We are at an Inflection Point for Publishing and the Web
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We are at an Inflection Point for Publishing and the Web Bill Kasdorf1,2
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Publishing technology is at an important inflection point. It has evolved from consisting mostly of proprietary and incompatible applications and systems to being almost entirely based on web technologies. Those provide fundamental benefits such as interoperability, accessibility, security, and stability. Now with the inclusion of EPUB, the ongoing work in the Publishing@W3C activity is entering a new phase which promises to both establish EPUB as an ever more crucial and stable standard for ebooks and to make the tent bigger for publications and the web, bringing many more sectors of publishing into the fold. Keywords Web · Technology · EPUB · Ebook · Publications · Standards One of the most important trends in the evolution of publishing technology over the past couple of decades has been its increasing embrace of web technology. And we’re at an important inflection point in that evolution. By “web technology,” I’m not talking about websites, or at least not mainly. Instead, I am talking about all the myriad underlying technologies that power the web, and apps, and laptops and tablets and phones and so much more, that enable discovery and dissemination, that make content accessible and systems interoperable—that are collectively referred to as “web technology.” Those technologies are in a state of constant evolution, developed by thousands of mostly volunteer technologists—many from companies that are otherwise fierce competitors—collaborating in hundreds of “working groups” in organizations like the World Wide Web Consortium (the W3C) to produce the specifications and protocols that power the millions of applications and systems based on web technology. Most readers of this article will know that the web was invented by a scientist at CERN, Tim Berners-Lee, to provide a way for scientists to collaborate. We
* Bill Kasdorf [email protected] 1
Kasdorf and Associates, LLC, Ann Arbor, USA
2
Publishing Technology Partners, New York City, USA
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Publishing Research Quarterly
think of that activity as “publishing papers” because that’s the formal way that the scientific literature gets disseminated. That was over 30 years ago. Three years ago, the IDPF (the organization that developed the EPUB standard) became part of the W3C [1] and the Publishing@W3C activity was initiated. This was done to bring a focus on publishing to the W3C—which took many people by surprise. Was not publishing what the W3C was all about? Not so much. Despite its origin, the web had come to be dominated by commerce and communication and connecting but with little focus on traditional publishing. Yes, publishers have websites, and books are sold online; but publications in the larger sense—textbooks, magazines, journals, newspapers, technical documentation and training materials, etc.—had not been a priority. That perspective was what the W3C had hoped to gai
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