Component Content Management has a proven track record in cost savings. However, in a tough economy it is hard to make the case for content management. This session looks at how you can move forward with content management even when money is tight. We will look at identifying ROI, the case for hosted content management systems, and what you can do with your content even when you don’t have a content management system in place. You will take away solid suggestions that will improve your content no matter what your budget and put you on the path towards content management!

Click for more information, or to register.

At first glance this seems like a very odd match. Really Strategies has largely been focused on publishing and media and DocZone.com has been focused on DITA and technical publishing. However, they are both publishing and both XML-based. These worlds are beginning to blend with publishers looking to XML to help them become more agile and move into “Publishing 2.0″.

The major reason that this acquisition makes sense is because DocZone.com offers a low-cost SaaS-based solution to complement Really Strategies higher-end client/server solution. This makes it possible for Really Strategies to serve a broader range of publishing and media companies.

DocZone.com has become known for its innovation:

• First SaaS-based XML technical publishing solution
• Rapid move to open-source Alfresco after EMC purchased XHive Docato
• Low-cost publishing and media version earlier this year

So it shouldn’t be too hard to adapt to this new home for the product. However, we do anticipate some adjustment as the DocZone.com product has to become more user friendly to support the technology adverse world of the traditional publishing editorial process.

That being said, Really Strategies has gained a low-cost SaaS-based publishing solution to round out its offering, global European clients and support, and a highly innovative development team and DocZone.com has gained a more secure home.

Really Strategies has pledged to maintain DocZone.com’s product and customer base. The combined companies will be headquartered in Audobon, PA.

The acquisition of XyEnterprise was not a surprise, with this economy this is one of the products we had identified as ripe for acquisition, but it was a bit of a surprise to hear that it was SDL. SDL Trisoft and XyEnterprise Contenta compete head to head in the market place.

While these products do compete there are pieces of XyEnterprise that will augment SDL Trisoft. The first and most obvious being the publishing products XML Professional Publisher (XPP) and LiveContent (a dynamic delivery engine). XyEnterprise also brings an S1000D version to the table, an obvious gap in SDL Trisoft. However, there is a lot of overlap in the main product Contenta and we anticipate that a large portion of it will be discarded. The new product will be branded XySoft.

XyEnterprise also brings a large sales and support staff to SDL Trisoft. While SDL Trisoft has projected a large presence under the SDL name, it was really very tiny. SDL Trisoft could not have continued to grow without a large influx of resources. And grow they must to compete with the ECM vendors like EMC and IBM that have entered the CCM space.

While SDL has a good track record of maintaining the integrity of the products it purchases (e.g., Idiom, Tridion, Trisoft) I can’t help but feel that we are losing a venerable old product (surviving on its own for almost 20 years) in the acquisition of XyEnterprise Contenta. It will probably continue to live on in the S1000D version, but will be subsumed in SDL Trisoft.

More and more companies are either adopting DITA or thinking about adopting it, yet surprisingly, there are very few resources written in plain English for those who want to learn about it. Many of the existing resources are very technical in nature. No matter how simple an article or book started out they always ended up talking about DITA in the context of XML code. Like any XML standard there is structure in DITA, but authoring tools can now illustrate structure in an intuitive manner.

We’ve designed DITA 101 for writers and managers. We’ve taken our years of experience helping organizations to move to DITA and distilled it into an easy-to-read and understandable format. And since the move to DITA often goes hand-in-hand with an organization’s adoption of content management, we’ve made sure that our expertise in developing effective content, reuse and content management, and their appropriate strategies are integrated throughout to give you everything you need to know to understand DITA.

DITA 101 is written for authors who need to understand the concepts but don’t need to know how to set up DITA nor how to modify the code. This book is about understanding structure, structured writing and reuse all in the context of DITA. In addition, we’ve also written DITA 101 for managers to help them understand the basics of DITA, the changes in roles, and the things to think about when planning a DITA project.

DITA 101 includes the following sections:

• What is DITA provides a definition of DITA and explains its key features.
• The value of structure in content explains how to analyze content for structure and uses recipes to illustrate the concepts of structure and structured writing.
• Reuse: Today’s best practice presents the benefits of reuse and provides an understanding of all the types of reuse that DITA supports.
• Topics and maps takes you through the building blocks of DITA.
• A day in the life of a DITA author helps to illustrate how an author would develop a content outline, create topics and write structured content.
• Planning for DITA provides insights into how to most effectively plan for DITA and the changes in roles and responsibilities.
• Metadata introduces the concepts of metadata, an often overlooked and misunderstood topic, and gives insight into the metadata that DITA supports.
• DITA and technology introduces some of the key DITA features that authoring, content management and publishing systems should support.
• The advanced stuff contains our insight on such topics as domains, conrefs, selection attributes, relationship tables and specialization.

Examples are used throughout to illustrate the concepts.

DITA 101: Fundamentals of DITA for Authors and Managers is available from Lulu for $9.95 immediate download, and approximately $25 for a paperback version.

If you would like to see more before you buy you can download Reuse: Today’s best practice.

Typically, first the author has to know that the content exists, then they have to search and retrieve it. And of course searching for it means that you have to be able to describe it fairly well in order to find the specific content you are looking for. Many authors figure it is just faster to write it from scratch. When that happens all the benefits of reuse are lost (consistency, accuracy, reduced workload, reduced cost of translation). Xtend helps to overcome this problem.

Author-it has labeled Xtend an authoring memory. Like a translation memory, Xtend indexes all occurrences of content in the Author-it database and identifies identical and fuzzy matches for content. However, unlike a translation memory which shows you matches after you’ve written and approved the content, Xtend does it at the point of authoring. As an author is creating content, Xtend runs in the background to analyze each word and start the content match. After a certain number of words (configurable by the user) it pops up a dialog that shows exact or fuzzy matches for the content. In addition, it identifies where the content has already been reused, if it has been translated, and how close a match it is. The author can review the content fragments and select the one they feel is appropriate or ignore the suggestions.

Xtend is configurable. You can identify how many words you want it to analyze before making a suggestion, words that you would like it to ignore (e.g., the), use colors to indicate degree of match, identify the degree of “fuzzy” relevance, and set the number of suggestions it will provide. The indication of where a piece of content has been reused already and whether it has been translated helps in the decision-making process. For example, a 100% match may not have been reused elsewhere or never translated so it might make more sense to take the 87% match which has been translated into five languages and reused frequently even though it was not your original intention since it will save the company considerable money and increase consistency).

Xtend can be added to any web-based application (e.g., CRM) to enable content matching with Author-it source content to further extend content consistency across the enterprise.

Xtend simplifies automatic and systematic reuse and can protentially increase the percentage of reuse. When Xtend first launched we thought it was a pretty cool feature, and obviously Author-it does too since they have gone to the trouble and expense of patenting it.

IBM has added to their content model to support new primary classes to provide for relationships between topics (e.g., parent/child). IBM FileNet Content Manager P8 4.5 provides the following DITA functionality:

• DITA maps
• Automatic classification of topics (e.g., concept, task, reference)
• Relationships between topics
• Conrefs
• Where used
• Reference (e.g, links) management
• DITA metadata
• Publication through the DITA Open Toolkit

The latest version of Quark XML Author 3.0 provides the Word-based authoring interface including:

• TOC representation of DITA maps
• Single document, or individual representation of topics
• DITA structure via styles
• Embedded writing guidelines (e.g., how to write an effective short description)
• Integration with P8 to navigate folder structure, access and store content or images
• Point and click reuse

The IBM and Quark partnership provide an option for creating DITA in the enterprise.

For more on this topic see my CMS Watch Blog entry “DITA for the masses?”.

Intelligent content is not limited to one purpose, technology or output. It’s structurally rich and semantically aware and is therefore automatically discoverable, reusable, reconfigurable and adaptable. And intelligent content isn’t just a future, it’s possible now.

But in order to create and manage intelligent content, you need a Component Content Management system.

Unlike a traditional Document Management System, which tracks and manages completed documents, a Component Content Management (CCM) system manages content at a granular (component) level of content rather than at the page, chapter or document level. There are a myriad of tool choices, and the Report provides you with essential background information you need to understand the CCM space and to make the best decision for your organization.

Now in it’s second year, the report adds a new section on seven XML capable publishing tools. Newly updated to reflect the latest information, and based on extensive technology research and customer interviews, the Report also evaluates twelve major CCM suppliers and six prominent XML Editor tools.

This year the report found that XML is truly crossing into the enterprise:

• IBM is building a strategic presence witnessed by its recent integration of DITA with IBM FileNet Content Manager in partnership with Quark XML Author
• Microsoft has signaled an interest in the space with the promotion of Intelligent Content Framework
• Open Source options are now available through Alfresco via DocZone and Componize
• Adobe and Quark have moved publishing from technical XSL-FO to high end digital media delivery
• EMC and Mark Logic have taken content retrieval to new levels with intelligent XQuery and dynamic delivery

In addition, the 360-plus page Report documents industry best practices and identifies common pitfalls to avoid when selecting and implementing a CCM system

Read Bob Glushko’s review of the first edition here.

To purchase your copy, or to see a sample excerpt visit the Report page at CMSWatch.

Big and Small … lessons learned from DITA implementation projects.
Making the move to modular content involves more than repeatedly chanting “DITA”. It’s a change in approach and a new way of thinking about, creating, managing, and publishing content. And, as you would expect, change brings issues, challenges, and even surprises. In this session, Steve Manning will compare two specific DITA projects he has participated in and describe the issues and challenges faced, from dealing with vendors to wrangling legacy content.