Entries tagged with “authoring tools” from Tools of Change for Publishing

New on O'Reilly Labs: Open Feedback Publishing System

Andrew Savikas
May 21, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2) | Listen

O'Reilly engineer Keith Fahlgren has formally launched our new Open Feedback Publishing System over on O'Reilly Labs:

Over the last few years, traditional publishing has been moving closer to the web and learning a lot of lessons from blogs and wikis, in particular. Today we're happy to announce another small step in that direction: our first manuscript (Programming Scala) is now available for public reading and feedback as part of our Open Feedback Publishing System. The idea is simple: improve in-progress books by engaging the community in a collaborative dialog with the authors out in the open. To do this, we followed the model of the Django Book, Real World Haskell, and Mercurial: The Definitive Guide (among others) and built a system to regularly publish the whole manuscript online as HTML with a comment box under every paragraph, sidebar, figure, and table.

You can see the system in action at the site for our upcoming book Programming Scala.

Authoring Tools from Alpha Geeks

Andrew Savikas
May 11, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (9) | Listen

Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) has posted a nice article covering some of the tools he's built or borrowed to make his writing life more manageable. I'm especially intrigued by the Flashbake project, which augments simple use of version control (something many of our authors have been using for years, and which we use extensively in our production toolchain) to automatically capture contemporaneous data about the writing process:

Now, this may be of use to some notional scholar who wants to study my work in a hundred years, but I'm more interested in the immediate uses I'll be able to put it to — for example, summarizing all the typos I've caught and corrected between printings of my books. Flashbake also means that I'm extremely backed up (Git is designed to replicate its database to other servers, in order to allow multiple programmers to work on the same file). And more importantly, I'm keen to see what insights this brings to light for me about my own process. I know that there are days when the prose really flows, and there are days when I have to squeeze out each word. What I don't know is what external factors may bear on this.

Thinking about content like code opens up a wealth of tools and techniques for managing that content. After all, programmers spend more time than just about anyone doing what can very easily be called "creative writing" with text, so it's no surprise they've built tools to make their lives easier and more productive. We're getting ready to announce a new project over at O'Reilly Labs, one also built on top of version control (Subversion in our case) and another example of using software tools to improve the writing (and in this case reading) experience.

Webcast Video: Essential Tools of an XML Workflow

Mac Slocum
January 30, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Below you'll find the full recording from the TOC webcast, "Essential Tools of an XML Workflow," with Laura Dawson.

Read more…

Presentations from the StartWithXML Forum

Mac Slocum
January 16, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

The following slides accompanied many of the presentations during the StartWithXML forum, held Jan. 13, 2009 in New York City.

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XML--Why Bother?

David Young, Hachette Book Group USA

As Chairman and CEO of one of America's leading trade publishers, David Young presents the executive perspective on the role of XML technologies in the increasingly complex business of creating and selling books.

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An Introduction to StartWithXML

Michael Healy, Book Industry Study Group

Introduction to some of the key terms and concepts needed to understand the day's program.

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ROI Drivers for a StartWithXML Production Process

Brian O'Leary, Magellan Media Consulting Partners

Overview of the key components that provide the return on investment in an XML workflow.

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Saving Money by Adopting an XML-Based Meta Data Workflow

Werner Fischer, Klopotek North America

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML ROI: Savings" panel.

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Starting with XML:The Benefits of Automating Composition with Standard Stylesheets

Rebecca Goldthwaite, Cengage Learning

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML ROI: Savings" panel.

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Leveraging XML for IP Rights

Steve Kotrch, Simon & Schuster

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML ROI: Savings" panel.

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Marketing Books In A World Of Discoverability

Evan Schnittman, Oxford University Press

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML ROI: Revenues" panel.

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Supporting Multi-Format Publishing

Leslie Hulse, HarperCollins Publishers

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML ROI: Revenues" panel.

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Online Licensing Strategies: The Path to Digital Revenue

Bill O'Brien, Copyright Clearance Center

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML ROI: Revenues" panel.

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Digital Book Printing: The New Economics Of Print-On-Demand

David Taylor, Lightning Source Inc.

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML ROI: Revenues" panel.

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The View from the Front Lines

Ken Brooks, Cengage Learning

As a publishing technology pioneer and SVP, Global Production and Manufacturing at one of America's largest educational publishers, Ken Brooks presents lessons for the publishing industry at large based on his experiences implementing successful, large-scale XML production processes.

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StartWithXML Solutions Overview

Brian O'Leary, Magellan Media Consulting Partners

Overview of the many publishing technology solutions providers and how their offerings support an XML workflow.

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XML Workflow Foundations: Efficient Title Management Practices

Doug Lessing, Firebrand Technologies

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML Solutions: Tools" panel.

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Building an XML workflow: Tools and Key Considerations

Steve Waldron, Klopotek North America

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML Solutions: Tools" panel.

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DAM for ProductionvsDAM for Distribution

Scott Cook, codeMantra

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML Solutions: Tools" panel.

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O'Reilly XML Toolchain

Andrew Savikas, O'Reilly Media

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML Solutions: Tools" panel.

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StartWithXML Readiness Checklist

Brian O'Leary, Magellan Media Consulting Partners

Checklist of the key issues publishers should consider before implementing an XML production process.

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Tagging and Chunking Best Practices

Laura Dawson, LJNDawson

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML Solutions: Methods" panel.

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The Evolving Role of Authors and Editors

Phil Madans, Hachette Book Group

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML Solutions: Methods" panel.

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How Wiley Uses Word to Invite Authors, Engage Editors, Improve Production, and Put XML at the Source of Its Content

Frank Grazioli, John Wiley & Sons

Presented as part of the "StartWithXML Solutions: Methods" panel.

BeyondPrint Offers Helpful Review of StartWithXML

Brian O'Leary
January 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (26) | Listen

George Alexander, who attended the StartWithXML forum in New York on Tuesday and made quick work of reading the research paper (thank you!), offers a helpful review of both.

In his review, George also offers a view he shared with the StartWithXML team the day after the forum: the current tools are not yet ready for widespread use, and the forum and the research paper were largely silent on his concerns.

I think that George makes an important point about the tools for authoring and editing. I responded yesterday to say that what may have felt like a "middling" position at the forum reflects a range of opinion within the project team.

At the forum, O'Reilly's Andrew Savikas, for example, advocated use of XML authoring tools in his afternoon remarks, showing some examples of what worked. In contrast, Laura Dawson, who co-wrote the research paper, is more critical of the tools, something she made clear in her comments. I'm somewhat in the middle, feeling that the tools are not necessarily ready for widespread deployment, but that balanced changes in processes, technology/tools and organizational structures can provide a path to moving the tagging work upstream.

One thing less evident at the forum or in the paper is the healthy discussion that took place within the team about this issue. At one point in the e-mail exchanges, I wrote (paraphrasing) that "waiting until the tools are "ready" isn't the right answer; people developing the tools will improve them when publishers in adequate numbers use the tools and advocate for better and more features.

When I presented the "solutions" grid in the afternoon, I pointed out that the bulk of the most developed software and systems are in the production editorial and operational areas, but that upstream options were becoming more available. I stopped short of saying "not ready," in part because I don't want publishers to hear me and walk out saying "we'll wait until the tools come on line" and let production worry about tagging until then. Changing workflows is painful, and people are prone to avoiding pain. That's smart in the short term and potentially disastrous in the mid-term, so I stuck with the recommendation to push upstream as much and as fast as you can.

We view the research paper as a living document, and we expect to revise it based on feedback from the forum as well as an evolving understanding of the number of case studies that the paper and forum started to capture. Look for a subsequent draft to articulate a position on XML tools that may not match what George sees but more clearly captures the project team's thinking.

Related Stories:

• Slides from "Essential Tools of an XML Workflow" Webcast
• For a Workflow Change, Support from the Top is Required
• Balancing the Benefits and Costs of XML for Book Production
• Can the Author Really Help?
• See more StartWithXML posts

News Roundup: Kindle 2.0 Speculation, Wikipedia: The Book, "Dilbert" Embraces User-Generated Content, Mobile Audiobook Downloads, Tracking Drafts and Revisions

Mac Slocum
April 25, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Speculation on Kindle 2.0

Ars Technica speculates on what the Kindle 2.0 might provide:

... the general hardware configuration appears to be here for a while. The fact that they're still selling the current version also suggests that they have committed to this design in all its white-plastic glory. In the long term, there's still the option of moving some of the awkwardly-placed controls and of improving the E Ink screen (color and improved contrast or faster response times, seem inevitable) ... All of this leaves changes to the software as the most likely candidates for 2.0 improvements. Realistically, we could only infer what Amazon considered to an acceptable interface based on what was released as 1.0. If this doesn't reflect what they "wanted to release in the first place," then all bets on what may change are off.

German Wikipedia Coming in Book Form

Bertelsmann is putting 25,000 German Wikipedia entries into The One-Volume Wikipedia Encyclopedia. From the New York Times:

Bertelsmann says the project should not be judged as a re-creation in book form of what appears online, but rather as an attempt to harness the collective wisdom of Wikipedia’s users. (Continue reading ...)

"Dilbert" Embraces User-Generated Content

"Dilbert" creator Scott Adams and his distributor, United Media, are supporting user-generated content through Dilbert.com. Visitors can rewrite captions and redistribute the results, and the full "Dilbert" archive will eventually be available for free. From Webware:

I asked Adams why he and United Media are opening up the Dilbert intellectual property like this, and he sent me a response by email: "We're accepting the realities of IP on the Internet, and trying to get ahead of the curve. People already alter Dilbert strips and distribute them. If we make it easy and legal to do so, and drive more traffic to Dilbert.com in the process, everyone wins. Plus it's a lot of fun to see what people come up with in the mashups."

UK Service Brings Audiobook Downloads to Mobile Phones

UK-based GoSpoken has partnered with Random House to make 50 audiobook titles available for purchase through the GoSpoken mobile download service. GoSpoken is currently aimed at early adopter UK residents who have broadband-capable cellphones (specifically, HSDPA-enabled) and mobile data plans. (Continue reading ...)

Writing and Tracking through Subversion

Programmers use version control systems to track and monitor code revisions. Writers can bring the same functionality to their drafts by following Rachel Greenham's Mac OS X Subversion tutorial. (Continue reading ...)

Related:

• See more publishing news and insight in the TOC News section

Writing and Tracking through Subversion

Mac Slocum
April 23, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

Programmers use version control systems to track and monitor code revisions. Writers can bring the same functionality to their drafts by following Rachel Greenham's Mac OS X Subversion tutorial:

What does it [Subversion] do? It manages multiple versions of a project in development. You check your project out of the repository, make changes and you commit those changes back to the repository. At any time you can view older versions of the whole project or of individual files, and revert to them, if the work done since was in error. You can make branches, which allows you to develop your work in two (or more) ways in parallel, and you can tag your project to say, at this point I met a certain milestone (eg: first draft, second draft, version sent to publisher X, version sent to publisher Y, published version, etc.)

(Via TUAW)

Related Stories:

• Google Docs Soon to Sport Offline Editing
• Haskell Book Author Adapts to Reader Comments While Writing

Google Docs Soon to Sport Offline Editing

Andrew Savikas
March 31, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

While a few brave souls are already using Google Docs for long-form writing (eg, books), one of the most glaring shortcomings for the platform -- that you have to be online to use it -- is now changing. Over the coming weeks, Google is rolling out offline editing, with some important caveats (via Webware):

Google Docs will not, at first, let users create new documents while offline. The feature's first-use case is, "I'm amending a document and I lose my Internet connection," Norton said. Document creation capability will come eventually.

Of course, users will not be able to collaborate in real time when offline, or see if other users are simultaneously modifying a document they are editing in offline mode. Google Docs will "do its best" to reconcile changes made by multiple users when one or more are offline, Norton said. If there are conflicting edits, a dialog box will pop up when an offline editor comes back online. [Emphasis added]

The collaboration piece is critical, but is also a very challenging problem to solve. On a technical level (meaning the conflicts and breakdowns in merging have been primarily as result of the people involved, not the systems), our best option for O'Reilly authors has been to use version control. That works fine for many of our authors who are already using a tool like Subversion every day in their development work, but it's proven a high hurdle for less-technical authors and editors.

Haskell Book Author Adapts to Reader Comments While Writing

Andrew Savikas
March 21, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (3) | Listen

Yesterday's post about writing a book with Google Docs was about improving collaboration among authors (as well as working without the cruft of word-processing features that aren't germane to many manuscripts). But writing on the Web also means you can collaborate with your readers, long before anything is ready for print.

Bryan O'Sullivan recently posted his thoughts on the feedback mechanism he built for the upcoming Real World Haskell:

As for our response to comments, my own way of dealing with them has changed over time. Initially, I was overwhelmed by their sheer quantity. Although I read every comment, I rarely responded to any individually, because it seemed like such a huge mountain. After a while, though, my attitude changed: I concluded that if someone was going to take the trouble to tell me something they thought was important, the least I could do was acknowledge what they said and thank them. That’s now my usual default. (I can’t tell if readers like this, but hey, I’m doing it for me.)

This kind of collaboration with readers while a book is being written may well become the norm.

Writing a Book with Google Docs

Andrew Savikas
March 20, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

As you might imagine, a lot of the O'Reilly authors are a bit more technically savvy than most, which means they're often willing to help us experiment with new authoring, editing, and sometimes publishing models (indeed, they're often the ones who suggest the experiments).

Phillip Lenssen has a terrifically thorough post on his experiences using Google Docs to write the upcoming Google Apps Hacks:

• Working from anywhere: In theory, as the book is stored on the Google server farm and not your home computer, you can access and edit it from anywhere, like an internet cafe, or your friend's computer, or a public cafe with wifi. In practice, when writing a book you need to concentrate quite a bit. Some authors may be able to concentrate better when hooked up to their laptop in a public cafe, while others need to go have a non-changing, quiet place – like their home desk, room doors closed. If that's the case, then the "work from anywhere" bonus of online applications is somewhat lost. Nevertheless, the fact that Google Docs allows me to collaborate on the same document with my editor, who sits across the ocean, is a great benefit.
• Lack of features: Google Docs has much less features than programs like Word, which have historically grown over the years. In general I prefer a slim program to one that is so feature-cluttered, you will have a hard time finding all the options to turn off CRAP (Configurations Rarely Applied by People). However, every now and then you'll also bump your head against the keyboard because a really basic, needed feature isn't there... wishing Google would work faster on implementing certain stuff. We'll see what 2008 brings in this regard.
• You need an online connection: Working with Google Docs requires an internet connection. In my case, I need this internet connection anyway – even if I'd be using something like Open Office – because I have to check Google's applications all the time to write hacks for Google Office Hacks. But let's face it, even if you're writing something not about the internet, it's really great to have search engines back up your knowledge. So to me, the prerequisite of having to have an internet connection is not a real downside; your mileage may vary (and who knows, Google may also release Gears-support for Google Docs in the future).

Certainly this is beyond the capabilities of many non-technical authors; but we've seen time and again that today's alpha-geek hack is tomorrow's mainstream reality.

I have no doubt that Microsoft Word will be dethroned as the primary manuscript-authoring tool. I'm also certainly not prepared to predict what that tool will be, but online/offline synchronization will be a core feature, and I suspect it will look more like Windows Live Writer, Ecto, and other emerging lightweight blog-authoring tools.