Think outside the page
Following the motto 'think outside the page', a number of speakers shared their thoughts on the growing impact of digitization on publishing products as well as the specific role of XML in this process. In his keynote speech, David Young, Chairman and CEO Hachette Book Group USA, raised the question, "Is a book only a book if it is printed on paper?" If the answer to this question is 'no', then the process, the workflow and the number of product forms will have to change.
Write once – read once: no longer true
Brian O’Leary, Founder Magellan Media Consulting Partners, explained that 'write once - read once' processes have long been replaced by 'write once - read many' business structures. This has a clear impact on production processes, which need to be modified and adapted, and, an issue not to be neglected, publishers need to have a clear knowledge about which rights authors have handed over to their publisher and which rights they have chosen to retain. The latter issue is particularly relevant for rights and customer relationship management.
Klopotek encourages the development of emerging ideas
Klopotek encourages cutting-edge research and the development of emerging ideas to embrace the transition to an increasingly digital world in the area of content distribution. This is why we co-sponsored the ’StartwithXML’ conference.
You can check out the presentations presentations held at the 'StartwithXML' conference.
Research report available
A market analysis was carried out in preparation of the StartWithXML forum, which is available as a research report. The team that created this report consisted of:
This research report features industry-related surveys and interviews. If you would like to receive a copy, please write to info@klopotek.com.
"A rundown of the StartwithXML forum" by Laura Dawson
Below we quote the "The Big Picture" newsletter, January 2009 edition, created by LJNDawson.com.
"We came, we saw, we presented our butts off. The StartwithXML Forum on January 13th at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium was a true success despite the cold weather.
David Young, CEO of Hachette, kicked off the morning's "Why" sessions with "XML: Why Bother?" And he told us why HE was bothering. Michael Healy, Executive Director of BISG, followed with an explanation as to why starting with XML is so important to the book industry at large, and what the BISG is doing - and would like to do - to facilitate it.
Brian O'Leary, of the StartwithXML team, presented some really compelling slides on ROI drives for starting with XML - making it very clear where in the value chain publishers would truly benefit. These ROI drivers are based on the discoveries we made with the Research Report, which was made available to everyone who attended, and which will be on sale at the StartwithXML website soon.
This was all a prelude to the ROI: Savings panel, in which Klopotek's Werner Fischer gave us a rundown of what an XML metadata workflow could do for a publisher, while Cengage's Rebecca Goldthwaite engaged us in a discussion as to how Cengage is able to save money (really, boatloads) within an XML-based composition workflow - without sacrificing variety in style. And Steve Kotrch, of Simon & Schuster, talked about using XML in managing rights information.
This was followed by the ROI: Revenues panel, where Evan Schnittman of OUP gave a compelling talk on using XML for discoverability. Leslie Hulse, at HarperCollins, talked about using XML to support multi-platform publishing, and Bill O'Brien of the Copyright Clearance Center gave a presentation about online licensing. Finally, David Taylor of Lightning Source drilled down into the economics of POD, which an XML workflow makes much more supportable.
The afternoon session was devoted to the "How" of an XML workflow. Ken Brooks of Cengage gave the keynote speech: "How to Start with XML: A View from the Front Lines". Ken's been implementing an XML workflow for years, and has got his composition costs down to a shockingly low number.
Brian O'Leary followed with some slides delineating publishing technology solutions providers and their tools - also based on the Research Report - emphasizing which tools support a StartwithXML model.
Brian's presentation was followed by a panel of some of the vendors themselves: Firebrand, Klopotek and CodeMantra discussed relevant tools. Doug Lessing from Firebrand talked about how good metadata is the foundation of starting with XML, using NetGalley as an example. Steve Waldron informed us about the tools that Klopotek offers to support an XML workflow, and some of the considerations publishers should take when deciding how to implement. Scott Cook talked about different kinds of DAM systems (production vs. distribution) and how an XML workflow affects those. Andrew Savikas of O'Reilly then wrapped up the panel by talking about the open-source tools that O'Reilly uses in its soup-to-nuts XML workflow.
Brian O'Leary returned again with a really helpful readiness checklist, which informed us about gauging investments and the effect of change on the company. Again, this was derived from the research we did for the Report.
The final panel was about the methods behind starting with XML. I gave a presentation on tagging and chunking, and how each department of a publishing company contributes to these efforts. Phil Madans of Hachette talked about the evolving role of the editor and the author as XML tools become more prevalent. And Frank Grazioli of Wiley gave us a really in-depth look at how Wiley uses Word as the foundation of its XML workflow.
Overall, a really productive day. Brian O'Leary gives an awesome follow-up on the StartwithXML blog - on the issue of whether appropriate tools are available now for a StartwithXML world.
And as it turns out I was not the only one on Twitter for the StartwithXML Forum on January 13th. Joe Bachana was tweeting as well. Kind of interesting to see the posts side-by-side. David Rothman of Teleread also has some great things to say, as does Richard Curtis over at e-reads.
We also got nice coverage from PW, as well as Publishers Lunch."
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