AUGUST 2003 VOLUME 5, NUMBER 4 How to Stay Sane in An Insane Economy Helen Sullivan, Director of Technical Career Development, Collin County Community College District ThereвЂ™s no doubt about it. We live in crazy times. Some may call them insane. And one of the craziest places to be these days is at work. You find pressure and stress everywhere you look: impossible deadlines, and no recognition for work done under increasingly stressful circumstances. No Wonder IвЂ™m Depressed! How you feel about these events and circumstances often determines how you respond to в™¦ Last year, the government exercised very them. In other words, your attitude plays a sigvisible public pressure on corporations to nificant role in how you handle lifeвЂ™s unexcorrect suspect accounting pected curve balls. practices. This shake-up in How do these reactions and corporations may have feelings about negative events started at the top, but youвЂ™d and circumstances manifest вЂњвЂ¦your better believe that this presthemselves in the workplace? attitude plays sure rolled downhill to the See if any of the following lowliest person on the corresonate with you: a significant porate totem pole. role in how в™¦ ProcrastinationвЂ”Do you в™¦ Although 2003 hasnвЂ™t seen as habitually arrive late for you handle significant a number of laywork or miss deadlines? offs as 2002, the economy lifeвЂ™s в™¦ Emotions on the edgeвЂ”Do still has areas of instability, unexpected you snap at co-workers or and no one really considers customers and find yourself curve balls.вЂќ his or her job totally secure. in ongoing conflicts with в™¦ Some companies are still other departments? struggling to stay in business, and others в™¦ Frustration from lack of control over cirwho had planned to flex their entreprecumstancesвЂ”Do you have more health neurial muscles have decided to postpone issues than are normal for you, or do you investing in new ventures. As a result, find that you are seeking comfort in alcoalong with earlier downsizing, out-ofhol, drugs, or excessive eating? work employees have flooded a tight job market. в™¦ Survivors of layoffs may have kept their jobs, but at what price? They are under incredible pressure to perform, not only their normal work but also the work that remained from employees who left voluntarily or involuntarily. в™¦ Add to these factors the regular garden variety of negative circumstances that havenвЂ™t gone awayвЂ”office politics, a difficult boss or co-worker, boring work, в™¦ InflexibilityвЂ”Do you cling to old ways of doing things, or do you revert to your default personality type? CONTENTS How to Stay Sane in An Insane Economy page 93 From the Director page 94 CASE STUDY Single Sourcing HTML and PDF with FrameMaker and WebWorks page 98 CASE STUDY Usability, Knowledge Management, and the Bottom Line page 103 CONTENT MANAGERвЂ™S NOTEBOOK Intellectual Property: Culture, Commerce, and Digital Rights Management page 107 TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY The Growth of ASP Content Management page 112 TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY Enabling Language Translation with XML Tools and Standards page 115 BOOK REVIEW WhatвЂ™s in The Rise of the Creative Class for Technical Communicators? page 121 ManagerвЂ™s Calendar page 124 Choose Your вЂ�Tude, Dude! вЂњNow that IвЂ™m all depressed thinking about my stressors and what IвЂ™m not doing to address them, is there anything I can do about them?вЂќ Yes. IвЂ™m here to tell you that you can do something very effectiveвЂ¦ you can choose your attitude. Believe it or not, your choice of Continued on page 96. The Center for Information-Development Management 710 Kipling Street вЂў Suite 400 вЂў Denver, CO 80215 93 FROM THE DIRECTOR From the Director JoAnn Hackos Best Practices Newsletter A publication of the Center for Information-Development Management. 710 Kipling Street, Suite 400 Denver, CO 80215 Phone: 303/232-7586 Fax: 303/232-0659 www.infomanagementcenter.com Publisher and Center Director JoAnn Hackos, PhD [email protected] Managing Editor Tina Hedlund [email protected] Production Manager Lori Maberry [email protected] Information Developer Christina Meyer [email protected] How to subscribe: a one-year subscription (6 issues) is $99. Subscribers outside the US add $10 (US funds only). Contact Lisa Odneal 303/232-7586, or send email to [email protected] How to submit an article: contact Tina Hedlund [email protected] How to join the Center: call JoAnn Hackos at 303/232-7586, or send email to [email protected] В©2003 Comtech Services, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. 94 Dear Friends, As IвЂ™m sure you all know, the theme of the 2003 Best Practices conference is Innovation: Making It Happen. The emphasis of the conference is on the вЂњmaking it happenвЂќ part. We can all happily dream up new things to do in our organizations, but actually proposing the right innovations and then getting people to adopt them often proves difficult and frustrating. With the InnovatorвЂ™s Forum, immediately following the conference, we will help put concrete plans together to support new ideas. As part of the planning, IвЂ™ve been reading many articles on successful change. One of my favorites is вЂњTipping Point Leadership,вЂќ by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne (Harvard Business Review, April 2003, Product 3353). Kim and Mauborgne are management professors at Insead in Fontainebleau, France. To prepare their article, they conducted an in-depth study of William Bratton, who served as police commissioner in New York City in the 1990s and was instrumental in lowering the cityвЂ™s crime rate. They sought to understand how he accomplished the turnaround, especially in such a politically charged environment as New York. The tag line of the article reads вЂњHow can you catapult your organization to high performance when time and money are scarce? Police Chief Bill Bratton has pulled that off again and again.вЂќ In my welcome address at the Best Practices conference, I will discuss in some depth the four steps that Kim and Mauborgne outline. These steps are distilled from BrattonвЂ™s work and help us transform the tipping point from an interesting concept into a workable program for change. IвЂ™m most interested, at present, in the first step in the process, called Breaking through the Cognitive Hurdle. The authors explain that most people involved in decision-making about a change donвЂ™t respond to sensible arguments, extended examples, or even dollars and cents. Even the bean counters, who complain that they are interested in the numbers, wonвЂ™t act if they donвЂ™t understand the problem or believe that any change is necessary. BrattonвЂ™s technique, at the core of tipping point leadership, is to help key decision makers actually experience the problem. Without a lesson in reality, the need for innovation never catches on. For example, Bratton decided that he had to convince his senior staff that the publicвЂ™s complaints about the subways were meaningful. They simply didnвЂ™t think the problem was that serious. BesidesвЂ”New Yorkers always carp about the subway. Big deal. Convinced that making the subway safe was the highest priority in the turnaround, Bratton required that all his transit police officers commute by subway, himself included. None of them had ridden the subway in years. Not until they saw the graffiti, experienced the lawlessness of the gangs, and got mired in nonworking equipment themselves did they understand the publicвЂ™s point of view. And, only then did they agree that something needed to be done. Bratton had gotten his officers over the cognitive hurdle. They had to gain a visceral and cerebral understanding of the problem before they were ready to respond to new ideas. A colleague of mine used a similar tactic a few years ago to convince his mechanical engineering staff that they had to redesign a critical piece of equipment used in treating gravely ill patients. He had feedback from users that the equipment was difficult and slow to adjust, resulting in unnecessarily long treatment times. They reported that patients, already anxious about their illnesses, were fur- BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 FROM THE DIRECTOR ther stressed by the ill-adjusted and awkward equipment. His problemвЂ”the engineers werenвЂ™t especially concerned. So the technicians had a problem with the usability of the equipment. CouldnвЂ™t they just be trained better? Our colleague used a drastic approach to move his engineers through the cognitive hurdle. He took them out to customer sites and had them experience the problem firsthand. If this sounds somewhat like a customer site visit as part of a usability study, youвЂ™re right. ThatвЂ™s exactly what occurred. The engineers observed the users trying to adjust the equipment. They played the roles of patients, enduring the long adjustment periods flat on their backs with heavy lead weights on their bodies. It wasnвЂ™t pretty. The experience changed their entire perception of the problem. They came back committed and energized about redesigning the equipment immediately and correcting all the adjustment problems. Experiencing a problem firsthand can be a life-altering experience. I worked with a team of software programmers designing a medicalrecords system. It was clear from a first view of the prototype software that they were completely oblivious about the usersвЂ™ world. The prototype was completely unusable to anyone but the designers. I suggested that they visit some users, conveniently located across the street from the software-development department. They took me up on the suggestion. Months later, meeting the same programmers over lunch in the cafeteria, they told me that the meetings with users and the direct observations of their work had вЂњchanged their lives.вЂќ These were senior professionals, committed to doing good work. They simply needed to break through the cognitive hurdle. I invite you to consider ways in which you can help decision makers in your organization overcome their reluctance to support innovation and change. Have they tried to find information on the corporate Web site? Do they know how it feels to use the products the company develops? Have they seen people at work having difficulty learning what to do? In information development, we tend to be a bunch of introverts who sincerely believe that if we work hard and keep our noses to the grindstone, someone will notice our good work and reward us. Well folksвЂ”it ainвЂ™t gonna happen. We need to sell the ideas we have for making things better, after weвЂ™re certain, of course, that the ideas are better for the customers and the company, not just for us. Because this is the last issue before the September Best Practices conference, youвЂ™ll have to attend to hear my view of the rest of the hurdles. Register today at <www.infomanagementcenter.com/conference.htm>. I hope IвЂ™ve given you a bit of an experience, though vicarious, about change management. Please join me and your colleagues for more real-life stories. See you in Seattle. JoAnn Tipping Point Leadership Kim and Maugorgne, studying the techniques used by Bill Bratton, former police chief in New York City, identified four hurdles to be overcome in implementing change: Cognitive hurdle Our staff members respond best when they experience directly the problems our customers have in finding and using information to perform tasks or solve problems. Resource hurdle By targeting our resources on contributions that add value to the organization, we make best use of what we already have. Motivational hurdle Political hurdle Reforming everyone and everything at once may be appealing, but itвЂ™s doomed to failure. We need to solve problems with key influencers who can help to spread the message. Powerful interests, such as product developers and marketing managers, often resist change. We must identify the naysayers and find ways to silence them. Center Associates Henry Korman Wordplay [email protected] Ginny Redish, PhD Redish & Associates, Inc. [email protected] Jonathan Price The Communication Circle [email protected] David Walske David Walske, Inc. [email protected] Advisory Council Bill Gearhart BMC Software [email protected] Julie Bradbury Independent Diane Davis Synopsys [email protected] Vesa Purho Nokia [email protected] Daphne Walmer Medtronic [email protected] Palmer Pearson Cadence Design Systems [email protected] CIDM Vendor Members Arbortext PG Bartlett [email protected] Progressive Information Technologies Suzanne Mescan [email protected] Innodata Toni Sydor [email protected] ISOGEN International Marit Mobedjina [email protected] We can apply the four-step вЂњtipping pointвЂќ strategy to the challenges of an information-development and instructional-design environment. Learn to recognize the hurdles in your organization and discover how information managers have successfully overcome them. AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES 95 HOW TO STAY SANE IN AN INSANE ECONOMY Resources for Further Study How to Stay Sane in An Insane Economy, continued from page 93. The following books are some of my favorites that have helped me through tough times. Maybe they will speak to you. When they change their thinking and discover attitude can change your circumstances. One that thereвЂ™s more than one way to find cheese, of the key elements of this choice is separating their perspective on life changes. your emotions from your circumstances. In my own work experience, I found a Abraham Maslow said, вЂњOne can spend a good teacher of attitude at my first job. I lifetime assigning blame, finding the cause вЂ�out worked for a small daily newspaper where regthereвЂ™ for all troubles that exist. Contrast this ular complaints were phoned in to the circulawith the вЂ�responsible attitudeвЂ™ of confronting tion department. Customers couldnвЂ™t find the situation, bad or good, and instead of asktheir papers, the newspaper landed in a puding вЂ�What caused the trouble? Who was to dle, the dog ate it, someone stole itвЂ”you blame?вЂ™ Asking вЂ�How can I handle this present name it, someone was always unhappy about situation to make the most of it? What can I some aspect of their service. salvage here?вЂ™вЂќ The circulation manager lisThere are examples all tened patiently to each complaint around us of how a difference in over the phone and commiserated attitude impacted a circumвЂњвЂ¦[as] a with what the customer was going stance. manager in through. By the end of the converIf you read Main Street, a sation, this manager not only classic novel by Sinclair Lewis, your made the customer feel better but and contrast the reactions of organization, he also followed through on each Carol and Bea to the small town complaint and left the customer where they live, youвЂ™ll see that вЂ¦you have a feeling satisfied. In other words, one woman hated the town powerful he changed their attitude. because of what it didnвЂ™t have influence over and the other one loved it because of what it did. Am I the Problem or the your group, One of my favorite Mary Solution? and you set the If you are a manager in your orgaTyler Moore Show episodes featured the irrepressible Ted Baxnization, then you have a powerful tone for your ter, the buffoonish TV influence over your group, and organization.вЂќ you set the tone for your organizaanchorman who didnвЂ™t possess many brain cells. One day, Mary tion. If your organization seems to was feeling depressed because have a negative atmosphere, look her life seemed to be in a rut. Ted told her that at your attitudes first before you start addresshe felt the same way until he woke up one ing your groupвЂ™s collective attitude. morning and everything he did he did with Think about the following: enthusiasmвЂ”it was the same daily routine, в™¦ I canвЂ™t control the actions of others, but I only he took joy in every task. (ItвЂ™s not humorcan control my reaction to them. ous to read about it here, so youвЂ™ll just have to в™¦ Am I willing to take a risk to make some see the episode in re-runs on cable.) changes in myself? Two good books that have striking examв™¦ Do I have any false or unrealistic expectaples about changes in attitude are Zapp! The tions? Lightning of Empowerment by William C. Byham and Jeff Cox and Who Moved My в™¦ Do I have any significant turnover in my Cheese? by Spencer Johnson. The first book group, and do I understand the reason for details a workplace that is drained by repressive this turnover? working conditions but is turned around when the employees are empowered to do their jobs. Here Are Some Options To Consider The second book is a brief story about mice After youвЂ™ve cleaned up any negative attitudes who go to the same spot daily looking for their of your own, look externally to factors that cheese but find out one day that it is gone. may be affecting your group. Leadership books The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership John C. Maxwell The Leadership Challenge James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner Leadership When the HeatвЂ™s On Danny Cox and John Hoover Leading Change John P. Kotter Principle-Centered Leadership Stephen R. Covey Work environment Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment William C. Byham and Jeff Cox Toxic Work Barbara Bailey Reinhold Seize the Day Danny Cox and John Hoover Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson Difficult Conversations Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen 1001 Ways to Energize Employees Bob Nelson More good stuff Getting to YES Roger Fisher and William Ury You DonвЂ™t Have To Go Home from Work Exhausted! Ann McGee-Cooper Your Personality Prescription Roberta Schwartz Wennik (based upon Myers-Briggs) Influence Without Authority Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford Working with Difficult People Muriel Solomon Whale Done! Ken Blanchard Quotes and Quips (Franklin Covey) 96 BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 HOW TO STAY SANE IN AN INSANE ECONOMY в™¦ If you are the manager of a group that has been impacted by downsizing, you can provide a stable influence that can help your group. To counter layoff fears and the economic realities surrounding your group, donвЂ™t pick extremes when responding to employeesвЂ”go for the stable middle ground. You can still deliver a realistic message to your group; you just donвЂ™t have to use inflammatory words to deliver it. в™¦ Employees are looking to you for guidance and stability in tough times. Take care of yourself so you can provide that guidance and stability to others. в™¦ Revisit the basics of what makes you a great manager. What are your strengths? Is it teambuilding, mentoring, career guidance, planning? Play to those strengths while you shore up your areas of weakness. в™¦ Where would you like to improve? Tackle one thing at a time. Now is the time when great leadership skills get a real workout. Practice situational leadership. в™¦ Learn all you can about your company, its customers, and the state of the market so you can answer employee questions and help them understand how they fit into the big picture. в™¦ Revisit personality profiles and communication methods. Remember that office politics revolve around relationships, and relationships are tempered by personality types. в™¦ Have your listening skills taken a beating lately? Listen and then test for understanding. This is such a no-brainer, but when we are under stress, itвЂ™s one of the first skills to go out the window. в™¦ Be honest and authentic. You can be real and professional at the same time. в™¦ Foster strengths in your team, just like you are reinforcing your own strengths. People like to feel good about themselves and their talent. в™¦ Adversity can pull a group together. A trainer one time joked to me that his group performed at a high level when they AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES fought a common вЂњenemy.вЂќ Sometimes in the most stressful situations, the greatest creativity surfaces. Get Those Creative Juices Flowing If you need some help to get started in examining where you may have attitude issues with yourself or your group, try the following exercise. Spend a few minutes answering the following questions and see if they lead you to Helen Sullivan some solutions: Director of Technical Career в™¦ Pick a circumstance or event where you Development remember that you were happy or content. What were the circumstances? What Collin County Community College District was your attitude? What affected your attitude that caused you to be happy? (Was it an internal change or an external influence?) в™¦ Pick a circumstance or event when you were unhappy or discontent. What were the circumstances? What was your attitude? What affected your attitude that caused you to be unhappy? (Was it an internal change or an external influence?) в™¦ Pick an attitude at work that you exhibit that you would like to change. (Some examples: intimidated, bored, depressed, frustrated, snappy, judgmental, victimized.) How does this attitude impact how you relate to others? Do you exhibit a behavior that causes someone else to have a bad attitude? в™¦ Is there a bad attitude at work exhibited by an individual or group? Name it. What is the cause of this attitude? What changes could be put in place to turn around this attitude? в™¦ Do you have an experience where you, someone else, or a group did something that changed a bad attitude or working environment? Describe it. в™¦ Brainstorm a list of ideas on how you can get your employees involved in changing the work environment (attitudes). What would this new environment look like or feel like? A good attitude may not be the most important trait a person develops, but it ranks right at the top of the list. [email protected] Helen Sullivan is Director of Technical Career Development for the Collin County Community College District, which is north of Dallas, with a student population of 30,000 across five campuses. She directs a National Science Foundation grant to promote careers in science and technology by partnering with a consortium of four colleges and universities and by working with advisory councils in technology corporations. She formerly was Director of Training and Documentation Services at Nortel Networks, with her 15-year career in information development starting at NEC America. She holds a bachelorвЂ™s degree in math from the University of Texas at Austin and began graduate work in journalism at the University of North Texas before launching her first career as a newspaper reporter and editor. She is a member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and a conference speaker on quality processes and measurements. 97 CASE STUDY C A S E S T U D Y Single Sourcing HTML and PDF with FrameMaker and WebWorks Peter Dykstra, Director of Product Information, Donovan Data Systems, Inc. Peter Dykstra Director of Product Information Donovan Data Systems, Inc. peter.dykstra@ donovandata.com. Peter Dykstra is director of product information at Donovan Data Systems, Inc. in New York. He has over 20 yearsвЂ™ experience as a writer, editor, and software product manager. Interested in publishing to the Web but not ready to install a full XML content-management system? That was our situation. Facing complaints and usability issues with our library of legacy PDFs, we decided to add HTML support to our existing publishing environment, extending rather than replacing our current tools. The approach has let us achieve the benefits of Web-based publishing for endusers. In the process, weвЂ™ve also laid the groundwork for further development of our content-management architecture and started to think and write in content-management terms. We now use an automated system based on Automap, the server-based version of Quadralay WebWorks, to translate Adobe FrameMaker files to HTML. The system supports HTML versions of about 50 manuals, representing more than 10,000 pages of documentation for our core products, available to clients on the Web. WebWorks automatically updates the HTML library from FrameMaker books as writers make changes to books. Background New product information for our companyвЂ™s software products is developed from the ground up to be online, either built into the products or on our support Web site. But we also have a sizable library of information that was published originally as books before the days of online documentation. The bulk of this informationвЂ”any document longer than several pagesвЂ”is maintained in FrameMaker and published on our Web site in PDF format. People rely heavily on this information; the online library of PDF manuals is the most visited destination area on our Web site. Problems with PDF Though PDF documents provide several major benefits (such as central access to current documents, strong support for printing, and reduced printing cost), they have several drawbacks for online use. Our users (especially experts who use documents frequently) com- 98 plain that PDF access is cumbersome and inconvenient. Some specific complaints include the following: в™¦ Finding information is hard if you donвЂ™t know which document you need. The Web site allows searching for PDF documents that contain a phrase, for example, but after you find a list of documents containing your phrase, you still have to download and search each document individually to find specific references. в™¦ To look at a single topic, you have to download the entire document. Because manuals are generally several hundred pages long, this is cumbersome, even with a fast Web connection. в™¦ Pages are laid out based on the pre-existing вЂњprinted pageвЂќ format. Text is often either too small to read or (if you enlarge it) runs off the edge of the screen. в™¦ PDF requires readers to switch back and forth between the standard browser-based interface and the Acrobat Reader interface. One sample complaintвЂ”page numbers in the original document donвЂ™t match the PDF-assigned page numbersвЂ”creates confusion about page references. Overall, navigating among PDF documents slows people down, results in unsuccessful searches for information, and reduces performance and satisfaction. The HTML alternative A way to address the above issues is to publish documents as native HTML pages on the Web. Many people find these easier to read online. With JavaScript or Java, itвЂ™s also possible to provide powerful search and navigation capabilities for faster access to topics, providing a generally more responsive user interface. The main issue in developing a large HTML-based Web site is content management. Each page has to be created, managed, and presented to the user as a separate file. For BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 CASE STUDY pages are created automatically, the software us, this requires storing and managing thouwriters donвЂ™t have to deal with HTML or other sands of HTML files, as well as a framework Web technology directly. for navigation. A high-end approach would be to convert all text to an XML-based content-management Why Users Like It and publishing system. But thatвЂ™s a major The initial release of HTML-based versions undertaking, difficult to justify for an existing received an extremely positive response from library. Another, more accessible approach for some of the heaviest users of existing PDF FrameMaker users is to continue to maintain manuals in our client support groups. The manuals in FrameMaker and convert them to general reaction was that the HTML versions HTML for the Web. WebWorks software is are much easier to use online than PDF. See designed to work with FrameMaker to do this. Figure 2. Features cited include the following: This provides the main advantages of HTML в™¦ cross-document search publishing for the Web but is across all documents in a easier than switching to native library or set HTML or XMLвЂ”for one thing, вЂњвЂ¦[a] more writers can continue to use their в™¦ combined table of contents accessible existing tools. for multiple related books in the same library approach for Our Approach в™¦ responsiveness, with quick FrameMaker Several years ago, our publishing jumps to any page group decided to explore the use users is to в™¦ screen-based formatting, of WebWorks to convert continue to which adjusts lines to the FrameMaker manuals into maintain size of the current window HTML, allowing us to produce without changing font size both output formatsвЂ”HTML manuals in and PDFвЂ”from the same source FrameMaker documents. See Figure 1. We Project Recap already used WebWorks to proand convert Requirements duce HTML Help files, which A pilot project with a small set of them to were written from scratch for established agreement online delivery. Converting the HTML for the manuals among managers that documenexisting books to HTML was Web.вЂќ tation in HTML format would simple in conceptвЂ”we would be beneficial, but before proceedsimply use a different Webing, we had to assess whether we Works template to produce HTML rather could support this on a production basis. than Help projects. But implementation also To be worth doing, conversion would involved a number of significant practical have to support HTML access to a broad issues. We would be converting a significant range of our legacy documentation (approxiamount of text, which had not been written mately 50 main manuals in the US and Canfor online delivery. We had to adapt the supada). It would also have to be accessible plied WebWorks template to work with the through standard browsers supported by our existing books. And we needed an infrastruccompanyвЂ™s Web site. The HTML documents ture that would allow multiple teams to pubwould have to be integrated with the existing lish books to a single centralized library on the Web site so users could still go to one place for Web and update the HTML as FrameMaker product information. (HTML would not books were updatedвЂ”all quite different from replace PDFs, which are still useful to print producing separate Help projects. manuals.) We now publish FrameMaker documents From a production perspective, the as both PDF and HTML. The HTML docuHTML conversion would have to work in our ments produced by WebWorks include a comdecentralized writing environment, giving bination of HTML and XML, with Java- or each writer independent control over converJavaScript-based components that provide sion of individual books but also be easy for search and navigation. Because the coded AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES 99 CASE STUDY Figure 1. The Strategy: One Source, Two Publishing Formats FrameMaker source files for each book are used to produce two different output formats. Figure 2. HTML-Based Books on the Web Users see a single table of contents and index for a multi-book set and can search for text across all HTML books. Unlike with PDFs, the reader can jump directly to any topic in any book and see the page quickly. 100 BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 CASE STUDY writers to use, allowing writers to work essentially as they did before, without becoming HTML or XML experts or spending time managing document conversion. We wanted conversion to be unattended, which meant we also needed a quality assurance (QA) strategy to monitor the process, spotting errors in conversion caused by errors in books. We also needed an audit trail so that writers could easily tell which books had been updated to the Web, with ability to track version status and history for a book, a set, and the product library as a whole, with centralized QA and a way to monitor use. We moved all documentation files from a Novell server to an NT-based server that could run Automap. Quadralay provided sample batch files for controlling unattended operation. We set up batch files that writers can use to mark books that require updating and extended these to provide logging and posting of updated files to the public Web server outside the firewall. Features The HTML library provides the features described below for end-users, writers, and production managers. For users Implementation process HTML books are accessible to Based on a sampling of our users who have passwords to our books, we concluded that most Web site. The output format supbooks could be converted to ports Netscape 4+ and IE 4+ вЂњOnce in the HTML with an acceptable level browsers on Windows and the of effort. We also concluded that, Mac, accessible to most users. HTML once each book had been set up Users can jump to their choice of library, they for conversion, the idea of updatHTML or PDF versions for each can search and book. Once in the HTML ing HTML in the background as the book was updated was feasilibrary, they can search and navinavigate ble, using WebWorksвЂ™ gate quickly across the entire quickly across server-based version, Automap, HTML library. (In tests we sucwhich runs as a batch process on cessfully set up 50 books with a the entire a server. single navigation window but HTML The first step was to develop found this unwieldy. We ended library.вЂќ a WebWorks template to support up with multiple book sets, each our companyвЂ™s FrameMaker doccontaining 6 to 10 related books ument templates. We developed with common TOC, search, and this by modifying a template proindex. We didnвЂ™t use an available vided by WebWorks, adding HTML formatfeature that lets users mark favorite pages ting for styles in the FrameMaker templates, because of concern that bookmarks would including elements such as paragraphs and become obsolete as libraries are updated.) character formats, cross references, and graphFor writers ics. Development of the template was an iteraSetup for each manual requires a general scan tive process, based on testing with multiple for formatting issues, an initial test conversion, manuals. and a process of cleaning up formatting probBased on the tests, we set up a QA guide lems. Non-standard FrameMaker formatting that writers can use to prepare and test a manthat might work with a вЂњprinted pageвЂќ format ual for conversion. (In practice, our producin PDF often does not convert cleanly to tion editor became an expert and a central HTML. Most problems can be fixed by folresource for setting up books and working lowing published tips. But some can require with writers needing assistance.) some painful repairs. For example, complex We added several new elements to the graphics with multiple layers and callouts conFrameMaker template to support HTMLвЂ” vert flawlessly if set up correctly, but if individmainly custom markers to support navigation ual graphic elements are not placed in an links from within the HTML pages to the releanchored frame in FrameMaker they end up vant pages on our Web site. Adding these to garbled or missing in HTML even though each manual became part of the set-up process. AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES 101 CASE STUDY In the process, weвЂ™ve also cleaned up documentation files because product teams worked together to identify the core set of information that would be in the HTML library. By extending FrameMaker with WebWorksвЂ™ technology, weвЂ™ve leveraged existing resources to produce an HTML-based library more quickly and with less cost than possible otherwise. Because we had to learn about the technology to apply it to our environment, we now have an infrastructure thatвЂ™s Behind the scenes suited to our requirements and the A series of batch files developed understanding we need to support in consultation with Quadralay and extend it. automates the conversion proвЂњвЂ¦users have In the process, we also learned cess. A scheduled task runs on about some of the limitations made it clear in the server every 10 minutes, inherent in our current tools and checking for books that need initial documents. ItвЂ™s easier to see benean update and launching batch fits of XML-based documents and reactions that jobs to convert individual separating content from publishbooks as needed. HTML files they now have of ing, which our current system does are posted to an internal Web faster and only in limited ways. server so writers can check their By adding a publishing format easier access to HTML output within 15 minthat depends on automated translautes after requesting a converinformationвЂ” tion, weвЂ™ve also added a set of QA sion. The updated HTML is requirements. Now when we write the explicit copied through the firewall to a manual, it has to work as HTML. the main Web server overnight purpose of the As a result, we know that our docuusing a scheduled task. ments conform to a common strucproject. Central log files allow ture. This consistency can serve us monitoring and debugging of in various ways. For example, preproblems with individual book sentation of information is more uniform. We conversions (though these have been rare). A can update document formats centrally. If we batch command allows an administrator to do decide to move to an XML-based system in scan conversion logs to check for errors in all the future, we have a common starting point, current books in a single action. Existing Web which would make that step much easier. tools allow us to monitor usage levels of the The jury is still out on how many people HTML books on the server. will actually use HTML in place of PDF. WeвЂ™re monitoring its use, and have added HTML Assessment manuals as a topic for discussion at informal What have we accomplished? First of all, a sigroundtable assessments of product informanificant number of users have made it clear in tion to learn which aspects users like and what initial reactions that they now have faster and their remaining issues are. We already have a easier access to informationвЂ”the explicit purwish list of features for the next release. pose of the project. they may look fine on the page in FrameMaker. To update a book once itвЂ™s been set up, the writer simply clicks on a batch file in the bookвЂ™s directory on the LAN. This sets a flag marking the book for update. A status history file and a copy of the conversion log in each bookвЂ™s directory track when HTML updates were requested and when they were actually run and let a writer check directly for conversion errors detected by Automap. 102 BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 CASE STUDY C A S E S T U D Y Usability, Knowledge Management, and the Bottom Line Elsa Bethanis, Technical Writer, re:Member Data Services, Inc. Consider this example of how poor Imagine an auto factory with parts scattered in knowledge management can affect anybody random boxes. Parts are missing, in the wrong who needs to communicate information boxes, unlabeled, mislabeled, outdated, and within a company. At our hypothetical comchanging constantly. Sometimes the parts sit in pany, consultants make up a good percentage rooms apart from the machines where theyвЂ™re of the staff and have communication tools that used, and sometimes they are in the right no one else has, so they can share information room. Every now and then, someone dumps a among themselves, but people who want to truckload of new parts in the factory, and peowork with them do not have the necessary ple grab a few and run off with them. Is that tools. The consultants are locked out of the an efficient auto factory? Of course not. And вЂњofficialвЂќ tool that employees use to communiitвЂ™s not a cost-effective one, either. cate because it contains some confidential corSo, whatвЂ™s your factory like? For knowlporate information. Some employees edge workers, the factory is donвЂ™t like the official tool and wonвЂ™t your companyвЂ™s internal inforuse it, and other employees use only mation structure; the people the official tool and avoid alternative are the machines. A company вЂњFor forms of communication. No intrathatвЂ™s designing software or knowledge net exists until some employees, desworking with highly intangiworkers, the perate to communicate, build one, ble intellectual assets needs people to use that information factory is your ad hoc. Because management doesnвЂ™t really approve of the intranet and efficiently. Companies that companyвЂ™s sanctions only the official tool, only pay attention to and tend the people who know about the their information gain internal intranet use it. Because it is worked increased productivity; cominformation on furtively and randomly, the ad panies that place little value hoc intranet is a mess, filled with on their information are like structure; the irrelevant information as well as very that disorganized factory. people are the relevant information, and it is diffiWho can help make the facmachines.вЂќ cult to navigate. Information is diffitory more efficient? People cult to find in the official tool as well who understand information because attempts to manage inforand usability. mation in the tool are half-hearted and spoUsability goes hand in hand with knowlradic. edge management. When usability experts Because information exists in so many make a business case for usable systems (Help formats, it is replicated, and then, of course, systems or other software systems), they tend changed by whoever has it in a format that to focus on the time end-users spend trying to could be edited. So, a question of validity of make a poorly designed system work. Or they information comes up constantly. What is offifocus on the training efforts that need to be cial? Employees spend so much time chasing implemented to get people to use the system, information that producing anything is diffithe cost of support, and other factors relating cult and far more time-consuming than necesto conversions and training. But experts donвЂ™t sary. A technical writerвЂ™s real challenge is not to often focus on the effects that poor usability, add to the mess of information but to centralparticularly for internal systems like intranets, ize and organize it. has on knowledge management and how Say that this company has 200 employees. knowledge management, in turn, affects the And letвЂ™s say that those employees spend 15 bottom line. minutes a day trying to find information and AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES Elsa Bethanis Technical Writer re:Member Data Services, Inc. [email protected] Elsa Bethanis is a technical writer for re:Member Data Services in Indianapolis. She has eight years of technical writing experience for a variety of software products. She also worked as an editor for Macmillan Computer Publishing and earned an MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her special interests in technical writing include knowledge management and its relation to content management, information architecture, and the role of technical writers in software development processes. 103 CASE STUDY 45 minutes a day verifying information (checking validity, trying to find who wrote something, meeting to discuss information that already exists, and so on). ThatвЂ™s one hour a day of information gathering. Sound unreasonable? Consider this very plausible scenario, which all of us have encountered in some capacity: в™¦ Joe Software needs a detailed piece of information to write some code. He does not know whom to ask. He fires off an email to his boss or another worker to determine who has that information. (5 minutes for both his time and the other workerвЂ™s time) в™¦ Fortunately, he lucks out and is told that the information he needs is documented and on the intranet. After poking around a bit, he finds the document. It is written in a program he doesnвЂ™t have, but heвЂ™s a clever knowledge worker and figures out a way to read it without the program. (5 minutes) в™¦ Joe Software spends 10 minutes trying to understand the document. It is badly written, but he is able to make do. Still, it seems wrong somehow. Or he has an idea and wants to clarify that his idea will work. Better call the person who wrote the original document. But who is it? (10 minutes) в™¦ He calls the person who is likely to have written the doc. But that person was not the writer. That person writes three emails to attempt to help Joe identify likely document authors. (10 minutes for his time plus the time of the people trying to help him) в™¦ It turns out, finally, that the document author is no longer with the company. Joe Software fires an email to three people to ask for help in clarifying the information. (5 minutes for everybodyвЂ™s time) в™¦ He receives responses from three people, plus another person who is likely to be able to help. (5 minutes for everybodyвЂ™s time, conservatively speaking) в™¦ The project was passed along to someone new. That person completely reworked the original document, but he didnвЂ™t 104 know that the original information was still floating around. So, he sends Joe the new document. (5 minutes from both people) в™¦ Joe reads the new document. The new writer left out some information that the original writer had included. That information was valuable. Joe emails the new writer to ask why the original information was left out. Just as he sends the email, he receives an email from someone else explaining exactly that point. (5 minutes, from all involved) в™¦ Jill Software also needs the information Joe needs. She finds the outdated document on the intranet and assumes itвЂ™s current. She winds up working with the outdated information and gives Joe her deliverable. He calls her to explain whatвЂ™s changed. (10 minutes) в™¦ Joe removes the old document from the intranet and posts the new one. But he forgot about the email that he received from the new author that explained some differences. The new author is hit with questions about the same point that confused Joe. (10 minutes) в™¦ Meanwhile, another person in the company saw the original document, assumed it was current, and spent half an hour creating information that was built on the original document. About 10 percent of that new information is wrong. So here we are, at more than an hour of вЂњinformation gatheringвЂќ time. Many of us play one or more of these roles multiple times per day. The more unlucky among us might spend all or most of our days essentially chasing information around. LetвЂ™s look at cost. If an employee is paid $25 per hour on average, works 50 weeks a year, and works 40 hours a week, a lost hour per day for that employee means that the company is losing $6250 per year to unproductive time just for that employee. If you multiply that number by 200 employees, that is $1,250,000 in lost productivity. Or to go back to the factory analogy, thatвЂ™s time the factory employees spent moving parts from room to room and box to box, not time spent actually building anything! BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 CASE STUDY issue because there are so many deliverables. But before encouraging a single-source solution for information, itвЂ™s worthwhile to consider not just how people use the deliverable once they find it but also howвЂ”and whetherвЂ”they find it in the first place. в™¦ the amount of time people spend looking When people canвЂ™t find the information, for the information eventually they give up and may simply rewrite information that may actually be available в™¦ the amount of time people spend rewrit(and better written) but is unusable because it ing and reworking information because canвЂ™t be located. ThatвЂ™s additional wasted time. they canвЂ™t find what they need And because now the information is repliв™¦ the amount of time people spend quescated, users and writers just added to the pile tioning and trying to verify the validity of of information about a particular the information subject matter. Everybody must spend more time verifying what в™¦ the additional problems вЂњвЂ¦usability the official source of information that develop from dupliis, question discrepancies between cated, outdated, and ad experts and sources, and maintain information hoc information technical thatвЂ™s constantly outdated. в™¦ the problems of security A knowledge-managementwriters need to risks that occur when oriented technical writer or usabileverybody is allowed to put consider ity expert needs to watch to see information wherever they whether their where information surfaces and want why it surfaces there. Sometimes, business cases the information surfaces because A special note about single for more itвЂ™s needed. More often, it surfaces sourcing: sometimes singlebecause someone was trying to sourcing problems are really usable make sense of information that knowledge-management probsoftware and already existed or because that perlems. When youвЂ™re investigating son could not find the deliverable an apparent single-sourcing better that he or she needed. issue, you need to ask, вЂњWhat is information A company filled with knowlthe core issue? Are people really include edge workers should eventually be looking for the same or very able to use its knowledge to prosimilar information in a variety knowledgeduce new products of similar or of formats?вЂќ If so, you are lookmanagement greater difficulty with increasing ing at a true single-sourcing ease and less cost. When employees issue. factors.вЂќ must spend most of their time repBut over time, IвЂ™ve come to licating information just so they consider that the preceding sort have something to work with instead of using of problem is not all that common. People neiinformation as a base for new solutions, you ther want nor need the information in a variare running a factory where some parts are ety of formats. One deliverable, properly made at overcapacity and certain key parts are placed, serves the need. The issue is that peonever made. Technical writers and usability ple cannot find the deliverable in the corporate experts can organize the factory and make the infrastructure, so someone creates another production of information dependable and deliverable with similar content, and then efficient. We can also help when the factory someone else creates one, and then someone has to reorganize to make new productsвЂ” else creates oneвЂ¦ and suddenly, there are mulkeeping information available for people who tiple deliverables in multiple locations, all at need it. various points of needing to be updated. So, the problem appears to be a single-sourcing So, usability experts and technical writers need to consider whether their business cases for more usable software and better information include knowledge-management factors. We need to include AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES 105 BEST PRACTICES 2003 Innovation: Making It Happen Best Practices 2003 ConferenceвЂ”September 22вЂ“24, 2003 Innovations are easy to imagine and difficult to make happen. At the Best Practices conference, experience how fellow information managers make a difference in their organizations: в™¦ Learn to cope by bringing current resources to bear on solving problems. в™¦ Help key managers and staff understand your vision. в™¦ Identify your key team members who can help everyone understand the need for change. в™¦ Disarm the naysayers and laggards. The Best Practices conference provides a forum for senior managers in information development, training, and content management to share ideas, discuss issues, solve day-to-day problems, set long-term strategies, keep abreast of new developments and technologies, and network with a community of professional colleagues from around the world. Prepare for the challenges of Tipping Point Leadership in introducing innovations and making the changes that your team needs to succeed in tough economic times. Join us for the most valuable management conference in your profession. InnovatorвЂ™s ForumвЂ”September 25вЂ“26, 2003 The Innovator's Forum is a new addition to the CIDM Best Practices conference. It provides a year-long opportunity for you to work on an innovation and change project of your own. в™¦ One and one-half day workshop immediately following the Best Practices conference (Thursday through Friday noon) to prepare your plan to introduce an innovation to your organization в™¦ Support by professional colleagues and CIDM mentors at the workshop в™¦ Ongoing support through a special Forum listserv and group calls throughout the year в™¦ Follow-up two-day workshop to discuss progress and challenges and to generate new ideas for success в™¦ Accumulated knowledge and experience in a White Paper report to the participants в™¦ Best Practices 2004 presentation of Forum results Plan now to extend your conference experience in this stimulating professional activity. Bring back concrete results to your team and your management from the conference. If two people from your department attend the conference and forum, you will receive a CIDM membership for one year. Join the InnovatorвЂ™s Forum immediately following the Best Practices conference. Turn your ideas into reality. Outstanding Speakers, Sessions, and Location Join us at the waterвЂ™s edge. The Edgewater hotel overlooks Puget Sound in downtown Seattle, Washington. It's down the hill from historic Pike Place Market, the locale of the FISH! philosophyвЂ”last year's theme. As you prepare to attend in 2003, read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Back Bay 2002), this year's theme book. Register for the conference and forum at www.infomanagementcenter.com/conference.htm. 106 BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 CONTENT MANAGERвЂ™S NOTEBOOK C O N T E N T M A N A G E R вЂ™S N O T E B O O K Intellectual Property: Culture, Commerce, and Digital Rights Management David Walske, David Walske, Inc. Mortal Consequence I stood alone on the stage, save for the accompanist whom I had met moments earlier, having greeted him nervously with a concatenated, вЂњHi how are you nice to meet you,вЂќ as I handed my sheet music over the top of an old stage-battered piano. Before me, in an auditorium that might otherwise hold an audience of many, stood a lone figure, Alexander Ruggieri, director of the West Hollywood Chorale. вЂњPlease begin.вЂќ His voice resonated with the unmistakable timber of stern authority. I hesitated, wondering at that instant what had possessed me to audition. Ruggieri, a man known more for professionalism than patience, unhesitatingly jarred me out of my stupefaction. вЂњAnd what is it that we shall hear you sing tonight?вЂќ he asked. For my audition piece, I had chosen, Let the River Run, a song you may remember as having been popularized by Carley Simon some years ago. I began, faltering on the opening note but quickly getting a vocal grasp on the piece, a song I had spent many hours practicing with Carley on CD. Cruentus I thoroughly enjoyed singing in live performances while I was a member of the chorale. But the truth is, I would have happily attended the rehearsals even if there never were to be a performance. Alexander Ruggieri provided more than musical direction. He was a fountainhead of musicological knowledge that I found engrossing, even hypnotic. From time to time, he would pause between songs to impart a small measure of that knowledge, some bit of background information pertaining to the music we were rehearsing. Once, while rehearsing for a Mozart concert, he spoke to us of the mensural notation sprinkled throughout a difficult piece we were attempting to master. Mensural notation, originating in the 13th century, is a musical codification that lets composers assign a specific AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES fixed time value to individual notes within a piece of music. In the time of Mozart, these notes were commonly scribed in red ink, setting them apart from the other notes penned in black so that their unique time values would not be overlooked. According to Ruggieri, the term mensural derives from a reference to the blood-like color of the red ink. So fine Mensural notation is uncommon in modern music, subsumed largely by counterpoint, and when it does appear in print, such as in a modern publishing of MozartвЂ™s works, it does not generally appear in blood-red ink. However, modern music is not without its own kind of sanguinity. Musical composition is sometimes the object of dispute in figuratively bloody battles over intellectual property ownership. In 1970, Apple Records released George HarrisonвЂ™s well-received solo album, All Things Must Pass. While not his first solo effort, many regard the album as fundamental to the successful launch of HarrisonвЂ™s post-Beatles career. The centerpiece song of the album, My Sweet Lord, enjoyed great popularity in its release as a single. Unfortunately even as My Sweet Lord was flying high on music charts worldwide, the copyright holders of Lonnie Mack's He's So Fine were bringing a plagiarism suit against Harrison. The plaintiffs alleged that HarrisonвЂ™s hit song was based on MackвЂ™s earlier work, which had been a chart-topping hit in 1963, recorded by The Chiffons. The ensuing legal battle played out over many years. Although the exact determination of damagesвЂ”how much should be paid to whomвЂ”remained in dispute for decades, a 1976 court judgment determined that an infringement of copyright had indeed occurred. The court agreed with the plaintiffsвЂ™ assertion that HarrisonвЂ™s use of short repeated musical phrases, or motifs, that were common to both songs constituted infringement. Although the two musical compositions were in many ways differentiable from each David Walske David Walske, Inc. [email protected] <www.walske.com> David Walske has over twelve years of experience in the software industry. As an independent consultant, he specializes in information architecture and content management. He has developed single-source solutions, online information systems, and Web sites for software, fashion, retail, and publishing clients. David teaches workshops in Help, Web, and content authoring tools. His client list includes industry leaders such as Microsoft, Symantec, Xircom, LASTC, and UCLA. David is a regular speaker at events such as the WinWriters Online Help Conference, the Help Technology Conference, the STC Pan-Pacific conference, and SingleSource conferences. Quadralay Software has named David a Certified WebWorks Wizard. 107 CONTENT MANAGERвЂ™S NOTEBOOK A Different Approach Best selling author Seth Godin has taken a somewhat unconventional approach in respect to preservation of copyrights in his book, Unleashing the Ideavirus. Reminiscent of Abbie HoffmanвЂ™s radical book title, Steal this Book, the opening pages of GodinвЂ™s book encourage the reader to, вЂњSteal this idea!вЂќ вЂњAn idea that just sits there is worthless. But an idea that moves and grows and infects everyone it touchesвЂ¦ thatвЂ™s an ideavirus. In the old days, there was a limit on how many people you could feed with the corn from your farm or the widgets from your factory. But ideas not only replicate easily and well, they get more powerful and more valuable as you deliver them to more people.вЂќ (p.3) вЂ”Seth Godin Unleashing the Ideavirus Seth Godin Hyperion NY:2001 ISBN: 0786887176 other, the inclusion of the common motifs provided sufficient grounds for the court to rule against Harrison and his associates. Viewing this case in the context of the world of online information and structured content, it is not difficult to draw a parallel. The musical motifs that became the basis of the decision were shared sub-elements of the larger structure of both songs. This is really not all that different in principle from the use of shared elements across documents in multiple information databases. Copyright The concept of copyright began as a simple idea: literally, вЂњthe right to make copies.вЂќ The notion of protecting intellectual property dates back at least as far as 18th century Britain, as is evidenced by the Statute of Anne, dated April 10th, 1710, that states, вЂњвЂ¦the author of any bookвЂ¦ shall have the sole liberty of printing and reprinting such bookвЂ¦ for the term of fourteen yearsвЂ¦.вЂќ In the United States, copyright can be traced back to 1776 as defined in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution which states, вЂњвЂ¦the Congress shall have powerвЂ¦ to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.вЂќ It is generally understood today that an author possesses copyright to his or her own work beginning at the very instant it is created, whether or not any formal or informal actions are taken to secure that right. Of course, proving and defending copyright can be another matter entirely: potentially a matter of serious and mortal consequence. Ownership The framers of the Constitution believed in the importance of protecting intellectual property rights. Clearly, to encourage authors and others to produce creative works, they needed to grant them exclusive rights to such works. In time, all copyrighted works enter the public domainвЂ”by constitutional definition, copyrights are valid only for a limited time. The copyright holder benefits through remuneration during a fair period of ownership, and society at large benefits through enrichment by creative works. Creative productivity is good for both culture and commerce. 108 Who owns what? Technical documentation, whether created by direct employees or independent contractors, generally falls into the category of вЂњwork-forhire.вЂќ This means that the company for which the work is completed retains all rights of intellectual property and all copyrights. In this context of work-for hire, the term author refers to the company, not the individual content developer. As a documentation manager, you likely look to a company legal department for clarification on issues of intellectual property. But even though the decisions behind such clarifications may be out of your hands, as a manager of content, it is vital that you understand such issues and how they play out in the day-to-day world of information development. TodayвЂ™s copyright law affords authors full copyright protectionвЂ”that is, the rights to make and distribute copies, create derivative works, and publicly display or perform written worksвЂ”for the authorвЂ™s life plus 70 years. However, the simple concepts of copyright envisioned by the founding fathers have grown into a labyrinth of complexities. No longer a matter of simply who is allowed to make a copy, intellectual property concepts circumnavigate print, electronic, and subsidiary issues and are further complicated by an increasingly distributed electronic information base. As we breach the intellectual corporate firewall to reach out to a worldwide distributed knowledge base, understanding how to manage intellectual property rights at a more granular level becomes necessary. Digital Rights Management Digital rights management (DRM) provides a means for granular control of intellectual property rights based both on generally applicable copyright laws and on contractual agreements defined by licensing. Your first encounter with this concept may have come in the form of an introduction to some kind of DRM software application. Therefore, thinking of DRM solely from a tools perspective might be tempting. But effective implementation of DRMвЂ”like content management (CM)вЂ”requires careful consideration and planning built upon a cumulative layered approach, the final layer of which includes software tools. BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 CONTENT MANAGERвЂ™S NOTEBOOK Effective DRM requires в™¦ a well-defined intellectual property and contract rights policy в™¦ the technology to represent these rights digitally в™¦ the ability to tag and track content granularly в™¦ the software tools to apply DRM technology Because the underlying body of rights is likely to vary widely as defined by each companyвЂ™s legal department, in this article I wonвЂ™t speak to the specifics of those rights but rather IвЂ™ll focus on the technologies of tagging and tracking content for DRM. Issues of DRM may also include those of patents, trade secrets, and trademarks. ISBN No doubt you have come into contact with ISBN (International Standard Book Number) identifiers, perhaps without even realizing the purpose or meaning of this system of identification. This standard has been in existence for over 30 years and is used in the United States and 158 other countries worldwide as a means of positive identification for books and other printed and electronic publications. The 10-digit ISBN number, an ISO (International Standards Organization) standard currently in transition to an expanded 13-digit format, provides a set of one billion unique identifiers for cataloging an everexpanding worldwide collection of published material. This collection is growing at the rate of over 50,000 new titles per year. The planned update to a 13-digit format will help to ensure a continued supply of new, unique ISBN numbers for assignment to future publications and makes the standard more compati- Creative Commons Concepts of copyright are necessarily absolute in their application. Copyrights are legally enforceable rights and therefore should be expressed as clearly and unambiguously as possible. An author may or may not decide to claim copyright to a given work, but such a claim is implicitly granted nonetheless. An author can choose to retain or sell some or all of the copyrights to a given work. Or an author can choose to renounce all copyrights, placing a work immediately into the public domain for the greater good. But these choices are rather disparate. What if an author wants to distribute works free of charge, contributing them as objects of culture rather than of commerce but without giving up all rights of control? Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization that promotes a moderate approach somewhere between вЂњAll rights reserved,вЂќ and вЂњSteal this idea.вЂќ This organization proposes a вЂњspectrum of rightsвЂќ that authors can mix and match in multiple combinations to express a degree of retention of rights to their works. The Creative Commons logoвЂ”displayed in the works of authors using this type of licensingвЂ”declares, вЂњSome rights reserved.вЂќ The вЂњattributionвЂќ right specifies that those who reuse content so marked must credit the original author. By the way, Creative Commons is the author of the graphic to the left of this text. The вЂњnoncommercialвЂќ right specifies that content so marked must not be reused for commercial purposes without specific authorization from the original author. The вЂњno derivative worksвЂќ right specifies that content so marked may only be used intact and in its entirety unless the author has agreed otherwise. The вЂњshare alikeвЂќ right specifies that all of the rights stipulated in content so marked must also be stipulated in the work of those who reuse it. AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES 109 CONTENT MANAGERвЂ™S NOTEBOOK ble with the 13-digit EAN-UCC international product coding system of bar codes. See Figure 1. ISBN will continue to support existing tendigit numbers by prefixing them with an EAN number 978. The EAN number used in standard bar code numbers specifies the type of product represented in the bar code, in this instance: books. For example the existing tendigit ISBN 0-349840-23-1 becomes ISBN 978-0-349840-23-1. When the 13-digit format is officially adopted in 2005, new ISBN numbers will be prefixed with an EAN number of 979, effectively doubling the total of all possible ISBN numbers to two billion. Each hyphenated segment of the ISBN represents a specific type of identifying information. The check digit is used as a checksum to avoid errors in transmission of the ISBN. A specific mathematical formula is applied to all but the last digit. The numerical result of that calculation is assigned to the final digit of the number: the check digit. If, after the ISBN has been transmitted, the formula returns the same value as before, then the ISBN has been sent and received without error. Figure 1. A standard 10-digit ISBN represented as a 13-digit bar code. When words collide A personal note from the author Intellectual property ownership has become somewhat of a controversial issue. Major media interests seek to gain control over the content they produce and deliver. Opponents of this viewpoint seek a world in which content is more an element of culture than it is a product of commerce. They favor more open access and oppose enhancement of intellectual property ownership rights and technologies. It is not my intent in this article to take either side in this debate but rather to present information about the current state of digital rights management technologies. You can find links to additional information on both sides of this issue at <www.walske.com>. 110 The ISBN system has proven to be a reliable system for tagging and tracking intellectual property. Bar code system software and peripheral hardware components are used to successfully manage virtually all published content of every type and format, from publication through distribution and beyond; a Herculean task to say the least. But does the ISBN standard satisfy our previously stated set of DRM requirements? It does, with one exception. ISBN numbers identify content at the book or volume level. Our need for tagging and tracking of intellectual property demands a much finer granularity. DOI The DOI (Digital Object Identifier) system provides a method of granular tagging and tracking of intellectual property. DOI does not supplant the ISBN system but rather is auxiliary to and compatible with it. The International DOI Foundation (IDF), created in 1998 to support the needs of the intellectual property community in the digital environment, is participating in the ISO Working Group for the ISBN revision project. DOI numbers are an implementation of the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) standard and are used as a method of persistent interoperable identification of intellectual property at all levels of granularity in physical, digital, and abstract forms. DOI is fully compatible with and expressible within XML (EXtensible Markup Language). The DOI number format combines a prefix and suffix to create a unique identifier. See Figure 2. All DOI numbers begin with 10, which declares that the number is a DOI. This is not uncommon in unique numeric identifiers--all VisaВ® credit card numbers begin with 4 and all Master CardВ® numbers begin with 5. The remaining numbers in the prefix, assigned by the IDF, identify the intellectual property ownerвЂ”a publishing house, record company, software publisher, or other organization. An organization may have more than one prefix. The suffix is assigned by the intellectual property owner organization and can be any alphanumeric string of any length. The IDF Directory server resolves the entire DOI alphanumeric string to a specific digital resource. Because both the DOI prefix and suffix can be of any length, there are an unlimited number of possible DOI numbers, precluding the need for future expansion projects of the type currently in progress to extend the ISBN standard. And because DOI numbers are opaqueвЂ”that is, the numbers are meaningless until resolved to a digital identifier, such as a Web address or other resourceвЂ”they are persistent and always provide current information. The DOI number remains static once BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 CONTENT MANAGERвЂ™S NOTEBOOK Figure 2. The IDF Directory server resolves DOI numbers to a specific digital resource. assigned, but the information it represents is updated as necessary. XrML EXtensible Rights Markup Language (XrML) is an XML-based language specification for expressing intellectual property rights associated with digital content and other digital resources. XrML has been submitted for consideration as an official standard and is likely to be accepted as such toward the end of 2003. There are several advantages to using XrML. Of course, it fulfills our stated DRM requirements, but beyond that, because it is native XML, using XrML includes all of the advantages of XML, such as precision, extensibility, interoperability, and security to name but a few. Some software publishers, such as Microsoft for example, have already standardized on XrML. The XrML model views DRM in terms of grants. In essence, an XrML grant is a sentence in which the intellectual property owner specifies who may take what action with what object under what circumstances. See Table 1. Principle Subject David Walske Right Verb may edit Resource Object article.xml Condition Modifier until August 1, 2003. Table 1. XrML grant вЂњparts of speechвЂќ A principle is an identified party, authenticated by one or more secure methods. A right is a AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES verb that describes an action that the principle has been granted permission to perform, such as view, copy, or loan. A resource is an identifiable digital object of any kind. A condition is the expression of the terms of the grant, typically a limitation of some kind, often a measure of time. An XrML grant uses a specific XML code syntax to authenticate users and then grant specific rights as defined by the policy of the intellectual property owner. Keys to Successful Content Management The expanding reach of technology continues to shrink our world. Information that was once occult has become freely available to all those who care to partake, opening up new vistas of shared knowledge and information. But to successfully share information in such an open environment, we must be very clear about our actions and intentions and respect intellectual property ownership. And we must be able to swap information with total strangers confident not only in the veracity of the information we receive but also in the security of the transaction by which we receive it. In this article, I provide a brief glimpse into some of the underlying principles and technologies that can be put into play by executing a wellconsidered and carefully planned DRM system. Creating a secure interoperable environment that promotes the untrammeled exchange of information is one of the keys to successful content management. 111 TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY T O O L S A N D T E C H N O L O G Y The Growth of ASP Content Management John Girard, CEO, Clickability John Girard CEO Clickability, Inc. [email protected] 112 structure remotely. The next logical step: why The content-management space has followed a not contract with the software developer predictable trajectory as far as enterprise softdirectly to maintain the infrastructure and ware goes. Several early market entrants grew software? Who would know better than the to take a large share of the market. And in the developer how to optimize the solution? past few years, newcomers have exploded, With this insight, the ASP was born. leading now to inevitable industry consolidation. The first ASPs, then, were simply compaOutside the traditional drivers in the nies that delivered business applications (often enterprise software market, though, a larger mission-critical) over the Web. All the applicaindustry pressure looms that has the potential tion logic and data in an ASP is stored at the to change not just how content management, vendorвЂ™s data center. ASP customers access all but how enterprise software, more generally is application functions over the Web, typically purchased and deployed. This pressure comes using nothing more than the Web from the unlikely resurgence browser. No software to install, no of a kind of business thought hardware to install, and no mainteto have been wiped out by the nanceвЂ”not a bad proposition! вЂњвЂ¦a larger collapse of Web businesses industry Core-Business and the ASP over the last few years: the ASP business justification of the (Application Service Provider). pressure looms The ASP model is straightforward and It turns out, as the old that has the would be recognizable even to busisaying goes, that rumors of the ness thinkers from a century ago. At death of the ASP model have potential to its simplest, the ASP model plays on been greatly exaggerated. To change вЂ¦how the fundamental tension between understand how the ASP core- and non-core business funcmodel is poised to shake up enterprise tions. Most businesses, so the reathe world of content managesoftware more soning goes, are very good at only a ment, a little background on small handful of business functions. the ASP phenomenon is generally is This group of functions is the вЂњcore important. purchased and businessвЂќ and anything not related The Birth of a New directly to the core business may be deployed.вЂќ a good candidate for outsourcing to Business Model another company. (вЂњYour back As the Web exploded, people office is someone elseвЂ™s front officeвЂќ first began to think seriously is a saying that conveys that idea neatly.) about alternatives to traditional software delivTo take a business school approach to the ery. Firms like EDS had pioneered indepenquestion, letвЂ™s examine a turn-of-the-century dently вЂњmanagedвЂќ software solutions, but that newspaper publisher as an example. What is entailed little more than changing the physical the publisherвЂ™s core business? Early newspaper location of the installed software. Servers and publishers saw their core business as вЂњcreating a software licenses still had to be purchased, softnewspaper.вЂќ In this context, it made sense for ware had to be installed and configured, and the publisher to build and maintain a printing there were significant ongoing maintenance press and perhaps even have a hand in creating costs to keep the infrastructure up and runthe raw materials (paper and ink). But no one ning. The Web offered a shift in this paradigm. would expect the publisher to own the forest or lumber mills that are instrumental in turnLarge enterprises were comfortable contracting ing trees to paperвЂ”both are too far removed with outside firms to manage their entire IT from the core business and so are outsourced. infrastructure (often off-site) and typically gave individual employees access to that infra- BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY Soon, some publishers realized that they werenвЂ™t really in the business of creating newspapers after all. They were actually in the business of creating content. And so they focused on that core business, building impressive news staffs and editorial services and beginning to outsource the non-core businessвЂ”by contracting with independent printers and distributors for the delivery of the final product. And finally, some newspapers eventually realized they werenвЂ™t really in the content business at all. Rather, they were in the business of aggregating local audiences to sell to local advertisers. So, they outsourced the non-core functions of printing (to independent printers) and even much of the content creation (to content syndicators like the Associated Press and Reuters) and focused efforts on the core business of selling newspaper ads. ASPs look for similar dynamics in the markets they serve. When does an industryвЂ™s business shift in such a way that certain information technology functions are no longer core? IвЂ™ll answer that question with regard to Web content management in just a minute. ASP, Hosted Applications, MSPвЂ”Different Terms, Same Idea Between 1998 and 2000, ASPs attracted a lot of attention. The proposed benefits were staggering: dramatically lower total cost of ownership and a single monthly fee that encompassed hardware, software, maintenance and service. Venture money poured into startups pursuing the ASP model. And then the bottom dropped out. As the capital markets collapsed, ASPs that had not yet achieved enough momentum to support operations independent of their venture capital lifeline disappeared overnight. For customers of many ASPs, the unthinkable happened as mission critical data was wiped out or locked up during lengthy bankruptcy proceedings. I know one CEO who flew to San Francisco, marched up to the (mostly empty) offices of an ASP where much of his companyвЂ™s billing information was stored, and didnвЂ™t leave until he had the data he needed on a floppy disk in his briefcase. In the blink of an eye, ASP became a bad word, virtually synonymous with the over-exuberance of the dot.com era. But even a basic analysis of the economics underlying the software industry revealed to a lot of people that the ASP model is quite AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES sound, and so the experimentation has gone on quietly in the last few years. While the central tenets of the model persisted, the name ASP was dropped like a hot potato in favor of such terms as hosted software, MSP (Managed Service Provider), and most recently Software-as-a-Service. At the core, of course, all of these terms really mean the same thingвЂ”someone else besides the enduser (or his or her company) is responsible for maintaining the infrastructure required to deliver the software. The New ASP Pioneers Largely because of the different terms that are used to describe hosted software solutions, an awful lot of activity is happening across many different categories of enterprise class software that has stayed below the radar. For instance, with as much noise as a company like SalesForce.com has made in the sales force automation (SFA) and customer relationship management (CRM) space, itвЂ™s only now attracting the interest of the press as an example of how the ASP model can be successfully applied to a well-established enterprise software category. And while the SFA and CRM spaces have provided fertile ground for companies like SalesForce.com (and the followers it has created), it turns out that there are plenty of other categories of enterprise software that are well suited for vendors interested in deploying ASP solutions. One of the most interesting categories in this respect is Web content management. Hosted Content Management Basics It can be argued that, of all the categories of enterprise software, Web content-management software is the one best suited for delivery in a hosted format. First, in most industries, Web content management tends to pass the usual tests in evaluating core versus non-core business functions with flying colors. Even traditional media companies publishing on the Web, for example, increasingly look at their core businesses as вЂњcreating contentвЂќ and not вЂњcreating a Web site.вЂќ The printing press analogy is a good one hereвЂ”once it becomes clear what is core and what is not, the non-core is most likely fated for outsourcing. With Web content management, hosted (ASP) solutions are simply the most efficient and elegant way to outsource the function. 113 TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY A hosted Web content-management system usually looks no different to the end-user (the everyday site administrator or editor, for instance) than an installed solution. Many applications in the enterprise today have Web browser (or browser-like) interfaces. And because of the efficiencies of the Internet, it doesnвЂ™t really matter to the user whether the program driving that interface is next door or across the country. In some ways then, the hosted versus installed question is more semantic than anything. A CTO I know is fond of saying вЂњin the end, all enterprise software is вЂ�hosted.вЂ™ The only question is who is doing the hosting.вЂќ The Real Benefits of a Hosted CMS There are two primary ways that hosted Web CMSs are deployed in the enterprise today: as a platform for the entire Web content-management infrastructure and as a complement to an existing Web CMS installation. The benefits of the вЂњplatformвЂќ approach to a Web CMS are just what might be expected of an outsourced provider. Chiefly, because maintaining a sophisticated Web CMS platform is a hosted CMS vendorвЂ™s core business, a good vendor is typically able to deliver a much higher quality service than the equivalent function run in-house. Put it this way: if your companyвЂ™s Web site goes down, the rest of the company keeps going. If all of a Web CMS vendorвЂ™s customer sites go down, that vendor is in big trouble. Because hosting a Web content management solution is the vendorвЂ™s core business, that vendor is likely to be more concerned about getting the job done right. Indeed, the businessвЂ™s very existence depends on it. The cost differences between hosted and installed Web CMS solutions can be enormous too, especially when considering one of the biggest efficiencies gained in this kind of deployment: it becomes possible for a business to have access to all the benefits of a scalable, robust platform running a high-performance, enterprise-class CMS application while paying for only a fraction of the retail costs of those benefits. Returning to our printing press analogy, it becomes possible for a company to pay, say, 1/20th the total cost for a top-of-the-line printing press and have (time limited) access to 100 percent of the machine. (1/20th of a printing press wouldnвЂ™t be very useful would it?) 114 The upshot here is that clients of ASP content-management vendors can effectively вЂњrentвЂќ some space on a network that would otherwise cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to buildвЂ”for prices as low as $1,000 per month. The second way that enterprises use hosted content-management systems these days is to complement existing CMS implementations. For instance, for a variety of reasons many of the installed CMS solutions lack even basic support for email newsletters. Meanwhile, most hosted Web CMS vendors provide built-in support for email newsletters, and, as a result, many organizations that are not ready to make a full platform switch elect to use hosted CMS platforms that support email newsletters as a complement to their existing Web CMS applications. The beauty of hosted solutions is that they typically integrate very well with existing Web CMSs and can add functionality at very reasonable price points. Thinking Long Term Even the big software companies are beginning to share a vision of a world where software looks more like a utility and less like a locally installed and managed application. Over the long term, these experts argue, we will treat applications the way we treat electricity or (perhaps more aptly) pay televisionвЂ”we simply plug into the wall and are charged by how much of the service we use. Companies like Microsoft, Intuit, and IBM have begun to experiment with this kind of software delivery, in at least some part because of the success of upstart ASP companies that have captured significant share in big enterprise software segments at alarming rates. SFA and CRM are two related spaces where a lot of the early battles have been fought. The recent surge in the success of hosted contentmanagement vendors suggests that it will be one of the next categories to embrace the ASP. Regardless of what is happening at the industry level, though, any organization that is thinking critically about content management needs to seriously consider hosted content management. Through an insource the core and outsource the non-core evaluation, many companies will find that going with an ASP for Web content management will help keep Web costs extremely low and keep the business focused on the elements that ultimately drive long-term success. BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY T O O L S A N D T E C H N O L O G Y Enabling Language Translation with XML Tools and Standards Bryan Schnabel, XML Information Architect, Tektronix, Inc. with Gail Toft-Vizzini, ed. Maintaining consistency between a source document and its translated counterparts can be complex and troublesome. Innumerable challenges can arise with character sets, version control, text in graphics, tables, expansion of text, updates, and so on. Using XML for translation can help overcome some of these challenges. In this article, I explain how XML tools and standards can help remedy tricky issues related to translation. The Traditional Approaches Typically, each of these approaches has to grapple with content and format being intertwined. XML is a Natural Migration Many companies have implemented XML to make their documentation process more efficient. Their motives usually include в™¦ efficient layout в™¦ single sourcing в™¦ automation в™¦ data exchange Because the challenge of translating documentation is not new, there are a number of tradiв™¦ e-commerce tional approaches. With the traditional в™¦ customer requirements approaches, the content to be translated is embedded in a desktop publishing, word proв™¦ government requirements cessing, or graphic illustration XML can be a key to solving diffisoftware product. One of two culties associated with translation things typically happens. Either the translator must вЂњXML can be a because it effectively separates content from format and enables the translate the content in the key to solving translator to focus on the translasoftware product, or custom tion, not the software package the programming must be done to difficulties content is embedded in. perform a kind of automated associated with XML offers operating system text extraction and post-translation recomposition. translationвЂ¦.вЂќ independence (Mac, Linux, Unix, Windows). Usually, authors write Three traditional in their word processing or desktop approaches to translation are publishing software of choice. If the translator в™¦ a supplier uses a potentially complex deskneeds to translate the content on a different top publishing or graphics tool for layout operating system, a potential risk of data coror uses a custom text extraction and ruption arises when the characters are moved recomposition tool from one operating system to the next. XML is operating system neutral, thereby mitigating в™¦ an in-house localization department uses this risk. a potentially complex desktop publishing A similar risk exists when the author and or graphics tool for layout or uses a custranslator use different software packages. The tom text extraction and recomposition author might use his favorite word processing tool or desktop publishing software. Or a graphics в™¦ a hapless document writer uses a cut-andillustrator might use her favorite graphics softpaste method to piece together a transware. The files might then be saved or filtered lated document into a different package for the translator. XML is vendor independent, thereby mitigating this risk as well. AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES Bryan Schnabel XML Information Architect Tektronix, Inc. bryan.s.schnabel@ exgate.tek.com Bryan Schnabel is the XML Information Architect for Tektronix, Inc. As a world leader in test, measurement, and monitoring, Tektronix is one of the principal players in enabling the coming together of computers and communications. Bryan is a seasoned XML practitioner. He embraces XML as a portable, scalable platform and vendor-independent means to best utilize and protect a companyвЂ™s valuable data. Upon completing his Bachelor of Science and MasterвЂ™s degree at Central Michigan University, Bryan began information architecting for the automotive industry. He began solving problems with standards-based technology early on, first with SGML, then with XML. His accomplishments include serving on the J2008 Automotive Standard Committee, being the Detroit Director of the Midwest SGML Forum, establishing and directing the OregonXML Forum, and serving on the OASIS XLIFF Technical Committee. 115 TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY XML has universal character support. It is based in Unicode, which becomes very useful once translation is required in non-Latin characters. XML has standards-based facilities for manipulating content, like XSL, XSLT, and XPath, and standards-based facilities for enforcing structure, like XML schema and DTDs. When XML is used for translation it can в™¦ reduce the number of steps in the translation process в™¦ help translators zero-in on the work they have to do в™¦ make it easier to update translations when the source changes All these benefits can result in cost and timeto-market savings for the translation process. And an XML solution, because it is standards-based, is a portable, scaleable solution. Applying XML to Images XML provides an excellent way of describing and modeling data. That model and description can be processed by a computer to produce desirable effects. Consider the following simple XML as a way to model or mark up an image. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ImageFile> <Circle id="c1" size="2in" brdr="off" fill="red" loc="ctr" /> <TextBox> <PositionRelation CenterTo-id="c1" OffsetXdim="0" OffsetYdim="0" /> <text id="t1">This is the picture on my ski</text> </TextBox> </ImageFile> You see that metadata provides detail about the geometry of the elements that could be used to create an image. You also see that the string of text is marked up as content in the <text> element. Graphics software designed to process XML might render the previous code example like the image in Figure 1. 116 Figure 1. If graphics software could render XML XML could be used to model data that could be processed by graphics software. It is also reasonable to expect that XML could be used to model data that could be easily processed by software designed for translators. Consider the following simple example. The previous graphic image XML file could be transformed through XSLT to a format more easily processed by translation tools. The goal of this XML format is to isolate and preserve the hierarchy data from the translator and present text in a useful, accessible way to the translator. <TransDoc> <Wrap name="Circle" Watt1="c1" Watt2="2in" Watt3="off" Watt4="red" Watt5="ctr"> <Wrap name="TextBox" trans-unitref="t1"> <Meta name="PositionRelation" at1="c1" at2="0" at3="0" /> </Wrap> </Wrap> <trans-unit idref="t1"> <source lang="en">This is the picture on my ski</source> <target lang="de">This is the picture on my ski</target> </trans-unit> </TransDoc> The metadata preserves the detail about the geometry of the elements that were used by the graphic image XML. The string of text is marked up as content in the <trans-unit> element. In this case, the string is presented in a way that could be made available to a translator. A source string is provided in the <source> element (вЂњThis is the picture on my skiвЂќ), along with an attribute that says the source language is English. The target string is BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY provided in the <target> element, along with an attribute that prescribes the target language to be German (de). The translator would be shielded from the hierarchy data and would edit only the target text string. <TransDoc> <Wrap name="Circle" Watt1="c1" Watt2="2in" Watt3="off" Watt4="red" Watt5="ctr"> <Wrap name="TextBox" trans-unitref="t1"> <Meta name="PositionRelation" at1="c110" at2="0" at3="0" /> </Wrap> </Wrap> <trans-unit idref="t1"> <source lang="en">This is the picture on my ski</source> <target lang="de">Dieses ist die Abbildung auf meinem Ski</target> </trans-unit> </TransDoc> An XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) transformation could be applied to get the translated text back into the image format. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ImageFile> <Circle id="c1" size="2in" brdr="off" fill="red" loc="ctr" /> <TextBox> <PositionRelation CenterTo-id="c1" OffsetXdim="0" OffsetYdim="0" /> <text id="t1">Dieses ist die Abbildung auf meinem Figure 2. If graphics software could render translated XML These homegrown document types could be made to work, but it might cause a problem down the road. That is to say, with joint development and customization, Company A and Translation Vendor A might develop a way to use the homegrown ImageFile and TransDoc document types. But what if Company A needs to work with Translation Vendor B? Almost certainly there would need to be more development and more training to get everyone up to speed on the custom document types. вЂњвЂ¦industry standards вЂ¦facilitate efficiency, portability, and interchangeability.вЂќ Ski</text> The Value of XML Standard Doctypes Today, there are a couple of industry-standard document types that provide the means to enable language translation in graphics files using XML tools and standards: в™¦ Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) в™¦ eXtensible Localisation Interchange File Format (XLIFF) Some advantages come with using XML: </TextBox> в™¦ content separated from format </ImageFile> в™¦ universal character support (UTF) Then, the graphics software could render the same image, only this time it would have translated text, as shown in Figure 2. While the previous example made use of XML and XML tools, it also made use of вЂњhome-grownвЂќ XML document types called ImageFile and TransDoc. AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES в™¦ no dependency on proprietary formats And by using industry standards for translation, you gain advantages because the standards facilitate efficiency, portability, and interchangeability. 117 TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY What Exactly are SVG and XLIFF? Strictly speaking, SVG and XLIFF are XML applications, complete with validating DTDs or XML schemas. Therefore, each can be transformed with XML tools that implement XML standards, like XSLT and XPath. SVG is a language for describing twodimensional graphics in XML. SVG allows for three types of graphic objects: vector graphic shapes, images, and text. Graphical objects can be grouped, styled, transformed, and composited into previously rendered objects. SVG has several strengths worth noting: в™¦ It is a World Wide Web Consortium standard. в™¦ It is an XML document. в™¦ It is a nonproprietary image format. в™¦ SVG can be opened, manipulated, and saved in popular graphics packages like Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, and Visio. в™¦ SVG can be processed with XML tools and standards. в™¦ SVG can be viewed in a browser. XLIFF (XML Localization Interchange File Format) defines a specification for an extensible localization interchange format that will allow any software provider to produce a single interchange format that can be delivered to and understood by any localization service provider. The format is tool-independent, standardized, and supports the entire localization process. XLIFF has several strengths worth noting: в™¦ It is a standard of OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards). в™¦ It is an XML document. в™¦ It is a nonproprietary document format. в™¦ XLIFF can be opened, manipulated, and saved in popular XML packages like ArborText, XML Spy, and NotePad. в™¦ XLIFF is being developed by translators, tool vendors, and documentation experts. в™¦ Tools in a translator's toolbox will be XLIFF compliant. The XML Round Trip To use XML tools and standards to enable language translation, a round trip of the content occurs. With an admittedly not-so-trivial upfront development, the nuts and bolts are pretty straightforward. Each step below corresponds with the number in the diagram. See Figure 3. 1 The image is created in a graphics software package (example, Adobe Illustrator). The file is saved as SVG. 2 An XSLT script is invoked that transforms the SVG XML instance to an XLIFF XML instance. 3 The XLIFF is delivered to the translation vendor. The translation vendor uses its XLIFF-enabled tools to translate the text (optionally having the capability to view the SVG for strings of text, in context). The translation vendor returns the translated XLIFF instance. 4 An XSLT script is invoked that transforms the translated XLIFF XML instance back to an SVG XML instance. 5 The translated image file is maintained and saved as an SVG XML instance. Using SVG and XLIFF for Translation: An Example The following image was created in Adobe Illustrator and saved as SVG. See Figure 4. Figure 3. XML Roundtrip 118 BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY HereвЂ™s a snip of the SVG XML code: <switch i:knockout="Off" i:objectNS="&ns_flows;" i:objectType="pointText"> <foreignObject requiredExtensions="&ns_flows;" x="0" y="0" width="1" height="1" overflow="visible"><flowDef xmlns="&ns_flows;"> <region><path d="M127.89,175.478"/></ region><flow xmlns="&ns_flows;" font-family="'Helvetica-Condensed'" font-size="9" textalign="center" text-alignlast="center"> Processor board assembly </flow> </flowDef> <x:targetRef xlink:href="#XMLID_1_" /></foreignObject> Figure 4. Sample of Line Art saved as SVG <text id="XMLID_1_" transform="matrix(1 0 0 1 80.6636 175.4775)"><tspan x="0" y="0" font-family="'Helvetica-Condensed'" font-size="9"> Processor board assembly</ tspan></text> </switch> The second step is to transform the SVG to XLIFF. Figure 5 shows the transformed XML, as it looks in Arbortext Epic, with simple screen styling. The strings of text are presented to the translator. In its untranslated state, the source and target elements contain matching English text. The third step is for the translation vendor to translate the target strings, as shown in Figure 6. The XML tool could be adapted to display translated strings in a different style or color for the convenience of the translator. The fourth step is to transform the translated XLIFF XML instance to an SVG XML instance. HereвЂ™s a snip of the SVG XML code, with the text stings translated to French: Figure 5. Untranslated XLIF <switch i:knockout="Off" i:objectNS="&ns_flows;" i:objectType="pointText"> <foreignObject requiredExtensions="&ns_flows;" x="0" y="0" width="1" height="1" over- AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES Figure 6. Translated XLIF 119 TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGY flow="visible"><flowDef xmlns="&ns_flows;"> <region><path d="M127.89,175.478"/></ region><flow xmlns="&ns_flows;" font-family="'Helvetica-Condensed'" font-size="9" textalign="center" text-alignlast="center"> Panneau de processeur </flow> </flowDef> <x:targetRef xlink:href="#XMLID_1_" /></foreignObject> <text id="XMLID_1_" transform="matrix(1 0 0 1 80.6636 175.4775)"><tspan x="0" y="0" font-family="'Helvetica-Condensed'" font-size="9"> Panneau de processeur</tspan></ text> </switch> Conclusion Translating documentation will always be a tricky process. Documentation groups continue to improve processes, tools, and workflows. Content-management systems, be they a straightforward use of high-end software packages or optimized workflow practices, are continuously being refined to meet the translation challenge. Translation operations are maturing and improving, developing practices and tools, such as translation memory, to take on the unique dimensions that language translation brings to the table. The choice of XML makes tools and standards more successful. Using standards that reflect the experience and expertise from a number of connected industries is a terrific start, but casting the standard in XML brings additional efficiency. The input of the group brings robustness and strength to the standard, while the use of XML provides portability, scalability, universality, and stability to the process of managing documentation. The SVG could then be viewed in the graphics software or in the browser. See Figure 7. 120 BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 BOOK REVIEW B O O K R E V I E W WhatвЂ™s in The Rise of the Creative Class for Technical Communicators? Jean Richardson, Consultant, BJR Communications Richard FloridaвЂ™s The Rise of the Creative Class: And How ItвЂ™s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life has taken the US economic development industry by storm. This professor of Regional Economic Development at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, entered the discussion of вЂњwhat now?вЂќ and вЂњwhat next?вЂќ as the high-tech stock market was making its rough ride to the bottom and America was reconsidering its deconstruction of the military/industrial complex in favor of consumer products. His fresh writing style and data-driven analysis appeal both to the armchair economist and the popular culture watcher. His thesis? There is a significant contingent in the 18 to 35-year-old demographic that is quietly having a large impact on the future of the development of products and ideas in this country, and their potential to shape our culture is just beginning to be revealed. If properly identified as one of our richest natural resources and employed in the context of economic recovery, this resource, which is flocking to certain locales throughout the country, has the vitality and promise we are looking for in the current recession. Why is recognizing this contingent important to managers of knowledge generation and management functions? Because the creative class that Florida describes is largely composed of people in these functions. He looks at how their values, level of self-direction, portability, and social mores impact attracting, retaining, and applying their talents from a regional standpoint. He also discusses how their lifestyles and work styles coalesce and how they are motivatedвЂ”largely by their curiosity and opportunities to express their creativity. His analysis of their sometimes surprisingly conservative values, preference for loosely coupled relationships, and focus on place is peppered with numerous insights into working with and motivating these valuable human resources. AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES In summary, this 404-page book, with index, covers the topic in four parts and 15 chapters. Appendices beginning on page 327 show the cities and various indices he uses in evaluating certain locationsвЂ™ attractions for this class of worker. Part One: The Creative Age These three chapters provide the obligatory, and somewhat scholarly, backward glance to give context for the rest of the discussion. This is great reading if you are interested in economic and social history, as I am. In Chapter Four, Florida explains his working definition of вЂњcreative classвЂќ and how it relates to similar analyses of work culture by other scholars: The rise of the Creative Economy has had a profound effect on the sorting of people into social groups or classes. Others have speculated over the years on the rise of new classes in the advanced industrial economies. During the 1960s, Peter Drucker and Fritz Machlup described the growing role and importance of the new group of workers they dubbed вЂњknowledge workers.вЂќ Writing in the 1970s, Daniel Bell pointed to a new, more meritocratic class structure of scientists, engineers, managers, and administrators brought on by the shift from a manufacturing to a вЂњpostindustrialвЂќ economy. The sociologist Erik Olin Wright has written for decades about the rise of what he called a new вЂњprofessional-managerialвЂќ class. Robert Reich more recently advanced the term вЂњsymbolic analystsвЂќ to describe the members of the workforce who manipulate ideas and symbols. All of these observers caught economic aspects of the emerging class structure that I describe here. (p. 67) Jean Richardson Consultant BJR Communications [email protected] www.bjrcom.com Jean Richardson is a communication consultant in private practice. She focuses on hardware, software, and Web-development. She is a past president of the Willamette Valley Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication in Portland, Oregon, as well as a Better Business Bureau Arbitrator, and a Multnomah County Court Mediator. With her associate, Lisa Burk, she trains other technical professionals on conflict management skills. Part Two: Work This section begins to cover the social and cultural differences between the creative class, their parents, and their peersвЂ”including what 121 BOOK REVIEW may be a few surprises. In a section on managing creativity, Florida discusses human resource management strategies as they have emerged in high-tech companies. Then, he makes an interesting observation: And these practices offered one great efficiency to firmsвЂ”and one incredible advantage to capitalismвЂ”which ultimately assured their further diffusion. They enabled firms and the economy as a whole to capture the creative talents of people who would have been considered oddballs, eccentrics or worse during the high period of the organizational age. Richard Lloyd quotes the founder of one of the Chicago high-tech firms studied as saying: вЂњLots of people who fell between the cracks in another generation and who were more marginalized are [now] highly employable and catered to by businesses that tend to be flexible with their lifestyles and lifecycles.вЂќ (p. 140) And later, he makes some observations about managing creativity in high-tech companies that may not surprise you: We selected an edgy high-tech company as the venue for our workshop and invited two of their top executives to join in the discussionвЂ¦. As we got further into it, the two high-tech executives began to chime in with their views, which essentially amounted to a high-tech version of вЂњmanagement by stressвЂќвЂ”working people as long and as hard as they could stand. It quickly became clear to the group that these two did not have the foggiest idea of how to motivate or even treat creative people, let alone build an effective and enduring organizational culture. (p. 142) Part Three: Life and Leisure In section three, composed of two chapters вЂњThe Experiential LifeвЂќ and вЂњThe Big Morph (a Rant),вЂќ Florida goes deeper into how lifestyle and work intersect in the creative economy. In the first chapter, Florida describes the kind of experientially rich communities and workplaces members of the creative class tend to choose. In the second chapter, Florida discusses the tension between the Protestant work ethic and the bohemian ethic that the creative class successfully embodies. While this chapter is, indeed, a rant, it is also a good read: 122 What happened instead was neither sixties nor eighties, neither bourgeois nor bohemian, but the opening of a path to something new. The great cultural legacy of the sixties, as it turned out, was not Woodstock after all, but something that had evolved at the other end of the continent. It was Silicon Valley. This place in the very heart of the San Francisco Bay area became the proving ground for the new ethos of creativity. If work could be made more aesthetic and experiential; if it could be spiritual and вЂњusefulвЂќ in the poetic sense rather than in the duty-bound sense; if the organizational strictures and rigidity of the old system could be transcended; if bohemian values like individualityвЂ” which also happens to be a tried-and-true all-American valueвЂ”could be brought to the workplace, then we could move beyond the old categories. (p. 202) It is worthwhile to note here that Florida spends basically no time looking at how this idealism contributed to the rise and fall of the dot-bombs. Part Four: Community In this section, Florida talks about the importance of place to this demographicвЂ”and to creative workпЈ§and he talks about how a spirit of tolerance acts almost as a cradle for creativity. He discusses creative class membersвЂ™ preference for loosely coupled interpersonal commitments rather than the tightly coupled group affiliations of the previous generationsвЂ™ sense of social capital and some of the implications of this change. This chapter may be the most data-based in the book because he classifies hundreds of communities into Classic Social Capital Communities, Organizational Age Communities, Nerdistans, and Creative Centers. Odds are, if you are living in a community of any size, youвЂ™ll find your community ranked in the related appendix. Even Yakima, Washington, comes into the discussion. In an industry where distributed and virtual teams are increasingly the norm, this focus on place is particularly interesting. Many people have very strong feelings about the way computer-mediated communication impacts working relationships. In the section called вЂњThe World of Weak Ties,вЂќ Florida states, вЂњPractically all of us have at least a few such relationships. According to sociologists who study networks, most people have and can BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003 BOOK REVIEW manage between five and ten strong-tie relationships.вЂќ But, he counters, вЂњweak ties are often more importantвЂ¦ research on social networks has shown that weak ties are the key mechanism for mobilizing resources, ideas, and information, whether for finding a job, solving a problem, launching a new product, or establishing a new enterprise. A key reason that weak ties are important is that we can manage many more of them.вЂќ (p. 276вЂ”277) This strategy of maintaining many weak ties to facilitate creative connection is supported by tools like contact databases, email, automatic task reminder systems, and various remote communication and collaboration technologies. What If YouвЂ™re Not (Chronologically) a Kid Anymore? Further, true to his creative class values, he goes on to warn about emerging class divides. America is far from a unified societyвЂ¦. The worsening divides in our society are not merely a problem of social equity; they are economically inefficient for the nation as a wholeвЂ¦. Why, then, should promoting creativity everywhere be a main theme of our policies and our lives? Why not focus on promoting some attribute that seems to be more universally positive and beneficialвЂ”say, spiritual growth, or civility? WouldnвЂ™t that, over the long run, make us better people who can more wisely direct the creative impulse that flows so naturally? My answer is that of course, we should cultivate both of those virtues. But neither of them is an economic force that increases the resources with which we may do good in the world. Creativity is. (p. 320вЂ”325) Reference The Rise of the Creative Class: And How ItвЂ™s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life Richard Florida Basic Books 2002, New York, NY ISBN: 0465024769 As the Biography page on FloridaвЂ™s site at CMU states, вЂњHe is widely regarded as one of the most influential academics on the shift to the new, knowledge economy and has spearManagers of knowledge workers in the current headed national debates on industrial competieconomy, particularly managers of those worktiveness, high-technology ers in high-tech companies, have industries, and the globalization seen their ranks drastically of industry.вЂќ What about those thinned. This downsizing is вЂњвЂ¦those of us of us over 35? While Florida conironic in the face of the compelcentrates on this demographic ling argument that Florida details who identify through most of the book, the in this book. But it is not surprisprimarily as last chapter, вЂњThe Creative Class ing when this book is read conGrows Up,вЂќ focuses on what templatively. writers have needs to be done to ensure that We knowledge workers, as a never really the creative classвЂ”the knowledge class, donвЂ™t know who we are. workers you may be managing And those of us who identify pribeen able to even nowвЂ”is properly fostered marily as writers have never really characterize in the US. Generally, building been able to characterize our wisdom seems to take time, value to corporate America. our value to though the passage of time is far Wherever there is a successful corporate from a guarantee of the developorganization, though, there are ment of wisdom. The developwritersвЂ”perhaps they go by America.вЂќ ment of wisdom requires paying other titles, but they are there. attention, something that Florida Preoccupied by our bohemian believes this class of workers has druthers, apologetic for our lack of eloquence not done well. in the face of bean counting skepticism about our value, we bow and scrape by, often bowing Vast numbers of Creative Class people are out the door when the going gets tough for the concerned mainly with building their organizationвЂ”never knowing that, increasresumes, building their bodies and acquiringly, we have spun the thread and woven the ing the status kit of our age: a stylishly cloth the corporation has made its expensive renovated home with a Sub-Zero refrigersuit from. ator, Viking stove and an SUV in the I think Florida would point out downsizdrive. They naively assume that if they ing writers as a critical lapse in business take care of their own business, the rest of senseвЂ”on our part, as much as the the world will take care of itself and concorporationвЂ™s. tinue to provide the environment they need to prosper. (p. 316) AUGUST 2003 вЂў BEST PRACTICES 123 MANAGERвЂ™S CALENDAR M A N A G E R вЂ™ S Please visit our Web site <www. infomanagementcenter.com> for more information on these and other events. C A L E N D A R ROI Competency Building Workshop. August 21вЂ“22, 2003, Reston, VA. September 2вЂ“3, 2003, Hampton, VA. September 10вЂ“11, 2003, Nashville, TN. September 25вЂ“26, 2003, Alexandria, VA. Sponsored by the ASTD ROI Network. <roi.astd.org/events/ROIWorkshops.aspx> Minimalism: Creating Manuals That People Will Use. August 26вЂ“27, 2003, Montreal, Canada. October 7вЂ“8, 2003, Lexington, KY. November 6вЂ“7, 2003, Atlanta, GA. Sponsored by Seminars in Usable Design. Taught by JoAnn Hackos, PhD. 303-234-0123 <www.usabledesign.com> Structured Writing for Single Sourcing. September 9вЂ“10, 2003, Columbus, OH. September 16вЂ“17, 2003, San Jose, CA. Sponsored by Seminars in Usable Design. Taught by JoAnn Hackos, PhD. 303-2340123 <www.usabledesign.com> Best Practices 2003 Conference. September 22вЂ“24, 2003, Seattle, WA. InnovatorвЂ™s Forum. September 25вЂ“26, 2003, Seattle, WA. Sponsored by the CIDM.303-232-7586 <www.infomanagementcenter.com/ conference.htm> Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference. October 13вЂ“15, 2003, Portland, OR. Sponsored by the PNSQC. <www.pnsqc.org> KM World & Intranets 2003 Conference & Exposition. October 14вЂ“16, 2003, Santa Clara, CA. Sponsored by KM World. <www.kmworld-intranets.com> Managing Your Documentation Projects. October 16вЂ“17, 2003, Phoenix, AZ. Sponsored by Seminars in Usable Design. Taught by Bill Hackos, PhD. 303-234-0123 <www.usabledesign.com> 124 HITS 2003: Humans Interaction Technology Strategy. October 16вЂ“17, 2003, Chicago, IL. Sponsored by the Institute of Design. <www.id.iit.edu/events/hits/> forUse 2003: 2nd International Conference on Usage-Centered Design. October 19вЂ“22, 2003, Portsmouth, NH. Sponsored by Constantine and Lockwood, Ltd. <www.foruse.com/2003/> Developing Online Information for Help and Web-Based Delivery. October 21вЂ“22, 2003, New Orleans, LA. Sponsored by Seminars in Usable Design. Taught by JoAnn Hackos, PhD. 303-2340123 <www.usabledesign.com> 2003 FrameUsers Conference. October 27вЂ“29, 2003, Palm Beach, FL. <www.FrameUsers.com> Online Information 2003. December 2вЂ“4, 2003, London, UK. Sponsored by Learned Information. <www.online-information.co.uk> Content Management Europe 2003. December 2вЂ“4, 2003, London, UK. Sponsored by Imark Communications, Ltd. <www.cme-expo.co.uk> Information Technology for Non-IT Managers. December 15вЂ“17, 2003, Chicago, IL. Sponsored by University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. <www.chicagoexec.net> Knowledge Management International Conference and Exhibition. February 13вЂ“15, 2004, Penang, Malaysia. Sponsored by the School of IT, Universiti Utara Malaysia. <www.kmice.uum.edu.my> BEST PRACTICES вЂў AUGUST 2003