January 2011
Why "non-linear" ? Take the Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM) for the GulfStream IV AFM. This is 4090 pages long – yes, over 4,000 pages. This is not bedtime reading – in fact it’s crying out to be made more accessible - i.e. ''non-linear' access is required, especially if your working environment is the relatively cramped space of an aircraft flight deck. What you don’t want is to be thumbing through 4000+ pages.
It would be bad enough if the AFM was the only manual you are supposed to have – but of course, it’s one of many – the Operations Manual; the Training manual and the Cabin crew manual are also required. That’s before we come on to the Minimum Equipment List and many others.
These days, all of us – not just those of us involved in aviation – have become accustomed to ‘information on demand’ – so this kind of information needs to be delivered all over the place; to the EFB on the flight deck; to your laptop; maybe to a ruggedised PC; to a PDA; and nowadays, to a tablet device – we’ll return to that theme in a moment.
So what? Well, an enormous PDF doesn’t cut the mustard any more; why not? Go back and read the last sentence in paragraph 1 again: “What you don’t want is to be thumbing through 4000+ pages.” Can't handle it with multiple PDFs either; ‘multiple’ will run into hundreds in the AFM alone, never mind all the rest of the documentation. It’s all going to be too time consuming, even before you try to handle the multiplicity of different devices people are asking for.
It means first of all, you have an issue with content management; using the Windows® file manager isn’t going to work (even if you didn’t have hundreds of files) what about version control? What about permissions as to who can update what? What about auditability and proving to the regulator you’ve done a good job in maintaining compliance?
You have to re-use and re-purpose information, so for goodness sake, use XML; other methods are a misuse of your most crucial people's time! These days, you don’t have to be a code warrior or get technical enough to write up a PhD – there are inexpensive XML products out there which are as easy to use as any word processor, yet deliver the underlying result in pure XML (no, I don’t mean the obvious one – note my use of the word pure).
And then there are new devices – my prediction for aviation information in 2011 is that the time of the tablet has come! Unless you’ve been asleep in 2010, you will be well aware of the Apple iPad®. Undoubtedy it’s a ground breaking device. Love it or loathe it – and there are of course some die hards in IT who do loath it; just key ‘Hitler’ and ‘iPad’ into YouTube to see what I mean – it is setting a tone about how we will all access information. It already has rivals from Samsung, HP and others. There are several rival operating systems, but that will gradually settle down; who am I betting will be the long-haul winner? Google with Android. The applications won’t just be in Flight Operations – they will permeate into MRO, into training, into inspection – all branches of aviation from GA to heavy metal. Some of these applications won’t even get a look in with the traditional desktop PC, although I won’t write off the Redmond giant just yet.
I look forward with you to an exciting 2011.
Gordon Dennis
Non-linear publications break your document down into discrete "chunks" of information, allowing the individual reader to view just the content they need in the order they require it at that time. By contrast, linear documents are designed, like books, on the premise that all readers will start at the beginning and read all the way through to the end.
Gordon Dennis is Commercial Director of Koala