Issue 2 - November 2008
XML Authoring - Interview with Michael Boses
(Continued- page 3)
MB: Standards ensure that content is consumable and can easily be delivered across existing publishing infrastructure. Digital publishing is no different than paper publishing in this way; there have always been prepress standards, and many of the standards that exist today can be thought of as "digital prepress.” The most important standard is XML and its related industry formats such as RSS, EBXML, RIXML, PRISM, and others that form an impressive array of acronyms.
But the fact that the list is so long illustrates that while standards ensure that our content can be published, they don’t necessarily make the job of publishing any easier. In order to be competitive today, organizations need to handle all of these digital standards in parallel. Add to this the many proprietary formats that are widely promoted, such as Kindle or until recently PDF, and the need for automation through dynamic publishing becomes very clear.
TCW: As soon as you start to talk about content standards, many content creators squirm. It’s challenging and can be scary to learn how to work in a new way, and not everyone adjusts at the same pace. How important is it for organizations to minimize the amount of perceived change their content creators experience? And can selecting an authoring tool like Xpress Author for Microsoft Word minimize that pain?
MB: Most of us assume that people dislike change, and that is not really true. People dislike change for the worse. Look how fast we adopted iPod® over CDs, CDs over cassette tapes, and for the really old-timers among us, cassette tapes over those horrible wobbly eight-track players. People love change when it is for the better.
Unfortunately, a lot of the changes that we try to implement in the information technology arena are designed to meet someone else’s needs, and the user knows it. "We realize that this is going to be a little more difficult for the users, but accounting, or marketing, or (add your department here) needs it.” And then we wonder why the users had a difficult time adjusting to the change.
Frankly, the amount of change needed to meet the different content standards we are talking about has to be the absolute minimum. Users already have more than enough work to do! And it has to be coupled with features that will actually improve the user experience and productivity. For most of the cases that we have encountered, this means allowing authors to continue working in Microsoft Word. It was this realization that caused us to create Xpress Author for Microsoft Word, even though it was a very difficult thing to do.
TCW: Can you give us an example of a large, content-heavy organization that has adopted Xpress Author and made the change with minimal pain? How did they do it?
MB: The Irish government is a really good example because it has been a very transparent process and so much has been written about it. It also involves users and challenges that almost any reader can relate to. Basically, the prime minister’s cabinet meets each week to review legislative and other memoranda that have been produced by workers across the 16 departments and offices of the government. Creating these documents is highly collaborative, with both informal and formal processes that must be followed. The documents themselves are created in XML using Xpress Author for Microsoft Word.
What is interesting about this project is that there are thousands of potential authors from every level and area of the Irish government. A few of the users access the system daily; however, the vast majority is called upon to author or review these types of documents only occasionally. Usability was critical to success because when you are asked to work on documents for the prime minister’s cabinet, speed and accuracy are essential, and you cannot afford to stumble around with new technology.
I think it was a huge milestone for the XML industry as a whole when the Irish government announced that in less than one year after its launch, there were 6,500 users on the system performing a 1,000 document routings each week for a typical cabinet meeting.
TCW: For our readers who realize they need to change the way they author, manage, and deliver content, where can they turn for information about dynamic publishing?
MB: There are several technology conferences as well as Web sites, such as The Content Welder, that focus on a part of the solution or a specific document application or even a specific industry need, but nothing that really provides you the source for all things dynamic publishing; thus, Quark is pleased to provide the readers The Dynamic Publisher as that resource.
We look forward to having outside content contributors with domain expertise — such as yourself — continue to contribute, and we will be providing links to conferences and online events and resources so the readers get more information.
TCW: Thanks for your time today, Michael. I always enjoy our conversations. I’m sure our readers learned a lot about dynamic publishing, but if they still have questions, where can they reach you?
MB: Readers are welcome to reach me at mboses@quark.com.
