How Do You Manage Your RSS Feeds?

Some feeds are only skim worthy, while others I read word-for-word. Still, 90 feeds is really more than I can realistically keep up with. The question of which feeds to unsubscribe from plagues me. How long does one subscribe to a feed before deciding it's not worthwhile?

Loring, Sheila. Scriptorium (2009). Articles>Information Design>XML>RSS

Web 2.0: The Tipping Point for XML    

Have you been waiting for the right time to switch to XML publishing? O’Keefe illustrates that with the advent of Web 2.0, the time is now.

O'Keefe, Sarah S. Intercom (2009). Articles>Web Design>XML>Social Networking

Why Microsoft's .docx Format is a Good Thing

Here's a simple way to read one of the new Microsoft file formats, even if you have no Microsoft software installed. Let's suppose you have a file that ends with .docx, from the latest version of Microsoft Word. It's actually a zip file, so add .zip to the end and unzip it. You'll find a cluster of files and folders inside, and the one you want should be called document.xml. Double-click that and it will load in a browser window, where you can read the text.

Schofield, Jack. Guardian Unlimited, The (2007). Articles>Document Design>XML>Microsoft Word

Well Formed XML

Business integration is at the heart of many of today's industry trends. As businesses consolidate infrastructure, and look at rolling out service-oriented architectures, they are finding they need to link previously isolated applications. It's not easy. You can't link applications without some form of middleware, an extra application layer that lets their various systems communicate. Whether you use web services, or a message-based solution, there's one key feature that's at the heart of modern integration technologies: XML.

Bisson, Simon. Guardian Unlimited, The (2003). Articles>Content Management>Information Design>XML

Mark of Success

It is just seven years since specifications were developed to allow XML data to be exchanged over the internet. Simon Bisson looks at the development of the lingua franca of the connected world.

Bisson, Simon. Guardian Unlimited, The (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>Standards

Structured Authoring for Everyone

Structured authoring isn't just for technical writers. Just about any department in an organization can benefit from it. This article looks at one way of bringing structured authoring to the masses: by adopting the authoring concepts used in an obscure word processor called Yeah Write.

DMN Communications (2009). Articles>Information Design>Technical Writing>XML

Where I Stand on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)

DITA provides the ability to chunk information, to deliver selected topics in a variety of compilations and output to various formats. It allows the passing back and forth of this content among authors regardless of tools. My hesitation with DITA has only been that it’s too early to adopt. But I believe the turning point has come.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Information Design>XML>DITA

Barriers to DITA Adoption

As an independent consultant working mainly with small businesses I find that my clients are reluctant to commit to DITA for a number of reasons. As DITA authoring tools become more user-friendly and more readily available some of these barriers will begin to fade. But in general terms, the more DITA tools that become available, and the easier they become to use, the better for everyone.

Farbey, David. Blockhead Blog, The (2009). Articles>Information Design>XML>DITA

Essential Tools of an XML Workflow

This webcast is for those publishers who have made the decision to pursue digital channels for their content. What tools are out there? What do all those acronyms mean? How can publishers implement new strategies without disrupting current workflows? Here we explore the alphabet soup of digital publishing, sort out the tools that are most useful, and help publishers find some solid ground.

Dawson, Laura. O'Reilly and Associates (2009). Presentations>Information Design>XML>Video

Going DITA

It’s hard to go to a content management or publishing technology conference these days without there being a presentation on DITA — the Darwinian Information Typing Architecture. For the uninitiated, DITA is an XML architecture for authoring and publishing topic-based content, typically technical documentation. The brainchild of IBM, where it is used internally for many documentation projects, DITA is now an open-source standard under the aegis of OASIS.

Hondros, Constantine. O'Reilly and Associates (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>DITA

Frequently Asked Questions about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)

DITA supports the proper construction of specialized DTDs from any higher-level DTD or schema. The base DTD is ditabase DTD, which contains an archetype topic structure and three additional peer topics that are typed specializations from the basic topic: concept, task, and reftopic. The principles of specialization and inheritance resemble the principle of variation in species proposed by Charles Darwin. So the name reminds us of the key extensibility mechanism inherent in the architecture.

Day, Don, Michael Priestley and Gretchen Hargis. IBM (2005). Articles>Information Design>XML>DITA

Using DITA XML for Instructional Documentation  

Why DITA XML? Open standard and built-in with OpenTopic. Very specific schema. Helps clarify documentation.

Thomas, Andrew. Adobe (2005). Articles>Documentation>XML>DITA

An XML Architecture for Technical Documentation: The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)

DITA is an architecture for creating topic-oriented, information-typed content that can be reused and single-sourced in a variety of ways. It is also an architecture for creating new information types and describing new information domains, allowing groups to create very specific, targeted document type definitions using a process called specialization, while at the same time reusing common output transforms and design rules. We discuss several methods that can be used to extend DITA's basic topic types.

Day, Don, Erik Hennum, John Hunt, Michael Priestley, David Schell and Nancy Harrison. WritersUA (2004). Articles>Documentation>XML>DITA

The Most Important Questions About DITA

DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an XML-based information architecture. DITA doesn’t reinvent the wheel – rather, it sets standards for known structuring requirements. One very attractive aspect of this architecture is its clear alignment to a structuring method that has proved itself for years in online documentation. The basis of this method is the division of the content into modules called TOPICS. Today, this structuring method is considered the ideal approach for the organisation of comprehensive contents. As with everything new, there are many questions about DITA.

Closs, Sissi. Content Manager (2007). Articles>Information Design>XML>DITA

How Tellabs Uses XML

In the evolving and demanding world of telecommunications, Tellabs supports telecom service providers with the design, development, and deployment of wireline, wireless , and cable solutions worldwide. But with each unique solution deployment requires knowledge transfer from engineers to field service staff to ensure a smooth system upgrade. Learn how Tellabs' New Product Introduction group used DITA to transition to customer-centric writing. *What are the key things the organization as a whole should keep in mind regarding processes?"

Insight24 (2008). Presentations>Information Design>Case Studies>XML

Reporting XML Errors: Optimizing the Workflow

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based, end-to-end architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. This paper describes how DITA-based documentation was implemented at CEDROM-SNi, one of Canada's leading on-line news content aggregators. The project delivers documentation as diverse as user training materials and Web Services reference guides targeted to programmers. We focus on the benefits, how tos, and lessons learned. Technical documentation has its own unique challenges. Its deliverables range from simple reference guides and educational material to complex, multilingual procedure manuals. Critical success factors of a documentation project are numerous and diverse – usability, deadlines, cost, language, delivery media (paper, online) – all of which have their own purpose and challenges. This paper discusses these issues and provides a framework for future DITA projects.

Allen, Sarah. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Content Management>Workflow>XML

An Approach to Visually Creating and Editing Nested Compound Document

Currently, visual XML structured authoring applications can typically handle a small number of XML vocabularies. In some cases, they can even handle them in limited nested scenarios. One of the purposes of creating XML documents with compound vocabularies is to present related information on a given topic in different manners (tables, charts, etc). The synchronization of views between objects of different vocabularies in real-time editing helps authors realize this potential. In this presentation we will discuss an approach to visually creating, editing and synchronizing, nested compound XML vocabularies within one document. The open nature of the architecture enables developers to create plug-ins for new vocabularies including the ability to define synchronization. Also this architecture provides simple method to define visualization of a new vocabulary by utilizing plug-ins already developed and activated.

Wake, Nobuaki and Junpei Aoki. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Document Design>Information Design>XML

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

Enhanced Interoperability for Security of XML Web Services

Enterprises are adopting Web Services to ease application integration across heterogeneous environments within and across security domain boundaries. Security is an important element for the adoption of Web Services. The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) has recently ratified the Web Services Security standards (Web Services Security: SOAP Message Security 1.0 (WS-Security 2004 ), Web Services Security: UsernameToken Profile 1.0 , and Web Services Security: X.509 Certificate Token Profile ) to provide an extensible framework for providing message integrity, confidentiality, identity propagation, and authentication. The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) is profiling standards to provide guidelines for implementation and use of relevant standards to enhance interoperability. This paper describes the activities of the WS-I Basic Security Profile (BSP) Working Group (WG). This Working Group is chartered to improve interoperability of security technologies for Web Services by profiling the OASIS Web Service Security and HTTP Over TLS standards. This interoperability profile (known as the Basic Security Profile 1.0) is an extension of the WS-I Basic Profile . The WS-I Basic Profile addresses interoperability for implementations of core Web Services standards.

Austel, Paula, Michael McIntosh and Anthony Nadalin. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Web Design>XML>Security

Using XSL-FO 1.1 for Business-Type Documents

In addition to the powerful features available now, the upcoming XSL-FO 1.1 will bring several new features. In the world of business-type documents, marketing material and forms, there is currently a need for end-of-page subtotals, multiple flows, easier page number citation, things that will be possible with XSL-FO 1.1. This presentation will cover the features of XSL-FO that are needed for this type of documents. Formatting objects and properties of both XSL-FO 1.0 as 1.1 will be covered, as well as how to combine these things to create a good-looking business-type document, because these types of documents need have the perfect layout.

Bals, Klaas. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Business Communication>XML>XSL

Coping With Babel: How to Localize XML

Translating XML documents presents many opportunities as well as challenges. There are clear do's and don'ts when it comes to designing your documents regarding translation. You can use also use XML to your advantage to reduce costs and increase quality. One of the most exciting ways to do this is via the use of the XML Text Memory Namespace - xml:tm.

Zydron, Andrzej. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Language>Localization>XML

Getting Standards to Emerge, or, How to Build a Recipe Book While Everyone's Busy Cooking

The UK Local e-Government Standards Body was established late in 2003, and tasked with compiling an XML based data standards catalogue for use by UK Local Authorities. This is to be achieved by mapping existing standards, identifying gaps to be filled, advising and supporting local Councils, their partners and suppliers on the interpretation and adoption of standards, and establishing processes for developing new standards as required. However, UK Local Authorities have been developing e-services for several years already, so this new effort has to take place in a context where many projects are already under way, using a variety of business models, and with diverse approaches to XML interoperability design. An additional factor is the traditional tension between central and local government, which has led to patchy and inconsistent adoption of the national UK e-Government Interoperability framework. This paper is an account of the methodology developed by CSW Group Ltd and the LeGSB to tackle this situation.

Harvey, Anna and Ann Wrightson. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Information Design>XML>Standards

XML-Native Constraint Evaluation

This paper discusses approaches to validating XML documents for compliance to constraints. Our particular focus is on structural and content constraints that go beyond what is readily expressible in XML Schema technologies. We provide examples and solutions drawn from our specific experience building an XML-native constraint validator based on a mathematical language called Structural Notation (SN) . SN is used to express operational constraints as machine-processible Rules against a particular category of hierarchically structured, text-oriented military messages, called Message Text Formats (MTFs) , which have been migrated to a corresponding XML-based representation.

Malloy Mary Ann, Michael Cokus, Roger Costello, Ed Masek and Dan Winkowski. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Information Design>XML

Conflict Resolution in XML - Forms For All

Conflict resolution is required wherever we have multiple concurrent changes to a single information set. In practical terms this applies, for example, to concurrent editing environments, to replicated database instances which are being updated independently, to address-book changes on a PDA that must be merged into a master database that has itself been changed. Resolving these conflicts very often requires human intervention. This paper looks at the use of XML forms of various types to reduce the drudgery involved and to take advantage some of the greatest strengths of XML, using pipelining and easily-understood representations to allow a decision-maker to work with minimal drag.

Nichols, Thomas, Nigel Whitaker and Robin La Fontaine. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Information Design>XML>Forms