HEADLINES

COVER STORY: Columbia University Press Set To Publish First Ever "Bible" Of Digital Publishing "The Columbia Guide To Digital Publishing" Practices What It Preaches

INSIDE STORY
- Why MathML Adds Value To STM Publishing

PLUS...
- Adobe PDF Conversion: How, For Whom, And When?
- Second Annual DCLnews Survey On Data Conversion Activity
- DCL'S Mikhail Vaysbukh Promoted To Director Of
  Educational Publishing Division
- Don't Forget To Visit DCL's Tech Library

OTHER NEWS
- XML Takes Headache Out Of Business Research
- DOD Says Information Will Be Killer Weapon Of The Future
- Public Library Adds 5,000 E-Books To Its Virtual Shelves
- Network-Centric Warfare Takes Flight in KC-135
- First PDA For The Blind Comes With Hefty Price Tag

ASIDES (The month's offbeat news)
- British Army Loses Very Large Object Borrowed From The RAF

BEST OF DCL-NEWS
- Best Stories From Previous Issues

The epic Columbia Guide To Digital Publishing will be released in January 2003 in both print and online editions. It has an impressive array of authors, including DCL President Mark Gross, who wrote the chapter on data conversion methodology. What's more, the book is not just theory, it practices what it preaches ... more

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In an exclusive guest article, Paul Topping, of Design Science, Inc, highlights the benefits of using MathML to represent mathematical equations ... and reveals how useful this technology can be when carried through to the web
browser ... more

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Lazar Weisz of DCL gives the lowdown on PDF conversion in the first of a series of white papers on the subject. This month, an overview of PDF ... more

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If you haven't already done so, would you like to help us with our second annual survey? We've already had a big response. But the more readers who contribute, the more extensive our upcoming DCLnews report analyzing the results will be (which will be of benefit to both you and us). The survey will only take you 3 or 4 minutes to complete and can be accessed at:
http://home.dclab.com/dcl/quest_r_back.asp

*NOTE* Be assured, all individual responses are completely confidential. Only the aggregate results of our research will be used.

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DCL'S Mikhail Vaysbukh Promoted To Director Of  Educational Publishing Division
Date: 11/5/2002, DCLnews Extra

Mikhail Vaysbukh has been promoted to Director of Educational Publishing Division. He'll have overall responsibility for DCL's Educational Publishing Division which includes project management, management of the project engineering process, and client development.

Mikhail has been with DCL for over 6 years and has served in number of positions ranging from Production Manager and Project Manager to currently Director of Educational Publishing Division. Mikhail is an active member in several technical industry groups such as the Open eBook Forum Publication Structure Working Group and the AAP Enabling Technologies Committee. Mikhail is a co-author of the Open eBook Publication Structure specification.

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DCL Technical Library
Don't forget to visit our technical library for insider information about XML and SGML, e-books, technical documentation, and scientific and educational publishing ... click here

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The web is full of valuable business data. Trawl the bulletin boards and newsgroups, for example, and you can find out what consumers are saying about your products and services. Which is a big boon for marketing managers everywhere. Only problem is, the data is unstructured and there is just so much of it -- more than enough to give a whole team of researchers a headache.

But Cincinnati firm, Intelliseek, Inc, believe the solution lies in a combination of data mining and XML. "This is the key that allows you to take unstructured data and provide business users with valuable nuggets of information," says Sundar Kadayam, Chief Information Officer at Intelliseek. The firm's current technology uses XML tagging to help make sense of unstructured data and then delivers it to customers via web interface or directly into their own applications via SOAP ... more

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The most powerful weapon of the future will not be a missile, tank, or fighter aircraft. It will be information. Speaking at the October 2002 Military Communications Conference in Anaheim, California, Army Lt. Gen Joseph K. Kellogg revealed: "The role of info will be the new silver bullet of the future, one that will change how we deploy our forces. The battlefield will be seamless, and it will be integrated."

Today a lot of the coordination and integration work that goes with managing information is left to the individual armed services, resulting in systems that often can't talk to each other.

Kellogg admitted that the current moves to make information a priority will require that the services give up some of their sovereignty ... more

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More than 5,000 electronic books have been added to Austin Public Library's catalog. Titles can be accessed from any computer through NetLibrary by library card holders. "It's a sleek thing because it's like a real book, but on a computer," said librarian Maggie Snow. The check out period is for three days. Once the book is due, the computer automatically checks it back into the library, so there are no overdue fines ... more

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Network-Centric Warfare takes flight
in KC-135
Date: 10/21/2002, Washington Technology

Airforce refueling aircraft are being turned into flying data routers -- making the buzz term "Network-Centric Warfare" a reality. With the help of Northrop Grumman Corp. and others, Ohio-based firm MTC Technologies Corp is equipping KC-135 aerial refuelers with routers, antennas and other hi tech equipment, allowing the aircraft to transmit battle information among different units. The plan is to build a mobile network that can be quickly deployed anywhere in the world, especially in hostile territories.

"Where you can't get a ground station established quickly you need some other platform that can handle communications. A refueling aircraft is generally stationary over a given area, so they make a very good platform," said Michael Solley, CEO of MTC Technologies Corp ... more

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The first handheld computer for the blind has been developed and will ship later this year. Called "PAC Mate," the personal digital assistant runs on Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system. it comes complete with an eight-dot braille keyboard or QWERTY-style keyboard. Plus it lets users access all Windows' applications, including Word documents, Outlook e-mail, and Internet Explorer

Developed by blind engineer David Engebretson and colleagues, along with software firm Freedom Scientific, the device is aimed at blind professionals. But with a price tag of $2,595, the question is will they be able to afford it? ... more

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ASIDES
>> THIS MONTH'S OFF-BEAT NEWS
British Army loses very large object borrowed from the RAF ...
Date: 10/29/2002, Ananova.com

Savage storms swept the UK over the October 26/27 weekend. Most people stayed home in the warm to watch the static on TV (many transmitters were out). But the Army -- gluttons for punishment -- decided to do a training exercise in a remote part of Wales renowned for its severe weather conditions. The exercise involved borrowing an inflatable rubber tank from the Royal Airforce (RAF). The tank, which costs £10,000, is called a "pneumatic deception device" and is the size of three cars. Unfortunately, they managed to lose it ...

Regimental Sergeant-Major Brian Pratt, who was organizing the hunt over 200 miles of terrain, said: "How do you lose something as big as that?" Apparently, fairly easily: It's not the first time that the Army has mislaid one of the tanks. Three went missing and were never recovered after a similar exercise in 1992. ... more

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Best of DCLnews:
Read through a selection of the best articles from previous issues of DCLnews. You'll find articles on e-books, technology, Internet, data conversion, and digital publishing, as well as off-beat news.

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