Column Two » XML

Is DITA going to tip?

James Robertson — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 00:55:17 +0000

JoAnn Hackos has written an article about the growing popularity of DITA, as a format for managing structured content. To quote:

Obviously, something else must influence XML authoring if it is to move past the tipping point. That “something else” is arguably DITA. DITA represents an enormous advantage to the information-development community. For the first time, it provides us with an informational architecture standard around topic-based authoring that is unique to technical information. It takes us out of the world as defined by book publishers, which has provided us with a basically flawed paradigm for 50 years or more. It gives us a unique identity by pushing us toward semantic markup that enhances the quality of our text. It gives us a context with which to support our need for efficiency, consistency, and effective branding of our content for practiced, action-minded consumers of information. It

Introducing SKOS

James Robertson — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 11:30:17 +0000

Peter Mikhalenko has written an article that introduces SKOS. To quote:

SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System), recently introduced by the W3C, is a model for expressing knowledge organization systems in a machine-understandable way, within the framework of the Semantic Web. The SKOS Core Vocabulary is an RDF (Resource Description Framework) application. Using RDF allows data to be linked and merged with other RDF data by Semantic Web applications. SKOS Core provides a model for expressing the basic structure and content of concept schemes, including thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading lists, taxonomies, terminologies, glossaries, and other types of controlled vocabulary. This article will provide some examples for using SKOS and discuss the general principles of building such knowledge bases.

The W3C has, in my opinion at least, a very poor record on releasing standards that make sense or can be used. So while I’m prepared to give SKOS a chance, I’m coming from a sceptical starting point …

Google creating information architecture XML format?

James Robertson — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 07:58:53 +0000

Joshua Porter reports that google has published a new XML format for site maps. To quote:

Google is trying out and releasing to the world (via Creative Commons license) a new XML format for site maps. This new format is an XML representation of your web site that Search Engines would read upon entering your site, much like they read the robots.txt file now.

OpenDocument 1.0

James Robertson — Fri, 27 May 2005 00:48:44 +0000

Tim Bray has commented on the announcement of OpenDocument 1.0. To quote:

Right now, it is the only XML office document format that is standardized, and it is also the only one that is complete; Microsoft’s offering is full of holes, starting with the absence of PowerPoint. It’s also completely 100% free of intellectual-property issues, anyone can use it for anything anytime anywhere without asking anyone first. Let me put it this way: if you occasionally create documents or spreadsheets or presentations, and if you think that you’d like to own them, independent of your Office software vendor, well, you have exactly one choice: OpenDocument.

It’s going to be interesting to see what this might mean for records management, archiving and digital preservation…

XML content management and single-sourcing

James Robertson — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 00:16:54 +0000

Rick Sapir has written an article on XML content management and single-sourcing. To quote:

Creating an XML-based Content Management System to single-source technical publications is as simple as 1 – 2 – 3. Rather than focusing on any single tool or solution (and thereby forcing users to change to match the tool), this article describes one possible three-step process for using XML to single source your content deliverables. It is up to the tool providers to create a tool that matches the need.

Design patterns for information architecture with DITA map domains

James Robertson — Fri, 26 Nov 2004 02:14:16 +0000

Erik Hennum, Don Day, John Hunt and Dave A. Schell have written an article on design patterns for DITA. To quote:

The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) provides maps for assembling topics into deliverables. By specializing the map elements, you can define a formal information architecture for your deliverables. This architecture provides guidance to authors on how to organize topics and lets processes recognize your organizing principles, resulting in a consistent, clear experience for your users.

[Thanks to InfoDesign.]

An XML architecture for technical documentation: DITA

James Robertson — Fri, 26 Nov 2004 02:00:27 +0000

Don Day, Erik Hennum, John Hunt, Michael Priestley, David Schell and Nancy Harrison have written an article on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). To quote:

DITA is an architecture for creating topic-oriented, information-typed content that can be reused and single-sourced in a variety of ways. It is also an architecture for creating new information types and describing new information domains, allowing groups to create very specific, targeted document type definitions using a process called specialization, while at the same time reusing common output transforms and design rules. We discuss several methods that can be used to extend DITA’s basic topic types.

[Thanks to InfoDesign.]

Introduction to structured content management with XML

James Robertson — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 01:09:50 +0000

Kay Ethier and Scott Abel have written an article on structured content and XML, in the context of content management systems. To quote:

At the heart of managing content for re-use, however lies the job of exposing the underlying structure of that information. This article is meant to serve as an introductory primer on how to define and use information structure when managing content.

Topic Maps awareness seminar at the National Library of Australia

James Robertson — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 07:30:00 +0000

Alexander Johannesen has shared his PowerPoint slides from a recent Topic Maps awareness seminar he gave in Canberra. To quote:

On Friday I held a Topic Maps awareness seminar here at the National Library of Australia, and in addition to being well received and jolly good for beginners and learners, it was also done with a 112 slides bullet-point free PowerPoint presentation!

Here is a how to topic maps, Sir!

James Robertson — Mon, 03 May 2004 23:37:57 +0000

Alexander Johannesen has written an article on topic maps. To quote:

This is not a tutorial. This is an essay written to be preceding a tutorial I’m writing about Topic Maps and how to Sort your CD collection with it, which in itself will come in parts. The reason for this prelude is two-edged; philosophy vs. real-life;

There is a great deal of philosophy involved in working with Topic Maps. Not in the sense of arguing for extentionalism or purport a theory of when cats die in boxes, but in the sense of epistemology, the philosophy of learning. It is about how we perceive things, how human cognition works, about how we label things, how we categorise and find our way in the vast information layer between our brains and our tools.

DocBook for websites

James Robertson — Mon, 26 Apr 2004 08:31:37 +0000

I’ve just come across a variation of DocBook for websites, which could be of interest to those working in the XML world. To quote:

This small, somewhat contrived website demonstrates the Website document type. Website provides a system for building static Websites from XML content.

A text-only version is also available, demonstrating how multiple presentations can be derived from the same sources.

[Thanks to David Cramer.]

TMAPI 1.0 Alpha Release: Common Topic Map Application Programming Interface

James Robertson — Sat, 10 Apr 2004 02:32:03 +0000

Robin Cover reports on the alpha release of TMAPI, a common API for accessing topic maps. To quote:

The TMAPI “Common Topic Map Application Programming Interface” specification defines a set of core interfaces which must be implemented by a compliant application as well as a set of additional interfaces which may be implemented by a compliant application or which may be built upon the core interfaces.” According to the project announcement of April 8, 2004, the goal of TMAPI is “to allow developers to learn and use just one programming API for work with any topic map processing engine

Why is it so hard to lean topicmaps?

James Robertson — Thu, 01 Apr 2004 02:33:14 +0000

Peter Van Dijck has posted a blog entry about how hard it is to learn topicmaps. To quote:

So when you’re interested in topicmaps, you read the specs or one of these tutorials, and unless you’re familiar with data models and a bunch of advanced metadata concepts (reification anyone?), it’s gonna blow your head. Many people give up right there.

The distance between the topicmap model and a real life application seems larger than the distance between the relational database model and a real life application.

I think Peter has definitely hit the key issue with topic maps, and it certainly matches my personal experience.

Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic Maps!

James Robertson — Wed, 24 Mar 2004 22:48:12 +0000

Lars Marius Garshol e-mailed me today to tell me about his new new article on topic maps and information architecture. To quote:

Information architects have so far applied known and well-tried tools from library science to solve this problem, and now topic maps are sailing up as another potential tool for information architects. This raises the question of how topic maps compare with the traditional solutions, and that is the question this paper attempts to address.

The paper argues that topic maps go beyond the traditional solutions in the sense that it provides a framework within which they can be represented as they are, but also extended in ways which significantly improve information retrieval.

(Lars: I promise I will print this off, read it in a spare moment, and get back to you on whether this has finally helped topic maps to sink into my brain.)

A transforming experience for content management?

James Robertson — Sun, 07 Mar 2004 07:44:19 +0000

Steve Heckler has written an article on XSLT 2.0 and content management. To quote:

During the past five years, XSLT (Extensible Style Sheet Language Transformation) has emerged as the