie-president/

Linux/Java-based Android platform to the MIPS architecture

Technical writers with an interest in Android and open source may be interested in this. Embedded Alley completed its port of the Linux/Java-based Android platform to the MIPS architecture. The Embedded Alley Development System for Android-based Devices initially targets devices ranging from set-top boxes (STBs) to industrial equipment running the MIPS-based RMI Au1250 processor. The Embedded Alley Development System for Android-based Devices is available now. http://www.linuxdevices.com

DITA webinar
FierceContentManagement are putting on a webinar on Thursday June 11th at 2:00 pm ET called Using DITA to Streamline Your Workflow. The webinar is sponsored by Just Systems and features Gilbane Group analysts and DITA experts, Bill Trippe and Dale Waldt.

http://www.fiercecontentmanagement.com

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Mark Poston, Senior Technical Consultant, at Mekon Ltd, describes how deploying DITA tools is not only possible, but can greatly improve the efficiency of your business.  For years organizations have wanted to get Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) creating Business Documentation in XML so it can be single-sourced and reused in various scenarios. DITA XML has proven usable, practical and effective where traditional XML has struggled to gain ground.

This case study is for anyone involved in the process of creation, publishing and delivering of different types of business document by non technical and distributed authors.  Mark will explain how the solution allows editors to manage each report from creation, management of copyright permissions, to final publication to print and digital distribution, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

Mark will discuss the scalable solution adopted by Key Note Ltd., a leading market research company in the UK, who wanted to improve their efficiency by moving to an XML-based editorial system.  Authors and editors are supplied with a familiar and easy to use Word environment for authoring XML content. They have the ability to dynamically render charts, import tables from Microsoft Excel, and create outputs in a number of formats.

Duration: 60 minutes
Cost: Free

In this free Webinar you will learn how through the use XML technologies to improve efficiencies in:

• Enable efficient multi-format, multi channel delivery
• Implement XML without scaring off business users
• Demonstrate return on investment
• Use the latest structured data standards and schemas
• Manage granular content and promote re-use
• Integrate purpose built XML data repositories with existing applications
• Reduce the time to market and improve quality

Watch this free DITA Webinar

A recent survey by Scriptorium Publishing found that most technical writers will be working in a structured authoring environment by 2010. Structured authoring is a publishing workflow that defines and automatically enforces consistent organization of information. Implementations are generally based on Extensible Markup Language (XML).

Sarah O’Keefe, President, Scriptorium Publishing says, “This survey shows that our anecdotal experiences, such as the importance of change management, match the industry situation.”

In the February 2009, 600 responses cited content reuse, document consistency, and cost/effort of developing content as the primary factors driving them into structured authoring.

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) standard was the dominant standard employed. Nearly 40 percent of existing implementations and approximately 60 percent of in-progress and planned implementations are based on DITA.

• 90 percent reported that they had improved document consistency.
• 86 percent were successful in content reuse, and
• 70 percent reduced the cost and effort of developing content.

When asked about implementation problems, 37 percent cited difficulties with project management, including “failure to plan” and “insufficient analysis.”

Change management was a significant concern. Of the 16 percent who did not plan to implement structured authoring, one third cited the inability of the staff to adjust to a new authoring environment as a factor. 56-page report is available from Scriptorium Publishing for $200.

Noz Urbina’s webinar introduces Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), the popular XML standard for technical writers. Noz explains how DITA lowers the barrier to single-sourcing and content management by delivering information typing and component strategies with various templates and style sheets that need only to be customized.

DITA is an information architecture that presents a powerful solution for information developers, that is simple enough to use in various scenarios. It is meant for those who need to implement structured documentation, including writers, editors, information architects, and their managers.

This beginners session will cover the basics of creating DITA topics, assembling topics using maps, creating relationship tables, and delivering it all to various media.

Duration: 60 minutes
Cost: Free

In this complimentary Webinar you will learn to:

» Build a business case for moving to DITA.
» Apply DITA concepts and working practices.
» Anticipate pitfalls in a DITA roll-out.
» Understand the purpose of DITA maps and how to create them.
» Create DITA relationship tables.
» Understand the role of DITA Specialization.

View Webinar

One of the questions I get asked from technical writers and content managers is whether or not they should move to Madcap Flare. Many of you will have already invested time and energy in RoboHelp (when it was owned by Macromedia), and now that it is part of the Adobe family, may have some thoughts about its long term viability. RoboHelp was, and still is, a great product. But Flare has a lot going for it to. Here are few reasons you should save your RoboHelp budget and upgrade to MadCap Flare.

1) The workflow of MadCap Flare is similar to RoboHelp but better

MadCap Flare is designed from the ground up by some of the former RoboHelp product experts. The workflow is intended to be very familiar to RoboHelp users to ensure a low learning curve. It includes many unprecedented features as well as a cleaner, more user-friendly interface.

 

2) MadCap Flare uses industry standard mark-up

MadCap Flare is designed to generate pure, clean, compliant XML. There are no proprietary tags, no editor tricks, nothing to interfere with your existing XML workflow or cause conflicts with future tools.

 

3) You can leverage your existing RoboHelp projects

MadCap Flare allows you to import your existing RoboHelp projects, so you wont lose legacy content.

 

4) MadCap Software is committed to supporting converted users

MadCap Software will offer generous support incentives to customers who currently subscribe to a RoboHelp maintenance plan but wish to convert to MadCap Flare. Additionally, we will offer complimentary support to assist you with importing RoboHelp projects into MadCap Flare.

What’s your thoughts?

Is it worth making the switch to Flare? Or it is better to stick with RoboHelp?