Information Services (NFAIS) has a long
history of working with entities that
create, organize, and facilitate access to
reliable information. Executive director
Marcie Granahan confirms that the
theme of the February 2016 NFAIS
annual meeting will be “Data Sparks
Discovery of Tomorrow’s Global
Knowledge.” Although NFAIS is typically seen as working with publishers of
professional information, Granahan says
that trade and other publishers often
find value in NFAIS meetings. “EBSCO
has done some tremendous research on
how people interact with libraries,” she
notes. “NFAIS meetings can provide
early warning on things like new applications of various technologies, trends in
markets like China, and support for
direct-to-consumer (end user) models.”
Interoperability
Since before the last decade, publishing
associations have continued to refine
important standards put in place to support the transfer of digital content
(ePub) and metadata (Onix). The
International Digital Publishing Forum
(IDPF) works to promote ePub and its
current version as a universal format for
content exchange, while Editeur oversees the management and enhancement
of the Onix standard.
According to IDPF executive director
Bill McCoy, “Pretty much every part of
the industry wants to move past page-
replica publishing.” As a result, IDPF
has been working to introduce the ePub
format in areas such as education, where
IDPF partnered with BISG to create an
EduPub guide that BISG executive
director Mark Kuyper describes as “the
fastest-selling guide we have created
to date.”
IDPF is also exploring opportunities
to use ePub for journals, digital maga-
zines, and corporate documents—what
McCoy calls “entity publishing.” He
goes on to note that “ePub is Web con-
tent that can be reliably consumed
across platforms.” To ensure that reli-
ability, IDPF is working with Readium
to make sure that Web browsers are
ready to take advantage of everything
that ePub 3.0 offers.
IDPF has partnered with W3C, the
organization responsible for Web stan-
dards, to create a digital publishing
interest group. McCoy says, “There’s an
opportunity to align with the Web and
influence the development of CSS,” the
tools that govern how content appears on
the web. “Ultimately, this gives pub-
lishers the ability to use web technolo-
gies to present content.”
With respect to Onix, the core ques-
tion remains how to push for more wide-
spread adoption of the current standard
(version 3.0). In 2012, Editeur
announced that support for the prior ver-
sion ( 2. 1) would “sunset” in January
2015. Graham Bell notes, though, that
“the sunset date has focused the minds of
publishers, but not as much as we would
have liked.”
Some countries (e.g., Sweden) moved
quickly from Onix 2. 1 to Onix 3.0,
while others with little or no installed
base (such as China) adopted Onix 3.0 as
a national standard. Still other markets
(particularly the U.S., U.K. and
Germany) have moved more slowly. Bell
estimates that 20% of U.K. publishers
and less than 20% of U.S. publishers
currently supply metadata using the
Onix 3.0 standard.
This lag has added both cost and complexity in the supply chain, where intermediaries and retailers find themselves
obligated to support multiple versions of
the Onix standard. Efforts to speed adoption include a recent update to BISG’s
best-practices document, which made
Onix 3.0 the primary focus, as well as an
upcoming BISG implementation grid
for Onix 3.0, which Bell expects will be
“highly granular, akin to the ePub 3.0
implementation grid.”
Global Commerce
Although Onix 3.0 adoption may be
slower than desired, support for it among
industry associations is strong. Bell
notes, “In the U.S., BISG has been a keen
supporter of efforts to get its members
onto Onix 3.0.” He adds that “Onix 3.0
is better: simpler, with none of the fluff
in the corners” that had characterized the
prior version.
It is also evolving, with new features
added in 2012 and 2014. “Many of the
things that publishers, intermediaries,
retailers, and innovators want to do with
Onix can be done only with full imple-
mentation of Onix 3.0,” Bell says. He
adds, “If you’re trading internationally,
or sell e-books, Onix 3.0 is where your
focus should be.”
The landscape continues to evolve
within and around these several stan-
dards-related organizations. BookNet
Canada CEO Noah Genner sees their role
broadly: to “engage both the incumbents
and emerging players equally in the new
supply chain.”
“There are going to be more and more
nontraditional players in the supply
chain,” Genner says. “Do we want to
empower them, or will we keep them in
the dark?” The continuing work of these
industry groups favors empowerment. ;
“Well-structured
metadata
embedded inside
Web pages scores
more highly in
search-engine
rankings.”
Brian O’Leary is principal with Magellan Media
Consulting, which works with publishers on issues
related to workflows and cross-platform publishing.
