ConVEx Baltimore – Welcome session. We got to play with Lego!
On a more serious note, Lego has often been my go-to example when trying to explain creating publications using the structured content approach. With standardized components, the bricks, you can build the most wonderful and complex of structures, usually by establishing a plan and rules. Otherwise you end up with a mess! Structurally unsound and unrepeatable monstrosities.
Lego is sold as a set to build a particular structure. But you are not prohibited from building other stuff with the same bricks.
LEGO pieces can be assembled in various ways to create different structures, much as structured content authoring involves using pre-defined pieces of content to create different outputs. In DITA XML, these pre-defined pieces of content are called “topics” and “maps.”
Topics (LEGO bricks), are individual pieces of content (components) that contain specific information on a particular subject. Each topic can stand on its own, and can be understood in or out of context. These topics can be combined with other topics to create a larger structure, much like how LEGO bricks can be combined to create a more complex structure.
Maps (LEGO instruction manuals), provide a set of guidelines for assembling the LEGO bricks in a specific way to create a final structure. In DITA XML, maps provide a framework for organizing topics and defining relationships between them.
You can ask mix different boxes of Lego, Lego Star Wars, Lego Builders, Lego Technology, the “domains” are numerous but remain compatible at the brick “component” level.
You can even create groups of components that can be shared across “products”.
This is the standardized structure an architecture such as DITA imposes.
However
The exercise highlighted a few flaws that organizations encounter when they assume that moving to structured content will solve their content creation and management issues.
Content Strategy
Without a content strategy, a plan for how to build what, and rules that prevent you from mixing potentially incompatible groups of blocks, you end up with unstable structures that may or may not function as required.
Information Architecture
At what level of granularity should content be tagged for reuse? At the “brick” level, you have maximum possibility to build Lego models, but that adds a level of complexity that can mean it is difficult to then spot impacts elsewhere when the “brick” is updated. OK, it’s starting to stretch the analogy, but the point remains valid.
The group of bricks that have been put together to form the axle and wheels for the car model, can be reused for other models in need of 4 wheels as a means of locomotion. But if you then change the wheel sizes, without taking into consideration that the same base is used for other vehicle types, you could end up building a Ferrari with monster truck wheels.
In this example, the Information architecture would have defined “variables” and the use cases for them. The author then knows to either create a new topic, choose a different one, or to then “profile” the variable so that the right wheel size is applied for each vehicle type when assembling it.
Semantics
It’s not just the ability to breakdown information into components that makes DITA useful. The ability to tag content semantically adds a new dimension to creating, managing and searching for content. Semantic tags are used to provide additional information about the content, beyond just its structural organization. These tags can be used to identify the type of content, its purpose, audience, language, and other relevant metadata.
This allows for more precise searching and filtering of content, as well as easier reuse of content in different contexts. This metadata can then be used to easily find and reuse the topic in other documentation or training materials, without having to manually sift through irrelevant content. The semantic data is also useful to the end user when searching for information on the content delivery platform.
Over the next couple of days, I had the privilege of attending many other presentations, and discussing with industry experts, and users seeking information on how to create, manage, publish and translate their content, with no two scenarios alike.
