Intentional Design Inc. » Podcasts

Why content management projects fail

rahelab — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:48:18 +0000

Tom Johnson, of I’d Rather Be Writing, caught up with mee at the DocTrain West 2008 conference, and asked if he could interview me about the topic of content management, to be posted as a podcast. We had a chuckle about the fact that Tom was interviewing me in the first place, as Tom started off podcasting after attending a session that I ran on the topic: why podcast and how to go about it. Now, Tom has a great podcasting site, and I’ve been rather neglectful of my podcasting habits, though Tom has inspired me to get back to it.

We started talking and ended up on the topic of Why Content Management Projects Fail, and Tom let my passion on the topic carry me away. You can download the podcast or listen to it right on the site. Listening to the podcast, I realize I use a lot of metaphor to illustrate content management principles. It certainly makes it more colourful than using technical jargon to explain other technical jargon … or does it?

Norman Walsh talks DocBook

rahelab — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:54:48 +0000

Why was Norman Walsh, DobBook guru and chair of the OASIS DocBook Technical Committee, a speaker at the 2006 DITA conference? It was an interesting meeting of the minds, actually. Walsh did some DocBook feature comparison to DITA, noting that different types of content have different structural needs. Rather than adopt an “DocBook versus DITA” stance, Walsh encouraged the two groups to take a collaborative stance. Sometimes the technicalities went over my head, but later, Walsh spent a couple of minutes clarifying DocBook for me. – 1.8 MB

Michael Priestley talks DITA

rahelab — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:53:42 +0000

Michael Priestley, a DITA architect and an IBM representative on the OASIS DITA Technical Committee, talked with IDI about DITA maps after presenting on the topic of DITA specialization. While many of the technicalities went over my head – or perhaps because much of the presentation was more technical than I care to get – I asked Michael to talk a bit about DITA in terms of interest to technical communicators and their managers. – 8.07 MB

Scott Abel looks into the future

rahelab — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:51:18 +0000

The Content Wrangler’sScott Abel was at the 2006 DITA conference, and always in motion. Abel was taking in sessions, blogging, and broadcasting as a guest host on the My Technology Lawyer radio program.

Scott took a moment from his activities to talk with IDI’s Rahel Anne Bailie about how content management will influence the field of technical communication and how technical communicators can prepare for this brave new world. Hear Scott Abel talk about content management. – 4.82 MB

Steve Manning shares highlights of DITA conferernce

rahelab — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:49:33 +0000

Steve Manning of The Rockley Group spoke to IDI about some of his highlights of the DITA conference. We talked about ways that technical writers use DITA, how it compares to the online help paradigm, and where it differs. Hear Steve Manning talk about content management. – 3.82 MB

Robert Anderson talks about some benefits of DITA

rahelab — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:48:51 +0000

Robert Anderson, Chief Architect of the DITA Open Toolkit and member of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee, talked with IDI about DITA, its benefits, and the role of specialization. DITA, which revolves around content units called topics, much like in online help, which are re-usable in a “mix and match” way. Additionally, the tags can inherit properties that allow you to automate certain tasks (such as prompting the author to include steps in an ordered list) and add settings to process content according to its heirarchy in a structure (such as translating all content that inherit the “translate” property). Hear Robert talk about DITA. – 5.23 MB

Bernard Aschwanden talks about choosing content management tools

rahelab — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:47:50 +0000

Bernard Aschwanden, principal of Toronto’s Publishing Smarter , talks about choosing content management tools and the importance of considering their interoperability. When choosing your XML editor, it’s important that the tool keeps clean XML code so that files can be shared between authors using different tools. The way to handle this is to look to the lowest common denominator, getting tools that are at least DITA-aware, if not fully DITA-enabled. DITA will become the specification that allows the content to be shared between authors, departments, or companies. Listen to Bernard Aschwanden talk about key issues to consider when choosing tools. – 5.07 MB

Frank Gilbane discusses industry trends

rahelab — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:46:39 +0000

Frank Gilbane, organizer of the respected Gilbane Conference and President of the Gilbane Group out of Cambridge, shared his perspective on content management trends to watch.

In the conference’s opening keynote panel, a handful of industry analysts were asked to name the top three technologies that content management developers and strategists need to watch for over the next 18 to 24 months. In his gracious way, Frank let those analysts take center stage at the opening session, but did share his personal Top 3 with Intentional Design’s Rahel Bailie. Listen to Frank Gilbane talk about XML microformats, social software, and search technologies. – 4.19 MB

Seth Gottlieb demystifies authoring in a content management environment

rahelab — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:44:34 +0000

Seth Gottlieb, of Boston’s Optaros Consulting and contributor to CMS Report, took time at the Gilbane conference to talk about some of the facts and fantasies around authoring in a content management environment. Seth discussed the pros and cons of centralized versus decentralized authoring, debunks the myth that authoring in a content management system means loss of control and creativity, and looks at re-use strategies that make it all worthwhile. Listen to Seth Gottlieb talk about authoring in a CM environment. – 3.85 MB

Yermek Okayev talks about content management issues in Kazakhstan

rahelab — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:43:43 +0000

Yermek Okayev, owner of Biko Publishing in Almaty, Kazakhstan, came to the Gilbane conference to find a content management solution and found a community. When Okayev discovered that he’d arrived a day early for the conference, he decided to join the Content Management Professionals Association for their spring summit. As we spoke over the course of the conference, we discovered that the content management challenges he faces aren’t that different from those facing North American publishers. Hear Yermek Okayev discuss content management challenges in Kazakhstan. – 3.3 MB