January 2012

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Focus on Business Needs, not Technology

The benefits of XML are clear: flexible publishing, better reuse, and better brand image to name a few. Many Tech Pubs departments have successfully adopted XML and their ROI makes a clear case for its widespread organizational adoption. But often it is the Techies’ approach to XML (hint: it’s technical), that while a driving force to make it the de facto information standard, is often the very reason why it sputters and fails in other parts of the organization. Their detailed and technical focus doesn’t translate to success among the sales, marketing, and policy & procedures teams who need to know just enough XML to get the benefits, not everything XML can do.

To simply solve the enterprise adoption problem, it is necessary to secure the right perspective about appropriate enterprise initiatives, investments, and tools. Here are some tips to get started:

• Limit the exposure to technology, don’t teach the schema – You have dozens, hundreds or thousands of content developers, many of whom can benefit if information begins to be managed by organizations with the same diligence used to manage technology or people.

• Take advantage of technology (like Content Mapper and SharePoint). There is a reason in this often crumbling economy why technology companies are doing relatively well. It is because technology helps improve productivity when applied intelligently and correctly.

• When explaining the standard to non-techies, focus on business terms rather than technology; Sell the use of technology as the stuff in the background that makes the whole thing work efficiently.

• Your authors use Microsoft Word and like it. So, meet them where they are with a new generation of products, like Content Mapper. These products let the author work in the familiar Word interface, but generate valid XML, including DITA, Information Mapping^® and other standard structures to permit information reuse and multi-channel publishing.

• Work together with Tech Pubs. You can create XML across the enterprise that conforms to your corporate standard by leveraging the strengths of each department. The rest of the organization can create the valid XML. Tech Pubs can powerfully enhance and deliver it. Help them get there by keeping it simple and only adding complexity if you need it.

As our name implies we are focused on helping companies easily adopt XML, including adoption across the enterprise at large for structured and semi-structured content like documentation, training materials, marketing materials and policies and procedures. We believe that, similar to what happened with SGML in the 90s, the techies and consultants have taken over XML and made it more useful, but also more complex and difficult to implement.

Learn more about Content Mapper or request a free Content Mapper demo and 30-day trial.

Intelligent Content 2012: February 22-24

Held annually each winter in beautiful Palm Springs, CA, Intelligent Content 2012 is a three-day intensive learning experience designed to help attendees understand what is required to create intelligent content: content designed to be structurally rich and semantically categorized, automatically discoverable, reusable, reconfigurable, and adaptable to any future need.

Intelligent Content 2012 has an impressive lineup of speakers, starting with the keynote speaker Kristina Halvorson of Brain Traffic. We’ve been following Kristina for years, and we’re excited to listen to her take on how to become content collaborators. Sure to be educational and entertaining, you won’t want to miss this session!

Don Day is continuing his collaborative leadership and passion for DITA and teaming up with Michael Boses in From Intelligent Wikis To Intelligent Tweets: “Yes, You Can Create Intelligent Content”. These widely recognized authorities on DITA are turning the complexity of DITA on its head and showing the overlooked and simple ways to create XML in a web browser, in a word processor, even on Twitter!

In Reality Check: What to Expect from an Automated Conversion to eBook, Mark Gross (Data Conversion Laboratory) is sharing not only the issues, but how and when to deal with them, allowing you to manage the conversion process easier, and without any surprises.

Mark Poston is looking at topic architecture in Delivering Dynamic Content Solutions Using DITA. He’ll explore ways in which DITA content can be dynamically delivered to web and mobile applications with examples including collaborative review systems, conference websites, and government reporting.

See the whole line up at http://www.rockley.com/IC2012 and if you will be attending, please stop by and say hello to Simply XML!

Simply Tips and Tricks

All of our newsletters provide quick tips and tricks to help you simplify the XML world and beyond. Our tip for January involves Simplifying the Layman’s Toolkit. For everyday situations, and everyday XML users, having a few key tools in your toolkit is much better than an arsenal of equipment that you don’t know how to use anyway.

In XML:
Your actual needs should drive level of sophistication. Just because it is possible does not mean it is appropriate. Choose simple and appropriate tools for authoring, storage, and publishing. Keep your workflow and metadata as simple as you can. Tech Pubs can add complexity to the XML, if necessary, but don’t start there. Keep it simple to easily get the benefits of XML.

In Life:
Life can be dangerous and you should be prepared for it. Even though medical advancements have come a long way since Jonas Salk, it’s still a good idea to employ the “just enough” mentality to the medicine cabinet. Even without all the medications and medical instruments you’ll find in a hospital, it’s still possible to remedy most medical situations with just a few key pieces. And in the rare cases that it can’t, it is best to see a professional. Most of us wouldn’t know what to do with all the hospital equipment (and would probably harm ourselves in the process anyway).

About Simply XML

Simply XML provides simple, easy to use solutions for creating and publishing XML content. Creating, managing, and publishing content with our XML editor, Content Mapper, minimizes costs and ensures efficiency across your organization. Learn more at www.simplyxml.com

Simply XML, LLC
Tel: (781) 209-5451
Email: hello@simplyxml.com
www.simplyxml.com