After a rousing first meeting of PDX DITA User’s Group last summer, we’ve continued to meet monthly, albeit with small attendance at each of the two subsequent meetings. All three meetings have been eye-opening for us as hosts. We at Jive are the inheritors of a relatively small and minimally managed DITA implementation, so learning about what larger organizations are doing is fascinating and helpful, although (working in a group with only three writers) it sometimes seems that other people’s DITA experiences take place in some alternate universe where there are armies of writers wearing shiny space-age uniforms.

We’d like to get more critical mass to drive this effort forward. PDX has plenty of technical communicators using DITA who can benefit from the groupthink. If you’re one of them, please come on out to an upcoming meeting so you can help drive this in a good direction.

Here are some topics that have come up in these small, informal discussions. We’d love to know which of them you think would make a good enough subject to tempt you to come out. Or, add your own.

Proposed Discussions

• CMS: When do you know you need one?
• Planning for a CMS implementation
• How does DITA change the roles in your writing group?
• Using DITA to collaborate with non-Tech Docs groups
• DITA and translation
• Quantifying costs and savings from DITA implementation
• DITA and social Help

Add your topics in comments. We’re going to make a greater effort from here on out to avoid coinciding with STC Willamette Chapter meetings. Our next meeting will be February 29th, from 6:30-8:00, in our office at 915 SW Stark, and will feature Leona Campbell presenting informally on her recent experience attending Advanced DITA Training including DITA 1.2 at Comtech. We’d appreciate a heads-up if you’re coming, and we’ll provide pizza, beer, and a nice view of Powells Books from our 5th floor balcony. (We cannot be responsible for any book-shopping costs incurred by this combination of factors.) Hope to see you here!