Re: Real value (was implementing single-source) - demonstrated!

["Tim Altom" <taltom -at- simplywritten -dot- com>]

In point of fact, Glenn, we consult with companies about the business of
technical documentation as an adjunct to their business justifications of
single source. And yes, I'm well aware of both Mager and Carroll. And no,
their approaches are not exclusive. And finally, no I'm not confusing single
source with content management. Single source REQUIRES some form of content
management. Where do the components come from if not from a content
warehouse?

What you're not breaking out here is that single source can occur on many
levels. The simplest is a FrameMaker document with a good template design
and conditional text. You can them move up through levels of complexity to
full database/SGML implementation. The point of all single source is that
you do not need to rebuild to reuse. That includes multimedia components as
well as text. Single source is not used to construct multimedia components,
but that's the fault of the multimedia tools, such as Flash, that will not
accept a very wide range of imported files. They're what we refer to as
"dead-end formats" because, like PDF, they're not much good at getting
multiple formats out of them or into them.

The benefit of single source is not for one-shot deals like movies (which
99% of all tech doc departments will never use, for goodness sake), but for
ongoing documentation bound for help files, the Web, WBT, and the like. The
supposed wide differences between these media is a myth. Most of the Web
pages you see on large companies' sites don't exist until you ask for them;
they're produced on the fly, many from components stored in databases. The
very same material can be used in help files, in marketing materials, in
manuals, or any number of other places, with only their formats changed. The
content remains. So long as you know IN ADVANCE what the absolute structure
will be, you can reuse these materials without even knowing what they
contain.

And yes, there is great benefit in having more than you use. The only
difference is that it's now written down somewhere, rather than just being
in the heads of various human beings in the organization. We always have
available more than we can use at the moment. That's no reason for
ash-canning it all. Store it in an SGML or XML "flat file" and it's ready at
a moment's notice. If it's stored, it can be used. If it's not, it walks out
the door with the last person who knows it.

I close with a similar challenge to you...we have created several single
source implementations. How many have you done? Have you designed, built,
and tested such a thing, even on a simple level? Or are you just convinced
from one bad experience that nobody can build a workable solution? I just
concluded a job for a client who got a rather lengthy printed manual, and we
threw in the help file FOR FREE, because it took me all of a half-day to
make a fully-formed WinHelp file, with links and index keywords, thanks to
the use of our structured documentation methodology and Microsoft Word. We
could do it even faster if we'd used FrameMaker. It would have taken me, oh,
about 60 seconds to do. Not bad for something that doesn't work, eh? And, by
the way, the document methodology was patterned partly on Carroll's work.


Tim Altom
Simply Written, Inc.
Featuring FrameMaker and the Clustar(TM) System
"Better communication is a service to mankind."
317.562.9298
Check our Web site for the upcoming Clustar class info
http://www.simplywritten.com



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