Also, DocBook isn't just for technical manuals, so I'd prefer we remove that statement. See DocBook Publishers schema, Simplified DocBook schema
Thanks,
--Scott
From: <
dita@lists.oasis-open.org> on behalf of Kristen James Eberlein <
kris@eberleinconsulting.com>
Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2021 at 8:42 AM
To: DITA TC <
dita@lists.oasis-open.org>
Subject: [dita] Fwd: Comments on the DITA TC charter
[External Email]
Comments from Frank
Best,
Kris
Kristen James Eberlein
Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
OASIS Distinguished Contributor
Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting LLC
www.eberleinconsulting.com +1 919 622-1501; kriseberlein (skype)
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:
RE: Comments on the DITA TC charter
Date:
Mon, 11 Jan 2021 18:13:56 +0000
From:
Wegmann, Frank
<
Frank.Wegmann@softwareag.com>
To:
Kristen James Eberlein
<
kris@eberleinconsulting.com> , Chet Ensign
<
chet.ensign@oasis-open.org> , Dawn Stevens
<
dawn.stevens@comtech-serv.com>
CC:
Gershon Joseph
<
gershon@precisioncontent.com> , Nancy Harrison
<
nharrison@infobridge-solutions.com>
Thanks for everybody s comments so far. I apologize for mine being a bit lengthy and late. I still have the feeling that I haven t gone as deep as necessary to see exactly what we need to do to make the charter fit for 2022 and beyond.
My general impression, also from reading Dawn s and Gershon s comments is that we already found some areas that need revision without tearing apart the gist of the charter, which is the purpose and architecture of DITA as originally envisioned. But that could
pave the way towards a coordinated revision of the text, identifying the areas for revision and agreeing on contents attributing to the role that DITA plays today. Please find below my more specific comments:
Historical Context
==================
This is still the original charter to go with creating the DITA TC, as
communicated on March 29, 2004. So, there are some sections that are relevant
only in their historical context and the fact that it was meant to be the
charter of a new group. Like:
- The explicit relation to the DocBook TC:
"The work of this TC will differ from similar efforts such as DocBook
because of
* broader scope, inasmuch as DITA applies to more areas than just
technical manuals
* more specific scope, inasmuch as DITA applies to topic-oriented
information rather than all technical manuals"
The bullet points still hold, of course, but they need no longer be explicitly
related to DocBook.
- Also, this was a worthwile mention at the time of founding the TC:
"This committee builds upon the foundation established by the work of IBM
on DITA."
Not undermining the IBM origins, but DITA is an established technology in its
own right now, and this is a sentence to deserve its place in historical work on
DITA, but no longer is useful after almost 17 years now.
- Actions that were targeted at the future or immediate practice of the
committee work:
"The TC will create specifications for the Darwin Information Typing
Architecture".
No, it's done multiple time. In fact, as later pointed out, it is one of the
foremost tasks of the TC to create and maintain specifications for DITA.
"Within three months of the first meeting, [...]"
Yes, we're past that.
"are optimized for navigation and search"
This is true, but no longer the focus. Mobility is more important (see below), and at that
point I agree with comments by both, Gershon and Dawn.
"may consider the creation of subcommittees [...]"
Been there, happened multiple times. I think, the section on subcommittees needs
to be revised to describe their role nowadays, along with an expectation of the
scope of future SCs.
"Scope of Work"
===============
I think, the basic message is still fully valid, because the DITA architecture is unique
in the XML world, and the concept of information types is as true and important now as it was
in 2004 (or 1998 in the IBM labs...). So is the DITA way of specializing from
the base specification for needs of a certain user community or a single company.
What is missing, of course, is the dimension opened up by mobile devices. Three
years, before smartphones capable of even only displaying any longer chunks of
information arrived (iPhone 2007), nobody could have imagined what we need
documentation now in the mobile era: Transport the right information to the
right person at the right place at the right time. And DITA is a perfect vehicle
to achieve this, because of its architecture and the vast tooling landscape that
simply didn't exist in 2004.
(Because Dawn mentioned it:) Part of (nearly) everybody's toolbox is the DITA-OT. I'm unsure if it needs
inclusion in the TC charter. If you would, you would almost certainly label it
as a reference implementation. Well, de facto it is, but you would elevate it to
being it also de jure, and I'm not sure whether this is also in the interest of
the DITA-OT maintainers. (Then again, I m not sure if this would have any binding implications
in the OASIS context.)
What is also missing, is drawing a line and taking a stance towards mark*down*
languages of any kind. While DocBook has been a true competitor for the gold
standard in technical documentation at the time, it is worth to mention why DITA
is the current standard in that field compared to Markdown, AsciiDoc, etc.
Thanks,
Frank
irman of the Supervisory Board: Karl-Heinz Streibich -
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