I had a coffee this week with Bob Sayton, Mr DocBook Stylesheets! Among other topics, we briefly discussed the benefits of extending DocBook to other communities than technical documentation.

The idea is appealing in our content-driven world. There are many groups that would benefit directly from an open-source, industry specific, DocBook implementation, including textbook publishers, universities (students and faculty), and researchers.

A possible approach is defining industry specific schemas that contain subsets of DocBook elements. This may require the addition of elements to the current standard to tackle specific content management needs. So far, no big deal.

However, having those new DocBook standards in place may do little to push adoption. An important factor in driving user adoption is the availability of software that implements the standard. It would be interesting to see whether big software companies would jump into the bandwagon… Unless the open-source community comes to the rescue!

Another important aspect for user adoption is regularly overlooked: usability. Too often, software vendors release poor GUIs designed for engineers or technical-minded people. As a result, non “XML techies” face a steep learning curve. The creation of their first XML document is often a daunting and discouraging task.

Interestingly enough, DITA is exploring similar opportunities in the field of knowledge management. DITA proponents say that the standard is better suited to serve special communities since it relies on a generic and flexible data architecture.

That’s a valid argument. However, if you target non-technical communities, few care about the technicalities of your solution. The real questions are:

• How does your product benefit users in their daily job?
• How easy is it to use?
• How much does it cost?

With its simplicity and open-source orientation, DocBook stands at a serious candidate!