MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
September 25 – October 2, 2008 Edition
BISG Brings
XML Workflow
to Publishing
NEW YORK, NY/9/25/08–BISG announced last week it is sponsoring a new venture called StartwithXML. The project, co-presented by O’Reilly Media and The Idea Logical Company, is an industry-wide, multipart initiative to present and disseminate information that publishers need in order to move forward with a StartwithXML workflow.
At the BISG Annual Meeting on September 12, Mike Shatzkin, CEO of The Idea Logical Company, described the motivation behind the project:“We have turned our attention to a problem we believe will occupy just about all publishers in the years to come: the opportunities and challenges presented by an XML workflow that starts with the author, or even before there is an author.
New revenue opportunities are springing up…. But two things characterize the new opportunities:they are relatively small on a per-title basis and they require a little bit of digital massage to take
advantage of them. If the digital massage costs very much, the revenue gain could be wiped out. It is a StartwithXML workflow that is the key to being a cost-effective 21st century publisher.”
Michael Healy, Executive Director of BISG, noted that “BISG is pleased to be an industry sponsor of this important initiative. Our organization is dedicated to encouraging the use of standards to improve the efficiency of the book industry and the StartwithXML survey, report and event are all focused on helping publishers capitalize on future opportunities in a flexible and cost-effective way.”
The first part of the project involves a survey of current publishing and production processes. BISG urges its publisher members to participate in this survey. The information gathered from the industry is vital to the success of the program.
A one-day forum is scheduled for January 13, 2009, at the McGraw-Hill Auditorium in New York. Through panels and presentations, attendees will spend the morning understanding the “Why” of XML, and the afternoon learning about “How” to move forward.
The project will also include a detailed research report and an online community. The research report will include information, case studies, best practices, technology and vendor profiles and interviews with industry experts discussing the factors that make a StartWithXML workflow both useful and tricky. The supporting online community will feature a blog, an open comments section for the report outline and a discussion forum.
For more information about StartwithXML, please visit www.startwithxml.com.
The Book Industry Study Group, Inc. (BISG) is the U.S. publishing industry’s leading trade association for policy, standards, and research. The mission of BISG is to create a more informed, empowered and efficient book industry. Membership consists of publishers, manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, librarians and others engaged in the business of print and electronic media.
