The OASIS DITA Help Sub-committee

DITA Help, as defined by the OASIS DITA Help SC (DHSC):

A set of recommendations for the design and implementation of commonly recognized user assistance components using the DITA architecture. These components include, but are not limited to, navigation components, context-sensitive linking, embedded Help, browse sequences, associative links, window definitions.

The recommendations can be used as a foundation for the development of authoring models and tools to support solutions in a variety of formats and for a variety of platforms.

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of the OASIS DITA Help SC (DHSC) is to:

develop a top-level design for authoring of Help systems and user assistance content for implementation using DITA;
establish recommendations for the integration of DITA-authored Help systems and software applications using context-sensitivity;
remove the obstacles to effective use of DITA for Help systems through the creation of best practice guidelines, cookbooks and worked examples, and to promote the use of DITA for creating Help systems and user assistance content;
develop informal support for processing DITA for delivery as Help systems and user assistance;
establish guidelines that promote best practices for applying standard DITA approaches to Help systems and user assistance content.

Deliverables

The deliverables of the DHSC will be:

recommendations to the DITA TC for specification changes to better support Help systems and user assistance content;
a high-level processing model description that defines the standard use of DITA for Help systems and user assistance content;
explanations and guidelines for the use of DITA for Help systems and user assistance content.

For more information or to volunteer:

The DHSC web site contains links to a variety of documents as well as email contact for the leaders.