Making Sense of Standards

MAKING SENSE OF STANDARDS

STC Austin

Thursday, 5th April, 2007

http://www.webworks.com

Agenda

Introduction

The Space Shuttle & The Horse

Why We Need Standards

Alphabet Soup

What Will Work For Me

Developing A Strategy

Practical Examples

Q&A


Introduction

Director of Services – Quadralay / WebWorks

Served on Industry, National and International Standards groups.

Specialized in Standards Based Electronic Publishing systems.

20 + Years in Technical Publications.

10 Years in Production Shops.

10 Years in Publishing Software

Graphics

Content Management

Editing Tools

Publishing Engines

Document Conversion

Freelance writer – Books, Magazines, Comics, Websites


The Space Shuttle & The Horse

The Impact of Standards



To Make Sure Things Fit

- Metric vs Imperial measurements

Ease Of Use

- Things look familiar

- Things work as expected

Collaboration

- Commerce

- Information Exchange



Publishing Standards

- Improve Quality

- Increase Productivity

- Data Exchange

- Enabling technology

- Consistent delivery

What is the most widely adopted Publishing Standard in the World?


Alphabet Soup


What Will Work For Me?

“A single standard cannot possibly satisfy all requirements all the time.

To believe any one standard is a magic bullet is foolish.”

- Sandy Ressler “Perspectives on Electronic Publishing” – Prentice Hall, 1993



Most standards have some value under certain circumstances.

Very few are valuable under many circumstances.



Beware:

The “Technology Bigot.”

The “Standard of the Month” Club



Ask LOTS of questions:

- Is there a long term support requirement?

- Is there a need to produce multiple deliverables from the same content?

- What’s the production cycle?

- Do we need to incorporate content from other sources.

- How will the documents be delivered ?

- Who revives and uses the document ?

- Does the content need to be translated?



Then LOTS more questions:

- Do we have a budget to do this?

- Can we justify any ROI ?

- Do we need new software or hardware?

- What’s the timescales ?

- Is it contractually or industry mandated?

- Do people have sufficient expertise to implement ?

- Do I need to develop standards specialists ?

- What parts of the organization and process will this impact?



Look at a selection of standards.

Research.

Talk to other people who have implemented the standards.

Understand the fundamental assumptions underlying the standard.

Have an open mind about standards.

Make sure that you can have an “exit strategy”.

Remember that most successful standards are evolutionary rather than revolutionary.


PRACTICAL EXAMPLES

OR

OR

TOPIC BASED AUTHORING

GRAPHICS


TOPIC AUTHORING – DITA or S1000D

THE SAME ….

- Topic Based Content

- Reuse

- Lowered translations costs

- Content Management

- Data Exchange

- Standards based technologies (XML)



… BUT DIFFERENT

- one is the new “flavor of the month.”

- the other is based on long established practice.

- one is driven by need to manage documents.

- the other is driven by need to maintain equipment.

- one is “open” and extensible.

- the other is rigidly defined.

- one is market driven.

- the other is industry driven.



Which one applies when ??

Example One –

Company making large pieces of mining equipment, with long operational life and thousands of spare parts.

Example Two –

Large insurance company that documents rules and regulations and publishes annual “catalogs.”


GRAPHICS – CGM or SVG

THE SAME…

- Vector Graphics

- 2D Line art

- Illustration driven

- Web compatible (with plug-ins)

- Standards based technologies



… BUT DIFFERENT

- one is the new “flavor of the month.”

- the other is based on long established practice.

- one is driven by need to produce line art.

- the other is driven by need to exchange information.

- one is “open”

- the other is rigidly defined.

- one is market driven.

- the other is industry driven.



Which one applies when ??

Example One –

Car manufacturer needing to receive and edit illustrations from supplier companies and deliver hyperlinked parts catalogs to dealerships.

Example Two –

Manufacturer of self-assembly furniture producing assembly leaflets and web graphics for consumer use.


CONCLUSIONS

Standards are often meant to operate in very different areas.

Understand why a Standard was created.

Don’t listen to “the buzz” – research and make up your own mind.

Don’t be the market leader..

Try to manage change to minimize impact – but sometimes you just have to “bite the bullet” – if you do –

don’t bite down on the whole revolver.

Remember the Shuttle and The Horse – Standards have a long term impact.


Q & A

ANY QUESTIONS ??


WebWorks RoundUp 2007

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Alan J. PorterDirector of ServicesQuadralay Corporation

.9101 Burnet Road, Suite #105

Austin, Texas. 78758

Tel: 512-719-3399 x232

Cell: 512-968-7362

[email protected]