atw: Re: XML - a requirement for a TechWriter looking for work?
- From: "Anthony Self" <ASelf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:40:37 +1000
Dear Nikki and all
When Dave Halls advised technical writers to "learn XML", he was giving good
counsel. Not wanting to put words in his mouth, his more explicit advice might
have been to "learn the basics and principles of XML so you can understand what
it all means".
XML is bigger than Ben Hur. It is a bigger initiative than the World Wide Web.
XML is a set of building blocks for the categorisation, storage and retrieval
of all human knowledge. It is impossible to learn everything there is to know
about XML, because of the length and breadth of the technology. XML has already
affected many aspects of our personal and business lives. Journalists use it to
produce your newspaper. iPods use it for podcasting. Amazon uses it to help you
choose books to buy. Bloggers use it. GMail uses it to provide a richer Web
mail client. RoboHelp uses it to store its project file settings. OpenOffice
uses it to store office documents in an international standard format. Scholars
use it to understand Sumerian literature. The Bureau of Stats uses it to
distribute census data. And so on.
In the documentation field, authoring tools are built around XML. If your tool
is not XML-based, it's out-of-date, and probably about to be redundant. Frame
is XML-based. Flare is XML-based. Word 2007 is XML-based. OpenOffice is
XML-based. AuthorIt is XML-based. Firefox is XML-based.
It is possible that you can stumble on, perhaps even using Word or Frame, and
be blissfully unaware of what XML is. Perhaps you can continue to make a living
for many years to come without understanding one jot of XML. But Dave Halls'
talk and advice related to professional development. If you want to progress in
your profession, you must understand XML and its impacts. There are more
relevant changes to our working mode just around the corner. Moving from
style-based authoring to structured authoring is perhaps the biggest change.
The return on investment of structured authoring using DITA (another XML-based
technology/methodology) is potentially enormous. At the moment, the tools
haven't quite caught up to the technology, so it is a little early for many
organisations to move to this approach, but in a year or two, everyone will be
moving in that direction.
You won't understand DITA and structured authoring unless you understand (the
basics and principles of) XML. Because XML is so big, it's best to start now,
rather than try to catch on when it's too late!
Finally, I have had the pleasure of working on a number of DITA projects, as
well as teaching it, and it is an extremely rewarding thing to work with as a
writer.
Tony Self
>>> "Nikki Ward" <Nikki.Ward@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 10/09/08 9:32 AM >>>
Hi all,
If you have some time, I would like some feedback on this presentation
supplied to the QLD Tech Writers group.
I just thought it rather interesting that "Learn XML" is becoming part
of a requirement for a Tech Writer who is looking for work.
...
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