When can I do some XML with you? Adapting and reusing this Beatles lyric for our theme works best in the UK, where Rita rhymes with Meta and DITA; It's a stretch in the US, where Meta sounds like better and DITA sounds bitter.

But since adaptation and reuse are core ideas of DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture), perhaps we'll be forgiven if we adapt and reuse old Beatles standards to explain the newest XML standards (hey, maybe it's the only way to make XML sound catchy). DITA is an IBM gift to the technical documentation community that was approved as a standard this spring by OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), the hosts for many XML interchange standards such as ebXML. Ever since, tech writers have been buzzing about an easier way to get into structured topic-based writing with DITA XML and asking XML Editor vendors to add support for DITA.

Leading XML authoring tool vendor Arbortext (owned by PTC) has included DITA in its Epic Editor for some time. Adobe's September release of Framemaker 7.2 adds a bit of DITA support (along with rumors that Adobe's internal documentation team has used DITA for their latest manuals--print, Web, and online help all derived from the same original files). And Blast Radius last week announced its XMetaL Author DITA Edition, purportedly in response to customer demands. XMetaL integrates the DITA Open Toolkit, a complete DITA implementation available for free download from SourceForge. Altova XMLSpy, Ektron eWebEditPro+XML, Ephox Edit Live!, Syntext Serna, and Stylus Studio all promise DITA enhancements.

So why the buzz? Can DITA do anything XML could not? The answer is probably no. XML can do almost anything needed for structured authoring but its arbitrarily extensibility has been a stumbling block to XML adoption. The promise of DITA is ready-made metadata structures that may fit the needs for many documentation projects, initially for software, which was IBM's principal use.

While it is doubtful that out of the box DITA will find widespread use without customization (called specialization in DITA speak), the ready-made generic topic, and three "information-typed" specializations called concept, task, and reference, will get documentation teams producing very quickly. These documents will also be easily exchangeable with others. Because specializations inherit (thus the Darwinian name) properties from the general topics, their default behaviors--like printing, conversion to PDF, or XHTML Web pages--will produce decent results when transformed by default DITA XSLT style sheets.

Nothing in technical documentation is simple, and with several hundred terms to learn DITA is not trivial, but it is relatively very simple compared to arbitrary XML, and the XML editing tools with their sophisticated visual IDE's mask much of the complexity. To their credit, these editors do not hide the structure from authors who appreciate structured topic-based writing.

So may we compare DITA to RSS (Really Simple Syndication), today's most-used XML application? When Dave Winer offered his special XML tags for wrapping news feeds a few years ago, the explosive adoption rate was because this was XML that everyone could do the same way (pace the syndication wars with the RDF folks and the new Atom standard). If XML extensibility had invited programmers to "do-it-yourself (DIY)," RSS produced a network effect where we could all "do-it-together (DIT)." I can hear another Beatles tune, "All Together Now" with new lyrics: Do It Together All! D-I-T-A, can I XML this way?

The really big return on DITA investment will be teams with a usable XML Schema agreed on in days rather than months, plus a few standard style sheet transforms they can cut their teeth on. They will learn very quickly that they can't just stick their old content into DITA topics without learning how to structure their writing. This will force them to learn about structured content models. They will group topics with DITA maps (much too easily confused with Topic Maps) to help them practice good information architecture.

By then they will be ready to specialize their topics. This will be almost the same amount of work as creating new XML tags, but with the advantage that new topics will immediately work with default DITA behaviors. And once new DTD or XML Schema modules have been written to extend (or specialize) the default schemas, and XSLT processes extended to handle the new information architecture, they will be doing single-source publishing and reusing content as well as any XML guru.

Turning again to our Liverpool lads, can't you hear DITA singing a little ditty: "I want to hold your hand" to every technical writer and wannabe XML developer?

The Internet Archive, Yahoo! Inc., Adobe Systems Inc., the European Archive, HP Labs, the National Archives (UK), O'Reilly Media Inc., Prelinger Archives, the University of California, and the University of Toronto, have announced the formation of the Open Content Alliance (OCA), a global consortium focused on providing open access to content while respecting the rights of copyright holders. The OCA will provide a range of material including cultural, historical, and technological digitized print and multimedia content from libraries, archives, and publishers. Content will be hosted in a single, permanent repository and complete works will be searchable and downloadable for free by anyone.

Governed by its contributors, the OCA is designed to be a growing association that agrees to a set of openness principles. Initial content will be provided to the OCA by founding members including the University of California, the University of Toronto, the National Archives (UK), O'Reilly Media, Inc., and the European Archive. Adobe Systems Inc., HP Labs, and Yahoo! Inc., also founding members, will make technical and in certain cases financial contributions to allow content to be contributed, placed online and accessed by anyone. The OCA will include content ranging from historical works of fiction to children's books to highly specialized engineering whitepapers. In addition to hosting content and playing an administrative role, the Internet Archive will provide the OCA with material from its collections and it will also digitize content from contributors.

In order to respect the rights of copyright holders, content under copyright will be made available through the OCA only with the copyright holders' authorization. At the option of the copyright holder, copyrighted content may be distributed through a Creative Commons license. Content that is made available on the OCA Web site will be available in PDF and other formats. The OCA will be funded by its contributors and will also accept donations from global institutions including governments, commercial entities, and philanthropies.

(www.opencontentalliance.org)

For more information, see: http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb051003-2.shtml

Spark Capital has announced the formation of its new venture capital partnership focused on early-stage investments in the conflux of the media, entertainment, and technology industries. Spark Capital launches with a first fund totaling $260 million.

The principals of Spark Capital are all media, entertainment, and technology veterans, including general partners Todd Dagres, Santo Politi, Dennis Miller, Paul Conway, and Bijan Sabet. While this is the first fund for Spark Capital, the principals have worked together and collaborated on a number of previous investments.

(www.sparkcapital.com)

iLumin Software Services, Inc., a provider of information lifecycle management (ILM) solutions that turn email and electronic content into true corporate assets, has announced the latest addition to the Assentor suite--Assentor File System Manager (AFSM).

Combining Assentor File System Manager with other Assentor modules that provide email management allows firms to store and access business-critical information. AFSM extends iLumin's ILM functionality to support a broad array of file types, such as those residing on Windows, Solaris, AIX, Netware, EMC Celerra and HP-UX platforms, among others. Assentor File System Manager classifies files based on frequency of access, the file type, and other criteria established by the user. Also included are reporting tools that analyze and report on storage utilization. Based on the administrator's pre-defined classification criteria (age, type, owner, path, size, etc.), AFSM automatically stores or copies files to the appropriate storage media.

Other benefits of AFSM include: Automated data management actions, which drive file movement, copy, and deletion actions across multiple systems based on established classifications and policies; Tiered-storage management, which automatically migrate data from primary storage to secondary or tertiary storage while maintaining transparent end-user access; Storage consolidation, which automate storage consolidation from initial planning to transparent migration of end user files and directories; and Policy simulation, designed to enable administrators to simulate data management policies before actual execution in order to better understand their scope and effectiveness.

(www.ilumin.com)

Snapdata International, a provider of market research, has announced that they have opened a new office in New York on 57th Street. The company has also announced that it will revert to its original name and be known as Snapdata International Group. The Snapshots Series will be retained as the name of its primary product range, which will now be joined by the Global Panorama Series and new Company Portrait Series.

(www.snapdata.com)

Day Software, a provider of global content management and content infrastructure software, has announced that they have submitted version 2.0 of the Content Repository for Java Technology API (JSR 283) to the Java Community Process (JCP). JSR 283 is the next version of the JSR 170 standard, and is designed to reduce the risks of proprietary vendor lock-in by improving the interoperability between content repositories and applications.

Extensions to JSR 170 (Version 1.0) that are up for discussion by the Expert Group for version 2.0 include greater access control management, workspace and node-type management in addition to retention aspects of content or cross-repository aspects. The latest version provides improved interoperability within the content repository through the addition of new standardized node types like meta-information and internationalization.

(www.day.com; www.jcp.org)

Eedo Knowledgeware, a provider of software products for Real-Time Learning and Knowledge systems, has announced its new product Eedo Enable. Enable indexes repositories and personal hard drives and harvests metadata--holding it in a centralized repository, employees can then do federated searches of corporate, external, and personal repositories.

Eedo's Enable attempts to facilitate the reuse of existing materials and provides for faster discovery, retrieval, and reduces dependence on a content gatekeeper. The product is targeted at training and IT departments and other end users who are looking for software solutions that can respond to the elearning needs of workforces where information is stored in departmental silos and where there may be a lack of corporate governance on content management. Enable will be generally available in Q4 of 2005.

(www.eedo.com)

MetaPress has announced it has enhanced its publisher content aggregation site. The updated site, which formerly included content aggregation and a login page for users, now provides detailed information on the capabilities and functionality of the entire MetaPress system.

The revamped site allows end users to search within all publisher content hosted by MetaPress. This represents 2,989 titles from more than 60 publishers. When publishers allow, pay-per-view is available for titles to which the end user has no access rights. End users may also create user profiles and customize their account through the new site functionality. For publishers, the updated site provides a full description of the content management tools available and news in MetaPress services. Another key feature of the revised site is MetaPress Admin. Using MetaPress Admin, library staff may define users and monitor activity, request COUNTER-compliant usage reports and set up link-out functionality between MetaPress and other services that provide econtent or related services to end users.

(www.metapress.com)

South River Technologies has launched the GroupDrive.NET hosted file collaboration service. GroupDrive.NET is a business class hosted service for securely collaborating on files from multiple locations. Files are stored on the GroupDrive.NET server, designed to ensure that users have the most current version of a file.

GroupDrive.NET can be accessed through a Virtual Drive interface, enabling users to save files directly to the service from within any application on their Windows desktop. Users can share files and folders with other users and can email links to the files rather than sending bulky email attachments.

(www.southrivertechnologies.com)

WilsonWeb users gathering research data can now receive new information via email as it becomes available. A new feature of the WilsonWeb Search History screen, the SDI (Selective Dissemination of Information) Alert system sends daily, weekly, or monthly alerts, citing new articles as the WilsonWeb databases are updated, for up to a year. Users can modify alert settings, delete the alert, or start a new alert at any time.Links in the email alerts take users directly into WilsonWeb, where they can view the full citation or full text of articles.

(www.hwwilson.com)

Outsell, Inc., a research and advisory firm for the information industry, has announced the launch of its inaugural I-Market MarketView on the Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM) industry segment.

In this report, Outsell forecasts slow growth for the segment, at 5.8 percent from 2004-2008, to reach $15.6 billion in revenue. The report cites organizations like Chemical Abstracts Service and GlobalSpec that are engaged in the creation, aggregation, and distribution of technical reports, medical data, patents, and related content. Other findings from the report, include: the STM segment, which is currently sized at $12.4 billion, represents just under 5% of the total information industry's 2004 revenues of $263 billion. STM grew 8.4 % in 2004, lagging behind total industry growth of 9.8 %. To purchase this 42-page report and to learn more about Outsell go to the Web site.

(www.outsellinc.com)

Hostway Corp., a provider of Web hosting and managed services, has announced a partnership with Intellext, the "Intelligence in Context" software company, to offer Watson 2.0 to existing customers and site visitors.

Watson 2.0 proactively delivers relevant, real-time information to users by using words and phrases that are typed into documents to query search engines, blogs, desktop search tools, news sites, subscription-based sources, and corporate content and knowledge management systems. Watson delivers search results to users' desktops in a sidebar while they work in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer and Firefox. A free trial is available to download on the Web site.

(www.hostway.com; www.intellext.com)

Magnolia Organization has announced the release Magnolia 2.1, an update to the Magnolia Enterprise Content Management System (ECM). Magnolia 2.1 provides new features and turns the JSR-170 based content management system into an Enterprise Suite.

Magnolia 2.1 "speaks" 15 major languages, including English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. It contains new features, including: native search, XML-based import/export, a new cross-browser rich-text editor, and drop-in single container deployment. Other new features, include: support of several JSR-170 compliant repository implementations, including the Open Source implementations "Jackrabbit" and "Jeiceira" as well as commercial alternatives; improved performance through 70% reduction in number of nodes compared to Magnolia 2.0; war-file drop-in deployment on any J2EE container; run as many Magnolia sites as you like within a single J2EE container; a choice of two cross-browser rich-text editors--Kupu and fckEditor; and an improved module mechanism to provide for extensibility. Magnolia 2.1 is available immediately and free-of-charge from the Web site.

(www.magnolia.info)

CommonTime has announced it will bring Lotus Notes functionality to the Palm Treo designed to run Microsoft Windows Mobile. CommonTime's mSuite solution delivers wireless pushed Lotus Notes email and PIM, mobile Lotus Instant Messaging, device management, AES end-to-end encryption, on-device security, and remote kill functionality for mobile devices.

(www.commontime.com)