XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing, and What it Means for Content and Product Development Presented by Jabin White Executive Director, Electronic Production Elsevier AMPA Annual Practicum – March 14, 2005

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Agenda Introductions XML vs. Traditional Publishing Workflows XML’s impact from A to Z Financial Aspects of XML Best practices in moving to XML Conclusions

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Introductions: Who am I? Started as Editorial Assistant, then Developmental Editor Learned SGML at Mosby in mid-90s Moved to Williams & Wilkins in 1997, merged with L-R in 1998 – responsible for SGML group Moved to Harcourt Health Sciences in October, 2000, acquisition by Elsevier completed in September, 2001

XML vs. Traditional Publishing Workflows

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… XML vs. Traditional Publishing Cycle First, traditional publishing cycle was geared toward printed page XML’s separation of description of content from display is a *huge* change Differences in tools, processes, and people are all required, and all have an impact

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Traditional Workflow (circa 1980s) Acquire content (agreement to submit) Pages received on paper Pages photocopied, edited on paper (AU queries inserted) Composition marks inserted on paper Pages mailed to compositor Comp typesets pages (includes AU queries) Pages returned to publisher Pages copied, mailed to authors and proofreaders Authors make AAs, respond to queries Pages mailed back to publisher Proofreading corrections, query responses mailed back to comp New pages typeset Galleys proofed Final pages produced Bindery Distribution in print form (Later) Convert typesetting files for electronic output

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Today’s Possible Workflow Acquire content (agreement to submit) Receive content in MS Word (w/ or w/o templates) Edit electronically Convert to XML (if not already) FTP to comp Comp typesets based on stylesheet (ideally with XML ‘aware’ pagination system) Produce PDF proofs PDF proofs to AU, or send them to website to download AU responds to queries electronically Re-flow pages Proofread final pages Print and bind book Send XML content to website, aggregator, CD-ROM, PDA, etc.

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… What were those changes again? Changes in processes Changes in employee skills Changes in expectations Changes in financials (ROI) Changes in knowledge (Alphabet soup, TMA)

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Why move to XML? Multi-channel publishing (for most publishers, this is enough) Intelligent storage for next edition Enables inclusion of semantic markup, if you want/need it Allows for creation of products that would not have been economically feasible before

XML’s Impact from A to Z

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… XML’s Impact: Author Depends on publisher’s level of control Best case: Authors participate in adding semantic knowledge into content Worst case: Authors get confused or refuse to participate in tagging Best case: strike a balance that *allows* for author participation but doesn’t *depend* on it

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… XML’s Impact: Submission XML enables electronic submission with validation Depending on how sophisticated you get, one could cut down significantly on missing or incorrect submissions  Real-time author queries Again, control issue

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… XML’s Impact: Developmental Editing Pro: DE’s can now insert “intelligence” into the data and do things they couldn’t do before Con: DE’s can now insert “intelligence” into the data and do things they couldn’t do before Control issues – anyone sensing a theme here?

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… XML’s Impact: Copyediting Many publishers are outsourcing this phase now, and suppliers are getting much better If your DTD is more structural than semantic, a lot of these tags can be input during the copyediting phase

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… XML’s Impact: Composition Lagged farthest beyond in terms of ‘embracing’ XML because of the tools Most batch-pagination tools and page layout tools now handle XML in pretty well – some still struggle with out It’s easy to say “print is just one output,” but it has paid the bills for so long, many struggle with this one

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… XML’s Impact: Author Review Most authors still review paper, but it’s what publishers do with those alterations that affects XML Inserting alterations and re- flowing pages is still a ‘sea change’ to many organizations

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… XML’s Impact: Electronic Product Creation In general, XML makes this quicker, better, more cost- effective If done correctly, avoid the conversion hop Beware of “accounting” difficulties

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… A few global statements… At first, it costs more (more on financials later) But long term, if done correctly, the benefits far outweigh the pain Beware the “halfway” problem and communicate clearly both above and below

Financial Aspects of XML

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… A few warnings… The first 2-3 versions after moving to XML will probably take more time and resources than they used to There is no XML switch – there are migration considerations, and these have costs associated with them There are no (true) general statements about XML’s financial impact

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… What that means XML is not for everyone  If you have a set of content that is going to one output and you *know* it will never re-used, XML is not worth the investment if you’re not already there XML is a tool to be used only if the tool benefits the organization  The investment (in time and money) put into this “tool” should be directly tied to the benefit the organization is deriving

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Financial Advantages (if you have it) Flexible publishing  If you have XML, stylesheets drive lots of flexibility The dream of author once, use (and monetize) many can become a reality Ability to add semantic intelligence

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Financial Disadvantages (if you don’t have it) Each different output requires different $$$$ Future-proofing your content  Can you really predict all data outputs for the next 3-4 years? Inability to add intelligence and extend electronic utility of your data Multiple output requirements make the argument for media-neutral publishing exponentially stronger

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Hard Costs DTD authoring DTD maintenance Staffing Software Training Transition of composition tools or vendors

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Soft costs Morale Staffing issues  Don’t expect double work from those in the trenches  Day-to-day work continues while gearing up new XML workflows Always takes longer at first when switching to XML

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Making the ROI case for XML Make sure the comparison is ‘apples to apples’ Often it takes adding up several pieces of work (content creation, conversion, multiple editions, multiple products) and then comparing them to XML

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… The ROI of fewer steps

Best Practices in Moving to XML

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… “How” to move authors/editors A few years ago, all editing tools required users to “learn” XML, understand what they were doing with angle brackets More and more, publishers can trade off ‘ease of use by non- XMLers’ with quality of XML

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Ease of use tools Tools evolving that don’t require much XML knowledge  x40 from i4i  eXtyles from Inera  ConteX from LiveLinx  WorxSE from HyperVision But again, the tradeoff must be recognized – if you have control, tools such as XMetal give you better chance at quality XML

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… The dream production cycle ManuscriptPage Proof Correct XML file AA’s Valid archive Conversion into XML Next edition? Pages, web Style sheet

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Who tags? Production has and always will drive *format* driven tagging ,,, etc. Editorial, working with authors, should drive intelligent markup The closer to the authors you can get, the better  Please stop laughing

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Content Format-level tags using structured tool Assistance in defining tag set, advocate for market-driven electronic products Recognition that “XML button” does not exist The “roadmap” to intelligent content. All parties must participate. Turns MS over to production, leads definition of tag set DTD, template design, DTD maintenance Not “tech support.” Calls for unique skill set. Assist Editorial in defining tag set Application Support Authors, Marketing, Customers Editorial Production Electronic Publishing Top-level management DTDs XML Expertise

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Lessons Learned Management of expectations, both of upper management and of people “in the trenches” Small, manageable, measurable goals are key to success Close application support – not traditional IT tech support (combination of editorial and markup knowledge)

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Conclusions Tools are getting better Because of rapid maturation of tools, decisions must be constantly revisited  Look at Word plug-ins Keep in mind that XML is just one tool – albeit a valuable one – in a publisher’s toolbox Plenty of help available It’s a marathon, not a sprint!

Jabin White – AMPA Practicum 2005 – XML: The Technical Foundation of Modern Publishing… Thank you Questions? Contact info: Jabin White, Elsevier 170 S. Independence Hall W., 300E Philadelphia, PA Slides available at