From late summer to the present, I have been engaged in two projects for the National Cancer Insitute (NCI). My role in each project is quite different.
For one project, I developed a library of MadCap Flare templates for the NCI Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (NCI CBIIT). The Technical Writing team is transitioning to Flare from a FrameMaker-to-ePublisher workflow. Flare templates provide a lot of publishing power and flexibility, and I provided a single sourcing solution that includes templates for authors, collaborators, and contributors. I am now building a Flare Knowledge Base on the NCI Wiki (Confluence-based) so that NCI CBIIT Flare users can search for and contribute to a repository of tips and solutions. I will write more about my process for developing the templates in my next post.
I am also working as a technical editor on a collaborative project between the NCI and the Health Level 7 (HL7) organization. The project involves implementation of the Services-Aware Interoperability Framework, also known as SAIF (pronounced “safe”). I work closely with enterprise architects to develop content that will eventually become part of a blended learning solution for NCI analysts, architects, and developers. In a later phase, I will help to lay the foundation for the adoption of a DITA content strategy.
As a preliminary part of our DITA strategy, I conducted a formal evaluation of two prospective DITA editing tools. You can view the results of my testing on the HL7 Wiki: XML Tool Considerations page. I welcome comments from readers who are experienced with either tool.
In the meantime, here’s to 2010! I wish you the best.
Commuting on the Washington, DC Metro gives me the opportunity to read a lot of books. My ride is about 30 minutes each way, so I spend at least an hour a day reading.
Recently I have read a lot of books about the state of web content. Why? Because I have been contributing web content for many years, and I have long advocated that well-structured, clear content is vital to a successful user experience. So I am fascinated to see the sudden surge of interest in content strategy.
It’s about time.
Web sites have long been products of shiny bauble design: Make it pretty and they will come. A site lures you in, but you quickly discover that you cannot find what you’re looking for. Either there’s not enough information, or there’s too much information, but it’s so poorly structured and organized that you give up.
Information architects (IAs) who focus on design over content have long fueled this problem. The best IAs realize the value of the user experience, where design and content are fully integrated. They focus on both aspects. But sometimes the scope and breadth of site requirements place too much responsibility on them. A partnership becomes necessary.
Enter the content strategist.
In this post, I discuss two books that are shaping the body of resources on content strategy. This is not an in-depth review of either book. Both are only around 200 pages long, and I don’t want to give away all of the authors’ secrets. After reading this post, I hope that you will read these excellent resources.
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Interested in learning more about the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)? I recommend that all information developers at least break the surface. Regardless of whether you plan to adopt DITA, you can benefit from studying it. You can even borrow from its lean, efficient writing model.
I have been a fan of modular, “chunked” writing since I took an Information Mapping (IM) course years ago. Although I see value in using IM, I prefer DITA’s open, simplified, XML-based model. I appreciate its emphasis on standardization and content reuse. I like the flexibility for using specialized information types. Although none of my clients have adopted DITA, I study it because I have a driven fascination with information architecture and structure.
Toe in the water or swan dive?
Most of the available information about DITA is on the web, but at least three DITA-related books have been released (as far as I know). Each of the following titles is a great resource for neophytes who find the formal specification a bit intimidating but who would like to learn more about—and possibly even experiment with—DITA.
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