Valentine: The Digital, Device-Independent Comic Available Via Wireless In 14 Languages

By Alex de Campi

Imagine a graphic novel series, released every month simultaneously in 14 languages and across all major wireless platforms (Kindle, EPUB, Android, iPhone), hopefully soon via the web and, eventually, in collected print editions. Every month, you pay 99 cents and get 70-75 screens of action, adventure and suspense. In its first fortnight after launch, in the difficult final weeks of December and with no marketing and without all our distributors yet on stream, the first episode had 5,000 downloads — of which English was in the minority. (There were over 100 downloads in Irish, which some call a “dead” language! And Latin is next…seriously.)

So, what is this publication and what innovative publishing house is behind it, you might ask? It’s Valentine­ — an original supernatural thriller set during Napoleon’s retreat from Russia that I am co-writing with artist Christine Larsen — and, at the moment, none. It’s just two American girls who got in over their heads.

Valentine became what it is today as a result of philosophizing about future models of publishing, and our real-life needs to have the book start paying for itself quickly. This was one of the reasons for choosing wireless distribution: it’s easier to sell downloads on phones and eReaders than charge for content on a website.

We are a Creative Commons work, which means that we acknowledge that there will be what some people may refer to as “stealing” but honestly, we’d prefer folks just enjoy the story rather than be demonized for how they obtained it. Hey, their sins may be scarlet, but at least our book is read. We’re also deliberately setting our price point very low (99 cents, versus $3.99 for a US comic book of similar length/content) to entice purchasers.


To my mind, the three most interesting aspects of how we are publishing Valentine are: the translations, the multiplicity of distributors per format, and the flexibility/scalability of the model, which allows us to dovetail nicely with the traditional publishing model.

The translations came about because in my other life as a filmmaker, I am always complaining about how not releasing films simultaneously in all geographies and all formats is basically what causes “piracy,” — a corporate term for “people wanting to see a film but having no other affordable way of doing so other than torrenting it.”

So if you’re going to talk the talk, you need to walk the walk, right? I also have a lot of friends around the world with whom I like to talk comics, and having written for French comics publishers and being a devotee of Japanese comics (to name but two markets) I am very aware of how comparatively tiny the English-language comics market is. Hell, there are individual French bandes dessinée and individual tankubon that regularly outsell per volume the entire annual output of the US comic book industry.

To find our translators, I put messages up on Twitter and Facebook. It really was that simple. Our first six or so translators were friends of mine; the next seven ranged from friends of friends to complete strangers. Most have professional translating experience. The translators receive 50% of the net sales of the book in their language, which gives them an incentive to blog, tweet and otherwise market the hell out of Valentine. Everyone has been warned though that 50% of our net sales for the first nine months or thereabouts is unlikely to earn them more than enough to buy a cup of coffee.


I can’t say enough good things about the translation team; they are amazing individuals (they range from an Anglo-Italian pop starlet and a Serbian artist to one of Rolling Stone’s Brazilian correspondents) and, for something organized via Twitter, there has been absolutely zero drama or flake factor. (Actually, that’s a lie. My first Spanish translator went AWOL, but a good friend, the artist Felipe Sobreiro in Colombia, stepped in at short notice.) The translations come in on time, perfectly done; clarification is often asked for and given — a loose network of individuals acting to an extremely high, professional standard.

Another exciting thing about Valentine is the relative frictionlessness of wireless distribution. We have two “publishers” for iPhone: Comixology and Robot Comics. We could add more if desired; there is no exclusivity. I always say this is like having your comic book published by DC and Marvel at the same time — or Glenat and Casterman, or Kodansha and Shogakukan. As we really start hitting the eReader stores we will have the same distribution reach (though not the same marketing muscle) as any major publisher. In today’s publishing world, you have to be everywhere people look.

And that also means, eventually, landing our product on store bookshelves. I love printed books. Part of the thinking behind Valentine was how to achieve three things: an immersive, high-quality reader experience specific to small-screen devices such as the iPhone; a true right-to-left reading experience for our Japanese, Hebrew, and (eventually) Arabic readers as well as our native left-to-right; and an equally good reader experience in our eventual printed collections. The idea of publishing Valentine as a paper book was embedded in our plans from the very start.

Each “screen” is a stand-alone comics panel. There are no “pages” of multiple panels, just infinitely flexible single panels which act as building blocks, shown singly on iPhone screens or rearranged to a traditional comics page for a book. Episode 01 opens with a five-panel panorama of a battlefield that not only creates a wonderful feeling of movement and space when reading on the iPhone, it raises the quality of the print version, where that five-panel spread will become nearly ten digest-sized splash pages.

Though there is no animation or “motion comics” in Valentine, because we are basically dealing with panels of all the same size and orientation — panels shaped like a cinema screen — we have created a very cinematic experience for the reader, in our expression of space and time.

I am beyond excited for when we reach the first major “break” in the Valentine story, at the end of Episode 08, when we will have the first volume of the story complete and ready to look for a publisher — or indeed publishers, as I doubt one will be able to handle all our language editions. (We already have interest in the US edition, but are actively looking for overseas publishers…write me.) The story is set to run to 24 episodes, which in book terms will equate to three volumes of 250-300 page full-color digest size graphic novels.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s difficult. I work four days a week at a bottom-level job to pay my rent, and I could really use those days to improve the Valentine website, work on our marketing, and write my next series. We make mistakes. We are very much learning as we go along. But sometimes I pause and look back over what we’ve accomplished so far, and it strikes me just what a giant thing a small, informal group of people has achieved. And we have so many exciting places still to go! Episode 04 of Valentine is out on February 17th for iPhone, Kindle, Android, and eReader.

[Note] This article reprinted with permission of the author. It originally appeared in Publishing Perspectives magazine.

From The Start We Were Different … An Amazing Video From Mark Logic

This video was used to open the Mark Logic 2009 User Conference. It’s an amazing presentation that tells the story of humans and the paradigm-shifting information explosion we find ourselves in today. When the video ended, the crowd went wild with applause. I’ll have to admit, I’ve never seen such response from an audience, not even to a great presentation delivered by a human opening keynote presenter.

Watch the video and let us know what you think.

And, consider attending the Mark Logic 2010 User Conference, May 4-6, 2010 in San Francisco.

[Interview] Microsoft’s Gabor Fari on Intelligent Content: Saving Lives By Helping New Drugs Get To Market Faster

Interview with Gabor Fari, Microsoft Life Sciences by Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler

The Content Wrangler: Hello, Gabor. Tell us a little about yourself and your experience in the content industry.

Gabor: I am a Chemical Engineer by training. I became fascinated with software a little over 10 years into my career, before I made the switch to the software industry. To me, building software solutions is still pretty much engineering, and my approach is to build solutions block by block.

I have been working in the enterprise content management industry for over 10 years. I am constantly thinking about how to remove the road blocks to effective content management. Part of the challenges are technology issues, and many of the rest have to do with managing people and change. I am a contributing member of the Document and Records Management SIAC at DIA (Drug Information Association) and the OASIS DITA Pharmaceutical Content Sub-Committee.

The Content Wrangler: Where do you work? Tell us a little about your firm, the markets you serve, and the products and services you offer.


Gabor: I work for Microsoft on our Life Sciences team. I am the driver behind the Intelligent Content Framework (ICF) initiative. The idea is to implement a people-ready approach to structured content authoring and dynamic publishing, using the Microsoft tools that many people use everyday, i.e. Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Office.


The Content Wrangler: Intelligent Content is a hot topic today, but many people don’t understand what it is or why it matters. From your perspective, what is intelligent content? What makes it so smart? And, why do organizations need it?


Gabor: That is a great question. I have read a lot of definitions about Intelligent Content. I think Ann Rockley and Joe Gollner have the best definition of Intelligent Content, and it would be redundant to quote them here. Another way to look at it: Intelligent Content is where we need to move to, in the Era of Dumb Content.


[Editor's note: See "What is Intelligent Content?" by Ann Rockley and "The Emergence of Intelligent Content" by Joe Gollner.]


The Content Wrangler: Creating intelligent content certainly seems like a good idea. Can you share with us a few examples of how intelligent content can help an organization to be faster, leaner, make more money, reduce expenses, reduce risk, or serve it’s clients better?

Gabor: The best example I can think of is in my domain: what if a pharmaceutical company could complete all the documentation necessary to finish a submission to regulatory authorities (a New Drug Application, for example) 6 months faster than they do today using ‘Dumb Content’ approaches. Most importantly, medication could reach the population so much faster. And secondly, consider the competitive advantage a pharmaceutical company would gain by getting to market faster.


The Content Wrangler: Are there any examples you can point to of intelligent content on the web?


Gabor: I am mostly focused on Intranet applications at the moment, but I have seen a number of ‘Citizen Self-service Portals’ that are applying Intelligent Content approaches to Content-Centric applications such as dynamically generating permits, tax statements etc.


The Content Wrangler: Do you know of any useful online resources you think our readers might find useful in understanding intelligent content?


Gabor: I would recommend “The Emergence of Intelligent Content” by Joe Gollner and Document Engineering by Robert Glushko and Tim McGrath.


The Content Wrangler: Many of our readers might not be that familiar with your products and services, do you have any knowledge resources you’d like them to know about?


Gabor: You can keep track of my efforts working with the Microsoft Intelligent Content Framework here. You can also find me on Twitter.


Gabor Fari will be presenting a keynote address, Intelligent Content: An Emerging Trend in Enterprise Content Management, at Intelligent Content 2010, February 25-26 in Palm Springs, CA.

Translation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Successful Global Content Management

As products move beyond borders the need for global content increases and with that comes the critical requirement for global content management. Global content management allows you to ensure brand consistency, implement a global content strategy, and manage content on a global basis.


Management of a single site is a sometimes complex task, but management of multiple global sites is even more complex and requires a well thought out plan, appropriate technology and clear processes.


Join The Content Wrangler February 18, 2010 for “Successful Global Content Management”, our free, 90-minute webinar in which content management guru Ann Rockley, The Rockley Group, will share with you the ten steps necessary to launch a successful global content management initiative. You’ll also hear from the CEO of e-Spirit, Joern Bodemann, why content management system usability is a “must have”, not an option.


Register tody!

Marking Up The Fab Four: Just Imagine What XML Could Do For Your Books

By Alan J. Porter

[This post is the first in a planned series of articles that examine how the traditional book industry could benefit from adopting XML.]

Yesterday I posted on Twitter a couple of figures from the Association of American Publishers report of November 2009 book sales. The good news was that sales overall had in fact increased by 10.9%, but what really stood out was that in November of last year the sales of eBooks exploded showing a 199.9% increase and that they now account for about 2.5% of the revenue generated by book publishing. When you consider that most eBooks are cheaper than their paper equivalents, then the market share based on actual sales numbers is going to be even higher.

I’m not sure why I was surprised as the industry figures in some way reflect my own recent experience. Back in September of last year I took the step of offering my biography of the Beatles’ teenage years, “Before They Were Beatles”, as an electronic book on the Kindle. As I no longer had to worry about covering print costs, carrying inventory, processing orders or shipping, I posted the book at a greatly reduced price. Sales of the electronic version have been growing each month, and on average in the last five months sales of the electronic version have out paced hard copy sales by a factor of 4:1.

All this sounds great doesn’t it? – On the surface it is, BUT it could be so much more.

When I look at my book on the Kindle, or on my iPhone, I am frankly disappointed in it. The reason? eBooks and eBook readers today are little more than simple electronic page turners.

But it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think what they could be like. My book references lots of early recordings of various incarnations of the group that would become The Beatles – wouldn’t it be great to click on a link and actually hear those recordings, or even compare early versions with later versions recorded at the height of their fame. How about when I mention their encounters with other musicians? It would be cool to be able to click on a name and get a snapshot biography, links to books about them and access their music catalog. How about accessing photographs of 1950s Liverpool street scenes, or being able to tour the Fab Four’s childhood homes?

And it’s not only non-fiction where I see these sort of enhancements, imagine reading your favorite novelist, and when a character mentions a location being able to click through to the Google street view, or when they eat at a nice restaurant being able to access the recipe. Ever wanted to know exactly how to make the type of vodka martini that is best served shaken, not stirred? It could be just a click away.

There is no technical reason why this sort of interactive book couldn’t be done today.

As well as being an author of books on various aspects of pop-culture that are published in the traditional model, I’ve also been active in the technical publishing industry for more years than I care to count.

Where eBooks and platforms like the Kindle, the Nook, etc. are now is where the technical documentation industry was 15 years ago – simple electronic page turners.

But take a look at what large engineering companies, the military, and others are doing with their technical documentation today – they are delivering IETMS (Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals), books with links in the text that can jump you to the related part on an illustration, call up part numbers (even do the automatic ordering of that part for you), or call up animations, video and a whole plethora of supporting information.

How is that achieved? Through the use of mark-up languages, and XML (eXtensible Markup Language) in particular. Using XML allows us to tag the content in such a way that the display devices can create links, or so information can be extracted and passed from one system to another.

With XML you can not only format the text to look how you want, without having to rewrite or reformat the source each time, but you can use it to automatically generate navigation aids like table of contents, lists of items in the content, indexes, plus all the hyperlinking that adds real value.

Over the last few years I’ve offered to write a few books using XML markup, but the publishers have always politely declined, preferring to stick to a system they know. A process that has changed little since the days of the typewriter – yes the tools have changed, but the process is still fundamentally the same; largely because traditional publishers still see the physical book as the product, and not the content.

But today content is king, and we need to make that content available across all platforms, and to be able to add value to it, and that means mark-up.

[In the next post I’ll compare the differences in the workflow between traditional publishing and technical publishing and look at how the cost of moving to XML is a lot less than most publishers believe.]

About the Author

Alan J. Porter a 20 year veteran of the corporate communications industry is founder of 4Js Group LLC a consulting and services company that specializes in combining creative talent with business expertise to help companies tell their story. He is also the regular writer of the monthly Disney*Pixar “World of CARS” comic book series.

His latest book, “WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit” will be published by XML Press in May 2010.

Blog: THE CONTENT POOL http://4jsgroup.blogspot.com
Email: ajp@4jsgroup.com
Phone: 512-968-7362
Twitter: @4jsgroup

Reimagining the Book Publishing World With XML

By Dev Ganesan, President and CEO of Aptara

Today’s content consumers are voracious digital omnivores, desiring to feed on all types of electronic content — from Twitter tweets to YouTube videos, from iPhone apps to Facebook updates, from mp3s to eBooks. Yet traditional publishers, particularly trade book publishers, are not prepared to serve digitally savvy audiences the variety of electronic products they demand. That’s because their production processes are traditionally rooted in outdated print publishing practices that are severely inadequate for tackling today’s publishing challenges.


In order to profit – literally – from the new digital markets, publishers must rethink the way they create, manage, publish, and deliver content. They must re-engineer their processes to create more flexibility and guarantee a sustainable and certain future. They must re-imagine a production process that frees their content to be transformed — on-demand — into whatever new formats, devices, and uses consumers require, now and for the future.


Continuing to retrofit existing print-based content workflows is not only impractical, overly expensive, error-prone, and unnecessarily complicated, it’s also not an efficient, flexible, or sustainable business practice. Fred Ciporen, former publisher of Publishers Weekly, recently echoed similar sentiments to an industry group preparing for the American Library Association Mid-Winter Conference.


To become lean and robust, publishers have to recognize the shortcomings of undertaking each new publishing challenge from scratch. For example, considering eBook creation as a project at the end of the print publishing lifecycle artificially and exponentially increases production costs. Continuing such practices misses the essential benefits of digitization. It condemns the company to the past, forgoing the future while ignoring consumer demand.


Freeing content from formatting and making it possible to easily deliver content to any device on any platform in any format—print, web, or mobile—is not a new idea. Organizations have been doing it for years through leveraging the power of XML.


It’s time for traditional publishers to follow suit − with a content-centered XML-first publishing approach. Getting there is not the difficult or disruptive process that many publishing executives have assumed. For instance, innovative new authoring tools enable content to be created in XML using interfaces indistinguishable from Microsoft Word. (XML is an open content standard that drastically reduces the effort required of publishing houses to create eBooks — and every other type of content. XML is designed to help publishers break the dependency of content on proprietary formats and specific devices. XML content can be easily repurposed, reused, shared, sorted, aggregated with other content, and automatically processed, published, and delivered, often on-demand.)


“Fortune 1000 companies have been adopting XML publishing not because it’s cool and trendy, but because doing so saves them millions of dollars and provides measurable benefits,” says content management guru Ann Rockley. “It’s seen as a competitive advantage; an approach designed to help publishers respond quickly to both new business opportunities and threats from competitors.”


Note: See Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy by Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur and Steve Manning (New Riders Publishing) for details on how to plan for and implement a content-first strategy.


Technical communications departments in the aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, life sciences, financial, and publishing industries use a content-first XML publishing approach to create, publish, and deliver their own version of books: product-specific user guides, product manuals, support Web sites, and online help systems from a single repository of content, thanks to XML. Corporate training departments and universities use the same methods to create role-specific XML-based training and eLearning content. Some publishers may be surprised to learn that their own organizations are already using this approach to create in-house documentation and training materials.


Though there are few examples of Trade publishers adopting XML-first workflows, below are two examples of Educational publishing houses that are thinking creatively and benefiting:


John Wiley & Sons has re-engineered their approach to publishing with the advent of Wiley Custom Select, an online portal that provides educators with the ability to create their own custom text books. Teachers select content they desire from any of the products in the Wiley library, arrange it in the order they desire, upload their own content (should they desire to do so), and, with a few clicks, automatically format, publish, and deliver the content into a custom eBook. All of this is made possible using XML.





O’Reilly Media and the Pearson Technology Group joined forces to create Safari Books Online. The premise was simple: compile the best technology books from the leading authors and publishers into an on-demand digital library that technology, digital media, and creative professionals could quickly and easily search for reliable, definitive answers to mission-critical questions. Content downloaded from Safari Books Online is optimized for mobile devices, computers, or other reading devices, and many titles are available as eBooks. All of this is also made possible through XML.





“It’s both surprising and ironic that trade publishers, in particular, have yet to adopt XML-first or XML-centric workflows,” said Fred Ciporen. “Surprising, because they have the most to gain from re-engineering their publishing approaches, and ironic because their titles and products are more ideally suited for such workflows than most other types of publications.” The benefits to the publisher — and the reader — are many, including:

• Faster time-to-market
• Indefinite extension of products’ shelf-life
• Greater and more nimble responsiveness to competitive threats and new business opportunities
• Cost savings through more efficient utilization of human and financial resources
• Ability to automatically combine and deliver various types of content on-demand
• Flexibility in preparing content in new formats (Web, mobile, social media, eBook) for inclusion in fast-growing third party eBook distribution networks like Amazon.com, iTunes, app stores
• Ability to quickly develop enhanced and engaging interactive reading experiences that are not possible with print-based products

Regardless of publisher type, there’s no avoiding today’s bottom line: in order to compete in the digital age, publishers must design a process that allows them to sustainably profit from digital content distribution.


Although eBook challenges may be new, thankfully their solution already exists. The Trade industry is well armed with proven multi-channel, content-centered publishing approaches that deliver sizable, real cost savings and increased margins.


It’s time for Trade publishers to take a fresh look at XML-first workflows. It is the best and only content strategy designed for the present and the future – while establishing a solid foundation on which to profitably operate a publishing business in the digital economy.


[This article was originally published by TeleRead, and is reprinted with permission of the author.]


About the Author
Dev Ganesan is the President and CEO of Aptara, a digital e-book conversion and digital publishing company headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia.

Free Localization Conference February 9-10: SDL Innovate 2010 – Strategies for Delivering Content and Products to Global Markets

Join us at SDL Innovate 2010: Strategies for Delivering Content and Products to Global Markets in Santa Clara, CA – February 9-10. Learn about localization, translation, internationalization, structured content, global multi-channel marketing, and attend half a dozen sessions dedicated to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). Join us. It’s free! We like free.

SharePoint: ‘Forcing It To Fit’ Is An Expensive And Painful Experience

By Scott Smith, Invisible Fist

Each time I’ve sat down to write about Microsoft SharePoint, I’ve experienced a sensation that is the polar opposite of writer’s block. Indeed, there is much to say about SharePoint. The current ‘deluxe’ edition, (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server aka MOSS), is a big, feature-rich solution, developed by a gigantic company that has bankrolled an aggressive marketing campaign. Additionally, there are many Microsoft partners and bloggers helping to spread the SharePoint gospel. There is also a proportionally large population of SharePoint detractors and companies that profess to offer solutions that rival those of MOSS.

Some time ago, after decades of experience with the Macintosh, and several years in supporting Unix systems, I found myself working for a Microsoft development partner. Thus, I can assure you that I have already received my life’s ration of SharePoint hype. I have also seen a fair amount of unwarranted criticism of SharePoint. Neither unbridled praise nor baseless criticism are helpful, if you, the content specialist, or your clients are considering SharePoint as a possible solution.

To add another layer of confusion, Microsoft is scheduled to release a new version, SharePoint 2010. this year. We’re already seeing a fresh wave of SharePoint hype, and SharePoint hate.

In this article

• What is SharePoint? (really, I’m going to try to answer that)
• What are some of the merits and drawbacks of SharePoint?
• How much does SharePoint cost? (I’ll give you the final answer right now: it’s complicated. However, I will try to provide some guidance on the factors that may impact SharePoint’s price tag for you.)
• What types of resources are available for to help ensure successful SharePoint implementations?

I’ll explore SharePoint, attempt to reduce your uncertainty about the product, and help you understand what it means for the content manager. As stated, SharePoint is a gargantuan solution, this article is merely a flyover of SharePoint’s features and functionality.

Though there is new version of SharePoint forthcoming, this article’s focus is on MOSS, with some discussion of other members of the SharePoint family, including commentary on the new SharePoint 2010.

Really Brief Background on SharePoint’s Genealogy

Some of the confusion surrounding SharePoint is natural because there are several different flavors of SharePoint. I won’t go through the entire family tree, but I do want to clarify that there is a version of SharePoint that was bundled with Windows Server operating systems. This is known as Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). WSS offers some basic portal and document-management services at no additional charge to owners of the Windows Server license.

MOSS, released in 2007, is an amalgam of several key Microsoft server technologies, including:

• SharePoint
• Content Management Server
• Forms Server

MOSS provides the same collaborative technologies as WSS, with value-adds including web content publishing. The ‘Enterprise” edition of MOSS provides enhanced search capabilities, and the means to extract content from legacy systems.

What Does MOSS Do?

When asked what MOSS can do, without hesitation, I can honestly say that “MOSS can do a whole lot of things.” There are indeed many things that MOSS does pretty well out-of-the-box. Additionally, there are things that it can do reasonably well with minor configurations. Finally, there are attributes of MOSS that are probably not going to be on par with your expectations. While desired functionality might be achieved with custom development, this may not be the most cost-effective tactic for you or your clients.

The glut of literature making claims about MOSS is highly confusing. You may have encountered articles and blogs that profess that MOSS provides:

• Web Content Management (WCM)
• Social Networking
• Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
• Records Management (RM)
• Enterprise Portal
• Document Management Suite (DM)
• Web 2.0 Collaboration (including blogs wikis and discussion forums)
• Digital Asset Management (DAM)

While each of the above descriptors are technically true (errr, possible), such labeling is of little value as you consider solutions to your communications challenges. Let me boil it down to this:

MOSS is a content management system.

With every digital photo, every key stroke…you are making content. At issue is whether MOSS can manage your content types and whether it can do so in a manner that meets with your needs.

I realize that content management (CM) is a term that is rather elusive in its own right. So, to provide some structure to our conversation about MOSS, I offer this rather simplistic definition of CM:

Content management is about who gets, what, when and how in an organization.

My fellow political science minors might recognize the inspiration of this definition: the scholar Harold Lasswell.

Essentially any content management solution should address the following organizational challenges:

• Who gets your content? (security)
  • Content consumers: Students, customers, employees…
  • Content contributors: Artists, photographers, videographers, writers…
  • Content approvers: Editors, managers…

• What content can they get? (content creation, repurposing and transformation)
  • Web pages
  • Documents
  • MPEGs

• When can they get the content? (content publishing and workflow)
  • When they browse: Content consumers
  • When they’re working on it: Content contributors
  • When it’s ready to be published: Content approvers
  • When they search: All users

• How do they get the content? (fulfillment)
  • Downloaded to desktop
  • Via email
  • Via FTP
  • Via iPhone

MOSS security: Who gets your content?

The MOSS security model is a bit confusing at first glance (and probably second glance, too), but with proper planning, an organization can make its content as open, or as restricted, as it chooses. By default, content access requires that users be authenticated; however, MOSS allows for anonymous access configuration. This permits content to be made available outside the organization, as in the case of a public website.

A deep-dive of security is beyond the scope of this article; thus let it suffice to say that SharePoint offers a range of user roles from full control to read-only access and that can be applied globally or to individual content items.

MOSS content creation, repurposing and transformation: What content can they get?

MOSS pages are built upon Microsoft’s ASP.Net framework, thus they support bundles of reusable code known as Web Parts. Similar to components (portlets, widgets, gadgets…) that you may have used with other content management systems, Web Parts enable eligible users to create or aggregate content on a MOSS Page.

MOSS also provides the capability to create many types of document libraries, as well as lists — things like calendars and announcements — that you can embed directly in a page, the same way that you would do with a Web Part.

Some of the types of content that you can manage and deliver with MOSS include:

• Browser-ready pages – You can create web content from scratch or you can choose from the numerous sites templates that are available. You can modify the page layouts and master pages (look-and-feel) with SharePoint Designer to suit your own needs.
• Documents - MOSS document libraries provide for storage and metadata classification of document files. Documents can be downloaded, or can be created/edited in the library with Microsoft Office products. When you edit a file in a document library, you can modify metadata attributes directly from the Office tool you’re using.
• PowerPoint Slides - Interesting feature that allows you to upload entire presentations that are stored as individual slides. You then have ability to select, and reorder, individual slides to generate a new presentation (requires Office 2007).
• “Web 2.0” collaboration – This includes wikis, blogs, discussion forums and social networking.
• Surveys – This is probably one of the most underused content features in MOSS. With the survey tool you can easily create survey questions and a variety of response formats (text, single- or multiple-response).
• Rich media – Images and video files can be stored in a library, thus allowing for descriptive metadata, version control and workflow.
• Content from legacy systems – The enterprise edition of MOSS permits aggregation from disparate systems (like an ERP system) by the Business Data Catalogue Web Part (requires customization).

With base-level configurations, you also will have some ability to convert content, on-the-fly, from one format to another. However, you will only be able to convert content from one  Microsoft Office format to another, or to HTML

MOSS content publishing and workflow: When can they get the content?

One of the key challenges to an organization is that content is made available when, and only when, it is approved for public consumption. It’s surprising how often workflow is accomplished manually in some organizations. For example, content might be routed–through e-mails, or printed pages–for approval before the ‘final’ version is sent to a web specialist tasked with “adding it to the site.” MOSS can help to automate this process.

MOSS has features to ensure that content has gone through proper quality control before it is available to end users. This includes content status (‘draft’ vs. ‘published’ states) and approval workflow. Content creators (and site administrators) can see sites and documents when they are in a ‘draft’ state, but end users can only see the content when it has been approved and published.

MOSS provides content-approval workflow capabilities out-of-the-box. These are rather simplistic, but fit the needs of many organizations. A MOSS workflow requires that content be ‘approved’ by an eligible user (an administrator or approver) before it can be viewed by end users. In the event that more complex workflows (integrating with other information systems, for example) are required, MOSS allows for workflow customization.

MOSS fulfillment: How do they get the content?

There are an array of methods by which users can find content in MOSS, but the primary means are browsing and search. Users who are familiar with the site’s taxonomy, or are intrepid clickers, can browse to a specific page, where they might download a document or view calendar items. Others may rely on MOSS search functionality to return results based on users’ input.

MOSS search service will index all of your site content, including documents housed in your libraries. You will also have the ability to index documents on your file servers. This is a handy feature because you will have access to a robust document search — even if documents have not yet been migrated to a MOSS document library.

MOSS’s search service can index external content that can is available via the Internet. Thus, you can configure MOSS search service to index public-facing websites that are relevant to your users.

Strengths

Some key areas in which MOSS excels:

• A wide variety of ways to create, manage, and share content – MOSS provides the means to create web pages, documents, surveys and many types of “Web 2.0” content. You have the potential to solve many business problems with MOSS out of the box.
• Document libraries allow to you better describe your documents than you are afforded with storage on the file server - You can customize metadata for documents, which can make the document more findable for your users. Furthermore, metadata descriptors enable the development of custom document sorting and can be leveraged for document archiving, workflows and security (with customization).
• Simple site brand management - If your organization has expertise in cascading style sheets, applying your own look and feel will be a relatively simple endeavor. You can see many great examples of custom-branded MOSS sites here.
• Version control, publishing state and workflow are available for of all forms of content – Publishing states and workflow help to ensure that content is in front of the right eyes at the right time. There is nothing better than the ability to “roll back” to a previous edition of your content in a pinch.
• Private collaboration areas - MOSS “My Sites” allow authenticated users to create documents, calendars, announcements in their personal workspaces, that they can choose to share with others in the organization. My Sites provide the added utility of providing a safe area where user can become acquainted with SharePoint concepts and procedures for creating content.
• SharePoint Designer makes design changes easy - Designer is a descendent of Microsoft’s Front Page, that is tuned for SharePoint. In addition to facilitating changes to a site’s look-and-feel, Designer offer features such as developing site-usage reports and Section 508-compliance accessibility checking.
• Many integration opportunities with other Microsoft solutions – With relative ease, MOSS can be joined to Project Management Server, Exchange Messaging Server and other Microsoft solutions.

Some Drawbacks

Some areas where SharePoint is lacking:

• SharePoint is Microsoft-centric – Should I get you some smelling salts? Certain features are only available ony with Office products. For example, the ability to edit metadata from a document, will be unavailable with products outside the Microsoft family. If you work in the creative services, you likely have Adobe products in your quiver. While you can still work with SharePoint libraries, you will have to forgo some of the advanced editing features available with the Office suite. 

From an IT standpoint, Microsoft-centricity means that there are strict limits to choices among Web servers (Microsoft IIS Web server) and database servers (Microsoft SQL Server) that will work with SharePoint. If you are already a Microsoft shop, then this is no problem. If you are not yet (nor do you intend to be) a Microsoft shop, then these restrictions might be show-stoppers.
• SharePoint has a really (really, really) confusing licensing structure - Early in my career as a MOSS consultant I attended a seminar in which Microsoft showed a slide that illustrated its SharePoint licensing structure. To borrow from Facebook lingo, “It’s complicated”, to say the least.
• Creating accessible content will take some effort - Many of the conveniences available in SharePoint, such as the ease of adding content with Web Parts and lists, can throw a curveball at accessibility. You will require custom-development expertise to ensure 508-compliance (an added expense).
• Inadequate support for traditional digital asset management services - While you do have some ability to manage high-resolution photography and video, MOSS’s preview capabilities, limited conversion options, and file-size limits will likely frustrate your graphic specialists.
• Social networking functionality is likely to be disappointing for your users - When the term “social networking” is used in consideration of collaborative solutions, stakeholders soon have visions of FaceBook, MySpace, and Linkedin dancing in their heads. MOSS is probably not going to fulfill their wishes.
• Batch features (upload, metadata-editing, fulfillment) are a bit on the clunky side – While there are settings and views that make batch edits possible, they are rather difficult to use.
• Ability to create structured content is unlikely to meet the needs of those who require a component-content management system, which provides granular control of reusable content components, a must-have for many who are attempting to deliver personalized, dynamic XML content on demand.

Overcoming MOSS Obstacles

A lot of people are using MOSS. This isn’t an attempt to get you to succumb to peer pressure, but it does mean that a lot support (people, products and solutions) is available. To paraphrase The X-Files, the truth is (probably) out there.

Some reasons that MOSS may still be a possibility for you even if it comes up short out-of-the-box:

• There is a large body of literature—books, blogs, discussion forums on MOSS – You have instant access to information about everything MOSS — from the most basic tasks (such as creating a document library) to many that are rather complex (like development of a customized Web Part).
• Other, content companies are adopting the “if you can beat ‘em build a connector to them” philosophy to SharePoint – Many content companies have developed the means to integrate with SharePoint. For example, there are several solutions available that will deliver advanced rich media management (format repurposing, color management) for SharePoint. Those who are interested in component-content management, there are solutions available that can make a SharePoint portal work with the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA).
• There are Microsoft partners and independent consultants all over the globe available for customization projects of all sizes – Consultants can help you ensure 508-compliance, provide custom workflows, develop custom Web Parts, and much more.
• If you bump into a wall with SharePoint, chances are great that many others have, too. There is also a rather-strong possibility that someone has written a solution. Many of these are freely available at sites such as CodePlex.  A great example is the open-source SharePoint Learning Kit (SLK) which adds e-learning capabilities to SharePoint. Numerous other solutions are available for purchase.

Coming Attractions

A major upgrade of SharePoint is due to be released this year – I haven’t actually taken SharePoint 2010 for a spin yet, but in the final version you can expect:

• A more elegant user interface – If you are already using Microsoft Office 2007 (formerly known as Office 12), this should be familiar. If you are not using Office 2007, you should expect a few days of foul language among your colleagues. It’s not a bad interface, just very different from the traditional Office look -and-feel.
• Tighter integration with the Office suite – For example, you can create a theme in PowerPoint, or Word and to apply it to a SharePoint site.
• Improvements to the social networking capabilities - This was an area of high focus in the upgrade. SharePoint 2010 is a great leap forward in the area of corporate social networking.
• Better support for traditional digital asset management (DAM) services - One thing that is a key addition is the integration of Silverlight (more Microsoft-centricity) for video streaming, and for image-zooming capabilities.

Key Questions Regarding SharePoint

1. Is SharePoint the right solution for my organization? To this, I offer a resounding “I don’t know!” It may very well be a good fit as is, or could be with some proper customization. Though I hope that in my descriptions of SharePoint’s strengths and drawbacks that I have helped to reduce your uncertainty.
2. If my organization or clients are convinced that SharePoint is the appropriate solution, should I wait for SharePoint 2010? I can’t answer that definitively for individual contexts, but my predisposition would be to wait. You probably want to avoid a scenario where you are migrating to MOSS and then upgrading to SharePoint 2010 later in the same year. My own preference would to wait until the release of a service pack upgrade from Microsoft, though if your organization is an early adopter, the rest of us owe you a debt of gratitude for blazing the trail.
3. How much does SharePoint cost? OK, I have been putting that one off, because it’s complicated. However, this price calculator from Bamboo Solutions is a really useful tool that will help determine what characteristics (concurrent users, CPUs) will increase or reduce your total costs. While the actual price-tag is going to between you and Microsoft, I will say this: If you are planning to use MOSS to host a public-facing site, consider baking a batch of cookies for your CFO before you submit the purchase order.
4. What can be done to help ensure a successful SharePoint project? I won’t lecture about best practices for a content management initiative. Much has been written on that topic. I feel that Ann Rockley’s book, “Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy” is a great reference for any such endeavor.

I can, however, offer a few guidelines for a SharePoint project:

• Try before you buy - I can’t overstate the value the proof-of-concept to help you make a better-informed decision about a complex information system. This allows your users to get some hands-on experience with SharePoint’s features. If a prospective vendor has the means to provide a MOSS sandbox for you, then you should insist upon that. Alternatively, you can obtain a trial license and set up a SharePoint server on your own infrastructure.
• Don’t skimp on the training - SharePoint is a big product, there is ample opportunity for your users to be confused. The most carefully architected, well-developed system that money can buy is meaningless if your users aren’t properly acquainted with your site’s functionality and comfortable with its usage.
• Listen to your users – The work doesn’t end when the site launches. You should provide mechanisms to allow your users to communicate with you to address usability issues and suggested site enhancements. There are several SharePoint features that you can leverage to help facilitate this dialogue (issues and tracking lists, wikis, discussion forums and surveys).

SharePoint is a growing force in the content management industry. As discussed it offers many ways to create and deliver content within the confines of a single organization or throughout the world. And despite weaknesses in some key areas, its presence is buttressed by a huge development community and numerous commercial software vendors offering solutions to extend SharePoint’s functionality. It’s hard to ignore.

However, it is important that content experts be able to separate SharePoint’s functionality from SharePoint hype in evaluating content management solutions. SharePoint is not for everybody. Forcing SharePoint to fit in an organization is painful, and costly.

Learn more

• The Microsoft Sharepoint Team Blog

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