CIDM e-newsletter Volume 4, Issue 4

CIDM e-newsletter
Volume 4, Issue 4
April 2004

A monthly e-newsletter from The Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM)
JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD, CIDM Director
http://www.infomanagementcenter.com

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News & Events

CM Strategies Conference

The Center for Information-Development Management brings you the 2004 Content Management Strategies conference on April 19–20, San Francisco, CA.

Conference registration is at its highest since 2001—make sure you reserve your spot.

Register Today

Considering Fluency in XML Design

Read this XML article by Mark Baker on CMS Watch

STC Conference talks

Visit the CIDM senior staff at our booth at the Society for Technical Communication annual conference in Baltimore.

As an e-Newsletter recipient, you are invited to the CIDM reception Monday evening from 5:00pm to 7:00pm at the STC conference. Visit our booth for an invitation.

AUGI 2004

JoAnn Hackos and Tina Hedlund are presenting "Are you ready for content management" at the Arbortext Users' Group International (AUGI) 9^th Annual Conference

IEEE-USA President Addresses Serious, Long-Term Challenges of Offshoring For US IEEE Members

Read more about the offshoring issues for IEEE.

Upcoming Workshops

The CIDM sponsors the following workshops:

User and Task Analysis for Information Modeling Conference workshop
William Hackos, Jr., PhD & Tina Hedlund,
April 21
San Francisco, CA

How To Plan and Implement a Single-Source Project Conference workshop
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
April 21
San Francisco, CA

Choosing Content Management Tools
Tina Hedlund,
May 19–20
Boston, MA

Developing a Content Management Strategy
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
May 20–21
Weston, FL

Structured Writing for Single Sourcing
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
May 26–27
Mountain View, CA

User and Task Analysis for Information Design
William Hackos, Jr., PhD,
May 27–28
Houston, TX

Managing Your Documentation Projects
William Hackos, Jr., PhD,
June 16–17
San Diego, CA

Minimalism: Creating Manuals That People Will Use
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
June 24–25
Seattle, WA
September 8–9
Roseville, MN

Offshore Outsourcing
JoAnn Hackos, PhD,
July 15–16
Denver, CO

XML for Writers
Tina Hedlund,
October 5–6
Durham, NC

For more information on these and other workshops, visit the JoAnn Hackos Workshop Series Web site

The Role of Six Sigma in Business-Process Development
JoAnn Hackos, PhD
CIDM Director

www.infomanagementcenter.com

In the last several months, we have had conversations about Six Sigma with publications managers involved in the Innovator's Forum. We have also seen a marked increase in requests for Information Process Maturity Model (IPMM) assessments. We have been asked to analyze the relationship between Six Sigma quality analysis and the IPMM. As a result, we have revised the IPMM questionnaire to relate it more directly to the qualitative and quantitative measurements that are a standard part of the Six Sigma process.

Read the article

More articles
The Collapse of Globalism: What it means to Information Developers
Ignore Context and Risk Your Project
The Pitfalls of Learning from Others
OASIS has formed a Technical Committee to support the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)
CIDM Adds Members in 2004

Best Practices Newsletter CIDM Members: you can now search the Newsletter Archives online. You can purchase the Best Practices newsletter online even if you aren't a CIDM member. A subscription is $99 per year. For subscribers outside the US, the cost is $109.
*April 2004 Best Practices* Newsletter**
Article	Author
Future of Technical Communication: Where Do We Go From Here?	Barbara A. Giammona
From the Director—Process Maturity	JoAnn Hackos
Keys to Successful Content Management: Avoiding the Traps	Scott Wolff
How to Run a Successful Offshoring Project: Interviews and Anecdotes	Joan Lohmann
Word as an XML Editor	Tina Hedlund
The CIDM Project Estimating Survey: Estimating and Tracking Documentation Projects	Bill Hackos
The New Six Sigma	Jennifer Linton
Why Good Projects Fail Anyway	JoAnn Hackos
What We Learned in the New Economy	Tina Hedlund

The Collapse of Globalism: What it means to Information Developers
William Hackos, Jr., PhD.
Vice President, Comtech Services, Inc.

John Ralston Saul defines globalism as a regime in which multinational corporations are powerful, national governments are weak, and the success of a country is measured by its corporations' profits and the growth of its financial markets. The role of government is to ensure the successes of its corporations throughout the world. Corporate excesses are ignored.

Read the article

Ignore Context and Risk Your Project
Susan Harkus
Independent

For my part, The Tipping Point reminds me that context is the momentary combination of the user's world, the user's agenda, and my artefacts so I continue to focus on structured ways of capturing context insights and applying them to the design of the deliverables I produce.

Read the article

The Pitfalls of Learning from Others
Vesa Purho
Development Manager, Nokia

Often in our daily work, we wonder if anybody else has had the same problems we face and how have they solved them. We might send a mail to a distribution list or even go a bit further and do a benchmark with some company to find out how they are dealing with the same challenge. It is good to learn from others but things are not always what they seem.

Read the article

Feedback
Have you found this issue useful? Got a great story idea? We’d like your input and suggestions. Please contact jennifer.linton@comtech-serv.com about any comments you may have.

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The Center for Information-Development Management
The Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM) is an organization of information-development, training, and support managers across the United States and internationally. The CIDM is directed by Dr. JoAnn Hackos, international leader in the management of the design, development, and dissemination of information to customers and employees. Under her leadership, the CIDM conducts benchmark studies among member organizations and elsewhere, sponsors research into information development and its management, and gathers and disseminates results and resources through newsletters, the Web, seminars, two annual conferences, and research white papers. The CIDM facilitates the sharing of information among the most skilled managers in the information industry.

If you are interested in reading more in-depth articles, you should consider subscribing to the Best Practices newsletter at www.infomanagementcenter.com/masterindex.shtml.