RE: [dita-adoption] RE: Groups - New Action Item #0002 Develop a draft of a mission statement for dita.xml.org

Thanks
Scott and Tony.  We discussed this further in this morning$B!G(Bs call, and I
took an action item to start a wiki page for TC members to discuss and vote on
various aspects of the draft mission statement. I$B!G(Bve started it here: 

 

http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita-adoption/DITA_Adoption_Websites_Mission_Statement

 

Please
feel free to refactor and change the lists that I drafted, in addition to
prioritizing the items in them. 

 

Best
regards,

Su-Laine

 

 

Su-Laine Yeo

Interaction Design Specialist 

JustSystems Canada, Inc.

Office: 778-327-6356 



www.justsystems.com 

 

 

 

 

From: Tony Self
[mailto:] 

Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 7:42 PM

To: 'DITA Adoption TC'

Subject: RE: [dita-adoption] RE: Groups - New Action Item #0002 Develop
a draft of a mission statement for dita.xml.org

 

Hi everyone

 

I agree with Scott that we have to be careful about
over-emphasising the DITA OT. It$B!G(Bs a vexed issue; many prospective adopters
(particularly in the near term) will experiment with the OT, and perhaps even
perceive DITA as the OT, while realistically, the OT is just a reference
implementation. In the medium term, many prospective adopters will bypass the
OT completely.

 

I think Scott might have the answer in $B!H(Bprioritisation$B!I(B. Perhaps
the DITA OT user guide should be number 6 in the list instead of number 1?

 

By the way, Su-Laine, your list is great, and I like your idea
of explicitly listing what is not suitable content.

 

Tony Self

 

 

From: Tsao, Scott
[mailto:] 

Sent: Wednesday, 11 March 2009 11:50 AM

To: Su-Laine Yeo; 

Cc: DITA Adoption TC

Subject: RE: [dita-adoption] RE: Groups - New Action Item #0002 Develop
a draft of a mission statement for dita.xml.org

 

Su-Laine,

Thanks very much for sharing your initial thoughts on our mission statement. 
I think you have covered most (if not all) of topics that we should discuss and
come to consensus.

 

One thing I had difficulty with is the prioritization of the
suitable content for our websites.  It seems to me that the first two
items, i.e., more "user friendly" documentation of DITA OT and DITA
Spec, are rather technical in nature and may have already been considered by
other communities.  Besides, DITA OT is merely a reference implementation,
and I suspect that some DITA adopters will not necessarily touch that at all in
their implementation of DITA.

 

I tend to think that items 3-6 would be more useful for DITA
adopters, especially those who are in the information architect and designer
roles.  And information such as "lessons learned" and "proven
practices" would be quite useful to those fresh adopters.

 

These are just some of my thoughts right now for continued
discussion.

 

Regards,

 

Scott Tsao $BAbThT"(B

Information
Architect - Associate Technical Fellow

The
Boeing Company 

-----Original Message-----

From: Su-Laine Yeo [mailto:]

Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 7:25 PM

To: 

Cc: DITA Adoption TC

Subject: [dita-adoption] RE: Groups - New Action Item #0002 Develop a draft of
a mission statement for dita.xml.org

Hi everyone,

Here are some initial thoughts on a mission statement for dita.xml.org. I'd
like us to make this a prescriptive rather than descriptive statement. I.e.
let's discuss the goals that we want the site to achieve rather simply describe
what it already does.

I'm going to be even more bold and extend this scope of this discussion to
"OASIS-sponsored DITA adoption websites" and not limit discussion to
the existing boundaries of dita.xml.org. I'd like to contemplate, for example,
having different sites for different subject areas that are currently covered
by dita.xml.org, if doing so is what is best for the DITA community and is
feasible to implement and maintain.

I think we should try to come to consensus on four things:

1) Who is our intended audience?

2) What is suitable content for OASIS-sponsored DITA adoption websites?

3) What is NOT suitable content for OASIS-sponsored DITA adoption websites?

4) What kind of content development most needs a major *centralized* effort, as
opposed to effort from individuals?

My opinions are below:

Who is our intended audience?

- OASIS-sponsored DITA adoption websites are primarily intended to help current
and potential adopters successfully adopt DITA. DITA application vendors,
Technical Committee members, and Open Toolkit developers are secondary
audiences, but the needs of DITA adopters come first.

What is suitable content for OASIS-sponsored DITA adoption websites (in
priority order from most important to least)?

1) Up-to-date user documentation for using and customizing the DITA Open
Toolkit. Take the Open Toolkit user guide and make it up-to-date.

2) Descriptions of DITA features, elements, and attributes that are more
user-friendly than the explanations in the official DITA specifications. Use
additional examples to make it easier to understand what different element
types are for, and how they are likely to be processed. We've started doing
this kind of thing for DITA 1.2, but not systematically for DITA 1.1.

3) Sample content and markup examples: Many people learn well by imitating
realistic, high-quality examples of DITA topic writing.

4) Information about implementing DITA, e.g. information modelling, conversion,
tool selection.

5) Concrete ideas for using DITA features to solve realistic problems, e.g. how
to implement a "variables" feature

6) Stories about actual DITA implementations.

7) Product reviews

8) Calendar of events

What is NOT suitable content?

1) Repository of proposed specifications for the DITA Open Toolkit

2) Advertising. Our site(s) might link to press releases and promotional web
pages, but should not duplicate large amounts of promotional material.
Duplication of content that is available elsewhere is not helpful, and may
hinder adoption by increasing confusion and noise.

What kind of content development most needs a major centralized effort?

- In my opinion, items #1 and 2 in the "suitable content" list above
are where we most need a centralized effort. The other things can be managed by
passionate individuals or vendors.

Thoughts? Let's discuss by email first and then take it to the wiki once ideas
take shape or if the discussion becomes hard to manage.

Su-Laine

Su-Laine Yeo

Interaction Design Specialist

JustSystems Canada, Inc.

Office: 778-327-6356



www.justsystems.com

-----Original Message-----

From:  [mailto:]

Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 8:07 AM

To: Su-Laine Yeo

Subject: Groups - New Action Item #0002 Develop a draft of a mission sta...

DITA Adoption Focus Area SC member,

Kristen Eberlein has created a new action item.

Number: #0002

Description: Develop a draft of a mission sta...

Owner: Su-Laine Yeo

Due: 09 Mar 2009

Comments:

View Details:

http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-adoption-fasc/members/action_item.php?action_item_id=2581

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