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Emerging Service Directory Architecture
Content Management Not Good Business for Printers
Saturday, January 18, 2003
GraphicBrain.com Vertical Search Engine
Interesting idea -- a vertical industry search engine for the graphic arts. There may be similar tools in other industries but this is the first I've come across.I couldn't find a complete list of sources anywhere on the site, and a couple of quick query results showed a lot of repetition within relatively few sources. But the service does have some nice features, including the ability to save queries, define agents to update queries, sort results, and specify types of content for constraining the search. Registration is required for full access. I didn't see any mention of fees for registering to use the search engine.
I'd be more skeptical (downright cynical, actually) if this were an American venture, but it's run by VIGC, a private initiative backed by the Flemish government and the European Regional Development Fund. VIGC has about a dozen Euro graphic arts mfgs as members, but appears to be mostly trying to sell consulting services.
GraphicBrain.com adds daily updated overview of articles with links[...] GraphicBrain.com visits over 30 news sites on a daily basis, all dedicated to the industry. The overview is freely accessible to all users.
"This is of course a major improvement of our service", says Eddy Hagen, manager GraphicBrain.com. Until recently, most of the information in GraphicBrain.com came from vendor websites and from on-line magazines. The GraphicBrain.com 'web spiders' visit vendor sites on a monthly basis and on-line magazine on a weekly basis. So it could take some time before information on new products was retrievable via the GraphicBrain.com search engine. With the addition of this 'news' section, new information is added to its database every day." [...] [WhatTheyThink]
Monday, January 13, 2003
Emerging Service Directory Architecture
Very cool, very now -- emerging service directory architecture for Small-Medium Business: Go get the white paper.
SMBmeta Initiative.David Weinberger scoops the SMBmeta Initiative by Dan Bricklin. This metadata scheme allows small and medium size businesses to express their identity in XML. David rightly points out why this approach is so smart:
- Dan doesn't want to own the data
- It's free for anyone to aggregate
- Its extensible
What I also like (from the whitepaper, which also provides a great account on why RSS is a success):
- It is low cost, but has a cost to prevent spam (an economic problem)
- It doesn't attempt to serve large enterprises
- Simple and open
- Its decentralized, but has leadership behind it
If you want more information, go to the new TrellixTech web site. There you'll find a blog, the spec, and a highly readable paper on the topic. [Joho]via [Ross Mayfield's Weblog]
The printing industry has tried to do something like this several times over the years, and keeps getting big pieces of it wrong. But they aren't alone. There's a post on Dan's weblog from Elliot Noss, CEO of TUCOWS,
"The SMBmeta proposal sounds really cool! I've had hundreds of people propose ways to get a business directory created over the years but this is the first one that makes sense to me. It's open and distributed like the Internet should be. We're going to look at this closely and figure out how we can help our registrants and resellers take advantage of it."
This is perfect for the publishing and graphic arts industries. For several years a company I worked with kicked around the idea of a "service bus" architecture, a term I think came from someone at HP, but it never got off the ground. The idea was a dynamic directory that would allow editors, artists, cover designers, writers, proof readers, literary agents, printers, binders, distributors, etc. to all plug in a description of their skills and services -- along with a pricing structure -- to create a publishing services marketplace. The idea was stillborn because no one could come up with a suitable structure. This is the first one I've seen that makes sense, and I can see already how it might be extended for special uses within vertical industries.
Friday, December 20, 2002
Content Management Not Good Business for Printers
Several years ago I completed a comprehensive study on Digital Asset Management for Print Providers. I concluded that few, if any, printers were equipped to deliver content management in any meaningful or profitable way, and that focusing on content management as a service was likely to be a losing proposition for most who attempted it.This has certainly proven true of mid-sized and smaller printers, but it's become increasingly evident that even the major players have trouble building a value proposition around their content management systems. Why?
Printers have never accepted the reality that print is now a tertiary media -- it is important only for it's utility as a delivery mechanism. Accustomed to 500 years of history where printers held the keys to the information universe, modern printers have failed to grasp that their power as information gatekeeper is gone.
What began in the 1930s with wealthy MegaCos supplementing print advertising with broadcast time has become a personal publishing revolution in digital media. The average user no longer needs a printer -- or a TV or Radio station for that matter -- to reach their market. And they no longer think of print as their first choice in information delivery.
At the NAPL Print Outlook 2003 conference earlier this month, several of the industry's most recognizable talking heads finally said, with some emphasis, "It's not the economy, Mr. Printer."
While the change hasn't permeated all markets or all users, the trend is clear. Content creators now choose print based solely on their delivery needs, and look to printers as delivery providers and little else. Their content is digital, distributed digitally, managed digitally, and distributed first via the Web, e-mail, video, or audio, and via print only when there is tangible market benefit.
This means that printers had better figure out how to attach themselves to those data streams -- making it seamless for customers -- and redesign their delivery mechanisms to be more in line with user needs (shorter and shorter runs, better shipping and logistics.) And they had better learn where print really does (and doesn't) add value to a product.
Banta to Take Q4 Charge of $26.8 Million, Includes Content Management Product[...] As a result, Banta will take a pretax charge of $26.8 million (64 cents per diluted share) in the fourth quarter ending Dec. 28, 2002.
The impairment charge includes a reduction in the asset carrying value of Banta's digital content management software product. The valuation adjustment is based on an analysis of future revenue expectations for the product. The charge also includes impairment of an investment in a Mexican joint venture, a reduction of goodwill associated with a past acquisition, and updated valuations on other long-lived assets. [...] [WhatTheyThink]
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