DocBook 5: The Definitive Guide was published by O’Reilly Media today. The book, authored by Norman Walsh, Chair of the DocBook Technical Committee of OASIS, is the official reference for the standard and includes information about all of the elements and attributes, along with many examples.

One of the most widely used XML schemas, DocBook is ideally suited to technical documentation for software and hardware products and services.

According to author Norman Walsh, “DocBook has been an industry standard schema for a long time. Although it’s used ‘out-of-the box’ by a large number of authors, it’s also customized, sometimes significantly, for documentation projects as well. Building on our foundation of more than a decade of experience, DocBook V5 has been re-factored to use modern schema languages (RELAX NG and Schematron), simplify the schema, and branch into new areas, including publishing, eLearning, and topic-oriented writing.”

O’Reilly Media press release

XML Press and O’Reilly Media published DocBook 5: The Definitive Guide as a collaboration that highlights the commitment of both publishers to the DocBook standard. DocBook provides a solid base for technical documentation and publishing applications, and has been widely embraced in the open source community for software documentation. The open source XSL style sheets for DocBook make it possible to create html, pdf (through fo), ePub, and a wide variety of help formats and to easily customize all of those output formats.

Alan J. Porter, author of the forthcoming book, WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit, will be writing a second book for XML Press, The Content Pool: How to Identify, Organize, Manage, and Leverage Your Company’s Largest Hidden Asset.

Porter, a highly respected consultant with over 20 years experience in corporate communications, marketing, and content development in both the UK and the USA, is a catalyst for change with a strong track record in developing new ideas, embracing emerging technologies, and introducing operational improvements. In The Content Pool Porter makes the case for treating your company’s content as a strategic asset and taking full advantage of that asset.

More information is available on The Content Pool web page or on Alan’s blog

I was pleased to receive a request to participate in Ruud Hein’s (@ruudhein on twitter) “Ruud Questions” series of interviews a few weeks ago. He sent me a set of questions, which I answered, and the interview is now posted at: searchenginepeople.com.

I was impressed by the research that went into his questions. There were no throwaways (“what’s the future of social media” and the ilk); rather, he pulled out things like quotations from my responses to other people’s blog posts and comments in my book, and created thoughtful questions based on them.

Looking at some of the other interviews in the series (and I recommend that you do), I think he may be the James Lipton of social media (for anyone who’s not familiar with Lipton, watch an episode of Inside the Actor’s Studio, and you’ll get the idea). Like Lipton, he asks well researched questions that go beneath the surface.

I was particularly pleased that he picked up on a theme that I think is particularly important right now. That is the importance of technical communicators to your social media strategy. More and more, companies are realizing that they need to provide useful information, not just a marketing message, if they want to draw, and more important retain, an audience. Technical communicators can provide that meat better than anyone else.

That’s one of the messages in Anne Gentle’s book, Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, and it’s a message that is gaining resonance as companies realize that they can only retain their audience with substance.

Thanks to Ruud for asking me to do the interview and for asking such great questions. It was an honor to participate.

The April edition of the XML Press Newsletter is now available in HTML or PDF form.

We have news about a new book from Robert Delwood, the Kindle edition of Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, and a bunch of events involving XML Press authors.

Anne Gentle’s Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation is now available for the Kindle at Amazon.com.

Anne also recently started a facebook page for her book at: http://facebook.com/conversationandcommunity/. You can get the latest information about the book and Anne, including information about upcoming appearances and book signings.

Anne Gentle read from her book, Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) on Tuesday, March 16 in Austin, TX. She had an attentive crowd that asked some great questions; clearly social media folks are interested in technical communication and technical communicators are interested in social media. Anne’s [...]

The state of Colorado just passed a statute (House Bill 10-1193 (PDF)) that is targeted at out-of-state retailers who sell into Colorado. It is an attempt to improve collection of sales and use taxes (which residents owe on purchases, even if the retailer is from out of state and does not collect those taxes). Amazon [...]

Anne Gentle, author of Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, will be reading from her book at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) at 12:30 on Tuesday, March 16. From the description at SXSWi: This book brings together the worlds of technical communication and social media. It shows how technical communicators can effectively use [...]

The January 28, 2010 edition of the XML Press Newsletter is now available at: XML Press January 2010 Newsletter Contents: Anne Gentle and Alan Porter Nominated for Social Media Awards XML Press at WritersUA and STC Kindle Edition of Managing Writers

The <oXygen/> XML Editor has become one of the most capable and popular XML editors available. XML Press is pleased to be the publisher for the printed edition of the User Manual for the <oXygen/> XML Editor Version 11. This publication contains the full contents of the user manual as authored by SyncRO Soft Ltd., [...]