“DITA Today and Tomorrow” – Keynote Presentation from the Ixiasoft DITA CMS Conference

Last Thursday I delivered a keynote presentation called “DITA Today and Tomorrow” at the Ixiasoft DITA CMS Conference. It went over well, despite some technical glitches involving a faulting projector cable at the beginning. 😉 I was asked by Ixiasoft’s CEO Éric Begeron to provide the presentation on this topic, which gave me a great opportunity to further explore why DITA has become the fastest-adopted XML documentation standard.

You can either view the dynamic Prezi version version of the presentation, or download and view a more traditional PDF version. In it I talk about some of my findings after surveying the companies that are using DITA in their documentation processes, some factors that I think are holding DITA back from wider adoption, and also use my crystal ball to see how DITA may be used in the near future alongside new and emerging technologies. I will definitely be working on these themes in further posts on this blog.

There were some 25+ people in attendance at this conference, all representing firms that have either been using Ixiasoft’s DITA CMS for a while, or who are just beginning the implementation process. Ixiasoft also went on to reveal plans about their development roadmap which was well received by everyone (especially Textml’s impending server replication feature), but more about that in a future post. Mekon‘s Julian Murfitt also got some real interest from the crowd demonstrating DITAWeb, combining social media with DITA XML. For me one of the most interesting presentations was the one done by a representative from RIM who talked about their experiences moving from a first-generation DITA Content Management System to Ixiasoft’s system — again, definitely fodder for a future post here. It was also a great excuse to visit Montreal, as the guests all stayed at a luxury hotel set in the heart of the scenic old section of the city.

So more later, and in the meantime enjoy another Prezi-based presentation!