MAKING SENSE OF STANDARDS
STC Austin
Thursday, 5th April, 2007
http://www.webworks.com
Agenda
Introduction
The Space Shuttle & The Horse
Why We Need Standards
Alphabet Soup
What Will Work For Me
Developing A Strategy
Practical Examples
Q&A
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Introduction
Director of Services – Quadralay / WebWorks
Served on Industry, National and International Standards groups.
Specialized in Standards Based Electronic Publishing systems.
20 + Years in Technical Publications.
10 Years in Production Shops.
10 Years in Publishing Software
Graphics
Content Management
Editing Tools
Publishing Engines
Document Conversion
Freelance writer – Books, Magazines, Comics, Websites
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The Space Shuttle & The Horse
The Impact of Standards
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Why We Need Standards
To Make Sure Things Fit
- Metric vs Imperial measurements
Ease Of Use
- Things look familiar
- Things work as expected
Collaboration
- Commerce
- Information Exchange
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Why We Need Standards
Publishing Standards
- Improve Quality
- Increase Productivity
- Data Exchange
- Enabling technology
- Consistent delivery
What is the most widely adopted Publishing Standard in the World?
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Alphabet Soup
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What Will Work For Me?
“A single standard cannot possibly satisfy all requirements all the time.
To believe any one standard is a magic bullet is foolish.”
- Sandy Ressler “Perspectives on Electronic Publishing” – Prentice Hall, 1993
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What Will Work For Me?
Most standards have some value under certain circumstances.
Very few are valuable under many circumstances.
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What Will Work For Me?
Beware:
The “Technology Bigot.”
The “Standard of the Month” Club
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Developing A Strategy
Ask LOTS of questions:
- Is there a long term support requirement?
- Is there a need to produce multiple deliverables from the same content?
- What’s the production cycle?
- Do we need to incorporate content from other sources.
- How will the documents be delivered ?
- Who revives and uses the document ?
- Does the content need to be translated?
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Developing A Strategy
Then LOTS more questions:
- Do we have a budget to do this?
- Can we justify any ROI ?
- Do we need new software or hardware?
- What’s the timescales ?
- Is it contractually or industry mandated?
- Do people have sufficient expertise to implement ?
- Do I need to develop standards specialists ?
- What parts of the organization and process will this impact?
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Developing A Strategy
Look at a selection of standards.
Research.
Talk to other people who have implemented the standards.
Understand the fundamental assumptions underlying the standard.
Have an open mind about standards.
Make sure that you can have an “exit strategy”.
Remember that most successful standards are evolutionary rather than revolutionary.
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PRACTICAL EXAMPLES
OR
OR
TOPIC BASED AUTHORING
GRAPHICS
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TOPIC AUTHORING – DITA or S1000D
THE SAME ….
- Topic Based Content
- Reuse
- Lowered translations costs
- Content Management
- Data Exchange
- Standards based technologies (XML)
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TOPIC AUTHORING – DITA or S1000D
… BUT DIFFERENT
- one is the new “flavor of the month.”
- the other is based on long established practice.
- one is driven by need to manage documents.
- the other is driven by need to maintain equipment.
- one is “open” and extensible.
- the other is rigidly defined.
- one is market driven.
- the other is industry driven.
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TOPIC AUTHORING – DITA or S1000D
Which one applies when ??
Example One –
Company making large pieces of mining equipment, with long operational life and thousands of spare parts.
Example Two –
Large insurance company that documents rules and regulations and publishes annual “catalogs.”
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GRAPHICS – CGM or SVG
THE SAME…
- Vector Graphics
- 2D Line art
- Illustration driven
- Web compatible (with plug-ins)
- Standards based technologies
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GRAPHICS – CGM or SVG
… BUT DIFFERENT
- one is the new “flavor of the month.”
- the other is based on long established practice.
- one is driven by need to produce line art.
- the other is driven by need to exchange information.
- one is “open”
- the other is rigidly defined.
- one is market driven.
- the other is industry driven.
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GRAPHICS – CGM or SVG
Which one applies when ??
Example One –
Car manufacturer needing to receive and edit illustrations from supplier companies and deliver hyperlinked parts catalogs to dealerships.
Example Two –
Manufacturer of self-assembly furniture producing assembly leaflets and web graphics for consumer use.
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CONCLUSIONS
Standards are often meant to operate in very different areas.
Understand why a Standard was created.
Don’t listen to “the buzz” – research and make up your own mind.
Don’t be the market leader..
Try to manage change to minimize impact – but sometimes you just have to “bite the bullet” – if you do –
don’t bite down on the whole revolver.
Remember the Shuttle and The Horse – Standards have a long term impact.
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Q & A
ANY QUESTIONS ??
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WebWorks RoundUp 2007
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November 5th-6th
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Alan J. PorterDirector of ServicesQuadralay Corporation
.9101 Burnet Road, Suite #105
Austin, Texas. 78758
Tel: 512-719-3399 x232
Cell: 512-968-7362