First of all: A Happy New Year!
Regarding "Reuse analyzers": Since their intended purpose is to reduce translation costs (if you have fewer text variants in your source language) there are tools available for use with FrameMaker and major TM systems Star Transit, SDL Trados and Across.
BUT: Those tools won't help you much, if you don't dig deep into your existing text and clean it up first, very thorougly -- which no company will pay for. But that may lead to another Next Big Thing: Controlled Language.
We'll see.
- Michael
Hi Sarah,
Great wrapup. I didn't know about AuthorIt's competitor to MadCap's Analyzer but it's been a busy year. Very cool analysis. I wonder what Adobe's going to come out with to compete with this space. AuthorIt and MadCap seem to oWn it right now.
What you said about Flash is very accurate however there are some distinctions. The basic Flash is Flash, the advanced Flash is Flex. (sort of simplifying it but...)
What I've been examining is how much of a threat Microsoft's offering Silverlight will be. Considering the life cycle for Flash and how browser dependent it is, it looks ripe for disruptions due to Microsoft's near monopoly on Internet Explorer.
Add to that the dual announcements of AOL killing the Netscape browser and Internet Explorer 8 coming out next year, well, the writing may be on the wall for Flash within a matter of months (well, less than two years) for its market dominance.
Between Flash version 6 and Flash version 8 Microsoft introduced a security patch that turned Flash-based websites into a liability overnight back a couple years ago. I see no reason that Microsoft, the one big happy family that it is, won't do likewise in a regular fashion once Silverlight is integrated fully, not as a download, but as a regular component as in IE 8. Silverlight works just like Flex and Flash; with the benefit of putting embedded javascript into hyperspeed compared to normal operation.
So... I think you're nailing it with the Flash comparison aside from the competition from the 500 pound gorilla in the room.
Let me back up your Flash comparison with some new news from Adobe. They're going to concentrate on gaming, eLearning, and Technical Communication with another $200 million invested in beefing up their India operations specifically in these areas. That means front-loading the Flash/Flex budgets on a five year plan. Clearly they're interested in keeping the current 95% integration of Flash in browsers globally that they now have.
Hope this kicks off the debates well!
Sincerely,
Charles
Michael,
Controlled Language - first, here is a great resource list on how-to for this:
http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Contro...lled-
Vocabulary
Second, I've been reading an entire blog series on this over at Key Pointe:
http://www.keypointe.ca/?p=87
Geez, rarely would I post three in a row, but I forgot something on my book-a-blog-comment previously.
You're dead on right (yet once again) about the serious challenges US Communicators will be facing from the globalization of Tech Comm. I'm only half jesting when I say that within three years a lot of us may be retiring. I just posted an article voicing my concerns/opinion.
http://charlesjeter.com/2008/01/02/
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