"Now You See It - Soon You Don't"
Whose interface really counts in the world of online information? by Mark Rowse, CEO, Ingenta
Our belief at Ingenta, as intermediaries helping some 260 scholarly publishers, librarians and readers to access content from some 6,100 publications, is that the tidal wave of change we have seen in the information industry in recent months has still got some way to run. In essence, moving beyond the first phases of ‘information adrenalin’ and ‘content chaos’, energy is now being put into simplifying the process of accessing information online. It is still the case that there are large numbers of ordinary end users (formerly known as readers) trying to work out how to use services the early adopters have created, and pondering why publishers and libraries produce ‘whizzy’ features that they haven’t asked for and don’t use - but it is getting easier. Suppliers of online services are developing flexible and invisible interfaces that the library or researcher can tailor to suit themselves. “I want it all now, delivered to my own page, uncluttered by branding and seamlessly accessible”.It’s not the interface – it’s the API
Underpinning this is investment in the creation of robust systems to facilitate this. For example, at Ingenta we’ve spent over $2 million in technical development in the past year, much of which has gone to assist libraries and readers to find and access content through Application Programmer Interfaces (API’s) directly from their own branded services. We are not quite in a ‘nerd-free nirvana’, when the technology gets so clever that you don’t notice it’s there, but there are some encouraging signs of progress.
It ain’t what you sell – it’s the way that you sell it
In an attempt to make things easier still for the information professional, publishers are also recognising that the access and payment models they offer need to be intuitive and flexible. Flexible access control is the name of the game, and this is overtaking the earlier shock tactics of digital rights management, DRM. Access control enables the publisher to choose multiple ways of charging for content, and the information professional multiple ways of accessing it in a constructive fashion – without suffering the ‘strong arm’, alienating DRM tactics of dissolving pdfs or ‘locked’ articles. Using softer access control mechanisms actually adds value for the content creator as well as the content user.
In tandem with more sophisticated access control technology such as that created by Ingenta, more subtle and flexible business models become possible for the publisher. Article ‘bundling’ is on the increase – a way of choosing the articles, rather than the publications, you want to read. Many people are experimenting with alternatives in scholarly publishing but no robust alternative to the “one size fits all” subscription has yet emerged.
Disintermediation – beyond Google
However you refer to Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication or even RSS, there’s no question that it’s a new technology that is set to re-empower the information professional. RSS simplifies the supply chain from publisher to the reader by enabling the syndication of metadata directly to interested users without involvement by third parties. You can create your preferred list of sources online and then the RSS feed will update you with a combined list of links to all the new content that interests you, across all the sites you like.
The bottom line is it does the hard work for you, and feeds your knowledge without spending your time. Providers of RSS feeds include Newzcrawler, MeerKat, NetNewsWire and Apache JetSpeed. Despite their taste in wacky names observers predict that RSS feeds, with their enhanced structure, will soon replace email newsletters, and information industry analysts EPS predict that, “RSS is likely to be integrated with browsers, email programmes, instant messaging and other applications.” One thing is for sure, RSS will remove the middle men and speed up the processing of information.
Who needs even Google when the content you want gets delivered straight to your personal page?
The demand is growing for other tools that enable people to manage processes themselves. Ingenta now provides publishers with toolkits to update online content, change payment models, create article bundling and process subscriptions in real-time.
These initiatives point the way to ‘nerd-free nirvana’, but much still needs to get done to get to the point when what you want gets to your desktop without much effort:
Even greater consolidation
We may have reduced the numbers of services out there, but just as consolidation of online services will continue, so will librarians and researchers be able to use tools to create seamless access to the whole of a library’s electronic resources together with others that they don’t have within their collections.
Increasing connectedness of content
While significant progress has been made towards connecting content to other relevant content, for example via the CrossRef initiative, there is still a long way to go before the information professional can jump intuitively from an item of interest to all other kinds of relevant resources and to have this process assisted by computational power rather than a hand-crafted link.
More sophisticated access control
In a world this complex it is not surprising that one of the main causes of frustration to users of online resources is the fact that they are inexplicably denied access to things they thing they should get, or can’t follow a simple link without being challenged to enter yet another instantly forgettable username and password.
At Ingenta we have consistently pursued the vision of supporting publishers, information professionals and end users in achieving these goals. We are amongst those working on the ways to make these things happen. Our objective is empowering the exchange of scholarly and professional content online – in ways that make us as invisible as possible. As Horace said – “ars est celare artem”: the true art lies in concealing how it’s done.
Now you can see it. Soon you won’t.