tcworld conference 2026 Program Detail

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Structured Microcontent Strategies for Optimizing DITA Delivery for Both Humans and Machines

  • Presentation
  • Information Modeling & Knowledge Structure
  • 10. November
  • 02:00 PM (CET) - 02:45 PM (CET)
  • C6.2
  • Mr Rob Hanna

    Mr Rob Hanna

    • Precision Content

Contents

Over the past decade, our team has been modeling and developing writing practices for microcontent as a practical answer to problems many DITA teams now face: AI does not need more content—it needs better-shaped content. Microcontent is not simply smaller chunks of content. It is a purposeful unit of meaning, focused on one user intent, structured using repeatable patterns, and enriched with the right context to be found, reused, assembled, and trusted. In this 40-minute session, we will show how DITA’s topic-based architecture already gives technical communicators a strong foundation for microcontent, and why the next step is learning to recognize the smaller blocks of knowledge inside topics. Attendees will learn how topics can remain the unit of authoring while microcontent becomes the unit of delivery for search, chatbots, AI assistants, support, and omnichannel content experiences.

Takeaways

  • key properties of structured microcontent
  • information typing for user intent
  • writing practices for microcontent
  • delivery channels
  • microcontent and AI

Prior knowledge

Familiarity with structured authoring using DITA will be helpful but not required

Speaker

Mr Rob Hanna

Mr Rob Hanna

  • Precision Content
Biography

Rob Hanna hat sein Berufsleben der Optimierung der Ergebnisse von Teams gewidmet, die strukturierte Autorenprojekte durchführen. In den letzten 30 Jahren hat er mit zahlreichen Großunternehmen an DITA- und CCMS-Projekten gearbeitet, um deren Teams zu strukturieren und die betriebliche Effizienz zu steigern. Er lehrte Metadaten und Taxonomien an der Universität Toronto und gab private Kurse zu strukturierter Autorenschaft, DITA und Informationsarchitektur. 2013 gründete Rob Hanna Precision Content in Toronto, Kanada, um ein Team aus Autoren, Entwicklern und Informationsarchitekten aufzubauen und seine Mission, die Standards in der Technischen Kommunikation zu verbessern, weiter voranzutreiben.

Rob Hanna has dedicated his professional life to improving outcomes for teams embarking on structured authoring projects. Over the past 30 years, he has worked with many large corporations on DITA and CCMS projects to bring their teams into structure and drive operational efficiencies. He has taught metadata and taxonomies at the University of Toronto and private courses on structured authoring, DITA, and information architecture. In 2013, Rob founded Precision Content in Toronto, Canada, to build a team of writers, developers, and IAs to continue his mission to raise the bar in Technical Communication.

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