About the authors and book team
It’s not possible to write a book without the help of a lot of different people. The following provides information about the authors and the people who helped make this book happen.
The authors
Ann Rockley is president of The Rockley Group, Inc. She has an international reputation for developing XML-based content strategies. She has been instrumental in establishing the field in eContent, content reuse, intelligent content strategies for multiplatform delivery, eBooks, and content management best practices. Rockley is a frequent contributor to trade and industry publications and a keynote speaker at numerous conferences in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
Known as the “mother” of content strategy, she introduced the concept of content strategy in 2002 with the first edition of this book. Ann was ranked among the top five most influential content strategists in 2010.
Ann led Content Management Professionals (CM Pros), an international organization that fosters the sharing of content management information, practices, and strategies to a prestigious eContent 100 award in 2005. Ann was cochair of the OASIS DITA for Enterprise Business Documents subcommittee in 2009–2011.
Ann is a fellow of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and has a master of information science from the University of Toronto. She is also the primary author of DITA 101: Fundamentals of DITA for Authors and Managers, and coauthor of eBooks 101: The Digital Content Strategy for Reaching Customers Anywhere, Anytime, on Any Device.
Charles Cooper is vice president of The Rockley Group, Inc.
Cooper has over 20 years’ of experience in quality assurance and over 15 years’ of experience in eContent, user experience, taxonomy, workflow design, composition, and digital publishing. He teaches, facilitates modeling sessions, and develops taxonomy and workflow strategies.
Charles has assisted companies by analyzing their content, current workflow, and taxonomy systems; helped to create new ones; and worked to ensure that they are maintained on a consistent basis. He not only understands process, he understands production tasks and can design a process that works for everyone in an organization. Charles always keeps the voice of the customer in mind when developing solutions.
He has a strong background in process and business planning and believes that taxonomies, structure, organization, workflow, and quality assurance processes must be designed to support the company as they work to provide products and services that their customers need. Charles is a coauthor of DITA 101: Fundamentals of DITA for Authors and Managers and eBooks 101: The Digital Content Strategy for Reaching Customers Anywhere, Anytime, on Any Device.
Case study contributors
Rahel Anne Bailie is an integrator of content strategy, requirements analysis, information architecture, and content management to increase ROI of product lifecycle content. She is also an aficionado of content structure and standards, founder of IntentionalDesign.ca, and a fellow of the Society for Technical Communication.
Derek Olson is vice president of Foraker Labs. Derek leads the design and development of award-winning iOS apps, web apps, and websites in Foraker’s Boulder offices. He also provides usability, content strategy, and information architecture guidance to clients like Breastcancer.org.
Joe Gollner is the director of Gnostyx Research, an initiative he launched for the purpose of helping organizations adopt open content standards and leverage intelligent content technologies. Joe has a BA in mathematics and literature from Queens University and a master of philosophy from the University of Oxford. Joe is a popular keynote speaker at major content management events and for several years chaired the XML World series of conferences.
Richard Thompson is an English-language copywriter/editor, web writer, and content strategist. He lives and works in France, near Paris. When he’s not obsessing about content, he’s taking pictures and restoring old houses.
B. Noz Urbina is a content strategist, senior consultant, and trainer at Mekon Ltd. With years of experience as a content strategy and content management consultant, he has provided services to Fortune 500 organizations and small-to-medium enterprises. He specializes in helping companies align content processes and infrastructure with their business needs and customer goals.
The reviewers
Scott Abel, aka The Content Wrangler, is an internationally recognized content strategist, publishing process expert, and social networking choreographer whose strengths lie in helping global organizations improve the way they author, maintain, and deliver information. Scott writes regularly for trade and industry publications, blogs, and newsletters. He’s a popular presenter at publishing industry events and hosts a weekly webinar series. In his free time, Scott creates dance music mashups under the moniker The Audio Wrangler.
Ingrid S. Goldstein has worked in the publishing sector for more than 20 years and is an expert in the semantic preparation, processing, and cross-linking of content. A computational linguist and art historian located in London and Heidelberg, she advises publishing houses on the development and implementation of forwardlooking digital content strategies. She has led industry and research projects for Fraunhofer and realized numerous projects with publishers in Germany and the UK.
Mark Lewis is a contributing author of DITA 101, second edition, by the Rockley Group. He has authored several white papers on DITA Metrics that prove the savings and high content reuse percentages possible with DITA’s structured, topic-based architecture. His DITA metrics model was a 2009 competitor for JoAnn Hackos’s Rare Bird Award. Mark manages the DITA Metrics LinkedIn group. He has presented on technical writing, DITA, and object-oriented design topics at Doc-Train, STC, DITA North America, and other national conferences. Mark is a member of the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) DITA technical committee. He and John Hunt are cochairs of the OASIS DITA for the Web subcommittee. He has received Society for Technical Communication (STC) awards for Distinguished Chapter Service and the Florida Technical Communications Competition. Mark is the DITA product manager for usability and a product evangelist for Quark.
Clare O’Brien is a digital marketing and communications professional with a career in several branches of the media. Her mission with digital communications and content strategy consultancy CDA (other than to help get the right content in place to be reached by the right audience when they need or expect it) is to continue to develop standards for digital content management strategies, governance, and evaluation. She speaks internationally and writes widely on the subjects of digital marketing, content strategy, and digital enablement. She was a cofounder of the UK Content Strategy Association and works closely with other industry bodies such as the IAB.
Editorial
Marie-Lynn Hammond is a writer, editor, and proofreader who has edited materials ranging from United Nations reports and academic papers to biographies, novels, and poetry. She has a BA in English and is a longtime member of the Editors’ Association of Canada. In her other life, she’s a nationally acclaimed singer-songwriter who has also written four plays, all produced.
Laurel Simmons, BA, BEd, has been active in the technical communication industry since the early 1980s, and has worked with hi-tech companies, telecommunication companies, government organizations, defense industries, and financial and marketing companies. She speaks, consults, trains, and yes, still writes, for organizations around the world. She grumbles every time she gets on a plane but she loves it when she gets there.
Illustrations and cover design
Natasha Lessnik-Tibbott began her illustration career at SPY magazine, digitally drawing the numerous tiny charts, maps, and graphs for the first time in the history of magazine publishing. Since then her work has appeared in many publications and books, graced the information kiosks of the International World’s Fair in Barcelona and expanded to op-ed pieces for the New York Times. She was born in Toronto, worked for over a decade in New York, and currently resides in Nashville, where she is a partner in Our Designs, Inc.