dita-techcomm — archive

[Stanley Doherty]

Hi all -- I had opportunity to chat with numerous attendees and presenters at the CMS/DITA North America conference in Seattle two weeks ago. Typically I describe some DITA TC, DITA Help SC, and DITA TechComm SC activities AND then ask people whether: - they are interested in the activities of those groups or - they could see themselves getting involved in some way. Their responses differed, as you might imagine, but there were some common themes. Of those folks who said that they are interested in the activities of these OASIS groups, they noted three impediments to getting involved: 1. Membership cost: Most companies are NOT members of OASIS, so the burden ($cost) of joining falls to individuals. If there were ways for people to participate or to support OASIS DITA activities without requiring individual membership, they would be quite interested. 2. Technical acumen/breadth: Many people know a lot about DITA, at least as it pertains to their company implementations. The leap from feeling confident about talking about their DITA individual DITA implementations to talking about ALL OF DITA seems to be significant. Perceptions about getting involved only to look unprepared or inadequate are present. Not so much intimidated as inadequate. That said, people seemed more than willing to participate in some type of forum or effort focused on their sharing what they have learned. Support group stuff at some level. 3. TC/Adoption confusion: I did not probe much here, but I observed that there seemed to be a general lack of awareness about the different roles of the DITA TC and the DITA Adoption TC. Suggesting to people that they look at Adoption if the TC seemed a bit overwhelming didn't seem to resonate. It seemed that OASIS appeared as one biggish gate versus several different doors and entry points. A few thoughts.