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Dr. JoAnn Hackos, President of Comtech Services
Books, no doubt, will always be with us. As an omnivorous reader of print books, I expect no changes in the medium in my lifetime. However, I would argue that technical information supporting the proper use and maintenance of products appears in book form simply for ease of packaging. Customers rarely read them from beginning to end, instead selecting small sections to address immediate questions. The move toward topic-oriented writing is not new for technical information. Technical manuals have contained procedural topics for nearly 150 years. However, DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture), accompanied by content management solutions, facilitates topic-oriented writing and presents new opportunities for conveying information to our customers. Topics lend themselves to the flexibility required of multiple media and present opportunities for reuse that increase efficiency and decrease cost. DITA is an open source OASIS standard that supports topic-based authoring of well-structured content. Out of the box, DITA encompasses three primary information types (concept, task, and reference) that provide a structure amenable to most technical information. It includes a mechanism for extending the structure to specialized information types that meet industry needs. In this keynote address, Dr. Hackos discusses the benefits of a DITA-based, topic-oriented approach and describes the components of the DITA architecture and how they facilitate the development of technical information. Come away from this presentation with a platform for improving your documentation management. Feel confident that the content you are providing to your users is effective and efficient. Start by making the move.
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