darin mcbeath xml holland

The Publishing [R]evolution

Darin McBeathXML Holland 2007Amsterdam

Agenda

• Historical Perspective

• [R]evolutionary Technology

• Examples

• Survey Results

• Questions

Evolution or Revolution

Evolution– Gradual– Progressive change

Revolution– Sudden– Complete or marked change

1490 - Revolution

1970s - Revolution

SGML

1997 - Evolution

2002 - Evolution

XML

2007 - Revolution

XQuery(and XML Databases)

What is XQuery

XQuery

Query Language

Programming Language Transformation Language

Integration Language Full-Text Search Language

Why XML Databases and XQuery?Technologies and user expectations are pushing business models to the wall. Faster

than license agreements can keep up, new ways to use, copy, share, slice, and dice

information arise. With easy access, content usage explodes at a rate that

institutions can’t sustain under current charging models, and publishers are

challenged to come up with new metrics or shift more of the revenue burden from

institutions to individuals.

Workflow is an increasing concern of knowledge workers, and publishers are

responding. With more content and less time to analyze it, users need content that

reaches out in an actionable way – it’s not about searching but about using. STM

publishers are increasingly looking for ways to incorporate content and tools, to

offer slices of content to answer questions, or to add analysis and structure to

content in ways that make it useful in very specific situations.

Information Industry Outlook: FutureFacts 2007Volume 2, September 18, 2006 © Outsell Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Why XML Databases and XQuery?

Match for document centric applications

Eliminate transformations due to the storage repository

XMLXML XML

Why XML Databases and XQuery?

Speed of Development and Agility

ElsevierRBI

Oxford University PressO’Reilly

Why XML Databases and XQuery?

No predefined granularity

– Search and retrieve by <article>

– Search and retrieve by <p>

– Search and retrieve by <caption>

– Search and retrieve by <section>

Why XML Databases and XQuery?

Simplicity

– Focus on the solution

– Merge various XML markup streams

How is XQuery impacting publishers today ?

Content Analytics

O’Reilly Labs

Rapid Prototyping

Custom Publishing

Content Transformation

Content Repurposing

O’Reilly Labs

XML Repository

Publishing Platform

and another one …

eLearning

Web Applications

Complete Applications

We are confident that the combination of XQuery on the server side and cross-browser AJAX libraries will give us all the functionality that we need in a user front end and will also make it easy for us to continue adding features to that front end without the typical long development cycles of Java web application development.

Survey Quote

Web 2.0

Web 2.0

Article 1.0

Article 2.0

How would you present an Article?

What external services would you incorporate?

Article 2.0 Sample

Informal Survey

• 8 Questions– Aggregated responses– Guaranteed anonymity– Non-scientific study

• Participation– Small publishers– Large publishers– Traditional publishers– Non-traditional publishers

Question 1

How and where is XQuery utilized by your organization?

– Digital Asset Management– Knowledge Management Applications– Content Fabrication– Online Publishing Platform– Prototypes– Web 2.0 Integration

Question 2

What are the biggest challenges (technical and non-technical) XQuery poses for publishers?

– XQuery Skillset Availability– Training– Quality Examples– Tool Integration– Management Understanding of New Opportunities– Opposition From SQL Groups

Question 3

What are the main benefits of XQuery?

– Functional Fit For Content Problems– One Language, One Data Model– Content Transformation/Manipulation– Development Speed– XML Structure Awareness– Breadth Of New Possibilities

Question 4

What are the main weaknesses of XQuery?

– Standardization (Conformance)– Syntax– Interoperability– Reusable Component Libraries– Weak Encapsulation– Tuning Complexity

Question 5

Are you able to use XQuery as extensively as you want to?  If not what are the obstacles you face?

– Cost– Internal Politics– Resource Availability– Developers Still Learning

Question 6

Has XQuery provided some assistance with justifying a business to migrate from legacy formats to XML?

– XQuery permitted a radical cost reduction and improvement in function for our KM application.

– Yes, although it was not XQuery alone. It was our publishing platform (which uses XQuery) that has made this argument.

– XQuery has justified a move from initial DAM to inclusion of an XQuery server that frees us to some degree from the constriction of DAM.

Question 7

How has your use of XQuery changed over the past year?  Are more projects using XQuery?  How are you using it differently when compared to last year?

– It is appearing in many projects that fall in gray areas between content and data and between KM and publishing.

– Much more interest across the organization in potentially leveraging XQuery in product development. Definitely a greater awareness of the technology.

Question 8

Is XQuery is a tool that enables publishers to unleash the power of XML and revolutionize the publishing industry?

– We are not a publisher per se, but if we were, and we had any amount of content stored as XML, I think this would be a no-brainer “yes”.

– Yes, for the simple reason that it opens opportunities in using XML that were not possible before in a more efficient and effective manner.

– It has the potential, but what you really need are publishers that can move beyond the current “print-centric” mindset or order to leverage the capabilities.

The Future

– Mind the gap

– Levels of intermediation

– Focus on Markup

– Local distribution of content

– Mashup (Web 2.0)

Thank

You

Darin McBeath

Elsevier, Disruptive Technologies

d.mcbeath@elsevier.com