What Is iiRDS, Exactly? A Short Introduction
The vision was to develop a standard that operates from two different sides: requesting and delivering intelligent information between individual and independent companies. In practice, this means that manufacturers can easily supply many customers with the information for use they require, and customers can also easily integrate information for use from many different manufacturers. Information is intelligent because it is specified to the exact use case and individualized for the person who needs it.
In times of Industrie 4.0 and smart factories, this standard opens up new methods of advanced technical communication. Having technical documentation in the form of a handbook becomes outdated slowly but surely – as the procedure of looking for actual information in thousands of pages of documentation is quite ineffective nowadays.
iiRDS replaces that procedure with tiny information bits containing just the information needed at the very moment in the exact use case.
Sounds Quite Revolutionary – So How Does iiRDS Work?
The basic idea: As the print format of documentation dissolves and is transferred to the digital world, a new form of creating context is necessary. The key to this concept are metadata. Metadata can establish the context between single topics and can define the right topic out of a whole bulk of topics. As metadata provide the context, they belong to the scope of delivery just as the information itself does. Providing the function of requesting and delivering information between individual companies is one of the utmost concerns of iiRDS.
The fact that at one company, instructions for use might be called “instructions for use”, but in another company the same thing might be called a “user guide” or even “user manual”, illustrates that a standard is required. iiRDS is this standardized vocabulary for technical documentation. Companies do not need to adjust their terms – they only need to map their term to the one defined in iiRDS. Simply by doing so, the information exchange between various undertakings is enabled.
And How Does iiRDS Look in Practice?
The metadata can be used to request and deliver information in a concrete context, or as iiRDS puts it, according to concrete use cases that are already defined – for example, delivering exact instructions to a service technician in the event of a malfunction. Welcome to the world of Information 4.0. Be on board with iiRDS by implementing the standard or by becoming a member of our Consortium. Benefit from the advantages from the earliest stage on!
- Share your opinions and your know-how with other experts and decision-makers and be an active part in the further development
- Always be one of the first to implement when new releases come out
- Be part of a strong community dedicated to the advancement of technical communication
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If you got curious how iiRDS looks in a more specific way, feel free to register/login and have a look at the specification and the RDF scheme in the download area.
Any Question Still Open?
iiRDS Project Manager
Susanne Lohmüller
+49 711 65704-78