One of the projects I have been working on for a while is a list of CMSes that claim in some way to be DITA-capable, done largely because no such list seems to exist elsewhere. One of the things I have discovered in the process of surveying various CMS marketing materials is that it isRead More
When I was first investigating how DITA XML was being used by others at conferences in the mid-2000s, one of the questions that always came up at the end of a session was: “how big should a DITA topic be?” Even at the time I thought that this was kind of a silly question, sinceRead More
While doing some DITA training recently for a client I ran across an idea that struck me as being a good way to avoid spaghetti code. In retrospect, it’s one of those obvious “why didn’t I think of that?” ideas: a specialized topic just for holding conref-able text. But first, I ought to explain whyRead More
One of the most interesting presentations I saw at the Ixiasoft DITA CMS conference back in June was presented by a Documentation Team Lead at Research in Motion (RIM). While these days the beleaguered firm is better known in the news for its revenue woes (though it is good to see some wins as well),Read More
The Webinar presentation I did yesterday afternoon on behalf of Data Conversion Laboratory has now been posted to YouTube. You can now watch this anytime. Enjoy! For those who just want the slide deck, here’s a copy of the PDF, and here’s a link to the original Prezi that it was derived from. Will beRead More
On Thursday I will be presenting a significantly updated version of the keynote speech I gave at the Ixiasoft DITA CMS conference in Montreal last month. This will be a free Webinar, sponsored by Data Conversion Laboratory and Just Systems. Here’s the official blurb: It’s been over six years since the DITA specification was officiallyRead More
Currently I am working on updating the stats and images for my upcoming BatchGeo later this week, using the updated info from the Companies Using DITA listing. One of the things I wasn’t happy with was showing the worldwide and regional distribution of where the firms/organizations using DITA are located. I had been usingRead More
I just finished doing an overdue update to the popular “Companies Using DITA” listing, which now surpasses 300 firms and organizations, ranging from Abbott Laboratories to ZTE. This is likely still just the tip of the iceberg, as it is evident to me as I continue my research that there are many other companies andRead More
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 greatRead More
The folks at Ixiasoft have invited me to give the keynote presentation at their first-ever DITA CMS User Conference which is happening later this week in Montreal, Canada. The talk is called “DITA Today and Tomorrow” and will focus on the current state of the portion of the technical writing community that has embraced DITARead More
