[Fwd: Tool for reviewing the future drafts of the DITA spec]

FYI, since we discussed this on today's
call.

Kris

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

  
    

      Subject: 
      Tool for reviewing the future drafts of the DITA spec
    

    

      Date: 
      Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:33:09 +0100
    

    

      From: 
      Kristen James Eberlein <>
    

    

      To: 
      Don Day <>
    

    

      CC: 
      Gershon Joseph <>, JoAnn Hackos
<>
    

  

Hi, Don.

I have a question about what the DITA TC is permitted to do when it
conducts its internal reviews. While I think the Wiki pages have been
working quite well, they are frustrating to some of the authors and
certainly more time consuming than the sort of review tools that most
information development teams use.

Just Systems recently demoed their reviewing tool for Comtech; they
also indicated some willingness to explore ways that JoAnn's team and
the DITA TC could use the product for reviews. I'm not sure what they
were offering; my guess is probably an offer to use the application on
a Just Systems' server, rather than a donation of a license for the
application -- but it makes me want to clarify what the parameters are
vis-a-vis using alternate resources for reviewing. (FYI, I wouldn't
necessarily be advocating making changes in how we do things for DITA
1.2.)

Could we use a reviewing tool that was hosted on a server belonging to
an OASIS member? If we were given a license for a non-open-source
application, would OASIS install it for us? Is the latter the sort of
situation where the application would need to be available for all
OASIS TCs? Is it that we need to use open source applications?

I have a vague memory of considering suggesting that we use
LiveTechDocs (http://livetechdocs.com/) to do
our reviews, but then
learned of a reason why it would not be permitted. 

Best,

Kris