Data Conversion Laboratory is hosting a webinar tomorrow on the neutral XML platform, led by Amber Swope of DITA Strategies. GoodeReader spoke to Swope about what the platform itself entails and what it can ultimately mean for consumers.
“Content is [the publishers’] product, and if it’s locked into any one delivery medium then they can’t use it for all readers. The challenge is that five years ago, you could have a print medium as your primary and anything else was considered icing on the cake. Then you saw a change to where more content was being delivered online as a PDF. But now that you need to have information that is available on these display readers, the display allows you to have a voice over and you can highlight specific words. They’re doing all kinds of creative design and experiences that can’t be done in a PDF. It has to be HTML. If your original source is locked into a print-specific delivery, it’s very costly to meet these new delivery media.”
“The purpose of the webinar is that educational publishers need to move their content into a neutral source, which right now the most neutral is XML. It separates the formatting into the actual words and images. If you’re going to XML you have to determine what kind of architecture you’re going to use. DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is a componentized data-based architecture. It’s a great place to start in storing semantically identified units of information. It also includes in the version 1.2 from Oasis learning and training support. If you have educational information such as assessments, you don’t have to have your own architecture. You can take your needs and extend them. Instead of reinventing the wheel, you have a place to start.”
The free webinar can offer insights to not only publishers, but anyone with content that needs to be available. More and more businesses are having to turn to companies like DCL to convert their content, even if it’s not intended for mass market use but rather will remain within the bounds of company training and storage. To register for the June 27th webinar, click HERE.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
