Educational Publishing and the World Wide Web

Publishers have long had an important role in education, producing books and other learning materials. Today, the publisher's role is changing fast with the platform evolution from stand- alone to networked computers. Print and the Web are compared, demonstrating that they will remain complementary. The publishers' traditional Value Chain is linear and one-way; it is operative in a stable, predictable environment, and accommodates mass production. This traditional Value Chain is evolving into a new Value Circle, which is iterative, with shorter product cycles, interaction between customers, authors and publishers to develop products and services, and "mass customization". Today, custom publishing efforts are already well underway. However, critical solutions are required for handling rights, royalties, and intellectual property protection; publishers are developing the Digital Object Identifier, new licensing standards, and experimenting with copy protection technologies. Key opportunities in emerging technology are discussed, including Metadata and query enhancement; work flow analysis and new tools that capture pedagogy; and contact management systems to capture and support customers. The emergence of repositories of software such as the Educational Object Economy are critiqued, with recommendations made for facilitation of electronic commerce. We review some basic business considerations. Our perspective is based on college publishing, the focus of the E/W Consortium on Authoring Tools, but all segments of publishing face similar concerns.