Corporate Multi-Format Publishing Goes On Autopilot

DCLnews talks to Chip Gettinger of Astoria Software, Inc., about the digital revolution that is going on in corporate technical publishing.

Most of us associate publishing with the latest bestsellers by Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. If we are technical-minded, we might think of weighty computer tomes on such esoteric subjects as Javascript or Perl. But few of us associate firms and enterprises with publishing. Glossy brochures, perhaps. But not full-blown publishing operations.

About Chip Gettinger

Chip Gettinger is Vice President of product marketing at Astoria Software. He has over 20 years of experience working with tools for XML content management, single sourcing, authoring, and publishing. Chip works with customers and partners to establish technical and business requirements for Astoria product development efforts. "Following a solutions sales model is a nice way to work," he says. "And we have great sales people at Astoria - who dream a lot. Most of them work up at the 20,000 foot level, but being in charge of product marketing I'm obliged to float around the 1,000 foot level!"

Yet the average corporation pumps out an enormous amount of material each year. Most of it is technical - manuals and so on. But it is publishing, nonetheless. What's more, the technology and software systems used by growing numbers of firms are at the cutting edge when it comes to managing content.

Content Management Systems (CMS), as they are called, are typically based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), a standard, open source computer language invented by the World Wide Web Consortium (WC3).

One firm, whose content management software is based on XML, is Astoria Software, Inc. (www.astoriasoftware.com), based in California.

Chip Gettinger, vice president of product marketing at the firm, says the big benefit of XML is it allows you to publish in multiple formats (web, print, digital, and CD-ROM) from a single source.

"Our product, Astoria, is an XML-based single source content repository, which allows you to store structured content and re-use, re-purpose and publish it pretty much on the fly," he explains. "The key thing is authors only ever work on and edit the single source. Any approved changes flow through to the various documents and manuals out in the field - which means users always have the latest updates and information."

Digital Publishing Revolution

Astoria is part of a growing digital publishing revolution which, one day, may make paper documentation redundant.

"We have customers in many different industries - from aerospace and car makers to telecoms and the military. All predict that paper manuals will be moth balled in the not too distant future," says Gettinger. "However, paper continues to be a requirement challenging many industries to provide both paper and digital deliveries."

Publishing documentation in XML allows firms to automate the management and shipping of materials in digital and paper formats.

"It vastly speeds up the publishing cycle. Processes that previously took weeks - what with printing and approval procedures - now take days, or hours, and soon minutes," says Gettinger.

One industry keen to move from paper to electronic publishing is aerospace. This is because distributing the manuals pilots need is very costly - mainly because there are so many updates. These typically go out as page inserts.

"After 9/11, many new procedures were brought in - cockpit doors were reinforced, along with other measures to prevent hi-jacking," says Gettinger. "The flurry of paperwork to support that was enormous. People were sitting in warehouses inserting pages in pilots' books, day in day out. With electronic documentation, it's simple and far less labor-intensive. The plane goes to re-fuel and hooks up to a wireless Internet to get the updates."

Internet in the Sky

In two or three years time new planes won't even have to land to get updates. They will have "Internet in the sky."

"When the Airbus A380 jumbo and Boeing 7E7 Dreamliner come into service, pilots will be able to receive real time updates anywhere in the world - whether in the sky or on the ground. This will reduce the costs of shuffling paper around the world," says Gettinger.

Instead of carrying weighty paper manuals, pilots will be equipped with an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB), which can be used on laptops, cockpits, and handheld computers. This is where the crucial information is downloaded to.

"The great thing about the Electronic Fight Bag is it's beginning to unify data from multiple sources - from Flight Ops and emergency procedures to navigational charts, weather reports, airport configurations, and maintenance," says Gettinger.

While none of this technical information is bedtime reading, it is still publishing.

As Gettinger says, "Content management systems based on XML are transforming the way organizations think about their information. But, in the end, it's still all about publishing - how best to present and distribute data. In the modern world, this means phasing out paper and going electronic."

DCLnews Editorial