Webcast: The State of Structure, 2011
In this webcast, Sarah O’Keefe discusses the results of Scriptorium’s 2011 survey on structured authoring. Topics include adoption rates, tools, implementation costs, lessons learned, and much more.
Tag: survey
The state of structure, 2011
Happy New Year!
In early 2009, we did a rather extensive survey on structured authoring. We asked about plans to implement structured authoring, existing implementations, biggest mistakes, and the like.
DITA adoption increasing overall structured authoring adoption
I’m knee-deep in survey data analysis. With over 600 responses, our recent structured authoring survey was hugely successful–thank you. Many respondents added candid details about their experiences with structured authoring implementation–their fears, mistakes, and biggest surprises.
The survey report will be available later this month (free to participants, $200 for others), but I wanted to give you a couple of preliminary highlights:
- About 30 percent of respondents said that they are currently using structured authoring.
- There’s a lot of hype around DITA, but our data indicates that it’s backed up by reality. Consider this chart, which shows the top three types of structure (custom, DocBook, or DITA) implemented, being implemented, or planned.
DITA dominates the chart. But it looks as though DITA is additive. That is, it’s not cannibalizing the numbers for DocBook or custom structures. Those numbers are relatively flat. Instead, it looks as though DITA is increasing the total number of implementations.
If you are attending the STC Summit this year, I’m doing a presentation on the survey results on Monday, May 4, at 1:30 p.m., called “The State of Structure.”
What do Tech Writers Want?
Answer? I don’t know, but The Content Wrangler is conducting a survey to find out. Here’s the announcement:
2009 is a touch economic year for most of us. Companies are cutting back on nice-to-have purchases and focusing in on what’s necessary. This survey conducted by The Content Wrangler aims to help us better understand your training needs for 2009 and to identify the types of classes you need. We plan to use this information to help training providers create relevant public and on-site training programs that address your needs and to gain an understanding of the current state of training program interest in our industry today.
In case you need further motivation, there is also a random drawing for some goodies. The survey has only five questions, so it should be quick.
