Book as api hugh mc guire and alistair croll - toc nyc 2013

BOOK AS API

SOLVEfor
INTERESTING
OTHERWISE LIFE IS DULL.
Friday, 15 February, 13

The book has always been a
hack.


The butler did it.

Content Format Structure

Fiction or non Chronological
Wood
Objective or Alphabetical
Subjective pulp
Narrator’s
Vampires or choice
Werewolves

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/playingwithpsp/2313754224/

The linear narrative is just the
default interface.


Format locks content
and structure.
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/wackyvorlon/8758696/

A false
epiphany.

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/wackyvorlon/8758696/

Content is in ﬂux


Objective The Difference Engine UNIX reference
Content focus
Historical fiction User manual
Prove it’s wrong: Keep it current:
Retellings Critique, debate, accuracy, Errata, revisions, Textbook
speculation, expertise, omissions, Q&A, other
Biographies evidence. references Reference

Speculative fiction “How to” book

Twilight Cooking For Geeks

Franchise Food/wine
Collaborate & book
Procedural
drama Make me special: evangelize:
Marketing
Author access, chat, Testimonials, blogs,
book
Scifi celebrity. speaking, next big idea,
create events. Self-help
Fantasy
Subjective book

Author/character The Hobbit Made To Stick
focus

Fiction Nonfiction
Beyond the story/ Accuracy, case
inside the author’s mind studies, evidence


We can’t be
all things to all people.


The gold master and the
long shadow

http://www.ibaraki-ct.ac.jp/english/manufacturing-of-Blue-Ray-Disk.jpg

Naming software by year


Software went moldy.

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/creative_tools/6002142018/

SaaS won because of
administration.


The App Exchange


The publication date of a
book


From atoms

to bits.

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/alicepopkorn/6846578476/

The most popular camera
in the world.

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/art_es_anna/288880795/

The most popular cameral
in the world


The footnote is the
original hyperlink.


From 2003 back we generated 5
billion gigabytes of information.

By 2011, we were cranking out that
much data every 2 days.

By 2013, we’ll be doing it every 10
minutes.

According to IBM at http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/ideas/2012/05/big-data-or-too-much-information/


Publishers “see content
as a scarcity we
produce and control.
Facebook and
Google ... see content
as an abundant
resource to learn from,
value and exploit.”

Jeﬀ Jarvis

There’s more stuﬀ about
the book outside the book
than within.
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/41517846@N08/4290380364/

Grant me four things.


1.
A book is a bundle of
content, structure, and
format.


2.
The format that content
takes must adapt to
how it’s being used.


3.
Book content shifts;
“publication date” is a
false epiphany.


4.
Big Data means books
that aren’t linked to the
world are hermits.


Maybe you disagree.


Authoring a book means
Creating the Designing the

Content Structure
(what you’re of the
reading) reader interface
(how you’re
reading it)


Then the future of a book is
its API.

Content API Structure


Freedom from
the false epiphany.


Content gets its own
lifestream.

Lousy Critical Movie Misguided Celebrity
ﬁrst acclaim script mobile app boat
Blog cruise
draft
Fan-made Scathing
Gleam in Release Wiki IMDB tell-all
author’s
eye Prequel Awkward fan-ﬁction


Structure gets a
developer ecosystem

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/isadocafe/3269174348/in/photostream/

Those that
ignore it...


Those that
embrace it...


Your
choice.
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/susivinh/7905247944

And now, from the abstract
to the concrete (and the
ridiculous to the sublime):
Hugh!


an
API
for
books
@hughmcguire

pressbooks.com


To Do List:

1. start thinking of books as [stuff].

2. think about how we make books

3. look at examples

4. wonder: is this easy or hard?


What is a book?


My deﬁnition:

“A book is a discrete collection of text (and
other media), that is designed by the
author(s) as an internally complete
representation of an idea, or set of ideas;
emotion or set of emotions; and
transmitted to readers in various formats.”


What’s in a book?


joy!
pleasure!
knowledge!
characters!
ﬁctional people!
real people!
places!
concepts!
footnotes!
references!
lots and lots of other ...


THINGS!
(and: things that we can name).


What is an API?


Terry Jones’s Deﬁnition:

“Just as a User Interface gives humans
access to information, an API gives
programs access to information.”


What is a (book) API’s job?


“To give other services the ability to
use [the stuff] in your books, under
defined circumstances.”


An API is
another mechanism
by which a publisher can do its
job, which is:

“to make public”
the contents of a book
(under certain commercial
arrangements)


HOW:


Start with your
INDEX.


What is an index’s job?


Shakespeare’s Answer:

“And in such indexes, although small pricks
To their subsequent volumes, there is seen
The baby figure of the giant mass
Of things to come at large.”

(Troilus and Cessida).


What does a paper index look like?


What does an ebook index look like?


That there is a link!


<a href="/chapter3/index-entry-78">Dracula</a>

<a href="/chapter4/index-entry-101">May 1, 1893</a>
<a href="/chapter1/index-entry-122">Munich</a>
<a href="/chapter9/index-entry-11">Murder</a>

<a href="/chapter10/index-entry-68">Succotash</a>
<a href="/chapter6/index-entry-99">Smith, Dr.</a>
<a href="/chapter16/index-entry-119">Sambuca</a>

<a href="/chapter15/index-entry-199">Vienna</a>
<a href="/chapter2/index-entry-666">Veins</a>


Jonathan Harker’s Journal:
3 May. Bistritz.

Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st May,
arriving at Vienna early next morning ...the
post town named by Count Dracula, is a
fairly well-known place....


Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st
May, arriving at Vienna early
next morning ... the post town
named by Count Dracula, is a
fairly well-known place....


Left <a id="index-entry-122">Munich</a>
at 8:35 P.M., on <a id="index-
entry-101">1st May</a>, arriving at <a
id="index-entry-199">Vienna</a> early
next morning... the post town named by
<a id="index-entry-99">Count Dracula</
a>, is a fairly well-known place...


What does a smart index look
like?


Left <a id="index-entry-122"
class=”place”>Munich</a> at 8:35 P.M.,
on <a id="index-entry-101"
class=”date”>1st May</a>, arriving at <a
id="index-entry-199"
class=”place”>Vienna</a> early next
morning...the post town named by <a
id="index-entry-99" class=”person”>Count
Dracula</a>, is a fairly well-known
place...


<a href="/ch3/index-78"
class=”person”>Dracula</a>
class=”date”>May 1, 1893</a>
class=”place”>Munich</a>
class=”cause-of-death”>Murder</a>
class=”food”>Succotash</a>
class=”body-part”>Veins</a>

HEY!

THAT’S AN API!

THAT WAS EASY!


What can we do with a book API?


We can build different interfaces
that allow readers to engage in
different ways.


The Pulp interface.


image: Gleann Ignacio

The Bits interface.


Image: Rebekah Ford

The
“what stuff is mentioned in this
book”
interface:

Small Demons.


The
“who is reading this and what are
they saying about it”
interface:

Readmill.


The
“Let’s explode this book and put it back
together in a very cool way”
interface:

Dracula Dissected.

bit.ly/draculadissected


IS THIS HARD?


Not if you use a good
book-based
content management system.
(like PressBooks!).


1. Books are made of stuff that can be
named


2. If you name stuff in your HTML (while
indexing!), then we can (easily) build new
uses/interfaces for our books, such as
Dracula Dissected.


<shameless_plug>
3. If you use something like PressBooks to
make your books, making Dracula
Dissected becomes easy.
</shameless_plug>


Questions?

@hughmcguire @acroll
pressbooks.com solveforinteresting.com

Book as api hugh mc guire and alistair croll - toc nyc 2013

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