Information Management News 11.08

Information Management News
Volume 8, Issue 11
November 2008

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

If you would like to receive the CIDM e-newsletter in plain-text format, visit http://www.infomanagementcenter.com/subscribe.htm and choose the plain-text format.

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CIDM News and Events

Conferences

The DITA Europe Conference 2008 will be held November 17-18 in Munich, Germany. Click here to register for this event.

News & Events

Major Japanese Manufacturer selects SDL Trisoft’s Component Content Management (CCM)

SDL Trisoft, a worldwide leader in Component Content Management (CCM) for technical writing organizations, is pleased to announce that it has secured a new enterprise software contract with Yokogawa Engineering Asia, a subsidiary of Yokogawa Electric Corporation, Tokyo, Japan.

XyEnterprise Signs Enterprise License Agreement with U.S. Navy

XyEnterprise, a leading developer of award-winning XML content management and multi-channel delivery solutions announced the execution of a U.S. Navy Enterprise Subscription License Agreement.

Successfully Implementing DITA: Innovative Ideas and Practical Tips from BMC Software

JustSystems has invited Theresa Dunson, one of the DITA project leads at BMC Software, to share her insights and knowledge on the process they used to successfully implement DITA in their Information Design and Development division.

XyEnterprise Offers New Market Intelligence on Component Content Management (CCM) and its Ties to Profitability and ROI

XyEnterprise, a leading developer of award-winning XML content management and multi-channel delivery solutions, announced the availability of new market intelligence that ties profitability and return on investment (ROI) to Component Content Management (CCM), a technology for managing small components of content encoded with XML.

Cvent Web Surveys: November 5, 11:00 AM EST

With Cvent Web Surveys, organizations can streamline the way they collect feedback and timely business intelligence. Use surveys to test markets, qualify leads, measure program effectiveness, enhance company culture and gauge stakeholder opinions. Launching surveys on the web is more efficient and effective than traditional surveying techniques.

	A Call for Speakers for the 2009 CMS/DITA North America Conference has been posted. Please visit the conference website to submit your presentation proposal. The submission deadline is December 1^st.

Planning Once Again for Reductions in Force
JoAnn Hackos, Comtech Services, Inc.

If you’ve been in technical publications, as I have, for more than 30 years, or even more than 20 years, you’ve seen reductions in force before. Perhaps one of the hardest hitting was the economic slowdown in the early 90s when many large corporate publications organizations were severely downsized. Not only were staff members cut, but many traditionally centralized organizations were split apart and assigned to engineering groups, resulting in the loss of many experienced managers.

Read the article.

More articles

Best Practices for DITA in a Global Economy
Working with DITA: The Content Manager’s point of view
Eric Severson, Flatirons Solutions

In the prior article of this series, we looked at DITA best practices from theauthor’s point of view. This included consideration of what it takes to think in terms of topics rather than books, managing content variations and reuse, and using links and cross-references appropriately.

Read the article.

Discussion Results: How do users retrieve and use technical information, and what delivery media best support those approaches?
Angela Whitney and Sandy Reid, BMC Software

At the CIDM Best Practices Conference 2008 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, BMC Software hosted a preconference discussion about how today’s users retrieve and use the technical content that supports our products and solutions. The objective of the session was to draw some useful conclusions about the best delivery media and publication mechanisms we can develop to support the changing needs of today’s users and to begin exploring next-generation media for future users.

Read the article.

The Search for Work / Life Balance…
Amy Weiss, Contributor

Telecommuting is becoming more popular as companies look for ways to reduce costs, become green, and offer a flexible work environment. Some of us are LUCKY enough to work for companies that allow their employees to work from home, with flexible working hours. This is a benefit for the employee for so many reasons, especially for a better work / life balance.

Read the article.