Prerequisites

Below is a list of materials you might find helpful as you discover and explore DITA:

Please peruse this material before the Workshop.

Websites

DITA XML.org Online community for the Darwin Information Typing Architecture OASIS Standard http://dita.xml.org/		DITA Users Helping you get started with topic-based structured writing http://www.ditausers.org/
Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) Advancing open standards for the information society http://www.oasis-open.org/		DITA Open Toolkit A set of Java-based, open source tools that provide processing for DITA maps and topic content http://dita-ot.github.io/

Articles and Blogs

Here are several articles and blogs that provide excellent background information about DITA.

	Can you explain that again? DITA for Beginners ( PDF article) By Tony Self, published in tcworld March 2011
	Learning DITA. “I DITA know that!” By Lisa Logan, published in Carolina Communiqué August 2014
	Learn DITA on Your Own” By Nathalie Laroche, May 2014
	DITA Resources From TechWhirl Magazine
	The DITA Open Toolkit – What You Really Need to Know From the DITA Chicks Blog
	What is DITA and Why Should You Care? By Chris Benz, published in Learning Solutions Magazine, September 27, 2010
	DITA Primer (Learn the DITA basics) From Publishing Smarter

Books

• The DITA Style Guide: Best Practices for Authors, by Tony Self
• DITA 101 by Ann Rockley, Charles Cooper and Steve Manning
• Introduction to DITA - A User Guide to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture, by Jennifer Linton and Kylene Bruski
• Practical DITA, by SDI Global Solutions and Julio Vazquez
• Developing Quality Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers and Editors (2nd Edition), by Gretchen Hargis, Michelle Carey, Ann Kilty Hernandez and Polly Hughes

Additional Material

Bernard Aschwanden's "DITA Tools and Technology: Introduction to DITA" video provides a nice overview of DITA: