Press Release

SD Releases Two Pre-packaged Knowledge Bases

CORALVILLE, IA, July 26, 2010 -- Structured Dynamics (SD) today released two knowledge bases, TechWiki and DocWiki, as free resources for hundreds of documents and articles governing the installation, use and management of the company's open source products. These open source knowledge bases may be downloaded and freely used by customers solely by providing attribution.

"These releases contribute two of the four parts of what we call a 'total open solution' to open source products," said Michael Bergman, Structured Dynamics' CEO. "They are tangible expressions that partially fulfill our company commitment of 'We're successful when we're not needed'," said Bergman.

In Bergman's blog post making the announcement, he indicated that this was the first known case of using familiar wiki technology in order to pre-package complete, downloadable knowledge bases. Though all of the system components are open source, the configuration is new and specifically geared to a complete documentation and methodology "starter kit" for open source projects.

"We designed the system to enable collaboration, version control, and single-source publishing of all relevant content related to our open semantic framework initiative," said Fred Giasson, SD's CTO. "We needed to bring consistency to our documentation efforts and a coherent, structured way for our developer community to also contribute documentation," he added. "We're also finding huge benefits ourselves in internal consistency and completeness with our early use of the system."

The TechWiki is specifically geared to coding and code documentation; systems configurations and architectures; installation; set-up and maintenance; best practices in these areas; technical background information; and links to external resources. At release, the TechWiki contains 187 articles under 56 categories, with a further 293 images. The knowledge base is growing daily.

DocWiki is a sibling Mediawiki instance that contains all TechWiki material, but has a broader purpose in providing a common language and methodology for managing these instances, including specific tasks, activites and phases. It also includes staff roles, governance and outcome measurements, as well as supporting background material useful for executive management and outside audiences.

The DocWiki methodology is based on MIKE2.0 (Method for Integrated Knowledge Environments), an open source methodology for information development projects championed by Bearing Point and Deloitte. At release, the DocWiki contains 357 articles and 394 structured tasks in 70 activity areas under 77 categories. Another 115 images support this content. This knowledge base, too, is growing daily.

The specific context for the current versions of these knowledge bases is the Citizen Dan local community indicator system initiative, the first of the OSF (open semantic framework) instances. However, the software and methods for these knowledge bases are readily duplicated for other instances and circumstances.

With these public releases, both knowledge bases have also been opened up to outside contributors. The public may also export and install these systems locally. Then, they may revise and modify and extend that pre-packaged information in any way they see fit.

"We're excited that this provides a new model for documenting and sharing open source projects," said Bergman. "We stand ready to help any other project to adopt and improve this approach. It is almost stupidly easy how straightforward and simple this approach is to replicate for other uses," he concluded.

The TechWiki may be accessed at http://techwiki.openstructs.org; the DocWiki at http://docwiki.citizen-dan.org. Bergman's blog post describing the release is at http://www.mkbergman.com/898/using-wikis-as-pre-packaged-knowledge-bases/. An overview of the open semantic framework may be found at http://openstructs.org/open-semantic-framework. The broader description of the 'total open solution' is provided at http://www.mkbergman.com/883/listening-to-the-enterprise-total-open-solutions-part-2/. More on the MIKE2.0 methodology may be found at its dedicated Web site at http://mike2.openmethodology.org/. Description of the Citizen Dan project may be found at http://citizen-dan.org/details.html.

About Structured Dynamics LLC

Structured Dynamics assists enterprises and non-profit organizations to adopt Web-accessible and interoperable semantic data. The basic premise is that the data itself becomes the application. Via structured, linked data and a combination of semantic technologies and Web services, information in any form and from any source can now be integrated and made interoperable. The company Web site is at http://structureddynamics.com; it is headquartered in Coralville, IA.

Press Contact:

Steve Ardire Structured Dynamics LLC Tel: 360-868-4435 Email: steve@structureddynamics.com