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TheContentWrangler.com

The online destination for content professionals. Jam-packed with case studies, articles, white papers, news and research about content heavy organizations. Find jobs, locate conferences, workshops, training, software products and more.


The Power of the Crowd: Finding DITA Resources and InformationToday

You can find a wide variety of groups that focus on DITA on The Content Wrangler Community, the global network for content professionals. Membership is free and requires online registration. Each group is moderated by an industry expert. Some of the most popular groups include:


DITA Metrics: Developing Cost MetricsNovember 19

By Mark Lewis, special to The Content Wrangler

Table of Contents

Introduction
Cost of Metrics Overview
Cost of a Project
Cost of a Topic
Cost of User Guides Without Topic Reuse
Cost of User Guides With Topic Reuse
Cost Comparison: User Guides With and Without Topic Reuse
Cost of a Reusable Master Topic
Cost of User Guides With Reusable Master Topics









Alfresco Is Not A Picnic: The Problem With Metaphors And Content Management SystemsNovember 11

By Felice Bochman, special to The Content Wrangler

“Humans are wired to put things in buckets.  We have an innate need to create categories and sort things into them.”—Richard Hamilton on content delivery, The Content Wrangler, September 2008

Many editors and other language-oriented professionals I know look for metaphors as a way of figuring things out.  We tend to see the world through a “this is like this” lens complemented by a “how does this fit into the big picture” manner of thinking. At its most elemental, this is simply a way of bucketing things. It’s a matter of perception not taken lightly—I hope.

imageWhat “things” do we humans bucket?  Anything, really, but for editors this usually applies to content of some kind. And, once we have content of some kind, it’s only a hop, skip, and a jump to content of a particular kind, as in content of one type or another. Alas, content doesn’t magically appears on web pages. We “webitors” must use a CMS to publish language to our websites.  In and of itself, the idea of a CMS is no big deal—one usually needs some kind of delivery system to display or publish language pretty much anywhere in any medium—unless mental telepathy is involved. But, it’s how the CMS is structured that

Microsoft, Welcome to the SaaS World (and See You in a Year)November 3

By Rodrigo Vaca, Director Marketing, Zoho

imageMicrosoft confirmed recently a widely circulated rumor and announced, with gran fanfare, that next year they will be announcing a web-based version of their Office product. Yes, you read it right, Microsoft announced that they will be announcing… You can read the full story in PC Magazine, ComputerWorld and many other publications.

The question for many will be… what does this announcement of an announcement means for Zoho and other SaaS vendors? It’s simple: it means two things.

First—it means fantastic news! Microsoft had been pooh-poohing the whole SaaS world… even going as far as denying the inevitable and creating its own Software-plus-Services trend-of-one. But Microsoft took one big step forward, and added some extra validation to the whole concept of productivity applications delivered using nothing but a browser.

Second—and particularly to Zoho—it means business at usual. Will there be increased competition in the on-line pr

Information Visualization: A Look At U.S. Newspapers And Their Picks For PresidentOctober 29

This interactive map from the folks at 1000 Words is a collective representation of the endorsements made by US newspapers for the 2008 presidential candidates. As of the date of this posting, Senator Barack Obama (D) leads Senator John McCain (R) in the number of endorsements he has received from major newspapers.

To view individual newspaper endorsements, click on the corresponding red or blue balloons. Use the zoom feature to target the papers you’re interested in viewing in markets in which multiple major papers exist.

According to 1000 Words, the newspapers represented on the map were gathered from the 100 largest U.S. newspapers by circulation. In states where no newspaper ranks in the top 100, the paper with the highest daily circulation in the state—according to data provided from the Audit Bureau of Circulation was included. National newspapers like USA Today were not included. In some larger markets in which more than one major news outlet exists, multiple newspapers may be included Cities with more than one paper may overlap (i.e. The New York Times, New York Post, and Daily News).

The creators of the map like to remind everyone that the map “is not an endorsement of any particular candidate