Inmedius, Inc. announced the general release of iConvert, a comprehensive environment for the conversion of documents into structured eXtensible Markup Language (XML). The software supports conversion from legacy paper, Microsoft Word or PDF files. iConvert also comes pre-configured for XML conversion of original S1000D, 40051B and ATA documents, and supports any Document Type Definition (DTD) or XML schema. iConvert synchronizes the original document with the converted XML document in a multi-pane, on-screen display. This approach to XML conversion should allow for the continuous fine-tuning of document conversion rules for increased automated transfer. iConvert’s has modified its user environment and workflow design that guides the user through the XML conversion process. At the same time, iConvert provides a visual inspection of the original document that is synchronized with the configured XML output. During this step, the end-user should be able to drag and drop both unconverted pieces of data, as well as content that has been transformed properly. User defined rules files applied to create the original conversion are updated, allowing for a second pass with increased accuracy. http://inmedius.com/
Category: Publishing & media (Page 26 of 52)
The Gilbane Publishing Practice is diving deep into the transformation of publishing as more and more publishers realize that the digital domain can not be ignored. Not that there aren’t plenty of publishers—especially in STM and other professional publishing efforts—already very active in digital publishing. Still, trade publishing, for example, is seeing the very real opportunities in eBook markets, and we’re wrestling with what makes for best practices for them.
Not that anyone’s strategy makes for a “one-size-fits-all” approach. There are some trade publishers that have started in on or already have well-established single repository XML-based content management systems, the benefits of which are tremendous not just for eBooks, but for content re-use, custom publishing, localization and translation, and even to varying extents, integration with other line of publishing business systems. In trade publishing, however, there are plenty of publishers that have diverse collections of editorial and production platforms—often the result of the long history of mergers and acquisitions in this industry—and the level of integration within these editorial and production systems is ad hoc, at best, never mind effective tie-ins with marketing or sales systems, or royalties, or rights, etc. You know who you are.
So, what is the trade publisher supposed to do? While the ideal solution might be to create content chunks rich with meta-data that feed workflows across not just departments like production, but in and out of all of the other business systems as needed, there is a lot of time and money that goes into such a set up. For trade publishers with publishing systems that work—and maybe it doesn’t really matter if it’s taken a lot of gum and baling wire—what really is needed to add eBooks to the mix?
Companies like Aptara and even newer comer Tizra, along with well-established composition and conversion services, will tell you that if you can output in PDF, they can make eBook for you. And depending on the vendor, the eBook production may be very inexpensive, or have very sophisticated features, or be ready to market and sell, or some combination. SaaS is becoming more common for such processes, so investment, too, is relatively painless. Let’s think of this class of eBook production as “tigers.” This class of solutions offers impressively quick solutions and a good range of capabilities across a growing number of vendors, and represent a strong competitive argument.
XML-based repository digital asset and content management platforms, with their ability to embed rich metadata that may even enable actionable content to other publishing systems—including sales and distribution—stand as a class we can think of a “grizzly bears.” There is no doubt that this class of digital publishing solutions is a competitive strategy choice itself. One example is Wave Corporation, another is Mark Logic. Some solutions work better with publishing business-specific platforms (e.g., Klopotek, Firebrand, MEI).
Of course it may not be an either/or question. Recent news from codeMantra, about partnering with Mark Logic, points to the combining of the tiger and the grizzly. A “tizzly,” anyone?
Keep an eye open for our efforts to answer such questions, and if you are a vendor in this space, please be sure to contact Bill Trippe or Ralph Marto about participating in our multi-client reports. To read more about our Gilbane Publishing Practice consulting services, click here.
As part of next week’s Gilbane Boston Conference, the XML practice will be delivering a pre-conference workshop, “Managing Smart Content: How to Deploy XML Technologies across Your Organization.” The instructors will be Geoff Bock, Dale Waldt, Bill Trippe, Barry Schaeffer and Neal Hannon–a group of experts that represents decades of technical and management experience on XML initiatives.
A tip of the virtual hat to Senior Analyst Geoff Bock for organizing this.
Smart content holds great promise. First with SGML and now with XML, we are marking up content with both formatting and semantic tags, and adding intelligence to electronic information. Using richly tagged XML documents that exploit predefined taxonomies, we are developing innovative applications for single source publishing, pharmaceutical labeling, and financial reporting. By managing content snippets in a granular yet coherent fashion, these applications are revolutionizing our capabilities to meet business needs and customers’ expectations.
What’s working and why? What are the lessons learned from these innovative applications? Does the rapid growth of web-based collaborative environments, together with the wide array of smart content editors, provide the keys to developing other business solutions? There are many promising approaches to tagging content while doing work. Yet we still face an uphill battle to smarten up our content and develop useful applications.
In this workshop, we the five members of the Gilbane practice on XML technologies will share our experiences and provide you with practical strategies for the future. We will address a range of topics, including:
- The business drivers for smart content
- Some innovative content management techniques that make authors and editors more productive
- The migration paths from ‘conventional’ documents to smart content
- How to apply industry-specific taxonomies to tag content for meaning
- The prospects for mash-ups to integrate content from disparate application communities
We will discuss both the rapidly developing technologies available for creating, capturing, organizing, storing, and distributing smart content, as well as the organizational environment required to manage content as business processes. We will identify some of the IT challenges associated with managing information as smart content rather than as structured data, and map strategies to address them. We invite you to join the conversation about how best to exploit the power of XML as the foundation for managing smart content across your organization.
SDL XySoft announced a new release of its SDL Contenta CSDB software designed to support the latest version of the S1000D specification, Issue 4.0. This new release manages multiple versions of the specification in one CSDB. This capability is meant to help eliminate the costly step of converting legacy S1000D data modules and is a tool for aerospace or defense programs that are required to maintain multiple versions of the specification at the same time. SDL Contenta S1000D is integrated with SDL’s publishing technology, which supports the generation and delivery of both Type 1 and Type 2 IETPs. The SDL Contenta S1000D 4.0 solution package comes complete with sample publication formatting styles and IETP skins. The new release of SDL Contenta S1000D also provides support for the new SCORM content package and Learning Data modules. SDL Contenta 4.0 also takes advantage of the new S1000D 4.0 data model/schema that makes it easier to author content, provides more intuitive XML tags, and adds more consistency and coherence to the specification. This added level of flexibility makes the S1000D specification an option to businesses outside of aerospace and defense, particularly in markets such as manufacturing, transportation and heavy machinery. http://www.sdlxysoft.com
Canto announced the release of Canto Cumulus 8.1, built upon the Cumulus 8 system architecture first introduced last May. Among the new capabilities are a standalone version of the Cumulus Client, which is designed to enable users to create and work on local catalogs, connect to Cumulus Server catalogs, and update assets and metadata between the two. This was designed for traveling professionals to work with catalogs even when Internet access isn’t available. New report types include assets cataloged during a period, check-out “time spent” reports, asset inventories by format, and the ability to use search queries as the means for selecting report assets. Reports can now be saved to PDF format and automatically emailed. A new image comparison mode makes even subtle differences between images clear. Asset cataloging starts up faster, and a bulk editor offers users an “apply to all” option when adding metadata to cataloged assets. Users can create asset “placeholders” for assets in production, with the purpose of adding metadata and track production before an asset is ready to catalog. Sorting improvements can display the pages of PDFs, layouts, presentations etc. by page number, regardless of the primary sort field. A secondary sort order is now available, and algorithm changes speed sorting operations and ensure all field types sort as expected. Catalog back-up reports and system log (syslog) messages generated by Cumulus can each be emailed automatically. Added support for Microsoft’s Failover Cluster technology offers protection for Cumulus Servers running on Windows Server 2008. The Cumulus Web Client (formerly Internet Client Pro) has been updated for Cumulus 8.1. A retooling of Canto’s Web publishing technology is scheduled for release early next year. Cumulus 8.1 will be available for download the first week of December. http://www.canto.com
Look into almost any publisher’s history, and if it has a good number of decades behind it, chances are very good that you’ll see that the publisher was its own printer. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is but one example: it’s origin stems from the merger of publisher Ticknor & Fields and Riverside Press, an old Cambridge-based printer founded by Henry Oscar Houghton.
Today, of course, a lot of publishers typically use big printers such as Quebecor, RR Donnelley, or others. With the digital content streams getting under control among publishers of many stripes, together with the growing capability of production printing hardware and software, print on demand (POD) is already mainstream option. Witness Lightening Source.
A recently received press releaseannounced the planned acquisition of Océ, which provides high volume production printing platforms, by Canon, known for its consumer items like cameras and ink jet printers, but also for office equipment such as copiers and printers.
It turns out the Océ’s production printers are behind a good portion of the big POD services, and these machines are able to provide cost-effect alternatives to regular printing in many cases. As publishers seek to extract value out of backlists and custom books by digitizing the content and managing workflow, POD can enable them to produce runs too small for regular printing. But right-sized and right-cost POD can offer attractive margins when the digital content has been managed right.
It makes me wonder if publishers will take the POD in-house, given the relatively modest POD platform expenses, so that the publisher can capture a greater part of the margin on small press runs. Who knows? Maybe the separation of publishing and printing will turn out to have been a temporary anomaly.
With Kindle et al., it can be easy to get stuck on eBooks as the output, but with the right technologies addressed by the digital stream, what shouldn’t be overlooked is POD. PDQ, QED.
Publishers Press, a publication printer and content distribution provider, announced two new partnerships that will support the company’s content management and distribution initiative. Publishers Press has partnered with Mark Logic as its content repository, and Atex/Temis for content enrichment. The web content management (WCM) portion uses Polopoly software by Atex. This system should allow clients to manage content for print and web distribution and will be available on a software as a service (SaaS) model. The system also integrates with the company’s other digital offerings such as e-mail marketing, digital editions, and analytics. http://www.pubpress.com
JustSystems announced the availability of XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0 and XMetaL Reviewer 6.0, the latest versions of the company’s collaborative XML structured authoring and document reviewing software tools. New in this release is an integration between the two products that unifies the XML authoring process with real-time, distributed web-based reviewing to accelerate documentation cycle. The XMetaL Author Enterprise 6.0 and XMetaL Reviewer 6.0 integration is designed for unified authoring and reviewing, so that authors have tools to initiate and manage reviews as well as a set of specialized editing commands that help them directly act upon suggestions. This integration works with the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) standard as well as other industry standards. Other key features of the new release include– an unlimited number of documents can now be managed within the realm of a single project; a rendition can be associated with the project and used for direct navigation from the place in the final document’s layout to the originating topic that is under review; and arbitrary attachments can be associated in any number with projects, project cycles and drafts. http://www.justsystems.com