SAE’s Approach to Digital Publishing

Nancy A ClarkeConference Session E4

How Digital Publishing is Changing & Where it is going

Did you know?• SAE was Founded in 1905 – Society of Automobile Engineers

– Vice President – Henry Ford, initial membership 30 engineers– Initial publication of SAE Transactions – compilation of technical papers

• A fateful meeting in 1916 – Society of Automotive Engineers– SAE Member, Sperry, created the term “automotive” from Greek autos (self), and Latin

motivus (of motion)– Members included Thomas Edison, Orville Wright, Charles Kettering– SAE standards program played pivotal roles during both World Wars

• 1960 - Emergence of FISITA – International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies

• 1974 – Transition to Western PA – Pittsburgh – home of many companies that were key material and technical suppliers to the mobility industry– Developed interactive CD-ROM and web-based products

• 1990’s– SAE Foundation created to raise funds in support of A World in Motion – physical science

supplement for grades 4-8– Launch of 12 different Collegiate Design Competitions drawing over 4,500 students and

500 universities. Examples include Formula SAE, SAE Mini Baja, and SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge

Today• 4 major industries – Aerospace, Automobile, Commercial Vehicle and

Motorsports• 5 magazine publications

– Automotive Engineering International – Aerospace Engineering & Manufacturing (online only)– Off-highway Engineering– Momentum (student magazine)– SAE Update (online only)

• 850 published books, 95,000 published papers, 10,000 published standards – 1.7M pages – 67% digitized & online

• Webinars, e-Learning, e-newsletters and e-Seminars• 120,000+ Members• Electronics, Clean Air, Hybrid Vehicle standards in high demand

Recasting SAE’s Digital Publishing Business

• Goals– Leverage new channels for reaching members and

customers– Speed time to market for new information and

products– Provide content to customers based on their

individual needs

SAE’s Approach (5 tracks)1. Next Generation Product Plan

– identify new content type opportunities, define valuable and needed improvements for our customers, and increase awareness of our products by leveraging content and social outlets.

2. Content Management Policy and Procedures– Changing from warehouses and inventory to print on demand– Changing priorities from order fulfillment and printing to real-time information

publishing• Books, Magazines, Standards, Technical Papers

– Changing from restrictive, complicated DRM to passive monitoring and logging– Changing from editorial department to XML first content management

department– Replacing predefined, restrictive document builds with a dynamic agile build

process– Expand author’s ability to communicate information and reach

SAE’s Approach (5 Tracks)3. Content Conversion

– Convert SAE’s existing content to a digital format that captures structure, semantics, and supplemental information.

4. Taxonomy Integration– Create and implement a new taxonomy– Implementation of content tagging system/procedures/organization, including

definition and implementation of appropriate semi-automated tagging application software and staff training with quality assurance systems.

– Convert all SAE systems to leverage new taxonomy

5. Content Management Infrastructure– Developing and implementing infrastructure changes required to meet new

channels for publishing. Primary technologies to focus on include content storage, access, publication and labeling.

– XML, semi-automated indexing, searching, rendering

The New SAE CM Workflow• New author guidelines and templates• Shortened review and approval process• All textual content distilled to XML format, non textual content linked

where appropriate• Semi-automated process for classifying content• Publishing processes built with plug-in templates to produce the variety of

digital demands • Replace manual compilations (e.g. journals) with automation• Content that changes is a challenge all into itself

Author/Approve

Validate

Ingest/IndexValidate Convert PDF

PDFPublish

epub

mobiWord XML

Challenges• Authors are volunteers

– Easy, clear and comprehensive authoring guidelines are critical– Restricted templates necessary– Need to plan for the idealist, the exceptions, the naysayers

• It’s a new way of thinking for everyone– Format is not a given– Change will not be immediate– Efficiency is reached over time as more content moves to new workflow– The flow will evolve after it is being used, keep it simple and flexible– Authoring is about the content, not the presentation– Thinking outside the box is critical to truly leverage content – you’ll be

amazed at what you’ll find

Challenges• Content Management tools enable process but alone do not change it

– Procedures require detailed documentation– The Editor/Production Specialist’s role and skills change - knowledge of XML is

critical– Training and new desktop tools are essential– Weed out the unnecessary - “we always did it this way…”

• What is the authoritative source?• Underlying infrastructure is critical

– Where to store the XML– Adequate disk space– Integration with company databases – metadata– Tools that permit flexibility of output format/layout (plug and play)

• Communication, as always, is critical

SAE’s Digital Content Conversion• In 2009 converted 25 books and 95,000 technical papers to XML

– Papers were converted between July and Dec– Average 12-16 pages per paper

• 95% of content was converted from hard copy or PDF Image• Design specifications were created to apply across multiple content types• A team was needed to manage inventory, quality, timelines, budget and

issues – Project/Design Lead– QA Lead + 3 analysts– IT Infrastructure Lead + 2 developers

• 2010 promises conversions for 10K+ standards and 100 books

Conversion Design Specifications• NLM Journal and Book Publishing tag sets were basis for design• Zero changes made to the NLM DTDs• The NLM Common Tagging Preferences is very resourceful

– http://dtd.nlm.nih.gov/publishing/tag-library/n-qk32.html

• Many decisions still required beyond selecting a tag set• Decisions for legacy content and for new content will not be equal• Legacy Conversion Decisions

– Produce an exact replica of print for immediate online access (PDF)– Capture text as XML that will enhance searching for content– Capture tables, math equations as graphics – capture content type for

future possibilities– Capture structure for reuse/repurpose of content– Capture figure, table and formula labels with graphic– Capture section, list and other labels as labels

Design DecisionsIf capturing as inline equation, is it 1 or 2? What will it cost?

-- STM papers are heavily peppered with A wide range of character codes/symbols.

-- Standardized on Unicode even when entitycode or otherwise is an option.

-- Capture common characters as unicode, rarecharacters as images.

-- Remember to address limitations of readers, renderers.

-- DTD character set may specify a value other than a unicode (& and <)

-- Replace variations of EM and EN dashes with hyphens

• Design document should cover anomalies and small details– Lists do not always follow standards– Be clear on what should and should not be a definition list– Define how to address multipart figures– If an “id” attribute exists, you probably want to use it– Page continuations– What defines a “subtitle”?– Be clear on use of contrib/contrib-group, appendix/appendix-group– Examine books individually

• References/Citations– Write detailed rules for defining reference publication types– Use combination of mixed-citation and individual elements for flexibility– Provide examples of each type of reference (book vs. URL vs. paper)– Plan for multiple nested reference list elements

Conversion Design Specifications

Lessons Learned• Know your DTD or XSD thoroughly so you know what can be captured and

how to capture it• Identify roles/resources for the following:

– Proofing results, correcting small problems– Tracking and managing documents with problems– Addressing vendor queries– Tracking and reporting progress

• Prepare/build methods for proofing results first– Share tools with vendor

• Define adequate sample size for pilot• Communication is key – regular meetings, status updates, issue logs• Include many examples, be specific• Adjust as you go

Lessons Learned• “trust but verify”• Understand how accuracy is measured• Don’t convert metadata if its already in a database, marry it up later• Account for disk space and method for transferring large amounts of data• Plan for unexpected costs (overruns, rework, scope)• Include costs for shipping, copying, software licenses, readers• Allow for ramp up, vendor allocation time• Save money, create your own epub, PDF• Each vendor has their own unique methods for converting to XML, ask

questions

Thank You!

http://www.sae.org