Tom Johnson interviews Carlos Evia; lots of DITA discussion

http://idratherbewriting.com/2018/07/23/adventures-of-techie-academic-conversation-with-carlos-evia/

    
And the questions hint at "interesting" perceptions about DITA,
      OASIS, standards, and more. Do check out Carlos's excellent
      answers ...

    

    
TJ:ÂI think itâs great that
        youâre on an OASIS committee. To be honest, I donât know much
        about OASIS. I have in mind about 8-9 people sitting around a
        table giving a thumbs up or down, kind of like an aristocracy or
        some other elite ruling class. How does a committee like OASIS
        arrive at a standard? Are there âstandardsâ that these standards
        committees follow in order to arrive at a âdeclarationâ about
        the way something should be?

    
...

    

      TJ:ÂThe LwDITA spec is
          developed very differently from the grassroots model that
          other Markdown formats follow (e.g., the original Gruber
          Markdown, GitHub-flavored Markdown, kramdown Markdown,
          MultiMarkdown, CommonMark, and more). Do you think the
          top-down model (decision by committee) has as much momentum as
          the bottom-up model (grassroots promotion) has for adoption?
          Are there other standards that have originated from OASIS in a
          top-down way that have taken off?

    
...

        

    

      TJ:ÂA lot of people
            point the blame on tool vendors for the stagnancy of DITA.
            Iâve heard people say that DITA didnât live up to its hype
            in part because the tools around DITA didnât deliver. Are
            you depending on tool vendors to deliver on integration and
            transformation of LwDITA? Will they let us down again?

    
...

          

    

      TJ:ÂI find that people
              are polarized around DITA, either drinking its koolaid or
              spitting it out like poison? In your interactions with
              others around DITA, do you encounter a lot of similar
              polarized attitudes? I try not to present myself as
              anti-DITA, but it seems like youâre either for it or
              against it in the minds of many people. Why is DITA so
              polarizing? Canât we refer to it with the same nonchalance
              as a tool like Flare?

    
...

            

    
-- 

      Best,

      Kris

      

      Kristen James Eberlein

      Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee

      Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting

      www.eberleinconsulting.com

      +1 919 622-1501; kriseberlein (skype)