Change Blindness: "You See, But You Do Not Observe"

We can't force people to look at the work we do, but if we want to make them happy, we need to provide them with the information they need in a manner that makes it easy for the top-down mechanisms to work efficiently. It's our job to help them observe, rather than just see.

Rockley Group, The (2008). Articles>Information Design>User Experience>Cognitive Psychology

Content Management and the Electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD)

The XML eCTD DTD (Document Type Definition) defines the overall structure of the submission. The purpose of the XML backbone is two-fold: (1) to manage meta-data for the entire submission and each document within the submission and (2) to constitute a comprehensive table of contents and provide corresponding navigation aids.

Rockley, Ann. Rockley Group, The (2004). Articles>Content Management>Standards>XML

DITA Backlash?

I have seen a couple of blog postings lately that underscore the statement that DITA is not for everyone or for every situation.

Rockley Group, The (2008). Articles>Information Design>XML>DITA

DITA Resources Online (Darwin Information Typing Architecture)

If you need to learn more about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), look no further. Links to a few of the most useful DITA resources available on the web today.

Rockley Group, The (2005). Resources>Content Management>Metadata>XML

DITA: What You Need To know about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture  

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is a hot topic among those who author, edit, deliver and manage content. But adopting a standard architecture is an important decision that requires up front research and knowledge of the pitfalls. Find out if DITA is right for your organization. Read this whitepaper to learn more (PDF).

Manning, Steve. Rockley Group, The (2005). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>XML

Drug Information Association: XML Resources for Life Sciences Pro

The Drug Information Association (DIA) has compiled a series of useful articles designed to help you understand XML and related technologies. Don't worry! You don't have to be an IT guru to understand XML. The resources provided are written in laymen's terms and geared towards life sciences professionals, but may prove beneficial to professionals in other industries and vertical markets.

Rockley, Ann. Rockley Group, The (2004). Articles>Content Management>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

The Full Definition of Content Management

The next time you start a conversation about Content Management with someone, start by trying to gain an understanding what they think content management is. You might be surprised.

Rockley Group, The (2008). Articles>Content Management

It's Pretty, But is it Usable?

Just because a website looks good, doesn't mean that it's easy to use.

Rockley Group, The (2008). Design>Web Design>Usability

Lessons From The Trenches: DocZone.com Is Doing It With DITA

Interviews Chris Hill of DocZone.com and explores the lessons his firm learned while implementing the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA).

Abel, Scott. Rockley Group, The (2006). Articles>Content Management>XML>DITA

Making the Writing "Easy to Scan"

Give the reader the ability to quickly peruse the information presented and extract the information they need. For example, if there is a lot of information, and the reader is required to scroll the screen to see content 'below the fold', an overview would probably be a very good idea. Contrariwise, if the article is short, and can be quickly scanned (especially if you can do so without scrolling the page), providing an overview might be counterproductive.

Rockley Group, The (2008). Articles>Web Design>Writing

Managing Life Sciences Content

Life sciences have been called the least automated industry in the world, but some pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, and healthcare-related organizations are working to dispel that image by implementing targeted content management solutions aimed at shortening the amount of time it takes to get new products to market.

Rockley Group, The (2004). Articles>Content Management>Scientific Communication>Workflow

Pet Peeves: On Site Searching

What bugs me is not the results of the major search engines, but the results of internal web site searches.

Rockley Group, The (2008). Design>Web Design>Search>Usability

Planning for DITA Success Part Two: How to Deploy DITA, Step-By-Step  

This paper, the second of a series, closes the loop by examining implementation issues from a technical perspective. It explores best practices within the five key steps of a successful transition.

Manning, Steve. Rockley Group, The (2007). Articles>Documentation>Standards>DITA

Planning for DITA Success: How to Set Up the Right Team and the Right Strategy  

This two-part series explores why DITA has created such a buzz in the content management arena, particularly among technical documentation teams--and how you can prepare for long-term DITA success.

Manning, Steve and Su-Laine Yeo. Rockley Group, The (2007). Articles>Content Management>Standards>DITA

The Rockley Bulletin

The Rockley Bulletin addresses issues of importance to those interested in content management, content reuse, new tools and technologies, resources, strategies, best practices and more.

Rockley Group, The (2004). Journals>Knowledge Management>Single Sourcing>Content Management

The Rockley Report

The Rockley Report is a quarterly journal with information about content management topics. The Rockley Report provides knowledge to help you make the case for, plan, and execute content management initiatives.

Rockley Group, The (2004). Journals>Knowledge Management>Content Management>Newsletters

Using DITA to Develop a New Information Architecture at BMC Software

The need for us to customize BSM solutions by integrating different software solutions, combined with the maturation of tools for XML-based authoring, make this an ideal time to implement a new information development strategy. After researching materials about content management and studying success stories from companies who have implemented structured authoring, we launched a pilot project.

Rockley, Ann. Rockley Group, The (2007). Articles>Content Management>Case Studies>DITA

The Emergence of Intelligent Content: The Evolution of Open Content Technologies and Their Significance  

This paper traces the history of open content technologies in an effort to understand the nature and significance of intelligent content. What is illustrated is that a common thread runs through SGML, HTML, XML, Web 2.0, the Semantic Web, DITA, and OOXML and that the evolution of open content technologies has enabled the emergence of intelligent content and with it a new form of organizational agility. This whitepaper has been prepared as a corollary to the presentation “Content Fusion: There’s a Piece of Data Lodged in my Document” at Intelligent Content 2009, Palm Springs CA, January 29-30, 2009.

Gollner, Joe. Rockley Group, The (2009). Articles>Publishing>Online>Open Source

XML and Marketing Materials

Marketing materials are always important, and in these difficult times, they are critical to the success of the organization, and there are huge pressures to do more with less and for less money. Enter XML. XML is often perceived as complex, rigid and horrible to work with (geeky, technical) — anathema to the average marketing communications author. But this is no longer true. XML and the tools that support them have matured to the point where the XML is hidden, much in the same way RTF is hidden from the average Microsoft® Word author. Using XML for marketing materials provides considerable benefits, including consistent messaging, reduced time to create content, reduced costs to maintain content, reduced translation costs, and powerful multichannel conversion capabilities. XML is creating a profound shift in the way we create, manage, deliver and control marketing materials. It is a shift that is resulting in significant ROI and increased levels of success.

Rockley, Ann. Rockley Group, The (2009). Articles>Content Management>Marketing>XML