The latest PubWright podcast has been posted to the web and iTunes.

In this podcast, Liz Fraley interviews Regina Roman. Liz first met Regina over 10 years ago, when Liz first brought Arbortext & XML to Juniper Networks. With XML, Regina says she feels freed from the formatting handcuffs and extra burdens required by constant manual tasks required by traditional desktop publishing tools. She can be a writer again.  After completing her first project, she asked Liz, “Why didn’t you tell me about this?” — how much easier it was, how much better it was than DTP. Now, when offered her choice of positions, Regina chooses the XML projects rather than the FrameMaker ones and she encourages her other clients to choose XML as well.

Listen to the podcast to find out more.

The latest PubWright Podcast has been posted to here and on iTunes here.

This week’s podcast features Kevin Dietz from Timpani Software. Timpani Software develops BuildBeat, a comprehensive automated software build management system, and MergeMagician, an automated merging server designed to work with your existing software configuration management (SCM) system.

The latest PubWright Podcast has been posted to here and on iTunes here.

This week’s podcast features Chris Western from tformat. tformat is a PTC partner focused on training and services for the Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher (APP) (formerly known as 3B2).  Chris was hired at Advent, the original developers of 3B2 as a writer to document the product and it’s usage. In his tenure, he not only developed the product documentation but training materials as well. Chris is a specialist in in training on APP (3B2)

In a tough market, you need to stay ahead the pack. The best way to do that is to make sure your skills are in demand. One of the highest demanded skills in the publications arena is Arbortext. We are offering this one day session for you to learn what it takes to create DITA structured documents using the leading industry tool: Arbortext Editor.

As far as I know, no one who has experience with Arbortext is out of work today. Companies are looking far and wide for people with Arbortext in their skills toolbox. At least one southern California company is hiring as many as they can get their hands on.

But you’ve got to know the tool. You’ve got to know the technology. In this economy, they aren’t willing to train or let you learn on the job.

We’re in the business of Arbortext and we are dedicated to continuing to grow skills in the community. We have a pageful of community projects to which every one of us here at Single-Sourcing Solutions dedicates our time. We blog and we podcast in the hopes of getting a lot of that Arbortext tribal information out of the heads of the experts and into the hands of people learning the tools.

Our latest idea to help foster skill development is the: Arbortext Bootcamp.

For a nominal fee, we’re offering a one-day professional development seminar[1]: Arbortext and DITA.

Here’s the URL: http://single-sourcing.com/events/

Here are the quick and dirty details:

Location: PTC 2665 N 1st Street, San Jose, CA 95134Date & Duration: Two dates!: April 17, 2010 and September 18, 2010 Registration: 8:00 am, lecture 8:30 am – 4:00 pm Cost: Seminar Only: $150.00 Copy of the Software: $350.00 (60% discount!) Copy of JoAnn Hackos’ book: $54.00 Prerequisites: Basic understanding of XML or SGML

Registration is online

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[1] This idea was inspired by the Professional Development Seminar series done by the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the ACM, of which Liz Fraley, our founder, has been a Council Member since 1999 and is a past Chair of this chapter and a Chair or Member of two other ACM chapters in the United States.

The latest PubWright Podcast has been posted to here and on iTunes here.

This week’s podcast features Chris Makler from Aplia. Aplia is part of Thompson Learning which is part of Cengage.  Chris works on a team that has built an interesting application on top of Arbortext Editor. They’re using a lot of different technology to create an educational application for teaching economics.

Customization is a tricky subject. Aplia is one of those cases where they’re doing it well and in pursuit of an industry application where it works.

The latest PubWright Podcast has been posted to here and on iTunes here.

This week’s podcast features Todd Hicks from Wolters Kluwer.  Todd Hicks has been an Arbortext community member for a long time. He’s presented at AUGI and at PTC/User conferences. He’s built custom applications and extensions to Arbortext that even PTC wanted (then developed).  Todd and his team at WK is always doing something special, innovative, and technically spectacular.

Just before the holidays, I saw the following in Forbes:

Recent research conducted by Washington, D.C.-based Corporation for National & Community Service reveals that charitable work literally makes the heart grow stronger. Individuals with coronary artery disease who participate in volunteer activities after suffering a heart attack report a reduction in despair and depression, and that, in turn, rives down mortality and adds years to life. It’s also true that those who volunteer have fewer incidents of heart disease in the first place.

[...]

Research from the Center for Work-Life Policy shows that high-potential employees–mostly women but also a significant percentage of men–are seriously motivated by a desire to give back to the world and increasingly seek out employers that allow them to participate on company time.

It reminded me of another article I’d seen earlier this year and meant to write a post on:

her answer to why women volunteer was simple and sweet: “We volunteer because we get back more than we give.” And then she added the kicker: “You feel better about everything because you are part of something bigger than yourself.”

When we upgraded the website, I posted on how much Single-Sourcing does for the community. I personally participate in every single one of those efforts. I also volunteer elsewhere: I’ve been an officer of the SF Bay Peninsula chapter of the ACM (founded in 1957) for over a decade and an officer or committee member of two other chapters nationwide.

Things you can do:

1. Submit a paper for PTC/User conference
2. Volunteer to present to the SF Bay Arbortext PTC/User Group
3. Ask a question — or answer one!:
   • On the Adepters Mailing List
   • On the 3b2users mailing list
   • In the MathCad forms at PTC
   • In the IsoDraw forums at PTC
4. Join the Arbortext Technical Committee
5. Volunteer to be interviewed for the PubWright Podcast
6. Submit code to the Adepters Code Archive
7. Comment on a community blog:
   • this blog
   • Comment on Structured Authoring blog
   • our blog at dita.xml.org
8. Follow or send a tweet to
   • adepters group tweet
   • SingleSourcing
   • Arbortext folks on twitter: SingleSourcing/arbortext
9. Join an online group at LinkedIn or Facebook:
   • the Arbortext PTC/User Group on Facebook
   • Join the 3B2 Rocks User Group on Facebook (3B2 is the former name of APP)
   • Join the Arbortext PTC/User Group on LinkedIn
10. Start something and tell us about it!

Other users really do want to hear from you. We’re a tight community, always have been. If you’d like an introduction, you should follow us on Twitter here and you’ll know everyone soon.

The latest PubWright Podcast has been posted to here and on iTunes here.

This month, the focus is on Robin Sloan from PTC. Robin was a part of the original Arbortext team before the acquisition of Arbortext by PTC.  Robin is a Product Manager in the Arbortext business unit at PTC. She was part of Arbortext prior to the acquisition. Robin was integral in designing the modularity of the DITA stylesheets that ship with Arbortext Editor, Styler, and Publishing Engine. PTC still maintains a DITA mailing list that Robin answers.

Link.

Our podcast schedule has increased. We’re delivering one every two weeks now.  The podcasts are our attempt to get things that are inside our heads and out into a searchable, learnable, location. It’s an attempt to take that tribal knowledge and make it less tribal.

Three podcasts were published in the last two months:

1. Berry Braster, TedoPress — his experiences, the expertise and business of Tedopress, and his advice for preparing content for translation.
2. Gareth Oakes, Global Publishing Solutions — the expertise and business of GPSL and Gareth’s advice for working with Arbortext Advanced Print Publisher (formerly 3B2) and stylesheets.
3. Keith McGinnis, Review Publishing — the innovative projects that they’ve been doing to revitalize and transform their company from a newspaper to true media company.

You can find the PubWright Podcast series here and on iTunes here.

The latest PubWright Podcast posted this morning is my interview with Suzanne Napoleon. Suzanne is perhaps the best known FOSI expert in the Arbortext community. If you ask around, it would be hard to find someone who hasn’t something from her.  Although I’ve been a part of this community for nearly a decade, I always learn something I didn’t know in these interviews–especially this time–whether it’s about the technology or the person, there’s always something new to discover.

I had the pleasure of meeting Suzanne in person for the first time last summer at the PTC/User conference. As a group, we know each other best through the mailing list. This is why it was my great pleasure to take the time to sit down and talk with her about developing FOSIs, getting started with stylesheets, and how to grow into the role that no one really plans to do when they set out (but that so many of us are drawn to once we discover it).