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The mantra of XML is that you separate content from formatting. Authors do content; formatting happens later. During a panel discussion at last week’s (excellent) UA Europe conference, I realized that this is only half the story.
The elimination of the distribution monopoly for content is upending the publishing industry and technical communication specifically.
The slides from my tekom/tcworld session on the economics of information are below.
Based on a quick Google search, things don’t look too hot for publishing:
by Sheila Loring
Communications from DMN provided a link to a webcast on Essential Tools of an XML Workflow. The webcast focuses on the book publishing industry. It’s interesting to hear that some publishing houses still allow authors and editors to use Microsoft Word. These folks are often viewed as incapable of learning an XML authoring tool. Many times the Word content is sent to an indexer for tagging.
The companies I’ve worked with don’t give their employees the choice of publishing tools, but if you’re Stephen King, you probably won’t be forced to use an XML tool.
Technical writers, if you know how to work with XML, your skills are portable to publishing houses. Don’t overlook this in a job search.
http://toc.oreilly.com/2009/01/webcast-video-essential-tools.html
