Re: [dita] The whatever-we-call-it factor

Associating "networking" with the collection helps in explaining
    Eliot's sense of the linking/addressing discussion. However, a DITA
    topic may also be used individually  or in a collection that that
    has no processing requirement for networking (a zip manifest for
    example). My concern is that any core redefinition in that sense
    tends to constrain rather than maintain the options we have already
    in the spec's language. DITA is not only about defining structured
    information networks, which is why I want to keep doors open for
    adoption. 

    

    I have a separate concern about the thin line between the conceptual
    or marketing nature of explanations that we are considering. There
    are definitely separate venues for any marketing or educational
    story that merits more space than we should give in the spec beyond
    setting the concepts (the issue we've been cleaning up ever since
    DITA 1.0 went out as a "user guide" in effect!).

    --

    Don

    

    
On 3/12/2015 9:34 AM, Bob Thomas wrote:

    

    
      
Hi Don. I think that I understand your concerns. I
        agree that we ought not to preclude interesting use-cases by
        using exclusive language. But, I take issue with your specific
        objections.
        

          
In the physical world, a structure can be anything from a
            garden shed to a cathedral. Similarly, the terms
            "structure," "hierarchy," and "aggregation" include the
            trivial case where the size of a collection is one. Because
            of this, I don't think that we are excluding interesting use
            cases.

          

          

          
Bob

             
            

              

              

            

          

        

      

      

        
On Thu, Mar 12, 2015 at 7:28 AM, Don R.
          Day <>
          wrote:

          
            
 On
                3/11/2015 4:31 PM, Bob Thomas wrote:

                DITA is an XML vocabulary for
                  creating content and then aggregating it and other
                  resources into a structured information network.
               Hey, Bob, I appreciate your attempt to try to
              synthesize some of the new language that Eliot has
              introduced. Regarding your starting definition above, we
              have already defined DITA in this way:

              "The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an
              XML-based architecture for authoring, producing, and
              delivering topic-oriented, information-typed content that
              can be reused and single-sourced in a variety of ways."

              

              We should not introduce any new appearance of defining
              DITA as a particular kind of usage given that we already
              have a sufficiently broad definition that encourages new
              ways of looking at DITA usage. The redefinition
              specifically inhibits any thought about accessing DITA
              resources as independent Web resources apart from the
              context of a map (by the very usage of "aggregation" and
              "structured information network"). In the work of the
              Lightweight DITA SC, we (I, for one) are keenly focused on
              DITA for the long tail of uptake that is completely
              orthogonal to the business concerns of traditional
              publishing, which "aggregation and structured networks"
              enshrines.

              

              So we need to be cautious about using this new language in
              any way that draws DITA into a role of usage that will
              limit the freedom of innovative use going forward. I'm
              seeing this so clearly now that I want to ask the TC to
              consider how the terminology impacts the vision of
              adoption that DITA ought to be free to grow into. We may
              well want to better define the publishing role using some
              of the new concepts, but we've got to keep the door open
              for innovation beyond that already well-understood
              community. This is about DITA for the rest of us.

              

              
-- 

                

                  Don
                    R. Day

                  Founding Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee

                  LinkedIn: donrday   Twitter: @donrday

                  About.me: Don
                    R. Day   Skype: don.r.day< 

                

                  "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

                  Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"

                  --T.S. Eliot  

              

              

              

              
              
                
                  

                        
                    
                      

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        -- 

        
Bob Thomas
          
+1 720 201 8260

          
Skype: bob.thomas.colorado

          
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-- 

      
      

        Don R. Day

        Founding Chair, OASIS
          DITA Technical Committee

        LinkedIn: donrday   Twitter:
        @donrday

        About.me: Don R. Day   Skype:
        don.r.day<
      

      

        "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

        Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"

        --T.S. Eliot 
      

    

  

	

		
			
				
			
		
		
			

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