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Publishing and the Open Web Platform

A W3C Workshop on Publishing using the Open Web Platform

September 16th and 17th, Centre Pompidou, Paris


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Important Dates

15 July 2013:
Deadline for Position Papers
(Submission)

01 August 2013:
Acceptance notification and registration instructions sent.

15 August 2013:
Program and position papers posted on the workshop website.

01 September 2013:
Deadline for registration
(invitation required, no participation fee)

16 Sept 2013, 8h30 AM
Workshop begins

17 Sept 2013, 5h00 PM
Workshop ends

Host

W3C gratefully acknowledges IRI for hosting this workshop.

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Sponsors

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W3C organizational sponsors

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Special thanks for INRIA for their support of this Workshop.

If you're interested in being a sponsor, please contact J. Alan Bird at abird@w3.org or +1 617 253 7823. For additional information, please visit the Sponsorship program.

For centuries, book publishers have used technologies in unforseen ways to change the world. Whole industries have risen and fallen based on their ability to adapt to change. Today the Open Web Platform is changing the way people make things, read things, say things, and do business. Computer software is becoming commoditized, delivered over the Web, running in a Web browser. Just as hand compositing and the hand-press gave way to hot metal and automated presses, so today the stand-alone word processor and page makeup programs are giving way to Web technologies.

The goal of this W3C Workshop is to bring together major players, including publishers, standardization organizations, technology developers, booksellers, accessibility organizations and others as needed to identify areas where work is needed to make the Open Web Platform suitable for commercial publishing, especially in print, all the way from authoring through to delivering the printed product and beyond.

This is one of a series of W3C Workshops in the areas of publishing, and the first to focus on the complete publishing workflow and on issues particular to producing printed products.

The Challenge:

Use the Open Web Platform for making books, magazines, flyers and other printed works, from the writing and editing all the way to the printing and distribution.

What changes must we make to the Web to make this work?

Authors and Editors: Web-based content tools are getting more sophisticated, but there's no revision control or commenting, no change tracking, and no crash recovery.

Designers are finding HTML and CSS incomplete when compared to XML and XSL-FO, and that in turn is limiting compared to professional interactive page design programs.

Print Production needs color management, binding and finishing control, online image replacement and rights tracking, a whole level that isn't there yet on the Web

Customers want to buy a printed book, or to go to a kiosk and get an eBook printed and have the same quality.

Developers need the platform to mature enough that they can make the tools that publishers need.

At this Workshop the publishers and the developers will meet and ask, What do we need to put into place?

Workshop topics

  • “XML First”—XML/XHTML/HTML from authors

  • Revision control and change tracking for the Web

  • Content management, version tracking and workflow

  • Accessibility: applying WCAG 2.0 and ATAG 2.0 to print

  • Formatting to print using CSS

  • Internationalization: publishing is for everyone. What changes to CSS or HTML might be needed for multilingual texts, including parallel texts and study materials with glosses?

  • Print on demand: color management, ink control, specifying media, binding, trimming, finishing...

  • Multiple output formats: are CSS media queries enough? What about alternate content, image replacement, subsetting?

The following are peripheral topics:

  • Archiving and curation, managing metada and coping with evolving specifications;

  • Sustainable business models for publishing, including digital rights management;

  • EPUB and needs of digital books (since that was covered at the February 2013 Workshop on eBooks).

Expected participants

The Workshop will include sessions which are primarily technical, although grounded in business needs.

The sessions will be conducted in English; we will do our best to accommodate special needs, but signing and continuous translation will not be available.

We invite representatives from following communities to submit papers:

  • Publishers (including magazines and journals)
  • Makers and providers of tools for publishing
  • Search engines
  • Browser vendors
  • Content management and workflow
  • Authoring and editing, especially Web-based
  • Relevant standard-setting institutions
  • Demand print service providers and equipment makers
  • Accessibility companies and institutions
  • Book designers
  • Academic researchers in print layout or publishing
  • Industry consultants

Learn more about how to participate, including requirements for position papers.