May 30, 2007
Impressions of Sem-Tech -07
I discovered a new blog today, Dr. Data Dictionary, which is written by Dan McCreary and is quite good, and he weighs in today with Impressions of Sem-Tech -07, where he presented a paper.
I just returned from the 2007 Semantic Technology Conference in San Jose California. It was a great conference and opened my mind to several new ideas. Well worth the time! The conference was held over four days and had over around 125 presentations including tutorials and research projects. There were almost 800 attendees... The Semantic Web gets the “Web 3.0” Label Most people at the conference have tried to embrace the idea that the semantic web will be adopting the popular culture label “Web 3.0”. The final straw was the Nov 2006 NYT article by John Markoff which set the blogosphere abuzz.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 10:38 AM | Comments (1)
Excel and XML
Since so much metadata, and even editorial content, is often produced in Microsoft Excel, shouldn't publishers consider using SpreadsheetML for long-term uses of Microsoft Excel? A tutorial over at Brian Jones' blog got me thinking about it. If you are interested in a more in-depth look at SpreadsheetML, start here.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 10:25 AM
May 26, 2007
DITA for Small Groups
Are you a sole proprietor, sole documentation person, or part of a small doc group? Check out Lone-DITA.
Speaking of DITA, if you haven't already, you should check out DITA Storm, a browser-based DITA editor.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 1:59 PM
May 21, 2007
Thinking about DITA vs S1000D?
Over at TheContentWrangler.com, Joel Amoussou has some thoughts:
The subject of interoperability between S1000D and the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) has received significant attention within the technical documentation community recently. This article discusses the following issues:
--Shall we create DITA specializations for S1000D data modules?
--How can we facilitate interoperability between DITA and S1000D, to enable round-tripping transforms for example?
--Is the DITA specialization mechanism the best way to make S1000D extensible?
--How can users leverage the strengths of both DITA and S1000D without introducing complexity?
As they say in the blogosphere, read the whole thing.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 1:31 PM
May 17, 2007
Flex Books and Tools
I updated my Acrobat aStore to include a page on Flex books and tools.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 11:55 AM
May 8, 2007
QuarkXPress Server 7 and new QPS Users
I would like to speak to people who are using the new versions of QuarkXPress Server and also the new QPS for some research and writing that I am doing. Please email me and I will follow up.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 2:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
XML and Globalization
SDL Warns Businesses to Think Global When Migrating to XML
SDL, one of the big players in globalization solutions, announced today the findings of a research project into the use of XML in delivering global content across multiple channels. This is something I have written about for Gilbane (here and here), and I am very interested in best practices that will emerge as more and more companies use XML in producing content for global audiences.
SDL appropriately notes that the global implications of moving to XML must be considered up-front, and is providing seven "golden rules" at www.sdlglobalxml.com to ensure successful implementation of XML projects for communicating with global audiences:
- XML alone does not solve the issue of global content
- Think global from the start of your XML strategy
- Automate the process of managing higher volumes of smaller chunks, being sent more frequently for translation
- Ensure translators can visualize the context of XML chunks
- Optimize the structure of your XML for localization
- Protect your XML code during localization
- Ensure terminology and style are consistent across dispersed chunks
Posted by Bill Trippe at 2:44 PM | Comments (2)
Number Four
Bobby Orr.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 1:50 PM | Comments (2)
May 6, 2007
Meanwhile Over at Gilbane
I have been in one of those modes where I have been too busy to blog, and yet have been working on a lot of interesting things. My Gilbane colleague Mary Laplante and I did a webinar with Oracle (details here about where to view the recorded webinar and download the associated white paper). If you haven't been keeping a scorecard, Oracle acquired Stellent a few months ago, and while the webinar was more broadly about web content management, it does give you some insight into what Oracle will be doing with Stellent. Hat tip to David Guenette, who co-wrote the white paper, and really did the heavy lifting there.
Also at Gilbane, I wrote a case study about Autodesk and its efforts over the last several years integrating Idiom's globalization management system into its technical documentation workflow. We then did a Webinar with Minette Norman from Autodesk, and she did a fantastic job of explaining the project at both the technical and management level. The recorded webinar and presentation slides can be found here.
Finally, David Guenette and I recently updated a Gilbane white paper on Digital Asset Management. The paper, sponsored by DAM vendor ClearStory systems, asks (and answers) the question, has digital asset management “crossed the chasm” from a technology used only by early adopters to one that is more part of the IT mainstream?
Posted by Bill Trippe at 7:41 PM
May 5, 2007
Hopper
Few painters move me. Renoir. Van Gogh. And, yes, Hopper.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 11:31 AM
May 2, 2007
Folksy Copywriting is OK
But the email from Delta airlines this morning was a little too chirpy for me.
We're delighted to be one of the first to tell you that we successfully emerged from Chapter 11 yesterday (hooray!) after improving almost every aspect of our airline ahead of schedule.
Maybe I hadn't had enough coffee yet, but there was something Monty Pythonesue about it (The guns on the firing squad jammed! Hooray!)
Posted by Bill Trippe at 11:05 AM
May 1, 2007
Wallpapering
Here is the latest installment in the American Life in Poetry series.
American Life in Poetry: Column 109
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
One big test of the endurance of any relationship is taking on a joint improvement project. Here Sue Ellen Thompson offers an account of one such trial by fire.
Wallpapering
My parents argued over wallpaper. Would stripes
make the room look larger? He
would measure, cut, and paste; she'd swipe
the flaws out with her brush. Once it was properly
hung, doubt would set in. Would the floral
have been a better choice? Then it would grow
until she was certain: it had to go. Divorce
terrified me as a child. I didn't know
what led to it, but I had my suspicions.
The stripes came down. Up went
the flowers. Eventually it became my definition
of marriage: bad choices, arguments
whose victors time refused to tell,
but everything done together and done well.
Reprinted by permission of the author. Copyright (c) 2006 by Sue Ellen Thompson, from her book, The Golden Hour, published by Autumn House Press. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
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American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.
Posted by Bill Trippe at 7:27 PM
