Why iiRDS? What’s in it for you? On the schedule as: How a Small Company Uses DITA & iiRDS

If you like DITA, you’ll like iiRDS

Presented by

Lief Erickson — Intuitive Stack

Markus Wiedenmaier — C-REX

April 8, 2025

Lief Erickson

Content strategist helping organizations stuck in outdated paradigms.

Markus Wiedenmaier

Technologist and founding member of iiRDS Consortium.

1 min 11:46-11:47

A bit about us

Content strategy consultant focused on tech doc teams.

25 years plus M.A. Content Strategy

Former information architect and technical writer

First learned of iiRDS while writing my thesis in 2018.

Helping organizations stuck in outdated paradigms, systems, processes.

I'll talk about what iiRDS is, then Markus = real world.

But first...

www.menti.com

Code: 3362 4048

	Most support calls are requests for information, not technical issues.
	Incomplete, inconsistent info leads to a lack of trust.
	PDFs are static, hard to search, and impossible to personalize.
	Lack of insight into how topics are related, what has value.
	You need consistency and interoperability between systems.

1 min 11:49-11:50

The problem with typical user assistance

These are the typical problems we see. Maybe not yours.

If you've solved all of these, please come see me afterwards. I want to talk to you.

The impact of our works is observed outside our team. We do good work, sales go up and support goes down. They get recognized.

Maybe you are:

Spending money solving problems that better documentation could prevent
Treating documentation like paper—even when it’s digital
In a multi-silo environment. How do you connect and align them?

Think of a warning. The text has to be right, everywhere. With a graph you can see where it exists and what's connected to it. The dependencies are crucial information.

How does iiRDS help with any of this?

intelligent information

Request and Delivery Standard

iiRDS is like a shared language or classification system that aligns how user assistance content is described across tools and organizations.

1 min 11:50-11:51

i i R D S: say it slow

Story: DITA EU "Metadata changed our lives." It took a couple of years of "working the problem" before that realization arrived.

iiRDS is metadata. Pure and simple. It's not more complicated than that.

iiRDS makes your documentation findable, flexible, and future-proof

How to package user assistance content for delivery
How to use metadata to describe content intelligently
How to connect content to product lifecycle, tasks, users, and systems

1 min 11:51-11:52

Humans and machines

DITA = humans. iiRDS = machines.

Both emphasize breaking content into smaller, meaningful units rather than treating documents as monolithic entities.

Semantic content: We are ahead of the curve. DITA gives you the intelligence out of the box. iiRDS can leverage that in delivery systems AND also apply that same intelligence to content in other systems, adding value to them without needing major overhauls.

DITA & iiRDS

More similar than you realize

<concept>

<reference>

<task>

<troubleshooting>

iirds:Concept

iirds:Reference

iirds:Task

iirds:Troubleshooting

@audience

@product

@platform

iirds:Role

iirds:ProductVariant

iirds:ProductFeature

1 min 11:54-11:55

You’re closer than you think

OOTB DITA + (some mapping to) OOTB iiRDS + DITA-OT Plugin = RDF in an iiRDS package

Add metadata to DITA topics
Use iiRDS as a reference
Use your own terminology
Map to iiRDS within Publishing Engine

iiRDS is generated from structured content

iiRDS acts as a standard container for intelligent information

iiRDS is consumed to provide contextual content to users

2 min 11:55-11:57

iiRDS is all about interoperability of intelligent content

iiRDS at the Core: iiRDS acts as a bridge or connector between content and the many systems that need it

Surrounding iiRDS are various enterprise and technical ecosystems that can both consume and contribute content when iiRDS is implemented.

Big picture: iiRDS isn't just about documentation. It's about making content dynamic, intelligent, and interoperable across your entire digital ecosystem

for authors

for readers (desktop)

for readers (mobile)

for business

2 min 11:59-12:01

iiRDS is for more than DITA

Not everyone uses DITA. Maybe you don't. Maybe you manage teams who produce mixed content.

Awesome! iiRDS is here for you.

iiRDS won't add much value if you create in a single format and publish to a flat website. No value add.

iiRDS enriches your docs with metadata, relationships, and purpose-built packaging.

In the Real World

0 min 12:01-12:01

In the real world

Markus has been involved with a number of iiRDS projects in production.

technical writer perspective

focus on users, use cases, business cases
iirds means bringing content to your users ...

use case of project: error on machine, reported to cloud service, send push notification, clicking shows fault description

6 min 12:01-12:07

Use case: Error handling

start: it's a classic Fault Cause Remedy Situation

click: explain DITA topic and relations

click: explain machine metadata

click: explain DITA topic and relations

click: explain relations from troubleshooting to tasks

click: explain working time and chance to solve

click: on the road from DITA to iiRDS to Content Delivery to our users

8 min 12:07-12:15

Defining the metadata

start: job of technical writer, gathering information

click: machine information from ERP, service information from someone's brain

click: automated when job is done and published

click: runtime data comes from machine, we are all set to implement in DITA

click: explain DITA metadata

click: now we need just a simple mapping, explain iiRDS representation,

click: NO Rocket science => Just metadata

Can you explain the basics of iiRDS to a colleague?

Eliot Kimber generated an AI song during the presentation based on the presentation. Here it is for your “enjoyment.”

intuitivestack.io/presentations/2025/convex

Press spacebar move sequentially

Press s to see citations and speaker scribbles notes

Why iiRDS? What’s in it for you? On the schedule as: How a Small Company Uses DITA & iiRDS

A bit about us

A bit about you

The problem with typical user assistance

i i R D S: say it slow

Humans and machines

Intelligent, modular content units

You’re closer than you think

iiRDS is all about interoperability of intelligent content

Visualizing value: This is your content

iiRDS is for more than DITA

Use case: Error handling

Defining the metadata

Defining the metadata

Show of hands…

Tag My Soul

Find this presentation at

Connect with us at our booth

Why iiRDS? What’s in it for you? On the schedule as: How a Small Company Uses DITA & iiRDS

A bit about us

A bit about you

Results

The problem with typical user assistance

i i R D S: say it slow

Humans and machines

DITA and iiRDS

Intelligent, modular content units

You’re closer than you think

iiRDS is all about interoperability of intelligent content

Visualizing value: This is your content

iiRDS is for more than DITA

In the real world

Use case: Error handling

Defining the metadata

Defining the metadata

Show of hands…

Tag My Soul

Find this presentation at

Connect with us at our booth