S1000DUser.info
This site has come about because of the number of users out there looking to implement S1000D but having no source of help and guidance.
The main portion of this site is the user forum - just click on the link above. We aim to bring together end users with Techies, Developers and Implementers of S1000D to ask questions, share experiences, explain aims and goals and generally support each other as a community.
Disclaimer - please read
S1000DUser.info is not endorsed or sponsored by the TPSMG, its parent organizations or members. Content, advice and guidance is given 'as is' by individuals and does not represent the views of S1000DUser.info. Advice offered may be biased by desire for commercial or personal advantage. Before commiting to any decision based on information received through S1000DUser.info, ensure you have completed a thorough business analysis process.
What is S1000D?
S1000D is an international standard for the production and reuse of data, stored in a common source database (CSDB). The standard is at Issue 3.0, having been around for over 20 years. Issue 4.0 is planned for release in August 2008.
Started originally by AECMA (Association Europeene des Constructeurs de Materiel Aerospatial), S1000D is now co-managed, under memoranda of understanding, between ASD, AIA and ATA. The standard is managed by the TPSMG (Technical Publications Specification Maintenance Group) which is co-chaired by the 3 organizations and staffed by specialists from industry and MoDs around the globe. Talking of global, S1000D is in use at least in the USA, widely across Europe, in SE Asia, Australia, China and Japan. There is also talk of S1000D projects in Russia and Brazil. It truely is world-wide!
S1000D is used to provide the technical documentation for many types of item. Originally, S1000D was used to produce maintenance manuals for military aircraft. At Change 1.6, Crew tech pubs were added, then later the Spec grew to include land and sea platforms across not only Defence but also civilian uses. S1000D is ideal where large amounts of technical data need to be created, stored, managed and published. S1000D was originally designed using SGML DTDs but the latest versions are XML Schema-based. Data is stored in a CSDB and meta-data is provided to enhance the management and re-use of data.
S1000D also supports or integrates external standards, such as SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model - a standard for producing training information sets), Simplified English, S2000M, Step/PLCS and so on.
What S1000D is not...
S1000D is not an authoring tool. S1000D provides a framework for creating and storing data. It does not provide editing and database applications to create and manage that data. Take a look at our sponsored links page for vendors of S1000D applications.
S1000D is not part of DITA. DITA and S1000D are very different standards. In general, DITA is designed to be customizable; you take a DITA specialization that nearly matches your project, then customize it for your specific instance. You define not only your own business rules, but your data rules and construction too. S1000D, as a standards-based specification is rigid. It allows projects to customize their information by way of business rules, but the main structure is defined and unchangeable. However, this guarantees S1000D being interoperable between organizations and ensures the integrity of the data types (through the exchange of Business Rules). Interestingly, someone in DITA created a demo DITA S1000D-specialization, although it is not clear whether it was completed or published.
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