Converting Publications in the Air Force to SGML: A Recommendation Based onCommerical Experience

摘要

The objective of this research was to determine those benefits of SGML that theAir Force can use in its publications process and to determine if benchmarking can improve the Air Force's migration to an electronic publishing environment. To accomplish this, the author completed an exploratory, qualitative study which defined the components and benefits of SGML and the benchmarking application and process. The qualitative techniques for this research included a literature review and questionnaire. The literature review covered both SGML and benchmarking. The questionnaire was an exploratory instrument that was sent to 60 commercial enterprises. The results of the questionnaire confirmed and elaborated the findings of the literature review. In general, this analysis indicates that the Air Force electronic publishing environment can benefit from the use of SGML. SGML allows for the creation of a document that can be reused in many ways and allows for search, retrieval, and transfer of data across networks and platforms. It was also determined that there are many capabilities and benefits associated with the use of SGML and there are ways in which the Air Force publishing centers can use the lull potential of SGML. The five most cited benefits of SGML are machine independence, reusability, shareability, increased productivity, and improved data integrity. Last, the analysis indicated that a benchmark of commercial enterprises would provide useful information in streamlining the Air Force's conversion to SGML. Benchmarking provides an Opportunity to examine the best practices of commercial enterprises and then implement changes based on the observations.