Digital Publishing

AZARDI Online Alpha Release

Infogrid Pacific is pleased to announce the Alpha release of AZARDI Online. A demonstration is available at  azardi.infogridpacific.com.

AZARDI OL, like its sibling AZARDI Desktop, is an ePub reader supporting ePub 2, ePub 3 and when appropriate specific HTML5 packages. AZARDI OL is the first Reader in the AZARDI family to support SMIL Audio Overlays.

AZARDI OL is designed to allow the distribution of all ePub content on all platforms and devices which have standards compliant browsers, using virtually any screen size.

Just a quick first page warning to save time. Check out the browser compatibility advice.

Understanding FX1 - Content Organization Overview

 

Critical to any XML strategy is control of the tagging vocabularies and how and where they are used. IGP:FoundationXHTML (FX) is strictly classified more or less in consonance with the primary XHTML content type deconstruction; but is refined to address publishing specific structures as well as boring ol' web structures.

FX has no root document type tag such as book, article, play, etc. The document type or genre is handled by metadata for any particular assembly of content. The reason for this is content reuse doesn't need the overhead of if/how/when; a book section can be mixed with a learning module or with how-to topic.

With document type relegated to metadata, the most important structural components become sections in all their interesting glory. For primary content reuse, the section is the most dominant semantic unit of content. This post outlines the primary FX classification structures and we will go into each one in more detail in follow-up posts.

Digital Publishing 2011

I had an enforced sabbatical from my ePub and XML blogs from October 2010 until present due to work commitments. The two old blogs are technically oriented and have ended their natural life. Using ePub and Publishing with XML are now put out to the bottom pasture, and they will be sent to the Knacker's yard later this year.

So assuming the publishing industry is getting its head around the coarse weaving of ePubs and Kindle e-books for device limitations, and starting to play with the embroidery of enhanced ePubs; the publisher problem for 2011 is what next? Is digital publishing just sending these "digital assets" to some e-retailer?

For me the subject for 2011 is digital publishing strategies; with the focus on practical implementation of the digital content fulfilment strategies the visionaries espouse. That means getting digital content under control and delivered to consumers with the required business model; whether it is selling, lending, subscribing or some other permission map. In the context of this blog, it also means doing that with the IGP digital publishing products.

2010 was the year that digital publishing became a painful reality for trade publishers. Sales volumes are big enough to matter, and like all things IT, confusion, opinions, options and maybe opportunities, are everywhere. Digital content is old hat in academic and education publishing in various forms, but going through a revival.

The publishing noise of 2010 was definitely about trade books, ePub and devices.2011 is shaping up as the year publishers need to get real digital content business strategies up and running. That means more than just shipping an e-book to Amazon or Google books where all content of any quality is relegated to the $9.99 e-book proletariat.

Currently there are very few usable and affordable digital business strategy options available for publishers, especially Small and Medium size publishers. Digital publishing choices, options and strategies is the focus of this blog. It just so happens to be the exact point of the plot where Infogrid Pacific rides in on a white horse.