DITA is an XML specification for publications. If you've heard of DocBook, that's another specification. DocBook covers many types of publications, while DITA is geared at technical information.
From the dita-users list description (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/):
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based, end-to-end architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. This architecture consists of a set of design principles for creating "information-typed" modules at a topic level and for using that content in delivery modes such as online help, books, and Web sites.
DITA is defined by the OASIS DITA Technical Committee (http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/dita/), and implemented by an Open Source toolkit at SourceForge (formerly at developerWorks) (http://dita-ot.sourceforge.net/). DITA resources and publications are summarized at the XML Cover Pages (http://xml.coverpages.org/dita.html). DITA community resources may be found at the DITA Focus Area (http://dita.xml.org).
From Introduction to DITA: A User Guide to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture by Jennifer linton and Kylene Bruski
The Darwin Information typing Architecture (DITA, pronounced dit-uh) is an OASIS Standard that defines an XML architecture for designing, authoring, publishing, and managing content. Content that you develop using the DITA model can be easily published to print, PDF, the web, help systems, and other deliverables, depending upon the needs of your users.
The core set of DITA information types provides information architects and information developers with a solid starting point. The core set of information types consists of the concept, the task, and the reference. These three information types represent the vast majority of content produced to support users of our technical information. You will find that each core information type contains a standard set of content units, expressed as XML elements, that encompass the essential content that you need to develop useful and reusable content.
Why I'm interested in DITA: I manage all of the translations for our company. We're already reusing content in unstructured Frame, but there are certain limitations to that. Now that we're translating into 29 languages besides English, that can get REALLY expensive. From my point of view, we need to reuse as much content as possible, whenever possible, in order to keep translation costs down. That level of reuse demands a content management system of some kind and a structured way to store the data. XML would be that structure for us.
In addition, once you have XML content, you can easily repurpose it for other uses. Information is tagged for it's purpose, and not tied to a specific style. In the same way that you can change the look of a web page with different style sheets, you can change the look of XML content.
OK, that's the limit of my XML/DITA expertise. Lots of theory, but very little practice. I'm looking at spending some time over Christmas, when things are slow, working on converting one of our unstructured docs to DITA. :-)
-Carla
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