Curated for content, computing, and digital experience professionals

Month: December 2007 (Page 3 of 3)

What Every Publisher Needs to Know About Content Management

Tomorrow, I will be part of a webinar, What Every Publisher Needs to Know About Content Management. It’s being put on by Book Business Magazine and sponsored by Follett Digital Resources. Matt Steinmetz, Special Projects Editor for Book Business will be moderating, and I will be joined on the virtual dais by Jabin White, Vice President for Product Management at Silverchair.
I’m going to be presenting a market overview, offer some definitions, and discuss some recent and emerging trends. I’m going to leave most of the heavy lifting to Jabin, though. He is truly one of the smart guys in the business and an excellent presenter, and I am looking forward to hearing what he has to say.
You can go right to the registration page here.

CM Pros Board Nominations Open

CM Professionals is now accepting nominations of candidates for the Board of Directors. The nominations period runs from now until December 21.
In a balloting period beginning January 7, CM Pros members will elect four new directors to two-year terms set to expire in January 2010. Eleven candidates ran in the 2007 elections held this past January. The Elections Committee expects to attract an equal number of qualified candidates for this election, given the growing profile of content management as a business practice and higher visibility of content management professionals within enterprises worldwide.
Candidates must be CM Pros members in good standing (i.e., current in their dues). The organization seeks individuals who are committed to the content management community and to the goals of CM Pros, can effectively lead international teams of volunteers and accomplish project and program goals, and have professional networks that can drive participation by all consitutents in the community. CM Pros from outside North America are especially encouraged to consider running for the board.
For more information about opportunities to serve CM Pros, please see the nominations page on the CM Pros website. You can also send email to elections@cmprofessionals.org.

dominKnow Adds Multi-Lingual Capability

dominKnow Inc. announced that the dominKnow LCMS 5.1 Web-based Learning Content Management System now offers a Language Module that allows customers to provide e-learning in almost any language. At launch, the Language Module gives dominKnow LCMS customers the ability to present courses and courseware interfaces in French Canadian, French European, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Korean. Additional languages will be added to the module in the coming months. The new Language Module also gives customers a Translation Tool to extract the text assets of a course on their own and have them translated into any language they choose. Additionally, customers can substitute same-language interface words to match organizational terminology – for example, “Student” could be changed to “Learner” throughout the system if “Learner” is more appropriate. dominKnow LCMS 5.1 customers can export training content compatible with both SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004. dominKnow LCMS also supports the AICC standard. http://www.dominknow.com

EBook Readers, Unite!

With the advent of Kindle, from Amazon, a second dedicated ebook reader device has made the news, not counting the press and high hypes of the many preceding, deceasing ebook device contenders. There is a lot to like about Kindle on the face of it: like the Sony reader, Kindle uses the very effective E-Ink display, and few argue that the display lacks sufficient print page fidelity. But, so what? If you want good black type on white, readable only when illuminated by lamp or sun, the book itself has proved a pretty good format.

But, of course, Kindle promises much more, including all the old bromides about ebooketry like storing many titles, interactive index capabilities, bookmarking, etc., but there are some new tricks in Kindle that may indeed spark new interest. The best one is that through cellphone data network connectivity, the user may order new titles anywhere and anytime the cell network works (which, admittedly, is a whole lot more where and when than Wi-Fi, unless one happens never to leave the office or home network, or lives in a Starbucks). Hats off to Amazon for this innovation. Other features include some sort of Web browsing, an online ebook ordering system that should be second nature to Amazon, and, kinda, MP3 playability. But many of the newest features Kindle offers are more disappointment than delivery, and these shortfalls have everything to do with one of the biggest conceptual problems of dedicated ebook readers in the real world: The additional device conundrum.

While readability is a key requirement for an ebook device (and the lack of which helps explains why PDAs have proved to be a poor ebook market factor), the human species has neither physically evolved more hands, nor has human culture fashioned more pockets. Like 99% of people, I have enough trouble making sure that I have my keys with me when they might be needed, and when you throw in the now essential cellphone, it can seem like half of each day is spent performing the mime of pocket swatting. (Thank god I long ago gave up smoking, and now no longer have to also pat myself down to see about matches or the pack.) People sherpa the minimum, and the idea of having a cell phone, and a PDA, and an MP3 player, and a laptop, and an ebook reader doesn’t require a lot of imagining to be seen as unattractive. And that’s before you figure than anyone hitting their forties also has to carry reading glasses, not to mention for some of any age inhalers or secure ID cards, and for many, breath mints, handkerchiefs, gloves or mittens, and the wallet or two. I’m sure that this is all good training if you’re going to be a combat grunt, but for daily living our current list of the things we carry is a burden.

That’s what drives me crazy about Kindle. It has a built-in cell phone, but there’s no option to use it for anything else other than ordering a book. It has the ICs and jacks for playing MP3 files, but no playlist management, nor—absurdly enough, considering that Amazon is set up to sell things like music—any iTunes-like music downloading. The critical assessment of the Web browsing capability of Kindle is not fully formed, but there’s already plenty of complaint about the Kindle’s shortcomings there. Even one of the strong features of Kindle—E-ink—comes with its own drawback; while promotional copy claims that it is just like reading a page, that also means that you can’t read without a light, so better add a booklight to your pack, even as you’re carrying an electrically powered “book.” And with Kindle’s fundamental lack of support of PDF files—without question the single most widespread format for ebooks—you have to wonder, “What were they thinking?!”

Yes, I’d love to have an ebook device with seamless book ordering. But gosh darn it, it better handle phone calls and calendars, text entry and music playlists, and a good enough Web browser before I’d consider it. Throw in a breath mints storage bin, and I’m sold.

The Trouble with Kindle

With the advent of Kindle, from Amazon, a second dedicated ebook reader device has made the news, and there’s a lot to like about Kindle on the face of it. But the old hobgoblin of too many dedicated devices still reigns.

That’s what drives me crazy about Kindle. It has a built-in cell phone, but there’s no option to use it for anything else other than ordering a book. It has the ICs and jacks for playing MP3 files, but no playlist management, nor—absurdly enough, considering that Amazon is set up to sell things like music—any iTunes-like music downloading. The critical assessment of the Web browsing capability of Kindle is not fully formed, but there’s already plenty of complaint about the Kindle’s shortcomings there. Even one of the strong features of Kindle—E-ink—comes with its own drawback; while promotional copy claims that it is just like reading a page, that also means that you can’t read without a light, so better add a booklight to your pack, even as you’re carrying an electrically powered “book.” And with Kindle’s fundamental lack of support of PDF files—without question the single most widespread format for ebooks—you have to wonder, “What were they thinking?!”

A fuller discussion can be found in our Publishing Practices Blog, in Ebook Readers, Unite!

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