Day two of the conference, at least for me, started off with Eliot Kimber‘s talk on sustainable XML for publishing applications. Kimber’s main argument was that DITA is the best solution to the problem of information interchange at the source level.

Kimber started off by giving an overview of DITA and its key concepts. He then pointed out that it’s difficult (if not impossible) to create customized output from an XML-based workflow without DITA. With other solutions, you need to literally rip a document apart (in this case, a book; the presentation was really aimed at book publishers) to re-task content. With DITA, all you need to do is reorganize using topic maps.

He then compared DITA to other XML options — DocBook, NLM, PRISM/PAM, and customized XML applications. Kimber focused on their weaknesses in relation to DITA’s strengths. The upshot is that DITA is more flexible and generally easier to use for interchanging information. It offers, Kimber noted, a cheaper route to XML publishing.

He also pointed out a number of areas of costs that you need to consider when adopting a DITA (or XML) publishing solution:

• Information requirements and analysis: you need to determine how to apply XML; what you don’t need, and what you need that’s not there
• Focus on the business problem that you’re trying to solve.

Kimber also looked at costs, and concluded that the idea is to minimize costs in areas like system development, skills, training, and tools, and in the maintenance and refinement of the system.

He pointed out that DITA largely meets those criteria. It has:

• Low initial development costs
• A large and growing body of knowledge
• A key strength in specialization, which Kimber referred to as DITA’s “secret sauce” — it enables users to optimize DITA’s modularity and flexibility

Kimber asserted that DITA is almost always the best fit for publishing:

• It can be applied to all publishing cases
• It minimizes the initial cost of ownership, implementation, and content interchange
• DITA maximizes compared to other XML solutions

He admitted, though, that DITA has constraints that technical communicators need to adapt to.

Web 2.0 and cloud computing

The session that I planned to attend was moved to a later slot, so I jumped into RJ Jacquez‘ presentation on Web 2.0 and cloud computing, and how it applies to technical communication. While his focus was on Adobe’s software and services (he’s Senior Product Evangelist there), the session was an interesting look at what the company is doing in this sphere and how Adobe’s technologies can enable more interaction with users.

The main thrust of Jacquez’ session was that Web 2.0 principles — rich, interactive, and personalized experiences — can and should apply to technical communications. He discussed user expectations in the era of the Web, that they:

• Often reach for the play button or guided tour link when on a Web site
• Generally don’t read in depth. They scan headlines and bulleted lists. But you’re different, aren’t you?
• Expect a large version of an image or a video when they click a thumbnail
• Expect to be able to provide feedback
• Want an esthetically pleasing user experience on the Web

Jacquez demonstrated a number of interesting Adobe technologies like PDF Portfolios in Acrobat 9 and Adobe AIR. Some really neat stuff there.

He urged the participants to bring interactivity to their documentation. Jacquez pointed out that we need to identify where we can communicate visually; determine where we can add dynamic 3D content to replace static 2D content; and to create rich Internet applications.

All in all, it was an interesting session with a small, though enthusiastic audience. There was a lot of good interaction, and some interesting ideas bandied about.

Paths to success

This was a seminar by Linda Urban on how to network, but in a way that’s more palatable to most people. Urban pointed out that networking doesn’t necessarily involve handing out business cards and pressing the flesh. It can be more subtle, and more effective in the long term than that.

She distilled what success means into five points:

• Having steady work
• Enjoying what you do
• Working and interacting with others
• Constant learning
• Doing good work

The key to building a network is to build personal and professional relationships. And they don’t always have to be focused on work. Urban discussed what she called the two main threads that weave through various relationships — work and interests. She pointed out that you don’t need to be an extrovert to succeed at this (which is a good thing for me!), but that there are various ways to network. Like what? Like volunteering in your community or for a professional organization, sharing your knowledge, mentoring, and more. Something that sticks with me from the presentation is Urban’s assertion that you don’t have to be a star to succeed; try being a resource instead.

There was a lot of good information in this session, especially for someone like me. If you’ve met me, you’d know that I’m not exactly the most extroverted person around. I usually let Aaron handle a bulk of the networking. But that might change.

Social media in the enterprise, and how it affects us

The final session that I attended on day two was a presentation by Rich Maggiani of Solari. Obviously, it was an introduction to social media and how it will change the way in which we develop and distribute documentation.

Maggiani took a very measured, thorough approach to the subject. He introduced the various forms of social media — social networks, blogs, wiks, podcasts, forums, content communities, and micorblogging – and explained that two keys to successful social media are “I want to have a say” and “I want to connect to others who are having similar problems to me”.

The key is to forge a partnership with customers and users. Technical communicators, and the organizations that employ them, need to engage the people using the products and services that we’re writing about. As Aaron and I have written in this space before, there are people using what we’re documenting in ways that we’ve never imagined. In the future, we need to engage these people and incorporate their content into our documentation to … well, to make it better and more relevant.

One of the best portions of Maggiani’s presentation was his contrast of traditional technical communicators and social media technical communicators. The main difference is that the latter engage with users, and the content creation process is more interactive.

Maggiani left us with two very good bits of advice:

Professional communicators cannot afford to ignore social media.

and

Social media is not a fad.

Related posts:

1. DocTrain East Day One
2. DocTrain East, day three
3. Adobe – We Have Not Forgotton You