Klaus Fenchel, managing director at Ovidius, Berlin, joined the DITA Machine Industry Sub-Committee in October 2006. DITA is a topic-oriented and widely-adopted approach to XML-based documentation. As a member of the committee Klaus Fenchel will actively participate in developing DITA design principles for the machine industry and contribute with his expert knowledge and experience in content creation and management to the committees' work.

DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an XML-based information architecture developed specifically for the authoring of technical content. The main idea of the DITA concept is to split content into separate information modules, so-called topics. Based on the DITA principles and architecture the DITA Machine Industry Sub-Committee has set out to develop an XML application tailored to the needs of the machine industry and serving as guideline for the implementation of company-specific solutions. This task involves the design of specific topics, which represent the fundamental structuring layer for content creation and the conceptualization of new domains containing sets of elements unique to the machine industry.

"Today we face the challenge of extending DITA principles and applying standard DITA approaches to the need of the machine industry. In order to achieve this aim we will need to encourage information exchange between all those affected by the standard and build consensus within the industry" Klaus Fenchel explains the role of the Committee.

Klaus Fenchel has built his experience in the SGML/ XML business over many years. Due to his activities in designing and developing Content Management Systems for companies working in the field of mechanical engineering he has gained insight into the specific requirements of the industry. Fenchel has been concerned with topic-based structuring of content for many years. Together with Information Mapping Europe he developed the first officially recognized Information Mapping DTD (Document Type Definition) and a Content Management System completely based upon this concept.

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