dita for publishers: how publishers can really do xml

©2009 Really Strategies, Inc. | www.rsuitecms.com

DITA for Publishers:

How Publishers Can

Really Do XMLMarch 10, 2010

©2010 Really Strategies, Inc. | www.reallysi.com Confidential

Welcome

Company Overview and Introduction

Online Poll

What is your knowledge of DITA?

Webinar Overview

Online Poll

What is your relationship to publishing?

DITA for Publishers

Q&A

Webinar Agenda

2


3

Who is Really Strategies?

Founded: 2000

Consulting Services to Publishers

Specialists in XML-based Content Management Solutions

Project/Program Management

Workflow Analysis and Reengineering

Content and Metadata Modeling

Technology Assessment and Roadmaps

Much more…

RSuite CMS – A Content Management System for Publishers

DocZone – The first SaaS XML Content Management System

2004 - 2009

2006, 2007, 2008

2004, 2005, 2007

2007, 2009

2007, 2009

http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=37332


Serving over 100 companies

4

STM Educational Media Tech Pubs

http://www.ieee.org/

http://www.ti.com/hdr_home

http://www.fwmedia.com/

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/nsbe/Announcements/CIT/images/jnj.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/nsbe/Announcements/CIT/johnson.html&h=140&w=148&sz=31&tbnid=Fclsgr4ygRFHaM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=95&prev=/images?q=Johnson+&+Johnson+Logo&usg=__3C_1dIzkCv0hlQjj36UeGXaPdWI=&ei=ta9ISoqUC8qMtgelruCTCg&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=4&ct=image

http://www.arbita.net/

http://www.agfa.com/


Webinar Presenter

5

As Senior Solutions Architect at Really

Strategies, Eliot leads publishers through

various content management initiatives,

including RSuite CMS implementations, XML

and desktop publishing applications, DITA

requirements and standardization, and

information and process analyses.

He is fluent in XML, XSLT, XSL-FO, DTD

development, XSD Schema, XPath, XQuery,

XInclude, Xlink, and other standards that

relate to information management and

publishing.

http://www.rsuitecms.com/


ONLINE POLL

6

What is your knowledge of DITA?


DITA for Publishers: How Publishers Can

Really Do XML What is DITA?

Some myths about DITA get busted

The basic value DITA brings to the use of XML

DITA for Publishers: What is it?

DITA for Publishers: Why is it?

A few real-world users

Final words: A vision of XML’s promise truly realized

Questions and answers

Webinar Overview

7


ONLINE POLL

8

What is your relationship to

publishing?


An XML-based standard architecture for

authoring and storing documents.

What is DITA?

9

By ―documents‖ we mean ―stuff people read.‖

The acronym means ―Darwin Information Typing

Architecture.‖

Where ―Darwin‖ connotes DITA’s inherent

flexibility and adaptability.

DITA is produced through OASIS Open.

Currently at version 1.2 (almost).


All content is organized as ―topics.‖

Essential DITA Concepts

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A topic always has a title, may have a body, and

may have subordinate topics.

Notionally, topics are intended to be standalone,

re-usable chunks of content.

Topics are organized into deliverable packages

by ―maps.‖

A map is essentially a tree of hyperlinks to topics.

Maps impose organization onto topics.

Maps allow a topic to be used in many packages.


DITA: Maps and Topics

11

My

MagazineVol 1 Issue 2

Article 1

Section 1.1

Section 1.2

Topics

Part I

Chapter 1

Section 1.1

Section 1.2

My Book

Maps

Re-used

Topics


Myth 1: DITA is just for technical documentation

Some DITA Myths Get Busted

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Myth 2: DITA requires modular writing


While it is true that DITA comes out of technical

documentation…

Myth 1: DITA is Just for Tech Docs

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…as an architecture DITA is completely generic

BUSTED

Most current information about DITA focuses on

its use for technical documentation

Before DITA for Publishers—not always obvious

how to apply DITA to Publishing requirements


Modular writing is a technical documentation

practice.

Myth 2: DITA Requires Modular Writing

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BUSTED

DITA supports modular writing.

DITA does not require modular writing.

In particular, DITA does not require each DITA

topic to be in a separate file.

Although it is often useful to organize things that

way.


DITA enables blind interchange of content…

The Value DITA Brings

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…without constraining markup design

DITA enables iterative development of XML

applications as understanding and requirements

evolve.

DITA provides many sophisticated features.

DITA provides deep open-source and

commercial supporting infrastructure.

With DITA you can start small and simple and

add sophistication as you need it.


DITA is not a single XML vocabulary or tag set.

DITA is an Architecture, Not a DTD

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DITA is an architecture for defining new

vocabularies that are inherently interoperable.

You can have your own special-purpose, use-

case-specific markup.

Yet still reliably interchange and interoperate

with any other DITA user.

It is almost magical.

It is the one aspect of DITA that distinguishes it

from all other standard XML applications.


By ―blind interchange‖ we mean anyone’s

conforming DITA content can be combined with

anyone else’s DITA content and be processed

usefully with DITA-aware tools with no more

negotiation than ―give us DITA-based content.‖

Did You say Blind Interchange?

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This works because of some basic rules and

patterns DITA defines.

Coupled with the DITA-defined ―specialization‖

facility.


If DITA is about interchange…

Publishing Is All About Interchange

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And if DITA really does do interchange in a way

that no other XML application does it…

Then DITA should be very attractive to

Publishers.

Publishing is all about interchange: Within an enterprise: re-use and repurposing

Between enterprises: licensing, aggregation, etc.

Between now and the future

Between producers and consumers


DITA adapted to the specific needs of

Publishers.

DITA For Publishers: What is It?

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The things every Publisher needs: Basic topic types: Part, Chapter, Article, Subsection,

Sidebar

Publication map structures: metadata, etc.

Basic tool customizations and configurations

Word-to-DITA transforms

DITA-to-InDesign transforms

An open-source project:

dita4publishers.sourceforge.net

http://dita4publishers.sourceforge.net/


Short answer: It makes my job easier

DITA For Publishers: Why Is It?

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For Publishers coming to XML for the first time,

provides the shortest path to a high-value XML

solution.

For Publishers with existing XML, provides a

potential path out of aging legacy technology or

an attractive export target for interchange

Makes cost of entry to XML as low as it could

possibly be.

Tools can offer more value through generic

DITA support.


Use basic topic types to capture content initially As generic as they could be

Easy to convert to from legacy content

Getting Started With DITA for Publishers

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Use generic Pubmap to model publications.

Use out-of-the-box DITA Open Toolkit to

generate some outputs: HTML, PDF, ePub

(using DITA For Publishers ePub plugin).

Develop process for getting content into DITA-

based XML (usually from Word).

Start understanding requirements in more detail.

Add specialized markup and processing as

needed.


Magazine articles: Editorial work done in Word.

DITA-based XML generated from Word.

InCopy articles generated from XML for use in highly-

designed print magazine.

XML used to generate other forms: HTML, etc.

Some Real-World Users

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Trade books: Editorial process takes many forms—impossible to do

XML first.

Converted to DITA XML at end of print process.

DITA XML easily recombined, re-used, produced in

different ways to various outputs.


Accounting standards: Codified GAAP

Standards authored in DITA-based XML

(predates DITA for Publishers).

More Real-World

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XML published to Web server that generates

HTML dynamically.

DITA-based XML licensed to publishers Commentary

Textbooks

At least one publisher authoring their content in

DITA for combination with GAAP DITA content.


DITA is also all about modular content.

Lots of Publishing Content is Very Modular

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Lots of Publishing content is very modular: Encyclopedias

Dictionaries

Nature and travel guides

Magazine articles

Chapters and sections in multi-author books

How-To guides

Serialized fiction

…

So maybe a standard driven by modularity

requirements isn’t such an odd idea after all….


Processing and rendering: DITA Open Toolkit (ditaot.sourceforge.net)

DITA2Go (http://dita2go.com/)

DITA authoring: OxygenXML

XMetal

Arbortext Editor

Xopus

Quark DITA Studio

DITA-aware content management: RSuite CMS

DocZone DITA

IXIASOFT TextML Server

Some DITA-Supporting Tools (not an exhaustive list)

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http://dita2go.com/


We’ve tried, and failed, to do interchange with

XML for 20+ years using monolithic vocabularies.

A vision of XML’s promise truly realized

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DITA offers a different way.

As Publishers start using DITA it will lower the

cost of interchange and interoperation.

As the cost of interchange goes down the

inherent value in the content goes up.

DITA For Publishers reflects a vision of a DITA-

based content ecosystem where the promise of

XML as a vehicle for interchange is finally

realized.


QUESTIONS

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DITA for Publishers: How

Publishers Can Really Do XML


How RSuite Helped The MIT Press Transform

Its Publishing Operation

April 7, 2010 | 2:00 to 3:00 PM EST

How DocZone DITA is helping Unica

Corporation to achieve new production

milestones and single-source publishingMay 12, 2010 | 2:00 to 3:00 PM EST

More Information: http://www.reallysi.com/webinars

Upcoming Webinars

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http://www.reallysi.com/webinars

dita for publishers: how publishers can really do xml

Technology

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based xml

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publishing

xmls promise

blind interchange

content

topic