RE: Writing structured content [recap]

["Gordon McLean" <Gordon -dot- McLean -at- GrahamTechnology -dot- com>]

Fair point Mike. Metadata is important.

Job protection wise, not from my point of view. The entire point of our
single source solution will be to allow other people access to the content,
and give them tools to build their "starting point" documents (long story
short: our core product is typically customised and refactored on a per
customer/project basis). 

AND I'd argue that analyzing information IS what we're supposed to be
doing.. ;-)

Ohh wait, I was gonna leave this topic alone! Dagnamit.

Gordon

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+gordon -dot- mclean=grahamtechnology -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+gordon -dot- mclean=grahamtechnology -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- c
om] On Behalf Of Mike Starr
Sent: 25 June 2007 15:38
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Writing structured content [recap]

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Of course the time to design and implement the
database is BEFORE creating the content. Perhaps I should've said something
like "thousands of discrete topics would probably be useless without a
database...". My greater point was that just creating lots and lots of
handily usable chunks of text is a wasted effort without the metadata to
support its use.

However, let me riff on this a little bit. Could it be possible that there's
also a subliminal motive at play whereby we engage in a certain amount of
"job protection"? If we're the only ones who know how to strap on the
content management toolbelt, does that make us less easily replaced?

Large organizations with enormous amounts of content can certainly benefit
greatly from structured content/content reuse. But is it overkill for
smaller businesses where the amount of time and effort required to implement
a solution like this would far outweigh the benefits? The greater the amount
of time we spend analyzing, preparing for and reporting on what we're going
to do, the less time we have available to actually do what we're supposed to
be doing.

Best regards,

Mike
--
Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
Technical Writer   -   Online Help Developer   -    Website developer
Graphic Designer    -    Desktop Publisher   -       MS Office Expert
Phone: (262) 694-1028 - Tollfree: (877) 892-1028 - Fax:(262) 697-6334
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Gordon McLean" <Gordon -dot- McLean -at- GrahamTechnology -dot- com>
To: "'Mike Starr'" <mike -at- writestarr -dot- com>; <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 8:56 AM
Subject: RE: Writing structured content [recap]

> <slightly ranty mode on>
>
> The myriad of ifs, buts and howevers are acknowledged, thank you for 
> your input everyone. My original query, whilst depending on those very 
> ifs, buts and howevers, was about writing content.
>
> I repeat, writing content.
>
> I know what else needs to be considered when undertaking the 
> conversion of a team to single source output (I've done it once 
> already on a small scale).
> I
> know that all these things are dependant on the decisions of others, I 
> know that it's not a clear cut thing. I get it. Analysis, 
> understanding the audience, the outputs, the technical limitations, 
> financial impact, emotional impact etc etc etc.
>
> </slightly ranty mode off>
>
> Sincerely, thank you to all for taking the time to respond.
>
> If I find anything useful on this I'll post to the list.
>
> Gordon
>
> P.S. Mike, I shudder to think what kind of project requirement would 
> begin with (emphasis is mine) "ONCE we've written ... thousands of 
> discrete topics, we NOW require a database...". Ouch, good luck with that
one.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: 
> techwr-l-bounces+gordon -dot- mclean=grahamtechnology -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+gordon -dot- mclean=grahamtechnology -dot- com -at- lists -dot- tech
> wr-l.c
> om] On Behalf Of Mike Starr
> Sent: 25 June 2007 14:23
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: Writing structured content [recap]
>
> However...
>
> Once we've written hundreds or even thousands of discrete topics, we 
> now require an organizational database to make these topics available for
use.
> Each topic must then be associated with metadata that describes the 
> topic itself so we can understand specifically what the different 
> topics are about and when it's appropriate to incorporate that 
> specific topic in a larger assembly of topics. The formation of that 
> metadata into a database will require careful planning in order to 
> make the database readily searchable.
> I
> can envision the metadata often requiring far more storage space than 
> the topic text itself.
>
> Having said that, the availability of the discrete topics is still 
> going to require an analytical process by a content planner (formerly 
> known as a technical writer) who's developed a sufficient amount of 
> product knowledge in order to select appropriate topics for the 
> subject matter based on the audience requirements. The greater the 
> number of topic authors, the more difficult the analytical process 
> becomes as the content planner will have to familiarize herself with 
> the actual content of the available topics in order to make rational 
> selections.
>
> And if we cannot incorporate cross-references into the actual topics, 
> do we then lose that ability in the finished document? Or do we add 
> cross-references as elements of the finished document that are not 
> part of the topic database?
>
> Mike
> --
> Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
> Technical Writer   -   Online Help Developer   -    Website developer
> Graphic Designer    -    Desktop Publisher   -       MS Office Expert
> Phone: (262) 694-1028 - Tollfree: (877) 892-1028 - Fax:(262) 697-6334
> Email: mike -at- writestarr -dot- com      -      Web: http://www.writestarr.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gordon McLean" <Gordon -dot- McLean -at- GrahamTechnology -dot- com>
> To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 8:00 AM
> Subject: RE: Writing structured content [recap]
>
>> It might well be that a set of guidelines is the starting point, and 
>> that, in fact, the 'rules' of writing content that can be reused 
>> aren't all that much different from what we have now.
>>
>> Understanding the structure is part of it, and yes that will include 
>> understanding when NOT to include some information... But presuming 
>> we are past that point, maybe there ISN'T a need for a training 
>> course in this area, maybe it is purely down to understanding the 
>> structure and following a set of simple guidelines.
>>
>> But I'm not sure, nor convinced, it's that "easy". As Fred says, at 
>> some point, once structure is understood, and the writer knows what 
>> NOT to include, the content that will be used has to be written. I 
>> presumed there was an approach to this type of writing, breaking the 
>> thought model out of chapter/book mode and into chunk mode, but maybe 
>> there isn't. Maybe it is just a set of "dos and donts"..
>>
>> One thing is for sure, this thread has certainly pressed home the 
>> importance of nailing the early requirements and fully understanding 
>> the structure of our documentation.
>>
>> Gordon
>
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