Monday 17 April -- Leaving for Shanghai

In 2005, I conducted a benchmark study of the state of technical writing in China. The white paper of this study and our updated India benchmark study is now available on the CIDM website at www.infomanagementcenter.com/publications.htm. Also notice the new website that we launched last week.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Shanghai for a few days, in part to speak at the LISA Shanghai conference (Localization Industry Standards Association). Dave Schell and I are introducing DITA. I'm also meeting with a Chinese company that will be implementing DITA. I expect many of the discussions at the conference and at the company will focus on the challenge of topic-based authoring. Localization service providers are concerned that handling multiple topics will increase the difficulty of administering the translation workflow.

I've grown considerably in my awareness of the translation issues since I've been chairing the OASIS DITA Subcommittee on Translation. The recommendations of the Subcommittee for new DITA attributes and best practices on structuring topics for translation will be part of the DITA 1.1 specification due out later this year.

I'd be happy to hear from others that are interested in DITA and translation or who are engaged in technical writing in China. we want to expand our benchmark activities there and help organizations that are new to formal technical writing.

I'll report back on the blog during or after the Shanghai visit.