Assessing Publications Process-Maturity: The Experiences of Two Organizations at Different Levels of Process Maturity  

As Information Development organizations grow and mature, their organizational structure should grow and mature as well. The optimal structure for an organization in its early stages should focus on achieving stability and repeatable quality. As an organization matures, the optimal structure may need to be significantly different to develop a more thorough understanding of customers and contribute substantially to customer satisfaction.

Hackos, JoAnn T., Lisa Blaschke, Brenda MacKay and Deborah J. Rosenquist. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Information Design>Assessment>Case Studies

Converting to XML: Some Point-Form Pros and Cons

I have recently converted some user documents from MS Word to XML for a medical device company with the intent that they would be looking at authoring their future end-user documentation (printed, embedded, and online) in XML. I want to share with you some of the triumphs and challenges we had met along the way.

Stuhlemmer, Barbara. ClearComm Information Design (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>Case Studies

De–Unifying a Digital Library  

The University of Tasmania decided to explore using a unified digital library for all its research output: journal articles, conference papers, higher degree theses, and other types. This decision is in advance of the state of the Australian national indexing systems. The digital library also uses OAI–PMH protocols for harvesting, which one of the national repositories does not as yet. The paper describes the context, reasons for the University’s decision, consequences and outcomes, and the development of software to talk to the Australian Digital Theses Program.

Sale, Arthur. First Monday (2005). Articles>Information Design>Case Studies

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Incentives in Profit–Oriented Firms Supplying Open Source Products and Services  

This paper contributes to the literature on Open Source (OS) software by providing empirical evidence on the incentives of firms that engage in OS activities. Data collected by a survey conducted on 146 Italian companies supplying OS solutions (Open Source firms) show that (surprisingly) intrinsic, community–based incentives do play a role but are not, in general, put into practise. We investigate this discrepancy between attitudes and behaviours and single out groups of firms adopting more consistent behaviours. Our results are in line with the literature on business models of the firms that enter the Open Source field.

Rossi, Cristina and Andrea Bonaccorsi. First Monday (2005). Articles>Information Design>Case Studies>Open Source

Metadata Provision and Standards Development at the Collaborative Digitization Program (CDP): A History

What began in 1998 as the Colorado Digitization Project is now known as the Collaborative Digitization Program (CDP). The CDP’s Heritage West database represents not only the primary product of the organization, but also one of the oldest continuously operating collaborative repositories of cultural heritage metadata in the country. As a basis for the author’s forthcoming quantitative and qualitative analysis of Dublin Core metadata in Heritage West, the following article offers a history of how the CDP has, over time, organized and managed the metadata provision for its digitization projects.

Cronin, Christopher. First Monday (2008). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>Case Studies

四个国家，四种未来：Tom Klinkowstein的地平线项目工作坊

过去的一年半，Tom Klinkowstein在四个国家和一些设计学生举行了一些工作坊的活动，叫做地平线项目，这个项目采用了NASA科学家John Anderson的方法。工作坊在纽约进行了半天，在土耳其伊斯坦布尔进行了两天，在中国上海进行了三天，在印度孟买进行了五天。

Klinkowstein, Tom. uiGarden (2005). (Chinese) Articles>Education>Information Design>Case Studies

The Joint Czech and Slovak Digital Parliamentary Library    

After the split of the Czechoslovak Republic into two republics in 1993 the idea of creating a common digital parliamentary library originated. The Czech Parliamentary Library started this project in 1995 and Slovakia joined in 2002. According to the agreement between of the two parliaments the joint digital library should in its complete shape contain the complete full texts of parliamentary prints (proposals, interpolations, explanations, decisions, invitations) and stenographical documents (shorthand writings) from 1848 until the present, in electronic form. The aim is to create and operate an automatic system of current and historical parliamentary documents. In 2000, the project was awarded the prestigious `Czech @' prize by the International Conference on Internet Use in Public Administration and Self-Government. The Joint Czech and Slovak Digital Parliamentary Library is now widely used in both countries.

Malackova, Eva and Karel Sosna. IFLA Journal (2007). Articles>Information Design>Web Design>Case Studies

Leah Talks With Audrey Chen About Bringing IA to Comedy Central

Leah Buley recently sat down to talk with Audrey Chen, the Senior Information Architect at Comedy Central. Audrey has led the IA for sites such as TheDailyShow.com and ComedyCentral.com.

Buley, Leah. Adaptive Path (2008). Articles>Interviews>Information Design>Case Studies

XML in the Wild Blue Yonder

A recent survey of XML implementations found that many United States Air Force (USAF) communities are incorporating XML as a foundational step in their migration to a net-centric vision. Although the survey was limited to publicly available resources –and thus only a partial view of total USAF efforts – thoughtful analysis of the survey results nonetheless reveals both strengths and weaknesses in the approaches inspected. In this paper we summarize the survey results and what they imply for how the USAF is progressing towards net-centricity. We note potential positive impacts XML technologies could have on USAF business practices, and some potential shortfalls.

Malloy, Mary Ann, Cheryl Connors and Amit Maitra. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>Case Studies

RosettaNet: Adoption Brings New Problems, New Solutions

The first phase of RosettaNet innovation and deployment was fuelled by the early challenges of achieving standards-based interoperability and making B2B integration work over the Internet. In the second phase, RosettaNet is working to reduce the cost of multi-enterprise collaboration to increase the depth of collaboration and to encourage small- and medium-sized enterprises to participate and thereby increase the breadth of multi-enterprise collaboration. This paper focuses on the XML-based technologies and methodologies that RosettaNet is using to address the principal challenges of the second phase, and shares some insights that may be useful for those facing the challenge of creating standards for information exchange within an enterprise or between enterprises.

Damodaran, Suresh. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Case Studies>XML

Peaceful Coexistence: The SGML/XML Transition at Cessna Aircraft

The transition in a markup-based publishing environment from SGML- to XML-based tools and procedures can sometimes be complex. This session details Cessna Aircraft Company's implementation as it moves from an SGML environment to an XML enviroment.

Hahn, Michael. XML 2006 (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>Case Studies

Resistance is Futile: You Will Store XML

Industry standards consortia have defined thousands of exchange formats for business related messages in XML Increasingly, data conforming to industry exchange formats are being stored in files and database systems as XML (as well being mapped to relational data). This talk describes what happens when the exchange formats and the storage formats become one. Business applications can be built in new ways that can reduce development costs and more readily accommodate evolving business requirements. The use of generic tools rather than bespoke software becomes more attractive. The criteria for managing XML schemas and for XML schema evolution change. The talk will outline trends arising from the unification of storage formats and exchange formats. It will incorporate a case study to illustrate the main points.

Malaika, Susan. XML 2006 (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>Case Studies

Unleashing the Power of XML

The "Unleashing the power of XML" presentation provides insight, from 20 years personal experience in the publishing industry, on the value of good markup and the challenges of migrating from SGML to XML based systems. We will review the results of an informal survey of the publishing industry that focuses on how XML is (and is not) being leveraged and the rationale behind these decisions. Finally, we will discuss a 'new' technology that has the potential to revolutionize the publishing industry as well as highlight some real world applications already leveraging this technology.

McBeath, Darin. XML 2006 (2006). Articles>Information Design>XML>Case Studies

DITA Conversion: How it Saved us 100 Grand, for Starters--A Case Study in DITA for Globalization

How a multi-national, regulated medical device company planned its migration to a DITA CMS by identifying stakeholders and defining personas, establishing a high-level process and system requirements, developing a content model, and figuring out what to do with legacy documents.

Linton, Jennifer. DCL (2007). Articles>Information Design>DITA>Case Studies

Now That We've Got Dita Up and Running, What's Next?

Focuses on an overall process identification methodology and its eight phases, and documents both the technical and business processes undertaken to successfully launch the new CMS/TMS system, called GEM (Globalization and English Management System). Includes what CaridianBCT learned from previous efforts and describes the various approaches and pilot phase that were adopted to support the new GEM system in future efforts.

Linton, Jennifer. DCL (2008). Articles>Information Design>DITA>Case Studies

Rearchitecting a Small Software Company's Information

This study describes what SDI Global Solutions did to help a small software company (hereafter referred to as SSC) to provide them with a basic infrastructure to support their information needs. We have broken up this study into sections titled, Company Description, Business Requirement, Starting State, Project Scope, Implementation, and Ending State. The purpose of the study is to provide guidance for similar projects to ensure the same or greater success.

Web Design Dev (2009). Articles>Information Design>Case Studies

Connecting the Dots of User Experience    

The article presents a point of view about analyzing and designing the user experience within pervasive networks made of distributed services and applications, where the user is the primary actor who freely and opportunistically connects and activates the system components following an activity-driven process. A digital content case study is used to outline the main characteristics of this scenario and to introduce a tool for user experience modelling and designing. From the application of this model are proposed some considerations about how the design process could change to support this vision.

Brugnoli, Gianluca. Journal of Information Architecture (2009). Articles>Information Design>User Experience>Case Studies