Embracing XMLThe NetDoktor Story

Ronny SchererDirector of Development

XML-enabled Content Management,Marcus Evans, Brussels November 28.-29.

2001

rons@netdoktor.com

Europe’s Leading Health Communications Company

Norway

Sweden

Denmark

UK

Germany

Austria

France

SpainItaly

Country No portal operation yet

CountryNational NetDoktorhealth portal exists

1 mio. unique users / month15 mio. page impressions / month

Three year track record- NetDoktor.dk launched June ’98- 500+ freelance doctors- 30,000+ proprietary content assets- Funded by Apax Partners & Co

Brief History

• Founded in Denmark in 1997 byDr. Carl Brandt and journalist Rune Bech

• Based on a study by Carl Brandt on”Smoker’s lung”*

• Funded by Apax Partners & Co since 1999

*) Published in The Lancet 1997; 349 (9047): p253

”We believe that an educated patient, who understands his or

her illness is better suited to take part in the treatment than one that

does not”

NetDoktor’s Value Propositions

Health Care Services and E-Care Solutions

Cost Efficiency & Quality

PatientSatisfaction /Quality of Life

Value

Individuals

Content

NetDoktor’s Strategy

Community

Care

GroupsMass

High Level Portal Overview

Content offerings

Diseases and conditionfact sheets

Medicine fact sheets

Featured articles(health advice)

Services

Newsletter

News

Chat transcripts

Q&A postings

Quizzes and tests

Meta data and information architechture

Name roulette

Q&A (Ask the expert)

Discussion

Chat

Poll

Visuals (design)

Navigation hubs and features

SearchQuizzes and tests

Sample Integration Architecture

Encyclopedia

New s & Features

Com m unity

Services

TravelSex and

RelationshipsAsthm a Etc...

Serv

ives

TopicsPossible

IntegrationPoints

Content Categories(consumer)

Muscles and Joints Lungs Childrens's Health Health Sector

Neurology Teeth and Mouth Sex and Relationships Complementary Medicine

Skin and Hair Asthma and Allergy Weight Management Pregnancy and Birth

Eyes Mental Health Drug and Alcohol Abuse Senior's Health

Liver and Kidney Cancer Sports Smoking Cessation

Digestive System Diabetes Travel Medicine Accidents and First Aid

Heart and circulation Infections Women's Health Immunizations

Ears, Nose, ThroatSexually transmitted

diseasesMen's Health Genetics

Growth & Metabolism   Examinations & Procedures Medicines & Supplements

      Pain management

Legacy Workflow

Editor

StageWeb

Live site

Working with FrontPage and HTML

Pros• Very fast time to market• Near flat learning curve• Easy to customize for

each country• Cost effective… short

term• Good performance

Cons• Unscaleable. Unstructured.

FrontPage quality HTML = poor quality. Did not support content syndication

• Hard to manage intellectual properties

• No version control• Different implementation in each

country• Flat and uncontrolled file

structure• Diverse branding and graphics

design

Business Requirementsand Priorities

1. We will enable our content assets to be licensed to third parties

2. We will cut cost by streamlining and aligning our production and maintenance workflows across all languages.

3. We will improve quality while doing it…

The Extreme Way

• Early, rapid feedback• Assume simplicity• Incremental change• Embracing change

Extreme Programming (XP) is a lightweight, customer driven, efficient, low-risk, flexible, predictable scientific and fun way to develop software

Traditional Methods

CostCost of Change

Time

XP

Including Up FrontInvestment

The Planning Game

1. We will enable our content assets to be licensed to third parties

What’s most important?• Flexibility. Different

customers, different needs. Flexible and media independent format.

• Simple delivery and short implementation cycle

• Standards based delivery

• Unify content across all languages

• Quality assurance through version control

2. We will cut cost by streamlining and aligning our production and maintenance workflows across all countries

Create once, publish many• Single source for all content assets • Effective distribution to NetDoktor portals and

syndication partners

Why XML?

• Flexibility– Easy to transform in to any format

• Seemed to be a sure thing– Strong early adapter development community– Support from W3C and the software industry

• Good tools• Cost effective• Multi-lingual by nature (UTF-8)• No real alternative

Lessons From The First Iteration

– The 30 Days Challenge• Time boxing is good for focus and results

– 500 UK articles, five people, 30 days• Slice the elephant – first things first• Assume simplicity• A good metaphor is crucial

Conceptual Business Overview

DEPLOYMANAGECREATE

Editorial Sales Operations

Content Delivery System Metaphor

Conceptual Business OverviewDEPLOYMANAGECREATE

CreateContent

CMSSubscriptionManagement

CustomerManagement

X-form Deliver

Maintenance

Editorial Sales Operations

Portal / Site Management

Content Management

DEPLOYMANAGECREATE

CreateContent

CMSSubscriptionManagement

CustomerManagement

X-form Deliver

Maintenance

Content Delivery System Technology Components

DEPLOYMANAGECREATE

XMetaLC

VS

Cu

mu

lus

XML config

MultiMark

J avaXSL-T

SMTPFTP

HTTPHTTPS

ICE

J ava / XSL-T

Editorial Sales Operations

Success From The First Iteration

– The 30 Days Challenge• Delivered on time• All stakeholders were involved early• The first DTD was based on best-practices from the

Oasis DocBook and the W3C HTML specifications• Self-contained articles (all meta data included)• Open standards and COTS

– SoftQuad XMetaL• Rich and easy to learn user-interface (rich Windows client)• Insured quality and unified structure

– Concurrent Versions System• Straight forward version control system (rich Windows client)• OpenSource

– Java, XML, XSL-T, HTTP…

Meta Data and Taxonomies

• Meta data and taxonomies defines the context and integration points

• Simple (from a technical point of view) and very powerful

• Required by syndication partners• Can be used e.g. to map and group content across

themes and interest groups and put a given piece of content into a context

• Samples of use are ATC, UMLS, site structure andsearch engine optimisation

Sample Integration Architecture

Encyclopedia

New s & Features

Com m unity

Services

TravelSex and

RelationshipsAsthm a Etc...

Serv

ives

TopicsPossible

IntegrationPoints

Dealing with Imagesand Rich Media

• An image tells a thousand words… But we still need good meta data.

• Image and meta data management usingCanto Cumulus.

• Deployment using cached production copies.

Next step

• Taking our own medicine• First things first (n x m cost

principle)• Refining and automating

distribution• Improved support for meta data• Second DTD

Bottom line – XML rules!• Get your own experience. Know your process and needs. Base

investments on your experience – not a vendor or consultant report.

• Focus – start simple.• Saved / postponed major IT investment while still reaching

targets and meeting customer demand.• We created a repository in 6 months (5.000+ articles in 7

languages)– it actually scales.

• Extreme principles (XP) has proved impressive results.• Workflow and content quality has improved dramatically.• Streamlined content production and delivery environment

across Europe.• Short delivery cycle.• Major savings in production cost (up to 60%).• All stakeholders has to be involved.• Investments in XML and COTS has more than met

expectations.

The slides can be downloaded athttp://www.scherer.dk/cv/