To take advantage of the benefits of structured content, most organizations today are adopting one of the XML standards that have been developed to make adoption easier.

Use of a standard speeds adoption, ensures a community of people who can work together and share ideas, and ensures the technologies are easier to deploy.

Learn more about standards such as DITA and S1000D below.

DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is a standard originally created by IBM and now maintained by OASIS, the organization for the advancement of structured information standards. 

DITA is seeing significant adoption in technical writing and engineering organizations, and in industries as diverse as High Tech, Consumer Electronics, Software, Medical Device, Life Sciences, Chip Manufacturing, Financial Services and Insurance.

Standards such as S1000D, MIL-SPEC and ATA iSpec 2200 are used globally for civil and defense documentation. The use of an XML standard specifically designed for aerospace and defense helps to speed adoption and fosters greater collaboration among suppliers, distributors and contractors. 

Different standards have evolved in the aerospace and defense sectors which have more precise requirements: 

• S1000D: An international spec for the procurement and production of technical publications.
  
• MIL-SPEC: An SGML standard used by the U.S. DoD for delivery of operations and maintenance information. 
• ATA iSpec 2200: A global aviation industry standard for aircraft engineering, maintenance, and flight operations information.

Before such XML standards were available, organizations had to develop their own XML standard called a “custom DTD.” A custom approach still reaps all the benefits of structured content and in some cases is necessary because an organization has requirements that are not met in the open standards. 

The disadvantage of a custom approach however is the cost to design and to implement the approach. If you want to know whether an open standard will meet your requirements, you can contact one of our solutions consultants.