The Power and Promise of DITA, - SDLdownloadcentre.sdl.com/tridion/pdf/SDL Webinar Slides -...
Transcript of The Power and Promise of DITA, - SDLdownloadcentre.sdl.com/tridion/pdf/SDL Webinar Slides -...
Our Presenters
Howard Schwartz, Ph.D.SVP Content Technologies
Andrew ThomasDirector of Product Marketing
SDL Structured Content Technologies Team
Kris EberleinDITA Architect
Agenda TodayDITA: Structured Content and The FoundationDITA and Customer ExperienceBeyond Dynamic PublishingDITA 1.2 and implications for customer experienceDemo of Next Generation Customer Experience with DITA and SDL LiveContent
Structured Content Comes of Age
Suite of Structured Content Technologies
Leader in Component Content Management (DITA / S1000D)
Dynamic Publishing High End Print Publishing + 20 years of XML technologies
experience Headquarters in Wakefield, Mass/ Belgium Over 300 customers in 5 continents Global Partner network
SDL’s Suite of
Structured Content
Technologies
SDL Envisions the Transformation….
SDL Envisions the Death of TechnicalDocumentation As We Know It Today
Ushers in smart interactive product documentation
Major Transformation…
• There is a major transformation afoot in what previously was “Tech Docs” but should be thought of as “product content”
• The shift is analogous to what happened to persuasive content over the last 10 years
Major Transformation…
• It is on the radar of many product companies and many publishing companies
• This story should find a bigger voice in ECM
Next Generation product content
• Product content interactive, context-aware, compelling and available on multiple devices and via multiple channels.
• New type of application is going to have to manage this experience
The Missing Link
• This new type of application represents the missing link between the backend product content developed inside an organization and the interactive world of persuasive content.
• Product Content has its own lifecycle and customer facing requirements.
The Missing Link
•Build Product Content On The Fly•Respond to Customer Profiles• Interactive, Dynamic• Incremental Updates•Analytics beyond page hits to capture “content utility”
•Takes advantage of rich XML structure and metadata
•Roundtrips comments from community to authors
•Crowd Authoring Enabled•Technology Tried and Tested in
Military and Defense
Trends in Customer Expectations
Customer Expectations Are Changing With Regard to Technical Information
Higher levels of Internet usePurchase and fact find more often over the WebDownload docs before purchasingShow me just the information I need - when I need it (my product on my platform)Want answers on Smartphone Desire visual videos and interactive contentWant to see video not just text
Customer Experience Impacts
Aberdeen’s research indicates that companies creating documentation that is automatically
customizable to various use-cases achieve a 39% increase in customer satisfaction scores and a
16% decrease in inquiries made to customer support organizations. In both cases, this represents
over twice the impact achieved by companies without this capability.
David Houlihan, Senior Research Associate, Product Content Management
Massive paradigm shift to adoption of XML and Dynamic Publishing
Content locked in contextInformation can’t easily appear in multiple context and can’t be tailored readily to audienceHigh costs of formattingContent gets out of synch and is difficult to refreshCustomers can’t find what they need
XML Topic MethodologyContent can be reshuffled for deliverableSame content can live in multiple outputsContent can be delivered easily as web pages to consumeMetadata and conditions can allow content to be tailored on the fly Content can be easily refreshed
Traditional Book Methodology Topic Based / DITA Methodology
Contracting Product Life Cycles
Research & Development
Market Life
PRDInternational
ReleaseEnglish Release Shelf Life
Trad
ition
al
Research & Development
Global Revenue & Market Capture Life
Mod
ular
writ
ing
LocalizationAuthor Review Publish
Author Review Publish Localize
Key:
VariationsOf Deliverables
Paradigm of Topics andDynamic Publishing
Market SegmentsVariations in Customer
Profiles
Product Variations
DITA 1.2: History
DITA 1.0 released May 2005.
DITA 1.1 released August 2007. Improvements for book-oriented publishing:
bookmap Integration with non-DITA objects
DITA 1.2 approved 1 December 2010.
DITA 1.2: Big picture overview
Changes to architecture Keys and the @keyref attribute Extensions to the @conref attribute
New information types Machine-industry task General task
New elements to aid reuseNew specialization for learning & trainingTaxonomies (subject scheme classification)Glossary, acronym, and abbreviation supportConstraints
Overall … Increased power and flexibility.
Costs and benefits
Benefit #1: Increased reusability Can redirect links Can change content according to the context Can turn common terms into links, for example, to a definition of a term
(not covered in this Webinar)
Benefit #2: Increased simplicity for authors and architects Can use simpler syntax Can help avoid complex conditional processing required by DITA 1.1 Can avoid swapping out conref topics
Benefit #3: Increased possibility for more personalized deliverables
Cost: Increased complexity New challenges for link management, link and key verification,
management of variable content, and more …
Addressing in DITA
DITA 1.0 and DITA 1.1 used direct addressing
Objects (topics, maps, images, figures, whatever) were referenced by the @href attribute or the @conref attribute
Examples:
<link href=“oil.xml" />
<keyword conref=“reuse1.dita#id/garage"/>
DITA 1.2 still supports direct addressing – but it also supports indirect addressing using the @keyref and @conkeyref attributes.
DITA 1.2: Keys and the @keyrefattribute
An indirect addressing mechanism.
Keys are defined in DITA maps.
DITA elements refer to keys to reference content.
What is indirect addressing?
Something that humans resolve instinctively, automatically … based on context.Computers need explicit addresses; cannot understand when the context changes.
I am going to WORK.
She is going to SDL.
A layer of abstraction …
Key definition
Keys are defined in a DITA map; a key name is associated with a resourceExamples:
<keydef keys=“oil” href=“oil.dita” />
<keydef keys="carwash-image" href="image/carwash.jpg" format="jpg"/>
Addressing using the @keyref attribute
Once defined, keys can be referenced in topics or DITA maps.
Examples:
<link keyref=“oil />
<image keyref="carwash-image"/>
Use cases for keys
Redirecting a <link> or <xref> element To another DITA topic To a Web site or other external resource Removing a link entirely
Swapping out variable content, such as images or product names
Creating hyperlinks from keywords or terms
Redirecting a conref
Product Content Maturity model
Ad Hoc AwareStructured
RepeatableManaged
Collaborative
Customer
Optimized
Awareness UnawareNo Buy In Aware Exec Buy IN Fully
Deployed Optimized
Content Model
UnstructuredContent Locked in ContextProblem
Beginning to structure Content for Product Categorizations
Fully StructuredDITA AdoptionStructured forMarket Segments
Structured Content moving into other Groups
Structured for Customer and PartnerPersonas
Process
Little Content SharingEach writer owns book
Collaboration Emerging
Collaborative Writing in PlaceHorizontalExpertise Emerges
Sharing to groups beyond Tech writing includingTraining and Learning, Support
Can pushinteractively to customers and partners
Tools
Desktop PublishingFrameMakerNo CCM
XML AuthoringFile System
XML Authoring Component ContentManagement
Web-based XML Contributors
Smart Interactive Dynamic Delivery
Str
uctu
red
Con
tent
Inf
rast
ruct
ure
Structured Content Tech Suite
WEB CMS
Content Quality Checking
Intelligent Product Content Multi-Channel Output
Print, WebHelp, CHM…
Enterprise Extensibility / SME/ Contributors
DITA S1000D
Foundation (Component Content Management)
Global Customer Engagement
Thank You for Joining Us
SDL LiveContent 2011 Launch Webinar for Customers
Wednesday, May 25, 2011 10:00am Pacific/1:00pm EasternContact Mary Parsons at [email protected] for a log-in
Next up in the Webinar Series…
“Publishing’s Quantum Leap: Going Live Online While Feeding Traditional Delivery Channels”Wednesday, June 15, 2011 8:00am Pacific/11:00am EasternDetails/Registration at www.sdl.com/en/xml/events