DITA

Component-oriented content creation enables more efficient content re-use and dynamic publishing at more languages at a lower cost. XML authoring is required for the component content creation.   Research shows that organizations that use XML authoring are more mature than their peers with respect to the adoption of best practices for search and metadata. However, the use of native DITA (the Darwin Information Typing Architecture) metadata capabilities is rare, and many are also missing out on opportunities to use taxonomy for reuse and improved findability.   In this post, I am going to describe metadata capabilities within DITA, discuss two major benefits that can be achieved by using descriptive metadata and taxonomy, and recommend some best practices for getting started with metadata for component-oriented content.   Read more

In my last post, I described how DITA is used in dynamic content management. I will continue the subject of dynamic content management in this post.   DITA was conceived as a model for improving reuse through topic-oriented modularization of content. Instead of creating new content or copying and pasting information which may or may not be current and authoritative, organizations manage a repository of content assets – or DITA topics – that can be centrally managed, maintained and reused across the enterprise. This helps to accelerate the creation and maintenance of documents and other deliverables and to ensure the quality and consistency of the content organizations publish. Read more

In my previous post on DITA, I mentioned that DITA, Darwin Information Typing Architecture, is an XML-based architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering information. In this post, I am going to describe more details about DITA and how it is used in content management.   At the heart of DITA, representing the generic building block of a topic-oriented information architecture, is an XML document type definition (DTD) called the topic DTD. The point of the XML-based Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is to create modular technical documents that are easy to reuse with varied display and delivery mechanisms. Read more

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering information. Although its main applications have so far been in technical publications, DITA is also used for other types of documents such as policies and procedures. The DITA architecture and a related DTD and XML Schema were originally developed by IBM. The architecture incorporates ideas in XML architecture, such as modular information architecture, various features for content reuse, and specialization, that had been developed over previous decades. DITA is now an OASIS standard.   The first word in the name "Darwin Information Typing Architecture" is a reference to the naturalist Charles Darwin. The key concept of "specialization" in DITA is in some ways analogous to Darwin's concept of evolutionary adaptation, with a specialized element inheriting the properties of the base element from which it is specialized. Read more