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

[Kristen James Eberlein <kris@eberleinconsulting.com>]

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 <kris@eberleinconsulting.com>
To:	Don Day <dond@us.ibm.com>
CC:	Gershon Joseph <gerjosep@cisco.com>, JoAnn Hackos <joann.hackos@comtech-serv.com>

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