#31141
Requirements of Content Management Systems: Definition According to Need
In all companies, the requirements of an editorial system are worked out individually from the analysis of existing functioning and the definition of editorial and publication processes required in the future. The first important criteria for analysis are change frequencies and degree of reuse of the published information. The description of the information types as well as translation sequences constitute another starting point for the definition of a modular work process (single-source principle) and publication options (cross-media publishing).
Ziegler, Wolfgang. tekom (2005). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>Workflow
#27918
Rescue from the Spate of Modules 
How many modules can an authoring system take? Or, more importantly, how many can the user stomach? What is the ideal size for a module? These are questions that are commonly encountered while using an authoring system. The finer the granularity of modules in the Content Management System, the greater the number of modules, and greater the administration effort involved in technical writing. Is there any way out of this quandary?
Schlenker, Rainer. tekom (2006). Articles>Information Design
#23268
Research About Hypertext Navigation and Web Structure-Handling Capabilities
The Web did what no other hypertext system did (with the possible notable exception of HyperCard): it brought hypertext to the large public.
Hoffman, Michael. Hypertext Navigation. Articles>Information Design>Hypertext
#26061
The Responsibilities of an Information Architect in the Technical Information-Development World
In working with information-development groups who want to move into content management and a structured writing environment, I often find that the potential for role of information architect is not well understood.
#29331
Rethinking the Design of Presentation Slides
Recently, much criticism has arisen about the design of slides created with Microsoft PowerPoint. This web page challenges PowerPoint's default design of a single word or short phrase headline supported by a bullet list. Rather than subscribing to Microsoft's topic-subtopic design for slides, this web page advocates an assertion-evidence design, which serves presentations that have the purpose of informing and persuading audiences about technical content.
Alley, Michael. Virginia Tech (2004). Articles>Presentations>Information Design>Microsoft PowerPoint
#23666
Rethinking the Design of Presentation Slides
Summary, models, and templates of a new design of slides for technical presentations. This design is fully documented in Chapter 4 of The Craft of Scientific Presentations (Springer, 2003).
Alley, Michael. Penn State University (2004). Articles>Presentations>Information Design>Visual Rhetoric
#26457
Rethinking the Design of Presentation Slides: A Case for Sentence Headlines and Visual Evidence 
The traditional design of presentation slides calls for a phrase headline supported by a bulleted list. Recently, many critics have challenged the effectiveness of this design. This article argues for a significantly different design that offers numerous advantages in most communication contexts but that is particularly well suited to technical presentations. Originating at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and refined in more than 400 critique sessions at Virginia Tech, this alternative design is characterized by a succinct sentence headline supported by visual evidence. What distinguishes this design from other visual -evidence designs are its specific layout and typography guidelines, which were chosen to make the communication efficient, memorable, and persuasive. Although more difficult to construct than the traditional design, the alternative design shows much promise as a more effective means of conveying technical information to various audiences. This article outlines the key advantages and challenges of using this design, and concludes by assessing attempts to disseminate this design through lectures, workshops, and the Web.
Alley, Michael and Kathryn A. Neeley. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Presentations>Information Design>Persuasive Design
#10402
The Rhetoric of Design: Implications for Corporate Intranets
Sound structure and visual appeal are as important in attracting users to an intranet as the content itself because deliberate organizational and visual design allows users to navigate the site effectively and therefore helps users find the intranet a useful addition to their work flow rather than a burdensome one. In addition, by employing sound design principles, intranet developers will turn random facts filed away in databases or on servers into useful information, thus helping the intranet achieve its purpose as a medium for communicating and facilitating work processes in an organization. Unfortunately, design is an element that is sometimes overlooked in intranet development. To help developers better utilize design as an effective rhetorical tool in intranet development, this article examines issues such as creating form that is appropriate to function, determining audience needs and wants, and implementing structural and visual design principles. Intranet developers are often not professional comm
Jackson, Lisa Ann. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Rhetoric>Information Design
#10369
The Roots of SGML: A Personal Recollection
One of the inventors of the markup language that evolved into Standard Generalized Markup Language describes the origins of SGML and provides an anecdotal history of markup language development from the late 1960s to the 1980s.
Goldfarb, Charles F. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Information Design>SGML>History
#27625
Rotate Regular HTML Content Via DHTML
One of the great pitfalls of using client side techniques, such as JavaScript, to display content on demand is the prerequisite that everything be contained in variables. This makes adding and updating the content very cumbersome.
Chiang, George. SitePoint (2004). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>DHTML
#20735
RSS Primer for Knowledge Base Publishers
RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is an XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. Print and Web publishers such as BBC, CNET, CNN, Disney, Forbes, Motley Fool, Wired, Red Herring, Salon, Slashdot, and ZDNet use it to distribute stock tickers, sport scores, weather reports, news headlines and other information.
Montague Institute Review (2003). Articles>Information Design>XML>RSS
#27283
Scholarly Information Architecture, 1989-2015
If we were to start from scratch today to design a quality-controlled archive and distribution system for scientific and technical information, it could take a very different form from what has evolved in the past decade from pre-existing print infrastructure. Ultimately, we might expect some form of global knowledge network for research communications. Over the next decade, there are many technical and non-technical issues to address along the way, everything from identifying optimal formats and protocols for rendering, indexing, linking, querying, accessing, mining, and transmitting the information, to identifying sociological, legal, financial, and political obstacles to realization of ideal systems. What near-term advances can we expect in automated classification systems, authoring tools, and next-generation document formats to facilitate efficient data mining and long-term archival stability? How will the information be authenticated and quality controlled? What differences should be expected in the realization of these systems for different scientific research fields? Can recent technological advances provide not only more efficient means of accessing and navigating the information, but also more cost-effective means of authentication and quality control? Relevant experiences from open electronic distribution of research materials in physics and related disciplines during the past decade are used to illuminate these questions, and some of their implications for proposals to improve the implementation of peer review are then discussed.
Ginsparg, P. Data Science Journal (2004). Articles>Information Design>Research
#29490
Search Engine Optimization: Getting Started
Explain some of the first steps to get your website not only optimized for the search engines, but to push your website up in the rankings war.
Garite, Joe. stevenforsyth.com (2006). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Search Engine Optimization
#25383
Semantic Web Based Services for Intelligent Mobile Construction Collaboration
To provide real time, on-demand intelligent mobile collaboration support for their workers, construction enterprises increasingly need to use powerful wireless devices coupled with the availability of improved bandwidth, to tap into different inter and intra-enterprise data resources.
Zeeshan, Aziz, Anumba Chimay, Ruikar Darshan, Carrillo Patricia and Dino Bouchlaghem. ITcon (2004). Articles>Information Design>User Centered Design
#21599
This is a general collection of my Semantic Web hackings, often using CWM and the Notation3 (N3) format.
Palmer, Sean B. InfoMesh (2001). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>Semantic
#21001
This piece speaks about the different parts of the Semantic Web and how they fit together.
Swartz, Aaron. LogicError (2003). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>Semantic
#21003
This document is not intended to teach you RDF via my own words, but rather to hand-hold you through the 'good' parts of the same journey I took. If it looks like a big link-list with menial comments from the peanut gallery, then you're not far off the mark of my intent. This is by no means definitive, nor was that the goal.
Disobey.com (2003). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>XML
#21002
The Semantic Web: An Introduction
This document is designed as being a simple but comprehensive introductory publication for anybody trying to get into the Semantic Web: from beginners through to long time hackers. Recommended pre-reading: the Semantic Web in Breadth.
Palmer, Sean B. InfoMesh (2001). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>Semantic
#29977
Semantic, Structured Authoring
This article looks at the impact of the introduction of semantic markup and structured authoring on the world of technical writers, editors, Help authors and content developers. This article is not specifically about the Semantic Web movement itself, but about the implementation of semantic concepts in the documentation field.
Self, Tony. HyperWrite (2006). Articles>Information Design>Semantic>Technical Writing
#25852
Sensible Design Principles for New Networks and Services
The use of many complex technologies has been either much less or essentially different than what were the great expectations when development started. Based on an analysis about the reasons for past failures, we propose three rules for sensible network design process to avoid useless development efforts. First, the analysis of customer needs has to concentrate on practical uses that are likely to become everyday routines. Secondly, the development of a new technology must be based on well–defined, carefully selected core principles. Thirdly, during the development process the real experiences in real networks must be continuously taken into account.
Kilkki, Kalevi. First Monday (2005). Articles>Information Design
#29492
Outbound links' anchor text affects a page's search engine ranking in much the same way that inbound links' anchor text affects search engine ranking.
Walsh, Joel. stevenforsyth.com (2006). Articles>Web Design>Information Design>Search Engine Optimization
#28070
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Made Simple
Even if you're wrapping a legacy application, you'll need a service description that other web services applications can use. Of course, there are many data-binding tools available that are, for example, capable of turning a Java class into an XML Schema or a Windows-compatible wizard with a "generate WSDL" button. But even then, you'll have to give those descriptions to others, the tools may have bugs (surprising, I know, but it's been known to happen), or you'll need to hand-tweak the generated files because a particular customer "just wants the namespace or URL changed." At that point, you don't want to have to burn the midnight oil with a copy of the WSDL and Schema specs in hand and the generated WSDL file on your screen.
Salz, Rich. XML.com (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML
#27285
The fact that many decisions need a combination of information sources makes easy integration of geospatial data an important data usability issue. Our vision is to achieve automated just-in-time integration. As a foundation, we present a system architecture with distributed data and services. Existing and evolving standards and technologies fitting into this architecture are presented along with their scope and shortcomings. A major point is the appropriate definition of data and operation semantics. Further research is needed here to make the automatic formation of service chains for data integration possible.
Riedemann, Catharina and Christian Timm. Data Science Journal (2003). Articles>Information Design>XML>Geography
#18707
Seven Pitfalls to Avoid in Information Architecture
Until recently, few people had heard of information architecture, which I define as the process of structuring and organizing information so that it’s easier for users to find and for owners to maintain. But go to any major job site today, and you’ll see many job openings for information architects. It’s not surprising: After five years of authoring and coding, many of us are stuck with Web sites and intranets that are huge, messy, unusable and impossible to maintain. With such a great demand for help, there are many inexperienced information architects repeatedly making the same mistakes. In the hope of fast-forwarding global information architecture literacy, here are some of the most common and avoidable errors I have learned from.
Rosenfeld, Louis. Internet World (2000). Articles>Information Design
#24045
SGML: The Chameleon of Publishing Technology
SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) is an international standard publishing technology that's increasingly being used in government, industry, and academia. Despite this growth, SGML is perhaps the most misunderstood technology around.
Donovan, Truly. Editorial Eye, The (1996). Articles>Information Design>Standards>SGML
