Meeting Notes - Bangalore meet-up

[mathew.techwriter@gmail.com]

Folks,

The SC members in Bangalore had an informal meeting on 9th December. We exchanged noted and brainstormed some good ideas.  

Round Table

IBM - Software Group and Sys and Tech Groups
Adoption Status
100%
New acquisitions integrated quickly
History
4 - 5 years for complete adoption
Team Structure
Writers, information architects, and infra teams.
Promotion and evangelism at two levels - brand and corporate level
Tools
Every brand uses a different reopsitories
Writers use PTC epic editor
Some IAs use Information Modeler (now called IAWD)

Cisco

Adoption Status
Playing catch-up
10 - 20% converted to DITA
History
xSmart initiative in 2008 for moving technical content to DITA
Team Structure
Classic tech pubs setup
No IAs
Tools team for publishing support
Tools
Moving to Astoria CMS and XMetaL
Currently using DAMtop as CMS

Citrix

Adoption Status
~100%
Localization and education teams also use DITA
History
Started work in 2007
Entire document suite re-architected
Extensive use of minimalism principles
Cloud division uses a proprietary information architecture methodology
Entire documentation suite of cloud division ported to DITA this year
Team Structure
Well established writing teams consisting of 40+ writers, editors, and managers spread across the globe. Majority of them in Florida.
Information architecture group manages IA standards for Citrix
Cloud division has a full-time tools team
Tools
Astoria CMS and XMetaL
Task Modeler for IA


Next Steps
Publicize our efforts at TC world India 2011 (organized by Akash)
One 2-hr hands-on preconference workshop by Matt on moving to DITA
In addition, we can also have a 1 hr talk on Asia Adoption and how others can participate and contribute
Monthly Webinar on migrating to DITA
Explaining migration will always be a problem
What mindset changes
What process to follow
Use TWIN as a channel
Facebook page for TWIN (Akash, Done)
Videos of demos
Inform Twin about the ASIA SC - Matt
Free tools for DITA adoption and be published here - Indu & Neeti
Survey on DITA adoption and pain points at the survey and on TWIN - Neeti
Best regards,

Matt