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Re: SGML/XML Justification - was replacement of Frame
Subject:Re: SGML/XML Justification - was replacement of Frame From:HALL Bill <bill -dot- hall -at- tenix -dot- com> To:"'Techwr-l posting'" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 5 Jul 2000 08:08:32 +1000
David Brown wrote:
>On Mon, 3 Jul 2000, Karen Koldyk wrote:
>>
>> c) How do I attach a $ figure to soft benefits such as having a
>> well formed document that is fully searchable with no real effort
>> after the style sheets etc. are in place.
>Just curious: How are "well-formed" and "fully searchable" related?
"Well-formed" XML is fully tagged with what are hopefully semantically
useful labels. The tags do not necessarily conform to a specific DTD.
However, XML indexing systems such as RMIT's Structured Information Manager
(SIM - http://www.simdb.com) that we are implementing at Tenix are able to
semantically index text by XML tag names as well as by text. Used properly,
semantic tagging greatly increases the power and precision of search
capabilities, because the semantic context of the words sought can be
specified (i.e., you are looking for person's name who is the author of the
document you want.)
In my business case to implement SIM as a corporate infrastructure, I have
estimated that this precision retrieval capability will increase authors'
productivity by 50% or more through their ability to quickly locate for
reuse existing corporate knowledge by comparison to how long it takes them
to find source materials in a paper filing system. In our environment,
authors often simply don't have time to chase paper and end up re-inventing
what is already known or guessing. This also creates risks which would be
much better managed in a system where authors knew they could reliably find
prior knowledge when and where they needed it.
Indexing well-formed XML even represents a substantial improvements on full
text indexing systems such as ISYS (http://www.isysdev.com/), which we have
had implemented for many years (but which is largely ignored because of its
lack of precision).
Bill Hall
Documentation Systems Specialist
Integrated Logistic Support
Naval Projects and Support
Tenix Defence Systems Pty Ltd
Williamstown, Vic. 3016 AUSTRALIA
Email: bill -dot- hall -at- tenix -dot- com <mailto:bill -dot- hall -at- tenix -dot- com>
