Publishing With XML 2015

 

Overview

Publishing faces a combination of diverse challenges: maintaining traditional
channels while developing new ones; monetising the lists effectively; managing
intellectual property without conflict; and leveraging content and methods to
stay ahead of competitors and customers. XML and its partner technologies are at
both the core and the leading edge of these developments.

This course identifies some of the techniques and applications that can be used.
It provides a mix of presentations, case studies, and practical exercises to
help publishers to get more out of the intellectual resources in their
domain.

The Hands-on Web Publishing course
provides hands-on material that complements this course.

This course is chaired by Peter Flynn and taught by Johannes Wilm, Norm Walsh, Tony Graham, and Tomos Hillman.

Classes for 2015

The Publishing With XML course runs on
and
.

Digital Publishing and Content Lifecycle

Taught by Tomos Hillman.

Publishing as an industry been driven by technology since the invention of the
printing press, and XML is no exception. This session addresses the impact of
technology in general and digitisation in particular on publishing, exploring
the trends of abstraction, speed to market and reduction of overheads.

We will go on to talk about the strengths (and weaknesses) of using XML for
single source publishing, as well as options for content analysis and data
modelling.

The final part of the session will be a walk-through of the publishing lifecycle
of an XML document, focusing on significant stages such as:

  • XML authoring
  • 3rd party XML Capture.
  • Copy Editing and value add.
  • Typesetting and design
  • New editions and re-use of XML.
Document Management

Taught by Norm Walsh.

Having XML documents, the raw materials of your publication process, is only
part of the story. Modern publishing environments demand reuse and repurposing
of content to maximize its value. That means you need not just XML, but also a
vision for how it can be combined and transformed to deliver new products.

This session will explore some of the fundamental technical pieces of that
vision including the ability to describe workflows that can combine and process
content and the challenges and opportunities afforded by the promise of reusable
documents.

We’ll go on to discuss some specific technical tools that you can use to manage
and develop an effective workflow system. This will include a review of the role
that schemas and validation play in assuring a correct production process as
well as introduce some possibly new tools including XML pipelines.

Technical Aspects of Document Production

Taught by Tony Graham.

This session explores technical aspects of getting your documents into XML and
then out the other side as print, EPUB, or web content. It also covers recent
changes in the landscape of standards affecting digital publishing, styling, and
pagination.

Workflows based on XHTML/XML, and CSS-based with output to web,
print and Epubs

Taught by Johannes Wilm.

Even today, just about all print output from XML files is created with styling
systems separate from those used for Epubs and the web. A new generation of
tools is offering the opportunity to format all final outputs using Cascading
Style Sheets (CSS) end employing browser engines to create output for print.

The first part of this class will look at what tools are currently available as
well as what tools are likely to come in the near future.

The second part of the class will look at how CSS can be used for formatting
XHTML and XML as well as challenges associated with this approach.

The third part will look at the possibilities and dangers associated with
switching to an XHTML-based workflow for richtext content from authoring to
creation of final outputs.