What Is S1000D™?

S1000D™ is a registered trademark of ASD

What is S1000D?
S1000D™ is an international specification for technical publications, utilizing a Common Source Database. It was originally introduced to the European community by the Association Européenne des Constructeurs de Matériel Aérospatial (AECMA), representing the aerospace industry. By definition: "S1000D™ is an international specification for the procurement and production of technical publications."

While this definition appears to restrict its use to technical publications, it has been found through application that the principles of the specification can also be applied to non-technical publications.

Today, the S1000D™ standard is supported by the successor to AECMA, the AeroSpace and Defence Industries of Europe (ASD) and the Aerospace Industries Association of America (AIA), and is controlled by the Steering Committee (SC), which has the full responsibility of maintaining the specification. The SC includes members from both government agencies and industry. To address the rapid development of information technology, a group of specialists, the Electronic Publications Working Group (EPWG), supports the SC in technical matters.

Benefits of S1000D
Most experts will agree that the single greatest benefit offered by S1000D™ is the ability to reuse data. With S1000D™, specific data modules are created (containing text and/or graphics), and then stored in the Common Source Database (CSDB). You can then reuse and redistribute that very same data module in many other different projects or publications. This can bring a tremendous amount of time savings to the authoring process, as data modules are simply "plugged in" to any publication or project documentation as needed. In short, with S1000D™ there is no longer a need to recreate the same information over and over again for each individual publication.

Some of the other related benefits of using the S1000D™ specification are:

• S1000D™ is based on internationally agreed neutral standards
• Many different output forms can be generated from a single data source, thus ensuring consistency of data delivered to users
• Cost savings associated with reuse of information (vs. recreating new information each time)
• Facilitates complete configuration control
• Reduces maintenance costs for technical information and overall Product Life-Cycle costs
• Allows sub-sets of information to be generated to meet specific user needs
• Facilitates transfer of information and electronic output between disparate IT systems
• S1000D™ data module concept can be applied to legacy data
• It is non-proprietary and allows neutral delivery and management of data
• Incorporates data storage in electronic form while supporting output of information as either paper or IETPs (Interactive Electronic Technical Publications) or IETMs (Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals) using XML and web technologies.
• Provides a single standard to support communications and data exchange among all participants in a given project
• Standard data exchange format can also readily support future development projects
• A very active standards body keeps up with evolving technologies while keeping an eye on backward compatibility, thus ensuring that the standard stays up to date as well as protecting your existing data investment

CDG offers S1000D™ support services to help organizations