Newsletter of the East Bay Chapter of STC
September/October 2002

Nashville Nuggets

by Gwaltney Mountford
STC Associate Fellow

Nashville was better than expected. Among the pleasant surprises: A fabulous restaurant, F. Scott’s, where I dined with old conference friend and new STC Fellow De Murr (our December speaker) on venison while listening to live jazz. And the Opryland Hotel, which was not the tacky version of Disney World that I had expected. I planned my conference day with a cup of tea on my balcony overlooking a lush garden and listening to a nearby waterfall.

Information Modeling

This year I chose a couple of “new-idea” sessions. Two were on Information Modeling (one by Joann Hackos and the other by Ann Rockley). Information modeling, as Hackos points out, is about finding things, about access. Hackos identifies three layers: metadata dimensions, information types, and content units. Metadata dimensions, the outermost layer, are the taxonomy, the labels for the information, the categorization. Metadata dimensions identify the structure and hierarchy of the information. Information types are standard categories of content (for example, concepts, procedures, references). Content units are the building blocks of the information types (for example, procedure title, procedure introduction, procedure objectives, steps, notes).

Rockley states that information modeling is based on audience and information analysis. What are all the possible uses and users of the information? The idea of modeling information is to determine how to single-source across media, product lines, and information types. By plotting the content units within information types, you can determine which ones are the same (and can probably be re-used) and which ones are different. You further review differences to determine why the content units are different—is it because of the media, the audience, or the product? Similar ones may be able to be made the same and thus be a candidate for re-use. Information modeling is not, as they say, a trivial task. However, if you have many documents and want to single-source, it probably would be worth the effort.

Both Hackos and Rockley have captured their ideas in new books. Content Management for Dynamic Web Delivery (Hackos) is already available. Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy (Rockley) will be available in October.

Six Sigma

Another new-idea session dealt with Six Sigma. Six Sigma is a process using statistics to develop total quality in your product. The statistics measure how far a process (and a step in the process) deviates from perfection. By knowing the defects, you can work to correct them, thus approaching perfection. Originally used in manufacturing, where statistical measurement of defects within a process is relatively straightforward, the Six Sigma process is now being used in many other areas, including documentation. Frankly, I got more from a five-minute explanation from a former client than I did from this presentation. What the presentation did provide was a critique of four books on the subject, where I might learn about what all this fuss is about.

I also attended the Manual Evaluation Workshop, which I’ve attended twice in the past. This time was different; I was an evaluator. I evaluated the manuals of three people (30 minutes each). They seemed to be pleased with the discussion and went away with specific ideas to improve their documents. What did I go away with? New understanding. For example, one person was a graphics designer. I was, therefore, surprised to see design problems within her document. How could this be so? Because she was looking at visual elements in terms of esthetics, not in terms of helping communication. Hmmm. Something to watch out for in my own work.

I left Nashville the way I leave all conferences: with a sense of time well spent and more items for my to-do list—interesting new people to keep in touch with and exciting new ideas to explore.

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