Documentation Without Documents -- The COIL Model

A description of a Canadian content-management system from the early days of the emerging knowledge management industry. COIL is a document management system that manages the information held in documents, rather than the documents themselves. By integrating more than 1,500 hardcopy pages of legacy documentation into one on-line information resource, COIL provides chart producers with an effective way of consulting the standards and procedures for their GIS, and of managing revisions to those standards and procedures.

Thurston, John. Writer's Block. Articles>Content Management

Does Your CMS Vendor Have Product Expertise?

Choosing a content management system (CMS) is not just about finding the product with the right functionality. It's also about dealing with a vendor who can support your needs for the lifetime of the solution. This briefing explores the way most CMS vendors have evolved, what this means for the way they work, and what you should be looking for when purchasing a solution.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2007). Articles>Content Management>Assessment

Dokumentenmanagement für den Mittelstand  

Dokumentenmanagement schien immer eine teuere, aufwendige Angelegenheit der Großunternehmen. Die Einführung einer Document-Related-Technologies-Lösung gleich welcher Ausprägung erfordert Anpassungen an Infrastruktur, Abläufe und Arbeitsorganisation. Dies wollten sich bislang viele Mittelständler nicht leisten. Ihr Credo lautete: "Durch so ein elektronisches Dokumentenmanagement-System bekomme ich doch keinen einzigen Kunden mehr". Diese Situation hat sich geändert. Auch der Mittelstand wird zunehmend in elektronische Geschäftsprozesse eingebunden. Die Abhängigkeit von Software in Verwaltung, Logistik, Kundenbetreuung und Produktentwicklung wird immer größer.

Kampffmeyer, Ulrich. Doculine (2002). (German) Articles>Content Management>SMEs

Don't Start With Technology

I've seen dozens of companies waste hundreds of thousands of dollars because they chose their management tools before they had a clear understanding of their business needs, information life cycle and content.

Rockley, Ann. Transform (2004). Articles>Content Management>Content Strategy

Drug Information Association: XML Resources for Life Sciences Pro

The Drug Information Association (DIA) has compiled a series of useful articles designed to help you understand XML and related technologies. Don't worry! You don't have to be an IT guru to understand XML. The resources provided are written in laymen's terms and geared towards life sciences professionals, but may prove beneficial to professionals in other industries and vertical markets.

Rockley, Ann. Rockley Group, The (2004). Articles>Content Management>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Poor Database Design of Drupal Equals Low Performance

Drupal's database design is stupid! it sucks! it is crap! To things clearer I am talking about design errors. Yes, they do exist. Some say that design errors are the basic cause of bugs in a system. They are right. Rather than go through a bunch of queries or rather hundreds of queries, I will just say that the database design has no relational qualities that would optimize and speed up the system what so ever. This a glaring whole in the knowledge of the Development team so if you are a joiner and want to contribute to the project then think about helping them out with the database design first.

Drupal (2007). Articles>Content Management>Software>Drupal

Drupal Has Terrible Access Control

After a week of fighting with it I have come to the conclusion that Drupal access control modules are all inadequate and are based on some weak database design. Taxonomy access and node access are flawed from the start. This type of access control where the assets are assigning their own internal security is not scalable and suffers from very high database overhead.

Hiveminds (2005). Articles>Content Management>Software>Drupal

Dynamic Content Delivery using DITA  

This whitepaper defines a new publishing paradigm, which we will call dynamic content delivery. Dynamic delivery changes the rules, putting the reader in charge of what content is important and how it should be packaged. It transforms publishing to an audience of many to publishing to an audience of one.

Severson, Eric. Flatirons Solutions (2007). Articles>Content Management>XML>DITA

Dynamic Content Management  

Introduces dynamic content, a method of single sourcing that 'meets individual users' needs by assembling a series of information objects in response to the userís requests or requirements.' She walks readers through a mock project involving the creation and delivery of dynamic content.

Rockley, Ann. Intercom (2001). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Dynamic or Batch Publishing?

There are two main publishing models used by content management systems: dynamic and batch publishing, and each has its strengths and weaknesses.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2003). Articles>Content Management>Methods

Echoes from the Past: DITA, Help, Single-Sourcing Tools — Looking from the 60s to Today

The historian of technical communications, R. John Brockmann, researched efforts to document products going back centuries. He finds that some of today’s hottest new documentation ideas were present in the work of those creating, documenting, and selling the technology of manufacturing just after the revolutionary war.

Ng, Daniel. I'd Rather Be Writing (2008). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>History

Egoless Writing: Improving Quality by Replacing Artistic Impulse With Engineering Discipline    

When technical communicators have a strong personal attachment to the publication they are preparing, this attachment may interfere with the design and testing of the publication itself. Documents developed by solo authors tend to be late, buggy, and exceedingly difficult for others to maintain. 'Ego-less' methods---collaborative and structured---break the proprietary connection between the writer and the book; in so doing they permit the most powerful tools of engineering and testing to be used. But they also reduce the satisfactions of the communicator's job.

Weiss, Edmond H. Journal of Computer Documentation (2002). Articles>Content Management>Documentation

Eleven Usability Principles for CMS Products

The functionality of the content management system (CMS) is obviously a key deciding factor when purchasing a new product. Equally important is the usability of the CMS.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2007). Articles>Content Management>Usability

Eliminating the END GAME from Electronic Deliverables

While executive management may sometimes believe that anyone can write and that a technical writer's job is to "Just Publish It", it may be time for technical writers to look at what they can do to improve the "end game" process, which Porter describes as "All the steps needed to create the desired output format – HTML, PDF, online help system, etc. – from the source content." By taking a closer look at the publishing process, without regard to content, technical communicators may discover ways they can streamline the steps it takes to get content published and ready for the end consumer.

Porter, Alan J. Writing Assistance (2005). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Online

Enabling Information Sharing Integrity

Most companies accept the rapid obsolescence of their documents as an unavoidable cost of doing business. Its not. When dynamic documents replace static documents, users can bring together disparate, distributed data and content and combine it in a single document that is always accurate and up-to-date.

Sorofman, Jake. Content Wrangler, The (2008). Articles>Content Management>XML>Collaboration

Enabling Language Translation with XML Tools and Standards  

Maintaining consistency between a source document and its translated counterparts can be complex and troublesome. Innumerable challenges can arise with character sets, version control, text in graphics, tables, expansion of text, updates, and so on. Using XML for translation can help overcome some of these challenges. In this article, I explain how XML tools and standards can help remedy tricky issues related to translation.

Schnabel, Bryan. ComTech Services (2003). Articles>Content Management>Localization>XML

Ensuring A Successful CMS Implementation

The single most important factor in a successful CMS implementation lies with you and your people. Your staff members are the principal users of the system, and the SMEs in your organization are the secondary users. It is their adoption of the new processes and governance structures that makes or breaks a CMS implementation. According to some, process and cultural change accounts for 90%, while technology contributes only 10% to the success of a CMS.

Hamer, Emma C. Rockley Bulletin (2007). Articles>Content Management>User Centered Design>Collaboration

Enterprise Architecture Essentials, Part 6: Manageability

Organizations today face the challenge of two important enterprise architecture requirements: the need for agility and the overhead of regulatory governance. These requirements can be seen as mutually antagonistic -- if business processes must be flexible, then governance of those processes may be difficult. This article, part six in a six-part series, explores the notion of using manageability as a key enterprise architecture (EA) quality attribute to solve this problem. EA development is an ongoing process, and the central idea of this article is that by applying manageability as an EA attribute, the organizational processes, systems, and software become manageable.

Morris, Stephen B. IBM (2007). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Regulation

Enterprise Content Management in an Offshoring Context

Many companies outsource content management implementations to systems integrators, but what if the implementers are based half-way around the world? Wipro's Apoorv Durga offers some good advice for enterprises considering taking their next ECM project offshore. As this map suggests, the view is quite different from India.

Durga, Apoorv. CMSwatch (2006). Articles>Content Management>International>Offshoring

Enterprise Content Management is a Key Success Factor for an e-Business Infrastructure  

The growth of e-business is driving organizations to manage and distribute digital content, including images, computer-generated output, business documents, rich media and more.

Zimmer, Mike. KMworld (2001). Articles>Knowledge Management>Content Management

Enterprise Content Management: A Critical Review  

A presentation about the use of ECM within the CMSwatch website.

Byrne, Tony. IAsummit (2004). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Enterprise Portals: Tip of Which Iceberg?

Summarizing recent CMS Watch research on portal software, Janus Boye finds that portal technology represents just the tip of the enterprise information iceberg. But given the diversity of portal scenarios, you should ask yourself which iceberg you're on.

Boye, Janus. CMSwatch (2006). Articles>Web Design>Content Management

Enterprise Profiling  

Documents play a vital role in Enterprise Content Management. Unlike other content sources, 'document' creation and capture can occur at every desktop, in every process, and by every on-line application.

Strong, Karen V. KMworld (2001). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing