A component content management system (CCMS) is a big investment for your organization, so calculating the return on investment (ROI) for your Component Content Management (CCMS) purchase is an essential part of the budgeting process. This calculator allows you to plug in your own numbers, but it guides you through some of the major cost [...] Continue reading ...
Types of Content Management Systems Explained (CMS, DMS, CCMS, ECMS, and others)
After the first twenty times you ran across the terms “CMS” or “content management system,” you probably jumped to a conclusion about what people mean by it. Or you search for the term online and get a list of one of the types. In all likelihood, the list you retrieve on a search engine won't include many examples of the kind of content management system you may need to manage technical content for your organization. Continue reading ...
Content Management System Resources
Use the content management system resources below to find the sort of information you need to move forward with your understanding of content management systems. Just starting out? Resource Description Content Management Systems Explained Understand the differences between different kinds of content management systems. Component Content Management Systems Basic explanation from Wikipedia Component Content Management: Overlooked [...] Continue reading ...
How You Know You Should Have Bought a CMS Last Year
Originally published in Intercom, August 2010. A CMS can be a handy tool in this new age of structured writing, whether in DITA, S1000D, DocBook, or some freaky, hybrid custom creation. No, scratch that “handy tool” part. If you’re writing topics, you should have a CMS. It’s that simple. Take a look at the situations [...] Continue reading ...
Product Review: MindTouch TCS Integrates Content with the User Experience
2013 will see enterprise-level thinking that focuses on integrating technical communication with Support, Training, and Social Media. We are seeing an evolution of the technical communicator role into integrated content strategists and content curators. The new role is going to require a new set of tools, and MindTouch TCS, “the Social Help System”, is the toolset that choreographs the entire customer experience. Continue reading ...
Working With DITA: The Perspective from LavaCon
My most technical day of the LavaCon 2012 conference occurred on the final morning when I focused on working with DITA by attending two sessions: "Migrating to DITA: How Automated Conversion Works and Why it Matters" (with Patrick Baker of Stilo International) and "Collaboration and Instantiation: Engineering Content in DITA XML" (with Cheri Mullins, of Mullins Consulting, discussing her work at AMD). Continue reading ...
Book Review: Content Strategy 101 by Sarah O’Keefe and Alan Pringle
Sarah S. O’Keefe and Alan S. Pringle of Scriptorium Publishing tried a fascinating experiment in putting together their latest book, “Content Strategy 101.” They crowd-sourced the development, seeking commentary, feedback on the structure and content, and reviews from a wide range of content and technical communication professionals via the contentstrategy101.com website. Jacquie Samuels, a content strategy veteran, and Roger Renteria, a graduate of tech comm studies read the book at the website and offer their perspectives in this “mini-crowd-sourced” review. Continue reading ...
Rethinking Content from Paper to Tablets, Mobile Screens and ePubs
Obviously the world has changed for those who engage in content creation, and Maxwell Hoffman believes it's time technical communicators began rethinking content creation. He devoted his LavaCon 2012 presentation to showing how to break authoring habits associated with traditional computer screens and paper. Continue reading ...
XML Myths and Visions: Revisiting the Words of the Father of XML
The Father of XML, Jon Bosak, once expressed (way back in 1998) a vision for how XML would be used to achieve media independent publishing. That early vision is finally coming true, but not the way Bosak expected. Let me explain. Continue reading ...