Re: [dita-lightweight-dita] My intro for the list

[Joe Pairman <joe.pairman@mekon.com>]

Hi all,

I got into DITA about 7 years ago. I was wrestling with SGML-based manuals in Structured Frame — the implementation was supposed to be hooked up to a CMS but as outsourced providers we didn’t have that available, so had to looking up individual element IDs manually from a huge Excel sheet. Despite the difficulties of that particular situation, I realized there was a lot of potential to this structured content stuff, read around XML in general, and then started trying out some personal projects in DITA.

I lead the DITA implementation at HTC, and we did some very exciting things with delivery to a native app and personalized tips, various incarnations of the corporate website, and a knowledge base for call center staff. One of my focuses was improving the authoring experience. I did a fair bit with constraints and editor macros / CSS, as well as a specialized simple FAQ topic. From time to time we tweaked our reuse practices too, removing manual steps and making life easier for authors. I joined Mekon early this year, and I’m working with a number of customers who are interested in lightweight authoring approaches.

I tend to go for a lightweight approach to personal projects and have used Markdown quite a lot. My blog is based on the Pelican static site generator, and all the posts are Markdown files with minimal metadata at the top. I’d be interested in helping with a Markdown mapping to Lightweight DITA, as well as contributing to the discussion on what exactly should be in the core of Lightweight DITA and what should be left to individual organizations to specialize.

— 

Joe Pairman

Mekon Ltd.

Tel: +44-20-8722-8400

Mobile: +44-7472-745-063

From: Michael Priestley <mpriestl@ca.ibm.com>
Date: Wednesday, September 17, 2014 at 1:33 AM
To: "dita-lightweight-dita@lists.oasis-open.org" <dita-lightweight-dita@lists.oasis-open.org>
Subject: [dita-lightweight-dita] My intro for the list

As we discussed in the meeting yesterday, I'm kicking off a round of intros so we can all get to know each other a little better.

I've been with DITA since day 1, and was the co-editor of the DITA 1.0 and 1.1 specification. I'm excited about lightweight DITA because it gives us a chance to apply the lessons we've learned with full DITA in crafting a high-functioning but lightweight architectural subset.

My current role at IBM is one of content technology strategist, with a scope that lets me influence (but not necessarily direct) technology development across many different content development and delivery organizations, with both internal and external audiences. Lightweight DITA is a part of every content technology strategy deck I put together in IBM. It's a core piece of the architecture we need to allow content to be truly portable, across systems, skill sets, and formats.

The highest priority scenarios I'm focusing on for IBM use (with help from other IBMers) are:

- marketing content and HTML5 mappings
- training content and EPUB mappings
- developer content and both markdown and HTML5 mappings

Michael Priestley, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)
Enterprise Content Technology Strategist
mpriestl@ca.ibm.com
http://dita.xml.org/blog/michael-priestley