Single Source in Practice: IBM's SGML Toolset and the Writer as Technologist, Problem Solver, and Editor    

Describes how single sourcing adds layers of complexity, problem solving, and project management to the writer's task. Cautions that single sourcing is often a response to a documentation requirement for the market, not to the writer's need for less complex tools.

Kramer, Robert. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Single Source Tools: An Integrated Solution  

Tools are a key component for the success of single sourcing. Tools should be selected to support the information model and development processes. This session reviews the types of single source tools (authoring, content management, publishing, and dynamic content (personalization) engines) that are available to you today. The session presentation will review the available tools.

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

Single Sourcing and Chinese Culture: A Perspective on Skills Development Within Western Organizations and the People's Republic of China    

Discusses the current state of technical communication in China and analyzes key Chinese cultural values compatible with single sourcing. Reports on a skills survey conducted among Chinese and U.S. participants.

Wiles, Debbie. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>China

Single Sourcing in Technical Communication

Technical Communication covers miscellaneous applications. So far you needed a separate tool for each purpose had to use several document formats for distribution and archiving. The xml-based format SVG cleans up with this misery, because SVG allows to use one single source for text, illustrations and animations ("Single Sourcing").

Fibinger, Iris. SVG Open (2002). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Single Sourcing in Technical Communication

No term has caused such a sensation in recent years among technical writers and illustrators as 'Single Sourcing.' The reasons: Enormous amounts of text and image material builds up in documentation and illustration companies. It is not uncommon for individual documents to contain several thousands of pages. If this is translated into several languages, then the administration needs are greater for both texts and graphics (graphics can contain text which must also be translated).

Fibinger, Iris. SVG Open (2002). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Technical Writing

Single Sourcing: An Introduction

Many documentation departments produce detailed and well-designed paper documentation. Increasingly, however, one paper manual is not enough. Pressure is growing to deliver your information online, perhaps on several different user platforms. You may need to reuse the information in your manuals for quick reference guides, training courses and marketing publications. This can mean that you find yourself re-creating virtually identical content over and over again. Duplicating your material for multiple media, multiple uses and multiple audiences is time-consuming and costly.

Darley, Justin. Cherryleaf (2002). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Single Sourcing: Benefits to the Life Sciences  

Life sciences companies are experiencing many pressures including electronic initiatives like eSubmissions and the eCTD, regulatory controls like 21 CFR Part 11, and decreasing times to market. Life Sciences companies are looking for ways to improve the way they create and manage content. Developing reusable content (single sourcing) is one solution. This session looks at the benefits single sourcing can bring to the life sciences industry.

Rockley, Ann and Steve Manning. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Biomedical

Single-Source Content Management   

More and more businesses are expanding into international markets. A critical success factor for this expansion is high-quality, cost-effective and timely translated written content. Responsibility for this typically falls on internal translation departments or localization partners. Translation comes at a high price, exceeding the cost of writing the original content after only a few languages.

Trotter, Paul. tekom (2006). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Localization

Single-Source from the Reader's Point of View

Documentation written for single-sourcing (topic based, like that found in DITA) has great potential for efficiency. Writing once and publishing in many publications (Developer Guides, User Guides, etc.) and many formats (pdf, html, HTMLHelp, etc.) turns into cost and time savings. However, these efficiencies can cause inefficiencies for the users. Many online help users complain they cannot find the information they need while using the search function. Readers are more likely to comprehend texts with a classical book architecture, an architecture which is often sacrificed in single sourced documents and online Help files. When texts are cohesive, readers are more likely to consider information to be clear, well organized and easy to follow. For comprehensibility, it is essential to have a manual review, even when composing is partially automated.

Mulvihill, Teresa. LiveTechDocs (2008). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Audience Analysis

Single-Sourcing Tools and Techniques  

This paper describes how our publications team built a new single-sourced documentation set consisting of five printed manuals totaling 1,470 pages and seven Windows online help files totaling 7.5 megabytes. To accomplish this project, we used detailed writing guidelines, specially-designed templates, and a powerful online help authoring tool.

Hart, Jessica, Nola J. Hague and Diana Peh. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing

Sisällönhallinta

Sisällönhallinnan voidaan sanoa muodostuvan joukosta toimenpiteitä jotka kohdistetaan WWW-selaimella tarkasteltavissa oleviin digitaalisiin informaatiokoosteisiin. Hallintatoimenpiteisiin kuuluvat mm. sisältökoosteiden siirtäminen niiden elinkaaren vaiheesta toiseen; yleisimmät tällaiset vaiheet ovat luonti, päivittäminen, julkaisu ja arkistointi (tai poistaminen). Toimenpiteitä tehdään yleensä WWW-selainta käyttäen. Käytännössä toimenpiteiden suorittamisesta vastaa palvelintietokoneella suoritettava erikoistunut ohjelmistokokonaisuus, jota kutsutaan sisällönhallintajärjestelmäksi.

Wikipedia. (Finnish) Articles>Content Management

So, What is a Content Management System?

A content management system (CMS) is critical to the success of almost every website and intranet, and yet many organisations are not familiar with this technology.

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

Software Developer Needs Advice

We are a web-based software development firm looking for basic guidelines for making a CMS.

Byrne, Tony. CMSworks (2004). Articles>Content Management

Software for Building a Full-Featured Discipline-Based Web Portal

The University of Wisconsin-Madison's Internet Scout Project [1] received funding in the fall of 2000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation [2] to build an open source software package that would allow collection developers to share their collection's metadata via the web. The resulting software, the Scout Portal Toolkit (SPT), is virtually turnkey, very inexpensive to maintain and operate, and easy for non-technical staff to download, set up and populate with metadata. Conforming to international standards for metadata, data harvesting, and Web technology makes SPT useful for and usable by a wide variety of projects and organizations, allowing and encouraging collaboration and record sharing among projects. Over the SPT project's two-year period, beta testers and in-house quality assurance testing provided valuable feedback, helping to ensure that the software was robust, easy to use, and well-suited to the needs of the intended audience.

Almasy, Edward, David Sleasman and Rachael Bower. D-Lib Magazine (2002). Articles>Web Design>Content Management>Software

Storage and Enterprise Content Management  

Almost one-third of the users reported that more than 40 percent of the storage spending is for unstructured documents and information--I think that percentage will continue to grow annually. Further, AIIM President John Mancini, who prepared the report, found that larger organizations especially are aggressively pursuing consolidation and rationalization of their storage and archiving strategies--but that cost is not the prime motivation behind those activities.

McKellar, Hugh. KMworld (2006). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy

Story Scrapbooks: Tools for Engagement

Thank heavens for big sisters—especially mine. I was over at Franca's house sipping hot chocolate and catching up on life. While we spoke, she was assembling another one of her family scrapbook masterpieces. We started talking about her work—she is an international marketing and publication relations consultant. As we discussed the internal communication challenges one of her clients was facing, I had a flash of brilliance. What if we helped the client put together a story scrapbook and then used it to facilitate conversations around the organization?

Gargiulo, Terrence. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Content Management>Knowledge Management>Business Communication

Streamlining Content Creation and Publishing with XMetaL and DITA  

To streamline the product documentation process, many technical publication teams are moving to Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). Learn best practices for applying this information model, and hands-on techniques for improved content creation and publishing with JustSystems XMetaL.

Silver, Jerry. Intercom (2007). Articles>Content Management>XML>DITA

Striving for Success in DITA Conversion - A Quick Reference

Planning your conversion is always helpful, and should be part of your overall content strategy review.

Urbina, Noz. Data Conversion Laboratory (2008). Articles>Content Management>XML>DITA

Structured Content Management in the Enterprise  

As other areas within organizations begin to consider structured content for the same reasons as technical communication departments, technical communicators have a golden opportunity to assist others in their move toward structured CM.

Rockley, Ann. Intercom (2007). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Content Strategy

Structured Content: What's in it for Writers?

Everyone has heard (or experienced) stories of CMS or knowledge management initiatives that did not work because content contributors refused to use the tools deployed or were unwilling or unable to supply content in the format required. The conclusion often reached is that writers cannot give up their WYSIWYG tools and that any attempt to make them do so is doomed to failure. On the other hand there are always those who will reply with stories of systems where writers have successfully adapted to the use of XML or SGML, and the CMS is working well. All that is required to duplicate this success, they maintain, is that writers must be forced and/or trained to use the new tools.

Baker, Mark. CMSwatch (2002). Articles>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Writing

Structured Document Processors: Customizing Software to Control Document Development Processes  

Structured document processors (SDPS) enable companies to make document production more efficient and accurate, while improving reliability of documents that must be updated frequently or written to very strict format standards. Achieving these goals requires elaborate and highly technical customization of the SDP. This paper emphasizes the importance of collaboration in customizing SDPS to particular document development processes. Three case histories illustrate the spectrum of ways industry is using SDPS for writing, showing three different approaches to customizing SDPS.

Norman, Rose L. and Daryl A. Grider. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Content Management>Documentation

Structuring Your Documents for Maximum Reuse  

A major topic among information development managers these days is single sourcing--writing information once and using it many times. Structured documents are critical for single sourcing. So, let's explore: what we mean by structuring documents; why structuring is useful; some of the concerns that writers have about structuring documents.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Center for Information-Development Management (2005). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>XML

Task Support, Reference, Instruction, or Collaboration? Factors in Determining Electronic Learning and Support Options    

With so many forms of performance support available, one of the challenges for technical communicators and performance technologists is choosing the right form to meet the performer's need for assistance in a given situation. This article is intended to summarize and classify these resources and to aid professionals in determining when and how to employ them. First, it describes the theory of situated learning, which underlies the selection of a form for supporting performance. Then it suggests how to apply this concept to the selection of forms. Last, it offers some suggestions for forms to use in a given situation.

Gery, Gloria J. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Content Management>EPSS

Tech Writer Looking to Boost Skills

on't discount your tech writing skills; they are useful to almost any CMS project.

Byrne, Tony. CMSworks (2004). Articles>Content Management