Update: Both presentations are now available on SlideShare:
- DITA and Information Architecture for Responsive Design
- The State of DITA 2014 (or the original Prezi-based version
As of yesterday I now have a couple of talks lined up for the upcoming DITA North America/Content Management Strategies Conference happening next week in Seattle. I hope to see you there!
The first scheduled talk is called “DITA and Information Architecture for Responsive Web Design” which I am co-presenting with my Yellow Pencil colleague Phil Kneer. We’ll be talking about why we think DITA and Responsive Web Design are made for each other. It should be a fun as well as an informative talk.
I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ll be talking about how I became intrigued with the latest developments in this area and how I discovered RWD as a possible way to solve a number of problems I have encountered with clients seeking to get their technical content out to their users whenever and wherever they might be. I’ll be talking about the Information Architect’s role in designing the layout of content for users in various situations using RWD, and why using a generic HTML output template may be doing your customers a disservice.
The other talk I’ll be giving is something of a “hidden” presentation, as it is not part of the official agenda (yet). It’s called “The State of DITA 2014” and is a replacement presentation for someone who I understand was planned to present at the conference but had to pull out. This is a presentation whose topic I have been working on for a while, with information derived from my researches, interviews and DITA-related developments I have talked about on the DITAWriter.com website over the past couple of years.
Here’s an excerpt from my talk’s summary that will give you an idea as to what I’ll be talking about:
Keith surveys the technical writing marketplace in the United States and the role that DITA skills and experience have come to play in it, including the types of jobs being offered by employers and how much they are willing to pay for that experience. He will also point out where the DITA “hot spots” are around the world, how the economy has affected prospects for technical writers in general, and some key insights and observations on how and why organizations choose DITA.
I am also really looking forward to seeing a number of familiar faces at the conference and hope to meet with a lot of new people while there. Judging by the number of sponsors for this conference and the die range of talks planned, it looks as though this will be the prime DITA conference to attend this year!
Some of the talks I am currently planning on attending include:
- OASIS maven Kristen Eberlein’s Overview of DITA 1.3
- Eliot Kimber’s techie-sounding RELAX NG for DITA Document Type Shells
- JoAnn Hackos and Casey Jordan’s talk on the forthcoming tech doc specification ISO 26531
- recently published DITA author Leigh White’s The Elusive Promise of Reuse
I also hope to give some impressions of some of these talks and the other ones I’ll be attending while there on the DITAWriter.com website, so check back next week for updates and I hope to see you there!
