Propylon is delighted to announce that it is a sponsor at this year’s SES Annual Conference. Between March 29th and 31st, 2023, we will be in Portland, Oregon to discuss all things standards and digital transformation.
The role of SDOs – inclusive of National Standards Bodies (NSBs) and industry consortia – continues to evolve amidst a rapidly changing landscape. A variety of factors are driving demand for new and updated standards including the emergence of new markets around new innovations, growing regulatory oversight and an increasing concern for standards related to sustainability.
The need to address the increasingly digital consumption of standards may lead to the conclusion that structured content is the answer and that in order to create that structured content, it is essential to author content in an XML format such as NISO STS.
Digital Transformation – it is not just XML and it is certainly not PDF
Recent years have seen an acceleration in the ongoing shift away from book and paper-based publishing. Perceptions of the workplace have shifted towards hybrid and remote models in which digital information-seeking and consumption of standards have escalated.
Notable digital consumption trends include:
- Preference for advanced search tools
- Preference for social media-style ‘push’ models of subscribing to information sources
- Increased need amongst standards consumers for digital feeds of standards and tools to support them in staying up to date with standards content and integrating standards material with internal material.
- Rapid development in AI techniques that will quickly change how standards texts are consumed
- Ubiquity of mobile technology and with it, growing antipathy toward PDF-based publishing models
The need to address the increasingly digital consumption of standards may lead to the conclusion that structured content is the answer and that in order to create that structured content, it is essential to author content in an XML format such as NISO STS.
However, XML is just a file format. It does not have magical powers to turn standards into truly digital forms. The real question is what XML can do for you in meeting the challenges that ‘going digital’ brings.
The role of SDOs – inclusive of National Standards Bodies (NSBs) and industry consortia – continues to evolve amidst a rapidly changing landscape.
The real value of XML
We believe the real value of XML lies in the new digital products that it enables. Sure, XML can facilitate publishing to PDF and to HTML but that is just the beginning of the value it can bring:
- It can allow SDOs to form direct relationships with their customers in new ways that go beyond the ‘copy/paste’ paradigm that is so common – and problematic – today
- It can unlock new SaaS models of publishing for SDOs. Content can be integrated into authoring tools such as Microsoft Word in ways that unlock new features for your customers, create new revenue streams, and simultaneously protect your intellectual property.
- It can facilitate the generation of value-added ancillary products such as machine-readable requirements, extracted from standards
- It can facilitate the creation of new standards products that combine component parts of existing standards material
- It can facilitate high-value machine-readable licensing arrangements with large customers
- It can streamline the whole process of ‘keeping up to date’ which is a pervasive pain point for standards consumers
