Milestones

2023

Research and innovation
 

Artificial intelligence 

2023 was dominated by artificial intelligence and its impact on technical communication. Selected presentations and articles on this topic:

  • "Artificial Intelligence in technical communication: application, opportunities, risks, and how it will change our profession". Presentation by Ulrike Parson, tcworld conference  2023. Watch video (in German) 
  • White paper by Ulrike Parson “Artificial Intelligence in technical communication: application, opportunities, risks, and how it will change our profession“. Download
  • "KI yes, but not ChatGPT! How do I get my own language model? " Presentation by Helle Hannken-Illjes and Ulrike Parson, tcworld conference 2023. Watch video (in German)
  • "AI and Technical Documentation. What’s next?" Podium discussion with Ulrike Parson and other AI experts at tcworld conference 2023. Watch video 

Technical documentation and standards of the digital twin

  • We contribute to the development of two sub-models of the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) as part of InterOpera. Learn more about the results (in German): Digital data standards and iiRDS
  • We continue to participate in IDiS, the digital standards initiative driven by DIN and DKE. More about IDiS

Smart content and iiRDS

We continue to participate in the development and application of iiRDS. More about iiRDS

  • "Danfoss goes iiRDS – Moving to a standard-based metadata model". Joint presentation by Danfoss and parson at tcworld conference 2023. Watch video
  • "iiRDS-Plugins for the DITA OT". Mark Schubert presents the iiRDS DITA OT plugins, their features, challenges and future improvements at the tcworld conference 2023. Read the announcement 

Exciting customer projects

We support several companies in digitalizing their technical documentation and developing an information architecture. A selection:

Cooperations

  • AI cooperation with LangTec. To offer our customers the best possible solutions for AI-based text and language technology applications, parson has started a cooperation with the Hamburg-based technology provider LangTec. Read the announcement
  • parson becomes Solution Partner of BOTfriends. This allows us to support our customers in providing the content of their technical documentation in an intelligent chatbot. Read the announcement
  • gds and parson expand their partnership. Customers implementing an information management solution from gds can now benefit from parson's many years of experience in modern and sustainable information architectures. Read the announcement
  • Empolis honors us with its Partner Award for the trustful and successful cooperation and outstanding achievements in the joint realization of innovative customer solutions. Read the announcement

Events

  • Empolis Exchange Summit. „How Endress+Hauser turns technical documentation inside out“. The joint presentation by Thomas Ziesing (Endress+Hauser Group Services AG), Ulrike Parson (parson AG) and Franz Stötzner (Empolis Information Management GmbH) focusses on the transformation of Endress+Hauser's technical documentation. Watch video (in German)
  • Adobe DITAWORLD. As a leading DITA ambassador, parson supports Adobe DITAWORLD 2023 for the second year in a row as a gold sponsor and gives two presentations on smart content and DITA. Read the announcement
  • Gdslive. „Metadata for intelligent information“. Gernot Baumann and Ozan Yldirir show how a modern metadata concept based on iiRDS can be set up in order to better deliver semantically enriched content. Read the announcement
  • Adobe Experience Makers. Ulrike Parson gives a presentation on the subject of DITA and iiRDS. Read the announcement
  • tcworld conference 2023. Wir participate with several presentations. Read the announcement

Working and studying at parson

We support two students with their theses:

  • Martin Fiebig  is writing his bachelor thesis in Technical Information Design and Technical Editing (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hanover) at parson. His research topic: "Converting HTML or DITA XML files into PDF files". Read the results in the knowledge base
  • Together with our partners RWS and Botfriends, we are supervising Mette Lilienthal's master's thesis on "Chatbots in technical communication". Read the results in the knowledge base. Presentation at tcworld conference 2023: "Feeding a chatbot with your documentation content". Mette Lilienthal (parson) and Jörg Schmidt (RWS). Watch the video

We continue our series of interviews with the parson team:

We present a job profile that is becoming increasingly important:

Selected knowledge articles and blog posts

  • Publish DITA content at the click of a button: the DITA Open Toolkit. Read the article

  • Creating a PDF from HTML – Formatting documents with CSS Paged Media. Read the article

  • Artificial Intelligence in technical communication. Or would ChatGPT get a job with us as a technical communicator? Read the article

New website

We present our redesigned website with services for intelligent information solutions.

2022

Research and innovation

  • parson remains committed to the development and application of iiRDS. The Steering Committee and working group representatives present the developments of iiRDS in 2022 at the tcworld conference. Read the announcement.
  • We contribute to IDiS, the German standardization strategy, driven by DIN and DKE. parson participated in working group 2, which focused on the representation of standards in the management shell for Industry 4.0. Learn more about IDiS.

Exciting customer projects

  • We support several companies in the digital transformation of their technical documentation, including GS1 and Endress+Hauser.
  • With FLEXIM, we support a technology leader in industrial metrology by developing an information architecture and creating a Getting Started Guide.

Events

  • At the tcworld spring conference 2022, Mark Schubert and Ulrike Parson give a presentation on "iiRDS in the semantic network - together in Europe". Read our blog post "iiRDS in the semantic network".
  • As a Gold sponsor, parson is participating in DITAWORLD 2022. Frank Ralf, technical consultant, presents "DITA Intelligence for Adobe Experience Manager. How to use DITA Metadata to improve the Customer Experience". About the conference.
  • We give four presentations at the tcworld conference 2022, including metadata management and smart content, docs-as-code, and innovations in iiRDS. Read the announcement.

New cooperations

  • Fonto is a new partner. The Dutch technology company offers easy-to-use and highly flexible solutions for editing and reviewing XML content. Read the announcement.
  • parson and itl have been working together for several years in the form of joint presentations and knowledge exchange. We are pleased to officially welcome itl as a partner in our partner network. Read the announcement.

Working and studying at parson

  • Meet the team. In this series, we introduce the parson team one by one. We start with Ann-Cathrin Mackenthun, senior technical communicator. Read the blog post.
  • Since 2014, parson has carried the Hamburger Familiensiegel, which is awarded to companies that support their employees in balancing family and career. In November 2022, we meet existing and new seal bearers at a reception hosted by the Hamburg Senate. More about working at parson.
  • parson supports students by, for example, supervising a bachelor or master thesis. We have talked to our master student Mette about how this can work. Read the blog post.

Selected knowledge articles from our website

  • Docs-as-code for technical documentation. Our authors discuss the docs-as-code method, its principles and the tools that are used. Read the knowledge article.
  • First comes metadata, then comes content. How to control your CCMS with metadata. Together with our partner Empolis, we have written a knowledge article on this topic. Read the knowledge article.

2021

2020

  • We launch our digital learning platform. The platform provides access to the e-learning courses on technical communication, intelligent content, and DITA.
  • At the digital tcworld conference 2020, we give five presentations on content delivery, iiRDS, terminology, and visualization. 
  • SDL and parson form a strategic partnership. With this partnership, we contribute our expertise in the areas of structured documentation and content strategy.
  • We publish the parson Smart Content service package. With parson Smart Content, you can easily create modular, XML-based documentation according to the DITA standard.
  • As a service provider with many years of experience in standardization documentation and database specification, we support ASAM e.v. in revising the OpenDRIVE standard and the OpenCRG standard. In 2020, we will also become a member of the ASAM consortium.
  • Clear, modern, informative: our new website goes online.
  • parson assists tcworld in developing an intelligent chatbot. 

2019

  • We move into a new company building.
  • At LearningDITA Live 2019 we offer four presentations in German.
  • We give several presentations at the tekom spring conference and annual tcworld conference. Our topics: software documentation, topic-oriented writing, iiRDS, and chatbots.
  • With plusmeta, gds, and IXIASOFT, we extend our partner network in the field of content management and artificial intelligence for documentation.

2018

  • We become a founding member of the iiRDS Consortium.
  • We enrich our DITA lernen e-learning platform with two new courses; a total of eight courses are now available here.
  • parson joins intrinsify, the think tank and leading network for the new working world and modern business management.

2017

  • iiRDS takes technical documentation to the next level: we actively participate in shaping the new content delivery standard under the patronage of tekom.
  •  Our DITA lernen e-learning platform acquires three sponsors: Empolis, oXygen and Kilgray.
  • Ulrike Parson holds the opening lecture at tcworld in China on the topic of Intelligent Information in Technical Documentation.

2016

  •  Our new DITA lernen e-learning platform is launched, whereby we offer free courses for learning DITA.
  • Working together instead of just processing: parson introduces a sociocratic business model.
  • We celebrate our 10thanniversary with a garden party.
  • Information 4.0 is moving the industry. We are actively involved in the “Information 4.0” tekom working group.
  • We become a member of DIN, the German Institute for Standardization, and are certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 27001.

2015

  • A year of amazing growth: the team now has 14 technical writers.
  •  Software standardization for more quality. We are actively involved in the tekom “Software Standardization” project group.
  •  Qualified training is important to us: this is why our first volunteers, who are training as technical writers at tecteam, begin working with us.
  • We are one of the first German companies to use the brand new DITA Standard 1.3.

2014

  • We are awarded the Hamburger Familiensiegel – due to the excellent compatibility of work and family.

2013

  • parson communication becomes parson AG. With the transformation into an AG (or stock company), we are ideally prepared for further healthy growth.
  • We open an office in Berlin.

2010

  • With our growth in mind, we move into a new company building..

2009

  •  We are expanding our portfolio with XML-based documentation applications.

2006

  • Ulrike Parson founds parson communication, a specialized service company for software documentation in Hamburg.