StartWithXML

Today we start an exciting new industry research and education project: "StartwithXML: Why and How."

No publisher of any size or scope can be beyond the XML conversation that is now taking place across the industry. That content must be kept in a repository of XML files has become common understanding. And all the content-generation tools we use -- Word and InDesign and PDF prominently among them -- enable an XML export, so publishers are finding they can create a post-production XML'd version of their content for their archive.

That alone is necessary, but not by itself sufficient, to achieve even the first goal of making conversion -- to a different book output like large-print or to the Web or to any of many ebook formats -- cheap and easy. You can use Word or PDF to get to XML, but without the discipline of a StartwithXML workflow, you will often -- usually -- get an output that working with XML discipline wouldn't have allowed you to create. If you don't apply the discipline, the XML output doesn't solve your problem. And even if it did, it only scratches the surface of what XML can potentially offer to publishers in getting them closer to new revenues and cutting costs.

The "StartwithXML" project will explore all the issues of moving to a StartwithXML workflow through interviews and case studies with publishers and with the channel partners they will be working with to reach new readers in new ways. We'll be looking at what benefits can come to a publisher today from working this way, and what important steps to the future are enabled for those doing this (and cut off from those who don't.)

I am introducing the project this morning (Friday, 12 September 2008) at the BISG Annual Meeting. That talk covers the who, what, why, when, and how. The discussion will be continuing in this space from now.

Publishers with content in DocBook XML format can now easily create EPUB files using the open source DocBook XSL package (which already supports output to HTML and to XSL-FO -- a format that can be turned into PDF -- along with several other formats). Here at O'Reilly we've long used DocBook as the format for Safari Books Online, and more recently been using it more for standard book production (rather than converting to XML from a format like FrameMaker).

The 1.74.0 release is experimental, and additional feedback would be a big help for improving the output. From Paul Norton at the Adobe Digital Editions blog:

The ePub target has been tested against a number of files, but I would encourage those of you who use DocBook to try out the new target and to submit any issues you find to the tracking system on the DocBook project site. The only way we'll know if it doesn't work for you is if you tell us. :)

My personal thanks to Keith Fahlgren for driving the development of the ePub target and basically making it happen.

I'll second the thanks to Keith (an engineer here at O'Reilly) for his work on the project, and also extend the thanks to Paul and to Adobe for their contributions.