The future of a craft
Publishing in the electronic age
Joost Kircz
School of Design and Communications
University of Applied Sciences Amsterdam
THIRD BLOOMSBURY CONF. ON E-PUBLISHING AND E-PUBLICATIONS, 25 & 26 JUNE 2009
Do I read a paper? NO
I present an opinion in text, sound & visuals
Is it a game? NO
Though, it is about survival!
2
The central quest
What are the differences &
What are the consequences
of the tension between:
A Craftsperson AND / OR / NOT
a Professional?
Can we outsource a craft?
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In other words:
What makes publishing an industry that stays?
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Warriors in revolting times
Think of Laurence of Arabia
Died in a motor cycle
accident
Romancing technology
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Our 7 pillars of wisdom
•
•
•
•
•
•
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A trusted relationship with the author
Editing is the secret
Getting an author’s “creation” across
Collecting related “creations” in wholes
Securing the legal framework
A transparent integrated business plan
To outsource or not to outsource
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A trusted relationship with the
author
Personal versus interface
Brainchildcare & Egomanagement
All publishing is a human enterprise
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A trusted relationship with the author
A nice publisher?:
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A trusted relationship with the author
Trusted Friends?:
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A trusted relationship with the author
Reliable Business Partners:
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Our 7 pillars of wisdom
• A trusted relationship with the author
• Editing is the secret
•
•
•
•
•
Getting an author’s “creation” across
Collecting related “creations” in wholes
Securing the legal framework
A transparent integrated business plan
To outsource or not to outsource
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Editing is the secret
ADDING Value
Aspects:
Understanding the message
Prompting the author to improve (peer
review)
Enhancing the language (picture, sound)
Indexing and layout (metadata)
Abstracting
(in house, freelance, external?? Who keeps control?)
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Editing is the secret
Only a foul relays sonly on a spelling
chequer
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Editing is the secret
Metadata
Context based content means creating
relationships between (semantically) well
defined units.
Units that are <objectified/> by metadata
Relationships that are represented by
Typed Hyperlinks
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Editing is the secret
Metadata various categories
1- Backbone. The data describing the technical and
physical characteristics of the original.
2- Structure of the information. To be translated in various
output (device) formats
3- Content. Traditional index terms, keywords.
4- Administrative. Data describing the administrative, legal
and personalised items.
5- Post-production. Metadata that are added after the
creation: Number of downloads, sales, but also -and very
important- data that link the product at issue to other
products.
6- Super-metadata. All these interrelated metadata
schemas, are badly in need for a metadata schema that
enables the manipulation of all that product information.
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Editing is the secret
Metadata & Hyperlinks
Typed Hyperlinks
Organisational- Joining structures
Discourse – Joining reasoning
Bibliographic- Joining different works
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Editing is the secret
Metadata & Hyperlinks
In an electronic environment we deal with
information <objects/> and relationships,
within a paper and between papers in a
collection
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Introduction – Methods - Datareduction - Exp-results –
Discussion - Conclusions
Article X
Abstract y
Article y
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Editing is the secret
Indexing
We have to develop a fan of coherent
controlled index systems per (sub)domain,
genre, level, etc., in order to disambiguate
(simple) search results.
(Again this semantic analysis is intellectual labour)
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Editing is the secret
Indexing
Botany
Dentistry
Crown
Heraldry
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Editing is the secret
Abstracting
What is an excerpt?
For who?
And who is the author?
(remember Excerpta Medica)
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Editing is the secret
Types of Abstracts
Type
Balanced
Information
Outlines
Usage
Orientation
Extensive
All segments
Substitution
Characterizing
Central theme
Selection
Orientated
Specific information
Various
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Editing is the secret
Functions of Abstracts
1) selection function
Using the abstract for deciding which articles can be discarded and
which articles warrant further inspection.
2) substitution function
The abstract is aimed at presenting all information that is considered
relevant for (some of) its intended readers, exempting them from
reading the full document.
3) orientation function
In this case, the abstract is aimed at supporting those who read
(parts of) the source text. During the reading process, they can
return to the abstract to regain insight in the broader coherence of
the discourse..
4) retrieval function
First, "In fact, the ideal abstract from an indexer's point of view is a
string of keywords linked into an easily read sentence"
Second, more direct way: in full-text databases,
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Our 7 pillars of wisdom
• A trusted relationship with the author
• Editing is the secret
• Getting an author’s “creation” across
•
•
•
•
Collecting related “creations” in wholes
Securing the legal framework
A transparent integrated business plan
To outsource or not to outsource
24
Getting an author’s “creation”
across
Understanding the message
Place in context
Index for retrieval
Metadata for retrieval & multiple presentations
Abstracting for a fast digestion
Understanding the reception of the market
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Getting an author’s “creation” across
Understanding the meaning
It’s all about the content in context
“This volume is dived into five parts. The title
of the volume refers primarily to part one,
which is by far the largest”.
(the reference to this quote costs you some complementary drinks)
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Getting an author’s “creation” across
The context
I will not discuss the intrinsic value of free
text searching, probabilistic/ vector space
models or other inductive methods
Neither the values of the ontology research,
but
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Getting an author’s “creation” across
The context
It all about Garbage in ---- Garbage out.
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Getting an author’s “creation” across
The reception of the market
Publisher’s /Journal’s/ Repository’s
BRAND
A semiotic object representing a
certain value/message
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Getting an author’s “creation” across
The reception of the market
One Brand,
Changing owners
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Changing brands
Same owner
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Our 7 pillars of wisdom
• A trusted relationship with the author
• Editing is the secret
• Getting an author’s “creation” across
• Collecting related “creations” in wholes
• Securing the legal framework
• A transparent integrated business plan
• To outsource or not to outsource
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Collecting related “creations” in
wholes
A journal can be defined as a recognisable item
composed of coherent notions:
Genre
Quality
Level
Community
“Journal Aims & Scope”
Monographs & Handbooks
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Collecting related “creations” in wholes
The start in 5 January 1665
This picture the 1684 reprint by A. Wolfgang
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Collecting related “creations” in wholes
The great example:
Philosophical Transactions of the
Royal Society of London
6 March 1665
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Collecting related “creations” in wholes
The final write up on traditional
journal publishing 1998
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Collecting related “creations” in wholes
To what extent does a huge repository
represents coherence?
Yes, we can find everything on a subject cross journal- in a repository (provided we know
the lingo).
Yes, we can only look at one journal (Brand)
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Collecting related “creations” in wholes
But who is helping in contextual clustering?
How do we stumble upon the odd unknown
author or the flash of inspiration by and
unexpected figure, formula or…….
(remember browsing a journal issue)
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Roberto Bolaño
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Collecting related “creations” in wholes
ranking
You can only compare if you know which aspects are relevant.
We live in an age of metrics. All around us, things are being
standardized, quantified, measured. Scholars concerned
with the work of science and technology must regard this
as a fascinating and crucial practical, cultural and
intellectual phenomenon. Analysis of the roots and
meaning of metrics and metrology has been a
preoccupation of much of the best work in our field for
the past quarter century at least. As practitioners of the
interconnected disciplines that make up the field of
science studies we understand how significant,
contingent and uncertain can be the process of
rendering nature and society in grades, classes and
numbers.
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Collecting related “creations” in wholes
ranking
Some may already be aware of the proposed European
Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH),an initiative
originating with the European Science Foundation…..
This initiative is entirely defective in conception and
execution……..
Journals’ quality cannot be separated from their contents
and their review processes. Great research may be
published anywhere and in any language. Truly groundbreaking work may be more likely to appear from
marginal, dissident or unexpected sources, rather than
from a well-established and entrenched mainstream.
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Collecting related “creations” in wholes
ranking
This joint Editorial is being published in journals across the
fields of history of science and science studies as an
expression of our collective dissent and our refusal to
allow our field to be managed and appraised in this
fashion. We have asked the compilers of the ERIH to
remove our journals’ titles from their lists.
63 international journals in the field of history of science,
medicine, etc.
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Collecting related “creations” in wholes
It is all about database & interface
• Romancing technology MARK II
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Our 7 pillars of wisdom
• A trusted relationship with the author
• Editing is the secret
• Getting an author’s “creation” across
• Collecting related “creations” in wholes
• Securing the legal framework
• A transparent integrated business plan
• To outsource or not to outsource
46
Securing the legal framework
Intellectual property: Yes,
but to what extent,
Property or personal merit?
Copyright?
What do we own, repack, sell?
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Securing the legal framework
The shift from selling rights as commodities
(alienated frozen knowledge)
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Securing the legal framework
From:
© kircz®@KRA™.nl
Via:
Open access
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Securing the legal framework
To: the dynamic enabling of (re) usage of
reported knowledge
The value of added value
(a nice case of the difference between EU Intellectual ownership and
US notion of copyrights of commodities)
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Our 7 pillars of wisdom
•
•
•
•
•
A trusted relationship with the author
Editing is the secret
Getting an author’s “creation” across
Collecting related “creations” in wholes
Securing the legal framework
• A transparent integrated business plan
• To outsource or not to outsource
51
A transparent integrated
business plan
Changes in direct costs
write-off ICT (networks, memories, etc.)
Implementation costs new technologies
Quality control departments
Outsourcing
Changes in variable costs
Staff
Freelancers
Management perks
Outsourcing
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A transparent integrated
business plan
The publisher’s dilemma is:
Do I sell <objects/>
or
Do I sell the enabling of a process ?
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Our 7 pillars of wisdom
•
•
•
•
•
A trusted relationship with the author
Editing is the secret
Getting an author’s “creation” across
Collecting related “creations” in wholes
Securing the legal framework
• A transparent integrated business plan
• To outsource or not to outsource
55
To outsource or not to outsource
In all the above we witness technological
changes that ease and expand the real
editorial work
This demands standardisation
- In all descriptive, logistic, storage, retrieval
and presentation aspects. (Standardisation is
commodification)
This is a metaphor of the divorce between
Publisher and Print shop
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To outsource or not to outsource
The first step is the outsourcing of well
defined serial production
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YES they can!
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To outsource or not to outsource
The next step is the understanding of the
craft
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YES they can!
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Grounded trust why and how
Genre
Quality
Level
Community
Coherence
The value of human intervention in creating
human knowledge.
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Summary
- Publishing is a human intellectual endeavour
- Adding value to creations, creating new levels of
knowledge
- Technology is there to help and reshape the craft
- Standardised activities complete a certain level of
accomplishment
- New technologies enable furthering new added
human value to new stages in knowledge
processing
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To do list
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• Understanding new presentation media and how they
influence “writing”/ “communicating”. E.g. E-paper.
• How to instruct and assist authors to enjoy hypermedia?
• How do readers consume information and knowledge
(game your way in genetics or quantum computing)?
• Analysing how a textual discourse is structured and how
we can use that to create alternative reading paths.
• Analysing “hedging” to value data, inferences and
conclusions.
• How do XML tag names enhance the ranking of retrieved
results?
• Understanding the persuasiveness of multi-medial
communications. A picture has thousand more meanings
than a word. Web my lips.
• Retrograde indexing (post-production metadata).
• The role of editors as moderators of academic
discussions.
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An old new publishers’ task
Given the conflation of all types, kinds,
levels of information & Knowledge in
electronic (garbage) bins
Given the difficulties in keywording,
metadata, structuring, information retrieval
Given the fact that Abstracts are now to
pinpoint the novelty for the first time (but
don’t tell you why the content is eternal)
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An old new publishers’ task
I suggest:
The creation of electronic journals that
review, explain, notify and connect
publications of a great variety of sources
for a well defined audience.
An electronic fusion of the traditional review
journal/ “New Scientist”/ new blogs and
wikis
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Electronic Publishing is
a craft
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