RE: Baiting for the single source rant

["Swallow, William" <WSwallow -at- courion -dot- com>]

Hi Meg. It *is* confusing, especially when the term is used in a single
context.

No, single-sourcing is not merely one content --> multiple media. It's more
like multiple possibilities from a single repository if information. You can
go multiple media, multiple uses of the same content, variations of same
content for specific purposes... basically you're managing one source of
information and doing lots of different things with it.

Now for a really silly analogy.

Single-sourcing is like a fridge full of food/ingredients. You pull out what
you need to make what you need to make. (Of course this is a poor analogy
because the info stays in the "fridge", where once you use the food, it's
gone...). 

Now what people often mistake for single-sourcing is "repurposing" - writing
for one purpose and then turning that into another (example: print and
online help). 

In the fridge scenario, you made French toast and eggs, and now are trying
to make that wonderful breakfast into a birthday cake. Same ingredients, so
why not, right? Well, I for one won't be trying a taste of that cake. ;) 

I'd rather have my eggs, flour, water, milk, sugar, and other ingredients on
the side (my single source for ingredients), use them once to make the
breakfast and use them another time to make the cake.

In the Jetsons world, you could have an automatic way to make the cake and
the breakfast. The single-sourcing tools are our portal to Jetsontopia. :P

***************** 
BILL SWALLOW 
Technical Writer 
C O U R I O N   C O R P O R A T I O N 
1881 Worcester Road 
Framingham, Mass.  01701 
T E L * 508-879-8400 x316 
F A X * 508-879-8500 
www.courion.com 
***************** 
THIS EMAIL CONTAINS CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
MEANT FOR THE INTENDED RECIPIENT ONLY. PLEASE
DELETE THIS IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED IT IN ERROR.


-----Original Message-----
I'm puzzled. Does "single source" mean only "one content -->
multiple media"? That's what I'm getting from this thread. But
isn't there also another flavor of single sourcing, in which
it's "one content --> multiple documents with different parts of
the content (in one medium)"? Seems to me that the second type
is what Bill Hall was doing in his ANZAC project. 

If "single sourcing" does include both categories, the debate
should recognize that, since the issues that arise are different
between the two. Of course, the danger of being trapped,
screaming, in a tar pit of endless methodology applies to both.

-- Meg, tossing in a couple more pennies

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and 
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe.  http://ieeepcs.org/2001/

  +++  Miramo -- Database/XML publishing automation.  See us at  +++
  +++  Seybold SFO, Sept. 25-27, in the Adobe Partners Pavilion  +++
  +++ More info: http://www.axialinfo.com  http://www.miramo.com +++

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.