Bridging the Web and Digital Publishing: EPUBWEB
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This document presents a vision called EPUBWEB that aims to bridge the gap between digital publishing and the open web. It envisions a future where portable documents are fully integrated citizens of the open web platform, allowing content to seamlessly move between online and offline consumption. Technical challenges are discussed, such as the need for standardized packaging, identification, styling and pagination to achieve this vision. The document proposes next steps like publishing a white paper and establishing groups to further specify an updated EPUB format called EPUBWEB.
Bridging the Web and Digital Publishing: EPUBWEB
- 1. BRIDGING THE WEB AND DIGITAL PUBLISHING: EPUBWEB Markus Gylling, IDPF, and Ivan Herman, W3C BiB Conference, San Francisco, CA, USA 2014-10-23 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, with attribution to W3C and IDPF Copyright 2014 IDPF and 2014 W3C (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang)© ® © ® 1
- 2. THE VISION EPUBWEB is a vision for the future: • Portable documents are fully native citizen of the Open Web Platform • Separation between online (i.e., the “Web”) and portable (i.e., “EPUB”) is diminished to zero 2
- 3. THE VISION In other words: • Content authored for primarily offline use can be used online by loading it into a browser • Content authored for primarily online use can be easily saved as a portable document for offline use • These should be doable smoothly, solely based on the user’s interaction 3
- 4. THE VISION • Publishers can choose to utilize either or both of these publishing modes • Users can choose either or both of these consumption modes • Essential features flow seamlessly between on-line and off-line modes, like • cross-references, user annotations, access to on-line databases • licensing and rights management • etc. 4
- 5. WHY BOTHER?
- 6. FOR EXAMPLE: BOOK IN A BROWSER • On a desktop I may want to read a book just like a Web page: • easily follow a link “out” of the book • create bookmarks “into” a page in a book • use useful plugins and tools that my browser may have ExtractofJosephReaggle’sPhDontheWeb 6
- 7. FOR EXAMPLE: BOOK IN A BROWSER (CONT.) • But: • my book may be 2000 pages long • conventional Web browsing may not be the right way to view content, a paginated view may be better • I may also want to use a small dedicated reader device to read the book on the beach… • All this should happen using the same book, and not a conversion from one format to the other! 7
- 8. FOR EXAMPLE: I MAY NOT BE ONLINE… • I may find an article on the Web that I want to review, annotate, etc., while commuting home on a train • I want the results of the annotations to be back online, when I am back on the Internet • Note: some browsers have an “archiving” possibility, but they are not interoperable • the content can definitely no be read on a dedicated reader Photocredit:BryanOng,Flickr 8
- 9. FOR EXAMPLE: SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING • My paper is published, primarily, on- line, but people may want to download it for offline use • The format of the paper should be adaptable to my reading environment • do not want a two column, fixed layout file that I cannot handle on my iPad… • My “paper” may also contain video, audio, data, programs… • scholarly publishing is not text only any more! Screendumpof“Webbasedapplications”onPLOS1 9
- 10. FOR EXAMPLE: IN-HOUSE PUBLISHING • Major companies (IBM, Intel, Boeing, FAO, Renault,…) are specialized publishers through the publication of huge amount of documentation • Delivering it on paper is not an option any more • Fast refresh time is needed • The same document should be available offline (e.g., in the cockpit) or online (e.g., on the work floor): there should be no difference between the two Photocredit:PetdroAgüera,Flickr 10
- 11. FOR EXAMPLE: ARCHIVAL AND PRESERVATION INSTITUTIONS • Archiving digital assets (i.e., Web pages with all dependencies) is a major problem • There is a need to produce, easily, a complete version of a page to be stored through archival facilities Photocredit:VincentDejardin,Flickr 11
- 12. FOR EXAMPLE: EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS • What is an educational publication? • A book of possibly long texts that requires offline access on dedicated devices? • A packaged application with built-in interactive tests, animated examples? • A Web client reaching out to Web services for assessing test results, to encyclopedia, …? • An interactive data container storing various data for, e.g., demonstrations? • The borderline between a “book” and a “(Web) Application” are becoming blurred! Photocredit:MerrillCollegeofJournalism,Flickr 12
- 14. ADVANTAGE FOR PUBLISHERS‘ COMMUNITY • Publishers want to concentrate on what they know better: how to produce, edit, curate, etc, great content • Publishers are not technology companies, nor do they intend to be; they want instead to rely on the vibrant Web community! Photocredit:NathanSmith,Flickr 14
- 15. ADVANTAGE FOR THE WEB COMMUNITY • Publishers have a long experience in ergonomy, typography, paging, complex layout, etc. • Publishing long texts, with the right aesthetics, readability, structure, etc., is an expertise the Web community can profit from • Experience of publishers in the complete curatory workflow for producing content may become important for Web design Photocredit:e-codices,Flickr 15
- 16. HOW DO WE GET THERE?
- 17. HOW DO WE GET THERE? • A strong cooperation between the two communities should be ensured • Technical challenges must be identified • A new generation of EPUB (“EPUBWEB”) has to be specified In what follows some of the main technical issues will be highlighted 17
- 18. ARCHIVAL FORMAT • EPUB is based on ZIP • There is no standard packaging format for browsers yet… • although there is a need for, e.g., applications or data sets • … but ZIP may not be the right approach on the Web • Multipart Mime may be an alternative • There is a new work item at W3C on packaging standard, and that may affect EPUBWEB 18
- 19. OVERALL DOCUMENT STRUCTURE • A complete, offline content may need additional information • list of all necessary content, default reading order, etc. • in EPUB these are stored in additional, auxilliary files • But these data may not be necessary for a simple Web page with a few CSS files • i.e., some sort of a default structure should be defined • User interaction paradigms should also be developed to create documents from more complex Web sites easily 19
- 20. IDENTIFICATION • A consise and unique identification for a book is necessary • I.e., what is the URI for… • Shakespeare's Hamlet? • its digital edition published by Publisher XYZ? • the copy I own and annotate? • This is necessary to make a book a first-class citizen on the Web • This is already the topic for huge debates in the publishing and library community… 20
- 21. IDENTIFICATION (CONT.) • Unique identification is not enough • A fragment identification framework is also necessary to link into the book • There are fragments defined for various media, but a universal approach, workable for browsers, is still missing • these should be agnostic to offline vs. online state, to media type, etc. 21
- 22. IMPROVEMENT ON STYLING, PAGINATION • Books usually need higher quality typesetting than average Web pages • control over fine aspects of drop caps, alignments, justification, hyphenation, etc. • cf. http://www.w3.org/TR/dpub-latinreq/ • The main issue, however, is paged view of the content; what is a “page” for an electronic content? • Is this a new CSS concept? Do we need an extension to the DOM? 22
- 23. PRESENTATION CONTROL • What is the level of user control of the presentation? • The Web and eBook traditions are vastly different: • In a browser, the Web designer is in full control • CSS alternate style sheets are hardly in use • some user interface aspects can be controlled but only for the browser as a whole • In an eBook reader, there may be more user control • foreground/background color • choice of fonts • There is a need to reconcile these traditions 23
- 24. CONCLUSION • There is a great potential in a convergence between the Open Web Platform and Portable Documents • It will require a common effort and cooperation of both communities • But it is an exciting prospect! 24
- 25. WHAT IS NEXT?
- 26. WHAT IS NEXT? • We collect comments on this vision • this conference • F2F meeting of the Digital Publishing Interest Group next week • internal discussions at IDPF and W3C • Plan to release a public White Paper in November • taking into account all the comments we receive • Extensive discussions with various communities should then happen 26
- 27. IF THERE IS CONSENSUS • Work with existing IDPF and W3C groups, where necessary, on specific details • Set up a new group (or groups) to define the EPUBWEB specific issues • lots of details to be clarified… 27
- 28. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION These slides can be accessed on the Web (in HTML): http://www.w3.org/2014/Talks/1023-SF-IH/ Markus Gylling, IDPF mgylling@idpf.org Ivan Herman, W3C ivan@w3.org 28