It’s a brand new year, and that means conference season will soon be upon us! Out with the old, and in with the new! And once again, there is no shortage of ‘new’ for publishing, as the theme for the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing 2012 conference theme attests: Change/Forward/Fast. I will heading to TOC in New York in February, to hear more from publishers and innovators who are moving beyond the basics and extending the reach of publishing in the digital space.
Discovery is a prevalent theme this year. Kristen McLean’s session Beyond “Discovery”—Understanding The True Potential Of An Insight-oriented Publishing Environment will look at defining what discovery means for different stakeholders in the publishing ecosystem and different methods of enabling it. Small Demons will be on hand to discuss ‘reader first’ discovery and their experiences working with EPUB and ONIX. You can check out Neha Thanki’s blog post for more on the Small Demons demo the BNC staff had last month.
It’s no surprise that discovery is a key theme. Enabling discovery is one of the primary elements in the business case for publishers to invest in producing, storing and trading metadata—the buzzword of conferences over the past few years. Laura Dawson’s Metadata is Not a Thing session will build on those previous sessions and address metadata creation at different stages of the editorial and production processes. I find it interesting that the discussions surrounding metadata are now moving beyond the questions of ‘how’ and ‘why’ and are becoming more focused on strategies and recommendations for improving the management of metadata within publishing houses.
Thinking about attending TOC? Word to the wise BNC Blog reader: answer our customer satisfaction survey—let us know how we’re doing, and enter for a chance to win a free ticket to this year’s TOC conference. We also offer our eNews subscribers a discount for TOC so make sure you’re signed up.
If you’re not heading to NYC for TOC, don’t fret. Our own Technology Forum 2012 is coming up fast. The early bird ticket special is on until Friday, Jan 13.
