"Smart Content: The Importance of Semantics in Publishing" The way we organize our information is shifting from the book-centric table of contents or bibliographic citations to a more dynamic approach that directs us to content that may never have been initially intended, or previously encountered. Smart content is content that is equipped with structured data that allows it to soar across domains, user groups, profiles, and knowledge maps to reach readers in non-linear ways. Through the guidance of taxonomies and the exploitation of classifications, smart content no longer waits for the wisdom of the reader, but seeks the most appropriate reader for its content. This presentation explores how semantics and reliable metadata act as agents to broker such relationships.

2. Smart Content:
the importance of semantics in publishing
BISG
Making Information Pay
2011
May 5, 2011
Madi Solomon
Pearson plc

3. Madi Weland Solomon:
semantically enabled
Professional Professional Personal info
Experience Associations
Pearson plc, Director, BISG Rights Committee Residence: London, UK
Content Standards ISKO-UK
FOCAL Family
Independent Consultant FIAT/IFTA husband
daughter
Walt Disney Company, Chair of the AMIA Metadata dog
Corporate Nomenclature Joint Subcommittee
Taxonomist Interests
LOC Moving Image Visual Art
contemporary art
Getty Research Institute Collections (MIC):
Playing Musical instruments
Project Associate, Standards Cataloging and Metadata
piano
& Vocabularies Working Group & Speakers
guitar
Bureau banjo
Eli Broad Art Foundation, drums
Curatorial Assistant Contributor to ISAN Best harp
Practices for Audio Visual Writing
Works short stories
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4. Agenda
It’s about metadata
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5. Metamedia
The effects of technology on consciousness:
our relationship with organisations and data
Coined by McLuhan, Marshall
(Understanding Media: The Extensions of
Man, 1964) metamedia refers to the new
relationships between form and content in
the development of new technologies and
new media
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6. Metadata as information:
Collective shifts in our perception of knowledge
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7. Media Evolution at
Dynamic eBooks
Flash eBooks
HTML eBooks
Books
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8. iPad app
DK Travel Guides
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9. Smart Content
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10. Smart Content
• Has good metadata (not lots)
fit for purpose
• Uses classifications to provide
context and aid discoverability
• Is structured making it suitable
for in-depth analytics
• Enables semantic technologies
to cross reference and cross
pollinate it with other kinds of
content
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11. What does Smart Content do?
Forges conceptual relationships
It finds you
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12. Transforming the way we do business
semantic technologies for content creation
Pearson Ed Science
Ontology Project
 Use concept extracting tools
 Auto categorise (baseline)
 Leverage and exploit existing
taxonomies (DBpedia)
 Groom data in shareable
ontology
 Auto-tag assets
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13. Entity Relationships
using RDF and SKOS
Between classes of
things
Educational Subject/Discipline
Standard (Science)
Between entity
associations
Between concepts
Learning Objectives Learner Level
Permissions of Use
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16. Why do we need it?
massive data centres
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18. Structured semantics
makes your content smart
Metadata: object Classification: context
• Identification / Authentication • Process intelligent searches
• Instantiation through a classification system
• Access and Usage • Relate language to information
objects
• Provide inferred meaning through
context
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19. What’s the ROI?
Metadata is expensive
• Automated workflows & efficiencies
• Permissions and rights clearances- non manual
• Findability, discovery (no more bookstores)
• Enables faster business responsiveness
• Multi channel product development (standards)
• Manages modularity
• Allows sophisticated applications to build on it
• Information Lifecycle Management (storage)
• Agility for new product models
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20. First steps: how to get started
1. Get your house in order
2. Baseline metadata
model
Rapid prototypes
• what needs automating?
• what needs streamlining?
• what needs accelerating?
Image source: Baseline Consulting: http://www.baseline-consulting.com/
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21. new content
new business models
Whole Books
Units to clear Micro content
Bundles / Packages / Modules
Number of downloads Product Platforms
Number of uses Suppt / Enhanced Materials
Royalty free contracts Customized Content
Blanket subscription base Learning Objects
Learning Systems & Software
Ubiquitous distribution rights On-line tools
Derivative Works
Games
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22. The Big Shift
From PUSH To PULL
Stable environments Dynamic Environments
Knowledge Stocks New Knowledge Flows
Knowledge Capture
Explicit Knowledge
 Knowledge Creation
Transactions Tacit Knowledge
Zero Sum Positive Sum
Scalable efficiency Scalable peer sharing
Source: John Seely Brown Co-Chairman / Visiting Scholar Deloitte Center for the Edge / USC
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23. Future State: Convergence
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24. Thank
you
Content is no longer a scarcity,
attention is.
madi.solomon@pearson.com