Using Web-Based Technology and Standards in Traditional Publishing (O'Reilly Media) from Adam Witwer on 2013-07-02 (team-workflow-review@w3.org from July 2013)

From: Adam Witwer <adam@oreilly.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2013 16:29:39 -0400
To: team-workflow-review@w3.org
Message-Id: <3895FD95-55BB-4B6D-8377-9AE21CC091DA@oreilly.com>

Hello W3C Team --

Please find below my position paper for the Publishing and the Open Web Platform on September 16. I am happy to flesh this out in more detail, but I wanted to make sure I turned something in before the (fast-approaching) deadline. I would like to be involved in the workshop. Please let me know if you have feedback or questions.

Thank you.

Adam Witwer
Director, Publishing Technology
O'Reilly Media
617-499-7531

----

Using Web-Based Technology and Standards in Traditional Publishing

Most traditional book and journal publishers have distinct sets of tools and processes for publishing to print and digital formats. For example, to create a print book, a publisher is likely to use a page-centric tool like InDesign, which typically falls short in creating ebook or web-based versions of that same content.

There is another way. Web-based standards and tools have evolved to the point where they are viable for creating professional-quality digital AND print products. However, before tradtional publishers will migrate toward these tools and standards, serious workflow and process questions around creation and production need answering:

Authoring -- How can web-based tools and standards benefit authorship?
Review and production -- How do publishers manage traditional editorial and production processes such as copyediting, proofreading, and indexing?
Rendering -- What options exist for publishers looking to render a print version of the book? Commerical PDF rendering engines lack the feedback loop between creators and implementors and fast development cycles that are typical for browser rendering engines.

We're working on and thinking about these issues at O'Reilly. At the W3C workshop, we'd like to share what we've learned and hear from others working on similar problems.