By now, you’ve seen the articles about XML, separation of content and presentation, programmatic enforcement of content organization, structured authoring, and all the rest. You’ve considered XML publishing, but implementation looks difficult and expensive, and your current workflow is in reasonable shape. So you’ve been waiting for a compelling reason to make the transition.

That compelling reason has arrived in the form of online user-generated content, otherwise known as Web 2.0. User-generated content isn’t new—if we include scribbling notes in the margin of a book. But today, instead of creating annotations for personal use only, we can share information on the Internet with friends, family, or the world using blogs, wikis, forums, and other Web 2.0 applications.

User-generated content is going to be hugely disruptive for technical communication. Your content strategy needs to include Web 2.0, and XML provides a platform to sup- port the seamless integration of “professional” content with “user” content.

Why XML with Web 2.0? Most of our clients have cited utilitarian reasons for implementing XML—they expect cost savings in localization or from automated document production. Increased efficiency and reduced costs tend to make for compelling return on investment (ROI) justifications. Lately, though, we’re seeing a new trend—clients want XML because of the possibilities that structured content opens up. In particular, the integration of corporate content—information created by technical communicators—and user-generated content is becoming a priority.

In an XML-based work-flow, content is stored without formatting. When information is published, formatting instructions are added on to the content to produce the final deliverable in print or online. As a result, global formatting changes are relatively easy. The metadata (usually attributes) stored inside the XML content allows for searching and filtering of the information. And finally, the text-based storage format makes it easy to process information. Collectively, these features make it possible to deliver customized information to individual readers. And furthermore, you can mix the official, corporate information with content contributed by end users on forums, wikis, and the like.

Download pdf Web2.0:The Tipping Point for XML