This year Frances Pinter of Bloomsbury Academic is one of the keynote speakers at the Tools of Change for Publishing conference. Just reading the first line of the blurb “Living through a time of transition is exciting, stimulating, stretching and expensive!” causes excitement. This publisher embraces future trends “experimenting with open content licensing for scholarly monographs” while maintaining a comfortable position in tradition. This promises to be a great talk.

Another keynote speaker is Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Huffington Post. Just recently I talked about the influence The Huffington Post has on the future of publishing (I wonder at O’Reilly’s skill in knowing exactly what I’m looking for). “Publishers just need to find new and innovative ways to reach these digitally-focused eyeballs.” As the publishing industry free-falls, Ms. Huffington steps up with possibilities in the brave new world.

I look forward to hearing Angela Bole, Associate Director, Book Industry Study Group, Inc. speak about the eBook consumer. Allison Belan Assistant Production Manager for Journals, Duke University Press and Maureen McMahon President & Publisher, Kaplan Publishing are joining together to explore “Change”, how to drive it and achieve real lasting change.

Lisa Shannon, Associate Publisher at Wiley speaks about the transition from ebooks into training. Christine Perey of PEREY Research & Consulting brings her “18 years experience working in emerging multimedia communications markets” to speak about “augmented Reality … mixing digital information and the real world in a highly interactive manner “. They are joined by Angelina Ward, Senior Acquisitions Editor at Syngress. Ms Ward is presenting a case study about a year growing her publishing business.

I’m always excited by Adobe, and I’m sure I won’t be disappointed by Julie Baher, Experience Design Manager at Adobe as she discusses the future of digital reading. Diana Childress, Senior Director, Content Partnerships at Blackboard Inc. and Carrie O’Donnell,President at O’Donnell & Associates, LLC talk about the digital reality and whether or not digital content eases research or not.

This sample of influential women is only from one day of the three day conference. And, just as last year, I am unable to attend in person. Thanks to O’Reilly I can view all the sessions online; I “attend” a little later than everyone else.

This promises to be a great conference. Hope you can make it.

Chris very pointedly states, “This is the business value of this stuff, the blogging and the social media stuff. There’s a business value to understanding and building the relationships around the product. There’s a real business value in having people understand and have access and build affinity to people…[There is a] new currency in the world, currency of attention, currency of trust. And you need to worry about how you are going to get in front of people to actually care about your thing.”

This introduction to Social Media touched on many subjects which I won’t go into here such as understanding books as eco systems and book clubs as the new tribal system. What really caught my ear was when Chris began speaking about distribution and the Mafia. Books are a distribution problem. eBooks add to the problem even though they command a small piece of the market. Normal channels have a book traditionally marketed, carried by the brick and mortar places along with Online stores. The book is printed and distributed to outlets, bought by the customer, and then shipped. eBooks jump the queue. They are often sold directly from the publisher or even the author.

Just as the Mafia took over distribution systems to deliver basic services to the villages in the face of government corruption, albeit with their own interpretation of the law, the Mafia continued forays into society in other distribution channels. Their choice to distribute alcohol, drugs, slaves, and cigarettes may not be the distribution problem of a publisher, but today’s publisher needs to understand the basic common element. Publishers are not in the book business. Publishers are in the information distribution business. And anytime the distribution is bogged down by bureaucracy, “mafia-style” elements step in to ease the problem.

Social Media works like the Mafia – it sets up new paths, new mechanism to deliver information to the people who want it. And it’s not as complicated as drug traffic-ing. Information brokers need to do things in a “ridiculously different way”. Chris suggests mass customization based on shopping preferences and other information gathered about a customer. Product placement or settings in books can be used to draw people in, and it can be used to enlist outside forces in the marketing campaign. Social Media presents opportunities to work with potential routes that are not traditional marketing.

I choose to reorient my position in a “grassroots” movement instead of the Mafia. Social Media is not as coordinated or structured as the Mafia. It is, however, the perfect expression of the average person grouping together with other average people to effect change.

French Creek Press is starting a social media campaign September. I’ll be writing about this effort and any tips that I can pass along as a result. In the meantime, check out Chris Brogan. Who knows, maybe he’ll do a standup comedy routine to augment his salary.

First, DocBook is not a definition of how the book looks; it is a definition of the structure of the book. Instead of saying that a paragraph is displayed with Times New Roman type at 12 points, with 6 points before, DocBook marks the text as a paragraph. Later a style sheet can be applied to the document which says that any paragraph is represented by Times New Roman, 12 point type, with 6 points before. This is not so important if the book is only published in one format, ever. But, if the book is published in different formats, for example, as a printed book and as a eBook, the same DocBook file, with two different style sheets, can perform the two different tasks. This is a tremendous savings.

I know I’m coming at this from a technical writer’s point of view. Using something akin to programming is not scary in the technical writing world. For traditional publishers this might be a little daunting at first. The payoff, however, is tremendous.

I heard a great Tools of Change panel discussion (2009) with members from Blurb, Greenleaf Book Group, Thomas Nelson, Lulu.com, and O’Reilly Media about the future of publishing. Phrases like, “nothing but NET”, and “we’re on the cusp”, [we have to] “get it out to the world” point to a revolution in publishing. It doesn’t take much to note the number of publishing houses that are folding or are undergoing immense transformations to stay in business. The publishing industry is no longer about books. It is about information.

DocBook is one example of how information can be stored, retrieved, and disseminated to the public. It has the advantage of being Open Source. Open Source is self-regulating and constantly moving forward to meet the needs of its community. DocBook is well-established. It has almost 20 years of experience under its belt. And because it has so much history, it is comprehensive.

Are the drawbacks? Yes. Using DocBooks is not “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” (WYSIWYG). For an author that is a daunting prospect. To take an author’s manuscript and port it into DocBooks does take time; it is not instantaneous. Designers, book layout artists, anyone involved in traditional book publishing may have difficulty at first adjusting to tags, elements, and style sheets.

Are there any WYSIWYG front-ends to DocBooks? Yes. oXygen is one. As time goes on more will emerge.