Electronic Publishing Overview

Fall 2008PB692

John RodzvillaEmerson College

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“What we have to do is create a simultaneous digital business even as we operate our traditional publishing company, we have to invest in digital even though it isn't offering much yet in the way of financial returns. And it's too early to know where the biggest returns will come from.”

~Carolyn Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, from the Wall Street Journal, 9/7/07

“What we have to do is create a simultaneous digital business even as we operate our traditional publishing company, we have to invest in digital even though it isn't offering much yet in the way of financial returns. And it's too early to know where the biggest returns will come from.”

~Carolyn Reidy, president and CEO of Simon & Schuster, from the Wall Street Journal, 9/7/07

Syllabus for PB 692

• Course Description

• Goals & Methods

• Course syllabus

– Format of course

– Policies

– Calendar

– Readings

Syllabus for PB 692

• Themes of the Course

• Class Survey

• Online tools

– WebCT

– Class wiki

– Delicious Site

– RSS reader

– Class Blog

Course Description

An overview of the various types of electronic publishing. The class will explore various methods of digital

publishing including e-books and website creation. The course is designed to

provide students with a basic understanding of the planning,

development and management of a digital system.

OBJECTIVES

Explain the craft of multi-channel digital publishing.

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Emphasize both the theory & hands-on creation/ management of multimedia products & services.

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Introduce the theoretical & practical underpinnings of how online technology is changing how we publish information.

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Discuss e-content design, content management systems, interactive usability, information architecture, & project management.

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Play with different online tools to conceive, plan, design, produce and publish text, graphic, photographic and rich media content.

STUDENT

GOALS

Plan, design,

produce, host

and publish

content using

an online

channel.

Learn how to

use new

publishing tools

to create and

distribute

content.

Understand &

apply the

different e-pub

formats,

technologies,

products &

services.

Define, explain

& apply relevant

concepts from

the fields of

interactive

design, e-

content design

& information

architecture.

Define, explain &

apply basic

project

management

techniques for

the design &

development of

interactive e-

content for the

web.

Learn how to

research,

present,

defend and sell

your ideas in a

professional

context.

Explore the

trends, roles &

opportunities

in e-publishing

& be prepared

for a job in the

industry.

Readings

from

-Textbooks

-Articles

-Websites 

Word of the

Day

Presentation 

Posting &

Discussion of

Articles on

Class Weblog

 

Class

Participation 

Interview

with an

E-publishing

Professional 

Final Project 

Course Syllabus

– Format of course

– Policies

– Calendar

– Readings

– Assignments

Format of Course•In-Class Discussion on Special Topics

•Word of the Day

•Lecture

•Labs

Policies•Attendance•Lateness•Assignment•Grading•Classroom Policies•Disability Statement•Plagiarism

Policies•Attendance•Lateness•Assignment•Grading•Classroom Policies•Disability Statement•Plagiarism•The Fine Print

Calendar•Class Topics

•Due Dates

Readings•Required Textbooks

•Recommended Textbooks

•Reserves

•Additional Articles and Website•Teleread•Publishing 2.0 •Smashing Magazine

•Other Sources

Class Survey

What are you doing online?

Operating Systems

Cell Phone Use

Internet Connection

Broadband Speeds by Country

Browsers

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=0&qptimeframe=Q&qpsp=37

Hours Spent Online

Other results• 50% have never listened to a digital

audiobook• 71 % often read articles online• 71% never read an e-book• 50% read online sites from traditional media

daily• 41% read blogs daily• 64% watch online video (mostly on

weekends)• 85% never use an RSS reader

Who is your online audience?

And who isn’t online?

Why Are We Here?• I'm interested in learning more about ways to share and store

information online.

• I’d like to better understand the basics of website design and be able to know what is wrong with a poorly-designed page and how to better organize it.

• I am interested in electronic publishing because it has so much potential, and I am curious about what the future will hold for the traditional book format.

• I'm interested in ebooks and print on demand and how technologies can combine to improve publishing and make it more environmentally friendly.

• I just want to be prepared for the future of publishing.

Themes of the Course• Working Definition of electronic publishing.

• Economics of electronic publishing.

• Content management and analysis.

• Understanding of the programming and procedures used to create electronic content.

• How electronic publishing is changing our understanding of the publishing industry.

Online Tools

WebCT

• Syllabus

• Links

• Class Readings

• Class Slides

Class Wiki

• Group site for

– Contact information

– Lab Exercises

– Presentations

– Interviews

What’s a Wiki

• Created by Ward Cunningham in 1994, released in 1995.

• Idea: Create the simplest online database possible.

• Four Characteristics

– The pages must be stored in a central, shared repository. The wiki should be located in one place to make it easy to share.

– Anyone should be able to edit pages. Wikis are flexible, which means the organization of the information on each page can be changed as needed and not just by an expert or an administrator.

– Editing should be easy and accessible and not require special tools. The wiki should be simple, making getting started easy.

– Formatting information pages should be much simpler than using HTML. The tags in Wiki are much easier to understand and use than the same codes needed for most webpages.

Class Weblog

• Group site for entire class to use as a blog for the class.

• We will use it as a forum for online discussion for our class discussions.

Types of Weblog Entry

• Posting Assignments (posting only)• Journaling, Diary (text only)• Posting links (bookmarking)• Posting links with some description (bookmarking with

tags)• Posting links with some analysis of content (standard

blog)• Posting a link with analysis and synthesis of ideas both

from the linked site and elsewhere that show a deeper understanding of the content within the link. Analysis has a defined audience

• Extended analysis and synthesis over a long period of time that builds on previous posts, links, and comments. (complex blogging.)

Types of Weblog Programs

• Movable Type– Uses Perl and MySQL– Available as open source– Used by Emerson

• Blogger– Simplest blogging tool available.– Connects to gmail account.

• Word Press– Needs a webhost that offers PHP and MySQL– User manages set-up and maintenance of publishing

platform.

Delicious

• Social bookmarking site

• Social- you can share links and see other people’s links

• Bookmarking- take your browser bookmarks online.

• Class site delicious.com/WP692

Delicious

• Why use social Bookmarks?– Research - Writing an article? Slaving away on your dissertation? Keep track of

all the source materials and commentary that you find online.– Wishlist - Go to any commerce site, find what you like, save it to delicious and

tag it as wishlist. Then you can tell people to check out your wishlist bookmarks by giving them a link to

– Vacation - Save links to hotels, activities, and transportation and use tags like "travel", "vacation", and "to-visit". Collaborate with friends and family by using the "for:username" tag.

– Linklog - Save bookmarks to interesting websites and add a bit of commentary to create a lightweight linklog. Then, use linkrolls or the daily blog posting feature to include your delicious bookmarks on your blog or website.

– Cookbook - Whenever you find a great recipe on a website, save it to delicious.– Collaboration - Friends, coworkers, and other groups can use a shared account,

special tag, or their delicious networks to collect and organize bookmarks that are relevant -- and useful -- to the entire group.

RSS

• Really Simple Syndication

• Brings the web to you

• Accessed through a reader– Yahoo– Google Reader & iGoogle– Bloglines– Firefox– Outlook

Twitter

• Microblogging program.• “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and

co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

• 140 character limit• Accessible through RSS, texting, & other

services.

Exercises

• Develop your profile on the class wiki

• Sign up for Twitter, follow class site PB692

• Sign up for Delicious and connect to the class, add some links (class blog, wiki, WebCT)

• Post blog entry

• Add required blogs to RSS reader (outside of class)

Weekly video

The Machine is Us/ing Us

All videos are copyright their respective copyright owners and used based on Creative Commons licenses.