Using Data Driven Synthesis Tools to Automatically Generate Content

Most Technical Communication practitioners are familiar with content authoring tools that generate, curate and publish content one page at a time, such as Content Management Systems (CMS) and Wikis.  Many practitioners are also familiar with software compilers that convert software source code into executable software that can be installed and run on computers (e.g. Java and C++ compilers).  This article is about a rapidly evolving paradigm called Data Driven Synthesis (DDS). Like software compilers, DDS uses data compilers to ingest data and automatically generate very large volumes of content which could not otherwise be written by human hands without significant time, effort and funds.

The paradigm of Data Driven Synthesis uses automated content generation to solve the problems presented by the current content authoring paradigms. DDS methods use your data to create very large volumes of high quality content, quickly. In this seminar we will show how a dynamic compiler can convert content within a Comma Separated Value (CSV) format into HTML documentation. We will also demonstrate how to use the data compiler to display different knowledge constructs and dependencies to your audience as Short Form Notation (SFN).  SFN eliminates long verbose paragraphs that are associated with Long-form Notation (LFN) by replacing them with sets of succinct name-value data pairs. With simple data management constructs like spreadsheets or other flat files, DDS data compilers use these name-value pairs to format and connect data.

This webinar will deliver the following takeaways:

• Design a content system to populate Intranets and HTML documents automatically from organizational data;
• Address Long Form Notation problem which include scaling, indexing, repurposing, and updating;
• Employ Data Driven Synthesis for content activities that include data visualizations, data library generation, and knowledge construct development