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Nic Gibson11th April 2011

(nicg@corbas.co.uk)

Strategic Implications of XML for your

Publishing Business

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One-Slide Refresher• XML is a meta file format• Tagged text • Lots of angle brackets• A tiny little bit like HTML with stricter rules• You can write your own language by following

the rules*

* Don’t to this at home

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The Environment

• Is XML important?• Why is it important now?• How does it affect your business?

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Digital Markets Mature

• More books will become digital only• The price of printing may only be a small part

but it’s a part• Traditional publishing will be competing

against a different cost base.

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• The business is changing• Publishing is paper centric• It needs to be content centric

• The paper mindset needs to be replaced by a digital content mindset

Change Happens

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The World has Changed

• When did you • last use an encyclopaedia?• pick up a dictionary?

• These are digital activities now

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Traditional Models are Threatened

• More writers will follow the Ian Fleming and Catherine Cookson estates

• Amazon has 20% of the UK book market• In trade, more writers will be established

indies before they even talk to a publisher

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Change

• Publishing is becoming more like software• No coincidence that new media folk are

moving in• If publishing is becoming like software let’s

learn the lessons of software development• project management• version control• separation of presentation and data

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Content Driven Publishing

• XML is a valuable tool• It’s not an answer in itself

• An XML first workflow doesn’t necessarily get you anywhere

• It’s the neutral format for your content

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Challenges/Opportunities?

• Process complexity• Licensing and custom publishing• Digital formats• Content reuse• Discoverability• Increase ROI

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Processes

• XML first/last/somewhere• Does it actually matter where the XML is?

• We need digital content driven processes

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• How do you create your eBooks?• From edited manuscript?• From the application files?• From the print PDF?• From XML?

Where Are We Now?

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• How do you create your eBooks?• From edited manuscript?• From the application files?• From the print PDF?• From XML?

Where Are We Now?

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The Continuum

Where’s the right place to be?

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Traditional Workflows

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Traditional Workflows• Traditional publishing workflows do not

include digital content well

• Well-known process• Developed over a long period• Efficient way to produce books

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Traditional Workflows• Traditional publishing workflows do not

include digital content well

• Not suited to multi-format publishing• Not particularly suited to the outsourced

world• Depends on valuable skill sets

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Transitional Workflows• Transitional workflows are a first step• Simply adding digital outputs to your existing

workflows• Convert the output into your new formats

• Easy to do• You get XML• You get eBooks

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Transitional Workflows• Transitional workflows are a first step• Simply adding XML to your existing workflows• Convert the output into your new formats

• Some of the output benefits but none of the process benefits of content driven models

• All of the costs of traditional publishing workflows

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Content Driven Workflows

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Content Driven Workflows

• Get the content into XML as soon as you can• For suitable content types there are major

benefits

• Highly flexible• Multi format publishing is much easier• Repeatability • Lowered costs

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Content Driven Workflows

• Get the content into XML as soon as you can• For suitable content types there are major

benefits

• Very different - new skills required• Sometimes not applicable

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Licensing• We want to license the content not the design• If it becomes easy, we will do it• Education• Reference• STM• Poetry• Cookery

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Custom Publishing

• Everything about licensing is true for custom publishing too

• Educational publishing• sell by chapter• custom textbooks

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Digital Formats

• Digital formats breed

• EPUB• Kindle• Web

• What next?

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What Does XML Get You?

• Agile content• XML is an enabler for multi-format publishing• EPUB• Kindle• Web• multiple print formats

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Agility

• Content has to be agile• It has to be easy to • create the large format book• sell a single chapter • create the EPUB• change from EPUB to whatever comes next

• XML enables agile content

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The Way We Think

• Design is integral• The words are fixed

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Traditional Design• Traditionally, a book could be viewed as a

tightly grouped trio of design, content and structure

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Design and Digital Content

• XML helps us to extract the design• Enables multiple designs for a single item of

content• Enables a single design for multiple items of

content

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Design and Digital Content

• XML helps us to extract the design• Enables multiple designs for a single item of

content• Enables a single design for multiple items of

content

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Additional Revenue

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Discoverability

• Amazon recommendations• Finding eBooks• Metadata

• Dublin Core• The semantic web• RDF

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Content Reuse• Different types of content have different

potentials for reuse• One of the ROI drivers for XML is reuse

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Improved ROI

• Simpler processes• Revenue opportunities• New formats• Reuse

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Words

• Digital only features• Print only features• Accessibility

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What if?

• XML may be superseded by something better• This happens in technology • XML could help you handle its own

obsolescence

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Summary

• What challenges can XML help us with?• What does that change in the publishing

process?

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• XML helps us become content focused• Licensing• Multi-format publishing• New revenue opportunities

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• We need to be more flexible• We have to change the way we think• The technology is here• Digital publishing is here• Let’s put them together and do something

clever

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Thank You

Questions?