How much content can you actually re-use when you move to single sourcing?

One of the challenges when considering moving to a single sourcing authoring environment, such as DITA, is determining the Return on Investment. This often boils down to a key question: how much content can you actually re-use? Organisations typically attempt to answer this question in a number of ways: Conducting a semi-manual information audit of the… Read more »

Is re-using content a good or a bad thing to do?

Today’s BBC News Web site has a piece on Ofsted re-using sentences in more than one school inspection report: An investigation has begun into claims that Ofsted approved “cut and paste” inspection reports using identical sentences and phrases…both reports say: “Some teachers do not plan learning for pupils at their different levels of ability and… Read more »

Book review:”The Content Pool”

I was sent a review copy of Alan J. Porter’s latest book, The Content Pool: Leveraging your company’s largest hidden asset. It’s a well written book that’s ideal for anyone who is uncomfortable about the way their organisation creates and manages its written content, as well as anyone who simply wants to manage their content in… Read more »

Documenting an Olympics

The London 2012 Olympic Games are less than a year away, and we recently came across some information about the IT systems that will be supporting the games. According to Computer Weekly, “Planning and implementing IT in any major project is challenging to say the least. Problems and delays can cost millions of pounds. The… Read more »