Extending XML in the Enterprise

This presentation explores how recent advances in user interfaces have blurred the once clear distinction between structured and unstructured data. It examines how these tools can be used to empower a new class of user to participate in an XML workflow and a managed content environment.

Parsons, Jon. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Content Management>XML>Workflow

Topic Maps in Content Management

This paper shows how topic maps can address the limitations of traditional content management systems while building on their strengths. The term ITMS (Integrated Topic Management System) is coined for a content management system based on topic maps, and the paper shows what is necessary to build such systems, as well as what benefits they bring. The use of the WebDAV protocol to layer topic maps over content stores is also considered, and an abstract topic map-to-content store protocol is sketched, which corresponds very closely to WebDAV.

Garshol, Lars Marius. Ontopia (2008). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Sitemaps

The TAO of Topic Maps

Topic maps are a new ISO standard for describing knowledge structures and associating them with information resources. As such they constitute an enabling technology for knowledge management. Dubbed “the GPS of the information universe”, topic maps are also destined to provide powerful new ways of navigating large and interconnected corpora. While it is possible to represent immensely complex structures using topic maps, the basic concepts of the model — Topics, Associations, and Occurrences (TAO) — are easily grasped. This paper provides a non-technical introduction to these and other concepts (the IFS and BUTS of topic maps), relating them to things that are familiar to all of us from the realms of publishing and information management, and attempting to convey some idea of the uses to which topic maps will be put in the future.

Pepper, Steve. Ontopia (2002). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Sitemaps

Interview with Stefan Esser

I think the WordPress software is the best blogging software around from an end user’s perspective. Its GUI is full of eye-candy and features that are not present in other blog software. But wearing my security hat, I see past this eye-candy onto the code and see several bad design decisions.

Esser, Stefan. Blog Security (2007). Articles>Content Management>Security>WordPress

DITA Conversions and Dynamic Personalized Content: Interview with Ann Rockley

In an interview with Diane Wieland, Ann Rockley and Steve Manning of The Rockley Group discuss some new ideas related to XML and DITA conversion. They share their thoughts on dynamic personalized content delivery and component content management, which is the topic of an upcoming CMS Watch report that Rockley is co-authoring.

Wieland, Diane. Data Conversion Laboratory (2007). Articles>Content Management>Personalization>DITA

Making the Most of XML with Adobe InCopy and InDesign

This session provides an overview of several real-world case studies describing publishers who have implemented an XML-based process with Adobe InDesign, InCopy, and editorial and production management systems, such as K4 and Woodwing. The session also provides best practices for incorporating these products in a production workflow covering activities such as: How to import XML into the Adobe products; How to export XML out of the Adobe products; How to structure templates (styles to tag and tags to styles mapping).

Edson, Mike and Mark Jacobson. XML 2006 (2006). Articles>Content Management>XML>Adobe InDesign

A Publisher's Journey to Single Source Publishing: A Case Study

We will cover the journey taken by J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc, a safety and regulatory compliance publisher, as they transitioned to an XML-based, single source publishing environment.

Jung, Jennifer and Mark Jacobson. XML 2006 (2006). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Case Studies

Content Management System APIs

Panellists talk about two vendor-neutral programming interfaces for content-management systems. Joel Amoussou discusses JSR 170, a vendor-neutral Java API designed to work across many different content management systems. Michael Wechner discusses Neutron, an Open Content Management User Interface based on XML.

Amoussou, Joel and Michael Wechner. XML 2006 (2006). Articles>Content Management>Programming>XML

Managing XML for a Global Content Delivery Platform

LexisNexis, global provider of legal, news, and business information, has migrated the content of its non-US business units to a single product delivery platform. This paper provides an overview of how this was enabled using XML.

Basch, Marc. XML 2006 (2006). Articles>Content Management>XML>Case Studies

HTML No Longer Needed

Much in the same way that Microsoft Word and PageMaker made desktop publishing more widely available and eliminated the need for tagging to achieve formatting, blogs and wikis are doing the same for the web. You can use WordPress to create an entire web site without knowing or using HTML. Editme.com is providing web site services using wiki technologies. These tools help users publish content with less knowledge of the underlying tagging.

Answers for All (2009). Articles>Content Management>Web Design>HTML

Advantages of Using Microsoft SourceSafe While Writing Your Technical Documents

Microsoft’s Visual SourceSafe was not created with technical communicators in mind. It was created for engineers writing software source code. But it is successfully used by technical writers in offices around the world to control documentation.

Technical Communication Center (2009). Articles>Content Management>Documentation>Technical Writing

Ten Things To Consider When Choosing The Perfect CMS

Choosing a content management system can be tricky. Without a clearly defined set of requirements, you will be seduced by fancy functionality that you will never use. What then should you look for in a CMS?

Boag, Paul. Smashing (2009). Articles>Content Management>Software>Content Strategy

Five Steps to Going Viral on Twitter

Twitter is changing the way information spreads online. Links that would have been blogged a couple of years ago are now more often shared via the micro-blogging service instead, which fundamentally changes strategy when trying to get content to spread.

Zarrella, Dan. Copyblogger (2008). Articles>Content Management>Writing>Social Networking

The User Experience of Enterprise Software Matters: Part 1

There’s one area that I believe user experience has lagged behind: the enterprise software space. I can’t tell you how many frustratingly unusable enterprise Web applications I’ve encountered during my 12 plus years in corporate America. As important as the user experience of enterprise software is to a business’s success, why isn’t its assessment usually a factor in technology selection?

Sherman, Paul J. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Web Design>Content Management>User Experience

The User Experience of Enterprise Software Matters, Part 2: Strategic User Experience

In this column, I’ll provide a technology selection framework that can help enterprises better assess the usability and appropriateness of enterprise applications they’re considering purchasing, with the goal of ensuring their IT (Information Technology) investments deliver fully on their value propositions.

Sherman, Paul J. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Web Design>Content Management>User Experience

Comparing Open Source Content Management Systems: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Plone  

In this report, we take a look at four different open source Content Management Systems—WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Plone—and rate them on a variety of criteria, including system flexibility, features, ease of use and the availability of support. We chose these systems because they’re the most popular four in the nonprofit sector today, according to our analysis (see Appendix C for more details on our market analysis). We also dig a little deeper into what open source is all about, and how a CMS can help streamline processes. We even take a look at some vendor-provided systems, along with a few other open source ones, in case you don’t find what you’re looking for among the four original choices.

Murrain, Michelle, Laura Quinn and Maggie Starvish. Idealware (2009). Articles>Content Management>Software>Open Source

Should You Cater to Younger Workers?

If you cater to the younger group, you risk alienating your most senior people (talented, expensive, hard-to-replace experts; people you don't want to lose to the competition; people with great political capital in the organization, who can perhaps defeat an IT initiative by pushing back hard). On the other hand, if you cater to the older group, you risk alienating the younger workers; and you risk keeping obsolete systems in place far longer than you should, making future replacement that much more difficult while also impeding business objectives, etc.

assertTrue (2009). Articles>Content Management>User Centered Design>Workplace

What APIs Can Tell You About a Product

I always try to get a look at a vendor's APIs before (or in the process of) evaluating a product. And I recommend you do, too. If you are involved in a product-selection effort, get input from your developers -- have them evaluate APIs as part of the product-evaluation process. Don't wait until after the deal is inked to find out whether the product's APIs are so problematic that your rollout schedule might have to undergo serious changes.

assertTrue (2009). Articles>Content Management>Programming>Collaboration

Why Do We Still Have Vendor Lock-In?

There's a common myth that one of the main reasons enterprise customers get locked in to a particular vendor's technology is the huge investment (of time and money) that goes into specifying, procuring, rolling out, and maintaining a large system. I was talking to a financial analyst the other day about this very phenomenon. The name of a well-known CMS vendor came up. My financial-analyst friend -- somewhat new to the software biz -- asked whether the huge cost of rolling out, training for, and maintaining a large system didn't pose an enormous disincentive for customers considering moving to another system. I said no, that's a myth.

assertTrue (2009). Articles>Content Management>Faculty>Content Strategy

Hone Your Regexp (Regular Expression) Pattern-Building Skills

Add to your bag of tricks several handy techniques for crafting real-world regular expressions (regexps). Building regexps is a part of the daily life of any administrator. Learning to think in terms of pattern matching, in order to construct successful regexps that return the desired criteria, is a skill that takes both time and practice.

Stutz, Michael. IBM (2006). Articles>Content Management>Programming

Building Efficient Multilingual Workflows    

O’Keefe gives detailed information on two technology standards that may be used in multilingual workflows: XSL and XLIFF.

O'Keefe, Sarah S. Intercom (2009). Articles>Content Management>Workflow>Translation

XML and Office 2.0

Recently there has been a flurry of activity around a concept called “Office 2.0” – another offshoot of the term “Web 2.0” – in which all traditional office applications can be replaced by online services accessible through a generic web browser.

Severson, Eric. Flatirons Solutions (2008). Articles>Content Management>Writing

Is Corruption an Issue?

You might think corruption is mainly an issue in places like sub-Saharan Africa or Myanmar, but unfortunately I’ve been exposed to several cases of this inside the online industry.

Boye, Janus. JBoye (2009). Articles>Content Management>Software>Assessment

Combine JSONP and jQuery to Quickly Build Powerful Mashups

With the number of publicly offered Web service APIs, it's now much easier to get content from different Web sources and to build mashups—if you have access to the right APIs and tools. Discover how you can combine an obscure cross-domain call technique (JSONP) and a flexible JavaScript library (jQuery) to build powerful mashups surprisingly quickly.

Özses, Seda and Salih Ergül. IBM (2009). Articles>Web Design>Content Management>JavaScript

Comparison of Home Page Loadability Scores for Major WCM and ECM Vendors

YSlow assigns letter grades (A thru F) for a page in each of 13 categories of best-practice. I decided to run YSlow against the home pages of 35 well-known web content management and/or enterprise content management vendors, then calculate a Grade Point Average. The scores are posted below.

Thomas, Kas. Lulu (2009). Articles>Content Management>Software>Assessment