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Subject: Re: [dita-learningspec] Groups - DITA Learning Content SC Meetingmodified


Title: Scott Hudson
Allyn,

thank you for your comments (at the meeting and to amend the minutes)! I've amended the meeting minutes.

I think you bring up some very salient points and we should discuss further as part of this email list or subsequent meetings.

Best regards,

--Scott

  Scott Hudson
  XML Business Architect

  scott.hudson@FlatironsSolutions.com

 

  O:  303.542.2146

  C:  303.332.1883

  F:  303.544.0522

 

  www.FlatironsSolutions.com

  An Inc. 500 Company

 



Allyn Radford wrote:

Hi all

Just one correction in the minutes.  In the notes below there is a change required to the following statement:

Allyn brought up that we could consider an organization
that groups elements/attributes that describe the behavior of content (like conditional display)
in a separate, referenced metadata file but embeds elements/attributes that more directly
describe the content itself, inside the topic or map files.


I actually made the comment the other way around.  The purely descriptive content could be in an associated file whereas the "functional" metadata could be inside the content file.  These are suggestions only and I must confess that I have not yet settled in my own thinking on this.  It is 'a' possibility.

As an extension to this that was not covered in the meeting, so is not applicable to the minutes, is the problem that sits behind this issue.  I think I first had to consider it about 6 or so years ago when building an infrastructure that required content to be interoperable and discoverable.  When we considered the QTI type content and were tackling the issues of granularity of that content and how it should be stored, we were somewhat sobered by the consideration that we could end up creating a whole bunch of metadata files that were substantially larger than the individual QTI objects they described.  Is that really worthwhile?

There is another piece of thinking we need to join to this as well.  There will never, ever be a single metadata schema that suits all purposes.  The metadata will be deemed to be correct for the needs of a community of practice by that community of practice and is not going to be a subset of a single metadata schema that suits all the metadata purposes of the world.

Given those two issues of a) metadata strategy and file size of metadata compared to content, and b) no single metadata schema will suit all needs - then what goes into DITA and what does not?  Our current considerations are limited because we are only considering a learning specialization for SCORM which relies on LOM.  What about other requirements.  Let me pose the following illustrative problem:

There is a new specialization starting up for the semiconductor industry.  Let's say I am in that industry and produce a component that will be used in a piece of flight navigation equipment that will be built in to an aircraft that is supplied to the US DoD.  That procurement process requires the technical documentation and the training be supplied to each of the upstream vendors.  If I am creating the content in DITA format, there will be a requirement by both the aircraft industry and DoD to have the content in S1000D format.  Ok, that could be a transform.  Then it would need to be *dynamically*
transformed into training content.  Another transform, because it would have to be SCORM-based.  Both S1000D and SCORM are mandated by defense instructions.  So, what metadata schema is used?  When is all the appropriate metadata added and by whom? and where?  We are now talking about metadata for the semiconductor industry, plus S1000D metadata, plus LOM/SCORM metadata plus whatever is required by the individual companies involved along the way for data management purposes internally.  Is accumulating all the metadata in the dita file sustainable?  Does that simplify or complicate maintenance of both content and metadata?  Will the metadata elements whether empty or filled be bigger than the content in the file itself?

Now, I don't have answers to these questions, but I think we really need to think about the requirements of the solution to be robust and to serve the needs of any industry group that might become involved in the authoring, assembly and management (through life) of structured content.  We need to keep at least one eye on the issues that arise from content strategies during implementation.

Hope this makes sense and that it is useful.
Allyn


scott.hudson@flatironssolutions.com wrote:
Thanks to John Accardi for taking minutes!

 -- Scott Hudson


DITA Learning Content SC Meeting has been modified by Scott Hudson

Date:  Thursday, 19 July 2007
Time:  04:00pm - 05:00pm ET

Event Description:
USA Toll Free Number: 866-880-0098
USA Toll Number: +1-210-795-1100
Australia Toll Free Number: 1-800-993-862
Australia Toll Number: 61-2-8205-8112
PASSCODE: 6396088

For information on specific country access dialing, see http://www.mymeetings.com/audioconferencing/globalAccessFAQ.php.

Agenda:


Minutes:
DITA Learning Content SC minutes 19 Jul 2007

Attendees:
John Accardi
Allyn Radford Robin Sloan
Scott Hudson


Primary agenda was to advance the IEEE LOM work initiated by Scott. Task was to fill in column H
with elements/attribute in our SC structures that would apply.
Much discussion began but not many value were filled in ... it seems like a slippery task

Key discussion points:

- IEEE LOM elements are mostly optional so that implementing organizations can select subsets
important them for required treatment.  Allyn mention that it is rare that any implementing
organization uses all the elements/attributes.  They pick the subset that works for them and
makes them required as necessary to support processing and deployment.  In other words, standards
bodies make things optional for flexibility and implementing organizations make things mandatory
to support their specific business requirements.

- Scott mentioned that the LOM has nailed down the meaning, vocabulary and intentions of some
things and is very vague about other things.  For example, aggregation level has subjective
values of 1, 2, 3 and 4.

- Allyn brought up that we should check that Scott's spreadsheet is based on the lastest standard
LOM (might be based on an earlier version). Vendor solutions typically going to IEEE LOM 1.0.

- Scott needed the group to consider whether the LOM elements need representation across all our
info types or only at map levels or both. Allyn brought up that we could consider an organization
that groups elements/attributes that describe the behavior of content (like conditional display)
in a separate, referenced metadata file but embeds elements/attributes that more directly
describe the content itself, inside the topic or map files.  Allyn brought up SCORM SCOs as an
example that implements associated metadata files.  Allyn also mentioned that in older HTML work,
easier maintenance was supported with separated metadata files. Scott mentioned that the DITA way
seemed to be object-oriented; keep the metadata inside the topic and map files, perhaps in the
prolog structure.  This way all is organized and travels together.

- Scott reminded all that the idea was to be sure that our structures contained all the
elements/attributes to map to the LOM, all in support of a LOM manifest. Allyn suggested that
such data typically would primarily come from a map.  John suggested that it might be helpful to look at a working manifest and work backwards to the source points in LOM and then to our
structures. Allyn suggested we use an example like this from ADL.

Suggestion to put structural stuff inside the topics themselves, while descriptive stuff could be
handled via an attribute like metaref to point to an external metadata file. This would be more
akin to how IMS can point to an external metadata file.

- John asked for a big picture clarification of why mapping our elements/attributes to LOM was
desirable.  Scott and Allyn responded that if SCORM and IMS are based on some level of
implementation of the IEEE LOM, then if our DITA SC also had all the LOM mapped, deliverables had
a better chance of playing in those SCORM and IMS worlds.

- John mentioned that it was difficult to easily see all our elements/attributes in support of
quick, efficiently and best mappings to the LOM.

- Allyn brought up potential confusion about what would be metadata versus real content.  For
example metadata for one content type might easily be seen as content proper in another. (e.g.,
Learning Content vs. Instructional Design)
- Allyn also mentioned that the LOM might be inherently insufficient for learning content
purposes.  For example, the lack of some thing an learning objective.  Scott agreed so the LOM
should be considered just a minimum.

- Scott and Allyn spoke about the fact that a high level perspective or diagram is needed, that
relates SCORM, DITA, IMS. The lack of this hinders our LOM mapping exercise.


This event is one in a list of recurring events.
Other event dates in this series:

Thursday, 14 June 2007, 11:00am to 12:00pm ET
Thursday, 21 June 2007, 11:00am to 12:00pm ET
Thursday, 28 June 2007, 11:00am to 12:00pm ET
Thursday, 05 July 2007, 11:00am to 12:00pm ET
Thursday, 12 July 2007, 04:00pm to 05:00pm ET
Thursday, 26 July 2007, 04:00pm to 05:00pm ET
Thursday, 02 August 2007, 04:00pm to 05:00pm ET
Thursday, 09 August 2007, 04:00pm to 05:00pm ET
Thursday, 16 August 2007, 04:00pm to 05:00pm ET
Thursday, 23 August 2007, 04:00pm to 05:00pm ET
Thursday, 30 August 2007, 04:00pm to 05:00pm ET
Thursday, 06 September 2007, 04:00pm to 05:00pm ET
Thursday, 13 September 2007, 04:00pm to 05:00pm ET
Thursday, 20 September 2007, 04:00pm to 05:00pm ET
Thursday, 27 September 2007, 04:00pm to 05:00pm ET

View event details:
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita-learningspec/event.php?event_id=15062

PLEASE NOTE:  If the above link does not work for you, your email
application may be breaking the link into two pieces.  You may be able to
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  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

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CATEGORIES:MEETING
STATUS:TENTATIVE
DTSTAMP:20070720T000000Z
DTSTART:20070719T200000Z
DTEND:20070719T210000Z
SEQUENCE:9
SUMMARY:DITA Learning Content SC Meeting
DESCRIPTION:USA Toll Free Number: 866-880-0098\nUSA Toll Number:
  +1-210-795-1100\nAustralia Toll Free Number: 1-800-993-862\nAustralia
  Toll Number: 61-2-8205-8112\nPASSCODE: 6396088\n\nFor information on
  specific country access dialing\, see
  http://www.mymeetings.com/audioconferencing/globalAccessFAQ.php.\n\nGroup:
  DITA Learning and Training Content Specialization SC\nCreator: John
  Hunt
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