UBL and the Colombian Connection

This session provides a realistic tour of the process of implementing and customizing UBL, through the study of our implementation of UBL for the ministries of agriculture and commerce of the Republic of Colombia. Both through general tools (xmlroff as modified by Fabio to support UBL pdf output) and through custom made, open source software, XML-based technologies are effectively bridging the gap of B2B commerce between the United States and the rest of the world. UBL Capture, Presentation, Storage, Transfer software custom made by UBL voting member Fabio Arciniegas is demonstrated and dissected within the context of a real life example of implementation for the colombian government.

Arciniegas, Fabio. IDEAlliance (2004). (Spanish) Articles>Business Communication>XML>Case Studies

Lessons from the Front Line: Building Interoperable Web Services

The ability to interoperate across disparate vendors, platforms and infrastructure stacks is inherently important to the adoption of Web Services technology. For most organizations, cross platform interoperability and the move to a loosely coupled, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is usually the main rationale for adoption of the underlying Web Service technologies. In this paper we will discuss some of the issues and stumbling blocks towards interoperability. We will also demonstrate with an example, how an application developed in Java and deployed in a J2EE 1.4 compatible container can interoperate and be consumed from a different client, developed in C# on the .NET platform.

Tyagi, Sameer. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Web Design>XML>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

ANTI

ANTI Magazine aims to showcase outstanding visual content as an online magazine and also through future exhibitions all around the world. We are interested in showcasing all styles of visual media, including: illustration, graphic design, photography, drawing, painting, etc.

ANTI. Journals>Graphic Design>Case Studies

Return on Investment (ROI) on XBRL

Our initial effort at tagging and furnishing an XBRL document to the SEC consumed approximately 80 hours of an employee’s time. But to adequately evaluate this commitment, it is necessary to understand the scope and context of the effort. The hours included not only the time to tag the underlying document, but also the time to learn how to use the tagging tool, understand the requirements for filing under the SEC’s VFP, create tags that did not exist in the standard taxonomy, and to build a process that would allow the ongoing tagging and filing of documents. Our current effort to tag and file an 8-K earnings release is down to approximately four hours now that the learning curve has been eliminated.

Stantial, John. XBRL.us (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Case Studies>XBRL

MySpace: The Business of Spam 2.0 (Exhaustive Edition)

Most users believe that MySpace started as some kind of fluke—a happy accident that began in Anderson's bedroom or garage—and many still don't wonder, know, or care about the site's real business history and model. Heralded as a haven of DIY self-expression, MySpace was actually created by executives whose backgrounds are anchored in spam and mass marketing. The real genius of MySpace lies in its re-imagining and repackaging of spam. While most internet users expend time and energy attempting to keep it out, MySpace is spam that they actually invite in.

Douglas, Nick. ValleyWag (2006). Articles>Web Design>Marketing>Case Studies

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

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

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

Coworking in Africa, San Francisco and Bath

A look at the underlying value structure of coworking communities, how they’re evolving in different countries, and the issues existing coworking communities face as they outgrow the space available.

Ali, Imran. Web Worker Daily (2009). Careers>Workplace>Coworking>Case Studies

Empowering Faculty to Broaden Learning Boundaries: Making the Technology Transparent

How we leveraged Apple's iTunes U program for a seamless capture of in-class enhanced podcasts, developed a one-click iTunes U course creation solution via Blackboard, and more. This presentation will focus on how to make the implementation of university-wide learning technologies transparent and nondisruptive to the teaching and learning process. Why? To assist faculty in expanding their teaching strategies for a more diverse student learning experience. We created a technological infrastructure that allows faculty, independent of their digital literacy skills, to make use of existing social and instructional technologies in and outside the classroom.

Baharu, Yordanos, Eric Alvarado and John Arpino. Educause (2009). Articles>Education>Case Studies>Podcasting

World's Best Headlines: BBC News

Precise communication in a handful of words? The editors at BBC News achieve it every day, offering remarkable headline usability.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Case Studies

Donation Usability: Increasing Online Giving to Non-Profits and Charities

User research finds significant deficiencies in non-profit organizations' website content, which often fails to provide the info people need to make donation decisions.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2009). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Case Studies

A Call to Action for Web Managers: Blow the Whistle

We still had a huge, unruly Web site. It just had different graphics, a better-named Web team and more people shoveling on content and applications. Finally, out of desperation, we decided to try a new-fangled thing called a Web content management system.

Welchman, Lisa. WelchmanPierpoint (2009). Articles>Web Design>Content Management>Case Studies

My Apache WebDAV/Windows Nightmare

The goal was to use Subversion (SVN) as a poor man's CMS, and take advantage of great PC-based editors like DreamWeaver (for HTML) and XMetaL (for DITA). Eventually, we could add pre-commit checks and utilities to give us some of the advanced functionality we'd really like--like link management and metadata change management--but in the meantime we could do everything manually to get by. All we had to do was install Subversion and enable the WebDAV interface in Apache. But many hurdles later, I'm exhausted from jumping over them. Every one requires me to look through 20 web pages in search of a solution, and each time I surmount one obstacle, it's only to find a new one standing in my way.

Sun Microsystems (2007). Articles>Web Design>Content Management>Case Studies

Firefox’s Revolutionary Community Approach to Customer Support

The Firefox Support Knowledge Base is a collaborative work of dozens of contributors, the Support Forum is bustling with people answering questions, and Live Chat is manned by dedicated team of community members.

Nelson Ko. NelsonKo.com (2008). Articles>Documentation>Content Management>Case Studies

Managing Product Translation: One Technical Communicator’s Experiences  

As Documentation Manager, I was recently responsible for selecting a subcontracting company to localize one of our applications and its related manuals into three European languages: French, German, and Spanish. Concomitantly, R & D hired quality control testers, with fluency in each of the three languages.

Carmel, Patricia. STC International TC SIG (2003). Articles>Project Management>Translation>Case Studies

How Google Does Help

Last week Google released Google Voice, a service that allows you to integrate all your phones into one number and includes a host of features, including voice mail, recording, conference calling, and other services. To help users get started, Google Voice has a list of 20 short videos. Only the overview video contains animation. It’s certainly the video they’ve put the most work into, and it also functions as marketing collateral.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Documentation>Multimedia>Case Studies

Web Content Management Systems in Higher Education  

A case study of a university-wide implementation of a web content management system at Gonzaga University.

Powel, Wayne and Chris Gill. Educause (2003). Articles>Content Management>Education>Case Studies

Control and Community: A Case Study of Enterprise Wiki Usage

Like many companies, CorVu has extensive knowledge of its own products and a desire to make that knowledge available to customers. A major block to achieving that desire has been a lack of people with the time to either record the internal knowledge or to fashion the knowledge into a customer-ready format. We needed to spread the load so that a broad range of developers, tech writers, professional service consultants and others could all contribute what time and knowledge they had to a shared goal. Our hope was that a process built around several Wiki sites would facilitate this collaborative approach.

Clarke, Matthew C. Boxes and Arrows (2009). Articles>Content Management>Wikis>Case Studies

The Two-Click Mandate: A Case Study

One technical communication team delivered answers to user questions in two clicks with a help file created in DITA XML, using structured writing, different tools and a new information architecture. Content was linked one-to-one with application elements. Hyperlinks in one area of each screen make user access easy. The communicators established a linking strategy, used natural language for guided navigation and developed a reuse strategy involving references instead of duplication of content. The result was delivery of an InfoCenter that's easy to maintain and to expand, which a portion of the team will be doing for the next 20+ years.

Lowe, Karen. Writers UA (2009). Articles>Documentation>DITA>Case Studies

The Atlassian Contributor License Agreement Comes of Age

In early March we opened up the Atlassian documentation to the wider community. We added a CC-by (Creative Commons Attribution) license to our product documentation. We invited people to contribute to our documentation after signing an Atlassian Contributor License Agreement (ACLA). At that stage, the ACLA was just starting its three-month trial. The trial period has now ended, and we're delighted to say: it's a go!

Maddox, Sarah. Atlassian Blog, The (2009). Articles>Documentation>Wikis>Case Studies