Ken Brooks: How Publishers Start with XML--The View From the Front Lines

How to Start with XML : A View from the Front Lines Start with XML (why & how) September 2, 2009 Ken Brooks SVP, Global Production & Manufacturing Services [email_address]

Calling of the Roll after the Charge of the Light Brigade

Cengage Learning: Total Revenue $1.8B Gale International Academic & Professional Group Cengage Learning delivers highly customized learning solutions for colleges, universities, professors, students, libraries, government agencies, corporations and professionals around the world. These solutions are delivered through specialized content, applications and services that foster academic excellence and professional development and provide measurable results to its customers. Cengage Learning Overview

Initiatives Vendor Management Technology

Divisional consolidation

Production automation

Design standardization

R&P process integration

Metadata standards

Divisional consolidation

Demand planning

Inventory planning process

Vendor consolidation (print, prepress, image vendors, photo-research)

Offshoring (India, China)

Requirements planning (Prepress, Print, Paper)

Enterprise system usage

Content management system

Rights management system

Manufacturing Production

Manuscript standards

Certified PDF workflow

Soft proofing

Standard rights basket

Performance standards

Compliance reporting (LCV, offshore, etc.)

SGML to XML conversion

XML standardization

Print on demand

XBITS

Historical Production Metrics

The production process offers a large ongoing opportunity Authoring Page Makeup (Rendering) Design Indexing Editing Workflow Repository Products / Services

Three important dimensions

The need for XML grows as formats and re-use increase Revisions / Re-use Formats Trade Textbook Scholarly STM Increasing Relevance of XML

Stages of XML implementation from easy to hard…

Publishers of different sizes will incorporate XML at different places

View from different functions Author Editorial Design Production n/a n/a n/a

New vendors

n/a

n/a

Minor

(More) new vendors

Mss prep

New makeup technologies

XML QA

Authoring templates

Working within templates

“ Meta” design

Template selection

Variable specification

Themes for successful implementations

“Big bangs make big holes.”

– Gloria Samuels

“You don't have to be great to get started,

but you have to get started to be great.”

– Les Brown

“You can pick your friends,

and you can pick your vendors,

but you can’t…”

– George Carlin (paraphrased)

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

– Mohandas Gandhi

“If you don’t like change,

you’re going to like irrelevance even less”

– General Eric Shinseki

How to Start with XML : A View from the Front Lines Start with XML (why & how) September 2, 2009 Ken Brooks SVP, Global Production & Manufacturing Services [email_address]