A presentation given the Center for Information Development Management (CIDM) Content Management Strategies and DITA conference in San Diego 2017. This talk looked at DITA in context of Digital Transformation - so as to consider what this new and changing context means for DITA and what it is that DITA can contribute that is both needed and unique.

1. Digital
Transformation
& the Business
of DITA
Joe Gollner | @joegollner
Managing Director
Gnostyx Research Inc.
info@gnostyx.com

2. Digital Transformation & DITA
Digital Transformation (DX)?
Digital Experience
What does DX potentially
mean for DITA?
What can DITA bring
to the table for DX?
@joegollner 2

3. Digital Transformation (DX)
Where the action is
@joegollner 3

4. @joegollner 4
Digital Technology
Digital Strategy
Digital Disruption
Digital Economy
Digital Society
Digital Natives
Digital Competitors
Digital Skills
Digital Entrants
Digital Agility
Digital Talent
Digital Traction
Digital Metrics
Digital Operations
Digital Product Lifecycle
Digital WorkforceDigital Process
Digital Design
Digital Literacy
Digital Maturity
Digital Impact
Digital Transformation
Digital OfferingsDigital Channels
Digital Information
Digital Platforms
Digital ServicesDigital Unicorns
Digital Organizations
Digital Innovation
Digital Lifecycle
Digital Monetization
Digital Capabilities
Digital World
Digital Awareness
Digital Consumption
Digital Leaders
Digital Business
Digital Culture
Digital Capital
Digital Differentiation
Digital Flexibility
Digital Governance
Digital Partners
Digital Customers
Digital Industry
Digital Future
Digital Ecosystems
Digital Jobs
Digital Infrastructure
Digital Value Digital Supply Chain
Digital Mind
Digital Laggards
Digital Content
Digital Competence
Digital Era
Digital Framework
Digital Revolution
Digital Media
Digital Networks
Digital Communities
Digital Tribes
Digital Ventures
Digital Experiments
Digital Enterprise
Digital Nomads
Digital Crowd
Digital Humanities
Digital Manufacturing
Digital Landfill
Digital Experience
Digital Landscape

5. The Evolution of Digital Technology
5
Everything becomes
digital & integrated,
accessible anywhere,
& continuously
accumulating for
future processing
Everyone works in &
interacts through the
same digital landscape:
owners, managers,
developers, customers,
users, competitors,
partners, regulators…
@joegollner
Information 1.0 Information 2.0 Information 3.0 Information 4.0
Empire of Documents Document Exchange Electronic Business Business Ecosystems

6. See: The Barnaclization of Systems
http://www.gollner.ca/2008/12/the-barnaclization-of-systems.html
Digital Disruption & Barnaclization
Barnaclization
The accrual of individually
beneficial innovations that
progressively degrade
overall system performance
Universal fate of all systems
• Organizations, processes
technologies, economies, ideas
Calls for disruption
Legacy practices & investments
Cannot survive (without change)
6

7. See: Content 4.0
http://www.gollner.ca/2016/12/content_4-0.html
The Digital Enterprise
End-to-End Digitization
Human-Cyber-Physical
Systems
Human guided automation
Completely virtualized
Technology becomes a
marketplace commodity
7

8. @joegollner 8
Digital
Enterprise
Digital Operating Models
Digital Transformation Initiative
World Economic Forum – 2017

9. Authoring Experience becomes Customer Experience
See Conway’s Law: “organizations which design systems ... are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the
communication structures of these organizations” Melvin Conway (1967)
Digital Workforce
Distributed & Mobile
Diverse, on-demand &
multi-generational
Bring-Your-Own-Device
(BYOD)
Standardized &
interchangeable tools
9

10. Digital Information
Growing system
complexity leads to:
Less end-user
documentation
More real-time
support service
More design &
development
documentation
More collaboration
@joegollner 10
Tighter integration of technical, marketing &
business communication practices

11. @joegollner 11
Technology
infrastructure
& its managers
are facing some
of the biggest
changes
All IT functions
moving to the
cloud & being
based on services
supported by
open standards
& technologies
Digital Infrastructure
Dion Hinchcliffe
ZDNet Dec 2016

12. Endless Computing & Content
@joegollner 12
Computers for
Everyone,
Everywhere
Case
Study
endlessos.com

13. What DX Calls For in a Nutshell
Technology
Absolute portability, interoperability, scalability
Plug-ability into unlimited range of environments
Configured, managed, & used by non-specialists
Organizations
Continuously reconfiguring to meet customer needs
Maximally efficient in leveraging talent & knowledge
Information
“Relevance is the new currency” (McKinsey)
Omni-Channel Customer Information Experience
@joegollner 13
Digital Transformation

14. @joegollner 14
Tweetable Moment
Under #DigitalTransformation
we want to capitalize on what has worked well
while we leverage what is genuinely new.
Trans-Form.

15. DX + DITA
What does it change?
Anything? Everything?
@joegollner 15

16. And DITA was born
2003 – Content Technology Vendor came
to my office with one burning question:
“How much DITA experience do you have?”
Sounded strange at the time
What does this question really mean?
DITA struck a chord
Offered the promise of a shared solution
Similar to, but not the same as, a standard
Vendors & customers wanted the same thing
@joegollner 16

17. The Source of the Attraction
DITA provides something unique
A compilation of core content & solution
patterns inherited from past investments
• Putting its arms around the whole problem
• Treating content as content
• Respecting the texture of technical knowledge
A practical combination of
• Markup standard
• Working behavior (DITA OT)
• An active community of practitioners
• An engaged community of product vendors
@joegollner 17

18. See: Putting Content in its Place
http://www.gollner.ca/2014/04/putting-content-in-its-place.html
Putting Content & DITA at the Center
DITA as an open standard
& shared solution for content
Content is potential information
Published as information products
Content connects
Data representations
Information transactions
Knowledge assets
18
Information
Data
Knowledge
Content

19. See: The Anatomy of Knowledge
http://www.gollner.ca/2010/10/the-anatomy-of-knowledge.html
An Old Lesson Gets More Important
Knowledge is what persists
Can be reused & reapplied
when everything else changes
• Business models
• Technology landscape
Digital Transformation
Drives this lesson home
Content is the executable form
of enterprise knowledge assets
19
Technology
Business
Knowledge
Variability
Variability
Partners
ToolsIntent
Result
Content

20. See: The Content Lifecycle
http://www.gollner.ca/2013/09/the-content-lifecycle.html
Digital Content Lifecycle
Adapting the
Content Lifecycle in light of
Digital Transformation
Balancing concerns
• Internal / External
• Efficiency / Effectiveness
• Content / Metadata
Connected to main objectives
of Enterprise activities
• Role of Content Strategy
20
Content
Acquisition
Content
Management
Content
Delivery
Content
Engagement
Content
Strategy
Internal External
Author Experience Customer ExperienceEfficiency
Effectiveness

21. Digital Enterprise Content Solutions
Consequence
DITA finds itself in unfamiliar territory
DITA has to work with new players
• Technology: mainstream, digital platforms
• Business: customer-centric value-chains
Questions
Can DITA make this transition?
What needs to change for it to happen?
Are we ready to step onto this stage?
@joegollner 21
Knowledge
Integrated & Executable
Agile
Development
Digital
Content
Solutions

22. The Future of DITA
Roadmap for DITA needs to reflect
Strategic Positioning of DITA in this context
Continued focus on content challenges
• Where DITA & content technologies are alone in
being able to provide working solutions
Sustainment of the synergistic relationship
between the standard & the Open Toolkit
Constant refactoring of standard & toolkit
• Applying lean patterns for managing complexity
• Aligning with mainstream digital tools & techniques
@joegollner 22

23. What does this mean – short term?
@joegollner 23
The focus falls on solution deployments
DITA as part of digital ecosystems
Online authoring & collaboration
Heightened emphasis on
• Authoring experience
• Dynamic delivery
• Engagement metrics
DITA configuration & management tools
• Encapsulating the irreducible complexity of
handling content properly

24. What does this mean – long term?
@joegollner 24
Evolution of core architectural aspects
Patterns for addressing full range of
content requirements
Supporting processing mechanisms to
enable content services for ecosystems
Evolution of expanded type libraries
The future holds more content models
Emphasize a selection “pull” design
approach versus constrain/tailor

25. Models encompass Architectural Patterns, Content Structures, Representation
Syntaxes, & Vocabulary Semantics with all having an intimate relationship to behavior
DITA as a Solution Platform
DITA emphasizes
Standing as more
than a standard
• Solution platform
Core Architecture
• A robust handling of
modular, interlinked,
versioned, reusable content
Expanding array of
information application types
Complexity encapsulation
25
DITA
Enterprise
Content
Solution
Business
Strategy
Mainstream
Technology
Customer
Value
Specialize
Models
Extend
Behavior
Create
Behavior
Standard
Behavior
Select
Behavior
Create
Models
Standard
Models
Select
Models

26. Realities
Community Resources
Volunteer effort
Herculean contributions
by a small core team
Escalating Demands
Patterns supporting core
content requirements
New markup & OT
behavior requests
Backwards compatibility
Business Visibility
“Content” not understood
• Only indirectly appreciated
Solution Venues
Mainstream technology
platforms (changes every
5 years or so)
Very diverse range of users
Very diverse range of
content types & applications
@joegollner 26

27. @joegollner 27
Looking into the Distant Future
With “DITA 4.0” the focus of the standard will settle on the Architecture
Providing all content-enabled applications with a way to handle the
complexity of content. This addresses the risk posed by alternative
approaches, both standards-based and proprietary, that do not reflect or
support the true nature of content.
DITA 4.0
In a 4.0 world, enabling & sustaining human-cyber-physical systems will call for
content to be the interface between automation and the people who must be
accountable for it. The same will be true for the behavior enabled by DITA. DITA
configuration & customization will itself be driven by declarative (DITA) content.
from DITA Europe 2017

28. Reflections
@joegollner 28
The Digital Revolution is being hyped
There is a lot of business posturing
There is a good reason though
• Inescapable forces are at work
• Sitting this one out is not an option
DITA must join the party
• DITA brings a unique & fundamental element
• DITA can provide the missing ingredient
• Digital Transformation depends on it
Joe Gollner | @joegollner | www.gollner.ca
Managing Director | Gnostyx Research Inc.
@gnostyx | www.gnostyx.com | info@gnostyx.com