DITAWriter is Keith Schengili-Roberts. If you are looking for someone with extensive DITA and Information Architecture experience to work with you, please let me know, as I am currently seeking new opportunities: keith@ditawriter.com.
Back in 2006 I led a documentation and localization team at AMD, bringing my team of technical writers into the bright new world of DITA. I worked as an Information Architect (or really, “Documentation Architect“), redesigning the content deliverables and moving the group from an unstructured FrameMaker-based toolchain to one that uses a DITA Content Management System (in this case, IXIASOFT‘s DITA CMS). For a time I was asked to rejoin AMD as a Senior Manager and Information Architect, working on the documentation set for their latest AI accelerator cards.
Before this, I have been acting either as a consultant in the CCMS space and also happily spent several working at IXIASOFT as a DITA Specialist, doing Information Architect work on behalf of their clients and doing presentations at conferences all over the world. Before working at IXIASOFT, I worked as a DITA consultant for the U.K. firm Mekon, doing IA work and consulting for the likes of ARM, Schlumberger, eBay Deutschland, and Infineon. A terrific company, and if you are looking for an independent consulting firm with deep knowledge of DITA in Europe, look no further.
I am interested in learning more about DITA, particularly in how other people and firms use it. I started this blog to give me a forum to share my own views and experiences, as well as those of other people I have met who bring their working knowledge from other domains.
If you want to contact me, email me at: keith@ditawriter.com.
Hi There,
Just wanted to let you know that my team at BTI Systems uses DITA to develop technical documentation. Please add us to your list.
Great initiative, by the way. I have been curious about how many companies are using DITA. I wish DITA was more widely used outside of technical documentation though… I would like to easily leverage content from Marketing and other groups within our company and vice-versa, but our content is somewhat segregated in our CMS.
Thanks in advance,
–T
Don’t forget, Part 2 of our series “Crossing the Chasm with DITA” with JoAnn Hackos is also in February! It’s on the 23rd! (: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/538300414
Our company (Interactive Intelligence, Inc.) is listed because we mentioned DITA in a job posting. I added that reference to DITA as “a plus” qualification for the first time a few months ago. The reason is because we decided to move toward adopting DITA and a CMS here, but we are still in the planning and proposal stage. I can’t say we are using DITA yet, but we hope to be some time this year.
I have duly removed Interactive Intelligence from the “Companies Using DITA” listing. If you end up using DITA in your future documentation processes, please let me know and I will add it back.
Thank you!
Keith:
JoAnn Hackos mentioned to me that you might be willing to say a few words on your blog about our upcoming DITA Rockstar webinar, DITA and Minimalism, which she is presenting.
You can learn more about her talk, and the entire series here:
http://marketing.easydita.com/acton/media/2645/dita-rockstar-summer-camp-joann-hackos—dita-and-minimalism
The link where people can register for the webinar is: http://ow.ly/lGHIl
Let me or JoAnn know if you have any questions about this.
Regards,
Steve
I am new to DITA, as a technical writer, could you tell me what I should do to start with DITA?
Thanks
Hello there:
There are a lot of educational resources available for people like yourself wanting to learn about DITA. I’d recommend taking a look at my recently updated listing of DITA-related videos and look for the “DITA Quick Start for Authors” videos, which are good.
I also find that people learn best when they have a chance to “play” with the DITA Toolkit, which can be found here. Install it, read the instructions and start playing around with the example code provided to help you get a handle on how the mechanics work.
Last but not least, I’d recommend taking a look at the growing list of books available on the subject and picking up one of them to help you get started.
Your simple question has the makings of a future article — I may end up expanding on this answer, so please check back for a possible article on the subject.
Hope that helps!
Thank for your great support. The company I am working is trying to have a demo of DITA system. It is good to know something first. Thanks again!
Hello ditawriter
youtube is blocked here in China, I can not watch the video of “DITA Quick Start for Authors Part I”. do you have others methods that I can watch the video?
Thanks
I am afraid I have no suggestions on how you can get around the “Great Firewall” in China. I know your frustration, from having tried to access YouTube while over there on business.
I don’t know if Vimeo is blocked in China; you might want to check to see if the links to the videos on that website are valid. There are also a few company-hosted videos in the list, such as a few from oXygen, Adobe and one or two other manufacturers which I hope would not be blocked to you.
Another upcoming project for me is to list the DITA-related slide-decks on http://www.slideshare.net/. One you might want to start with is DITA Quick Start Webinar Series: Getting Started with the DITA Open Toolkit by Adena Frazer. Hopefully Slide-share.net is not blocked in China!
Hello Ditawriter,
Can you share the type of work a Dita consultant to do? If I want to be a Dita consultant, what kind of technology should I learn?
I use oxygen to create tehcnial documentation, create dita ot plugin for pdf format, start to learn xml and xslt now.
Thanks for sharing!
br
Lisa
Typically a DITA consultant may have several roles to play. They may be called upon to help validate a Request for Information on behalf of a client to ensure they get the best CCMS/other tools that they need. Or a DITA consultant might play more of an Information Architect/Content Strategy role, helping to guide an initial implementation of DITA content within a tech docs organization. They might also specialize in XSL (something I would recommend) in order to tweak the layout of content for various output formats. For other ideas, take a look at the DITA Consultants page at: https://www.ditawriter.com/dita-consultants-listing/. Cheers!
Hello Ketih,
I was wondering if you have some tips about DITA conversions in a Hardware documentation world. I work for a Semiconductor company as well. I would like to discuss some of our deliverable with you. How can I discuss this further with you? Please advise.
Thanks,
Priya
You can contact me directly via keith@ditawriter.com.