http://www.doi.org/
The DOI Foundation has unveiled the DOI-EB (EB stands for e-books)
Initiative in the Book Expo America Show 2001, to, in their words:
"Determine requirements with respect to the application of unique
identifiers to eBooks
Develop proofs-of-concept for the use of DOIs with eBooks Develop technical demonstrations, possibly including a prototype
eBook Registration Agency."
It is backed by a few major publishers, such as McGraw-Hill, Random
House, Pearson, and Wiley.
This ostensibly modest agenda conceals a revolutionary and ambitious
attempt to unambiguously identify the origin of digital content (in
this case, e-books) and link a universe of information to each and
every ID number. Aware of competing efforts underway, the DOI
Foundation is actively courting the likes of "indecs"
(Interoperability of Data in E-Commerce System) and OeBF (Open e- Book). Companies ,like Enpia Systems of South Korea (a DOI
Registration Agency), have already implemented a DOI-cum-indecs
system. On November 2000, the APA's (American Publishers'
Association) Open E-book Publishing Standards Initiative has
recommended to use DOI as the primary identification system for e- books' metadata. The MPEG (Motion Pictures Experts Group) is said to
be considering DOI seriously in its efforts to come up with
numbering and metadata standards for digital videos. A DOI can be
expressed as a URN (Universal Resource Name - IETF's syntax for
generic resources) and is compatible with OpenURL (a syntax for
embedding parameters such as identifiers and metadata in links).
Shortly, a "Namespace Dictionary" is to be published. It will
encompass 800 metadata elements and will tackle e-books, journals,
audio, and video. A working group was started to develop a "services
definition" interface (i.e., to allow web-enabled systems,
especially e-commerce and m-commerce systems, to deploy DOI).
The DOI, in other words, is designed to be all-inclusive and all- pervasive. Each DOI number is made of a prefix, specific to a
publisher, and a suffix, which could end up painlessly assimilating
the ISBN and ISSN (or any other numbering and database) system.
Thus, a DOI can be assigned to every e-book based on its ISBN and to
every part (chapter, section, or page) of every e-book. This
flexibility could support Pay Per View models (such as Questia's or
Fathom's), POD (Print On Demand), and academic "course packs", which
comprise material from many textbooks, whether on digital media or
downloadable. The DOI, in other words, can underlie D-CMS (Digital
Content Management Systems) and Electronic Catalogue ID Management
Systems.
Moreover, the DOI is a paradigm shift (though, conceptually, it was
preceded by the likes of the UPC code and the ISO's HyTime
multimedia standard). It blurs the borders between types of digital
content. Imagine an e-novel with the video version of the novel, the
sound track, still photographs, a tourist guide, an audio book, and
other digital content embedded in it. Each content type and each
segment of each content type can be identified and tagged separately
and, thus, sold separately - yet all under the umbrella of the same
DOI! The nightmare of DRM (digital rights management) may be finally
over.
But the DOI is much more than a sophisticated tagging technology. It
comes with multiple resolution (see Part I of this article). In
other words, as opposed to the URL (Universal Resource Locator) - it
is generated dynamically, "on the fly", by the user, and is
not "hard coded" into the web page. This is because the DOI
identifies content - not its location. And while the URL resolves to
a single web page - the DOI resolves to a lot more in the form of
publisher-controlled (ONIX-XML) "metadata" in a pop-up (Javascript
or other) screen. The metadata include everything from the author's
name through the book's title, edition, blurbs, sample chapters,
other promotional material, links to related products, a rights and
permissions profile, e-mail contacts, and active links to retailers'
web pages. Thus, every book-related web page becomes a full fledged
book retailing gateway. The "anchor document" (in which the DOI is
embedded) remains uncluttered. ONIX 2.0 may contain standard
metadata fields and extensions specific to e-publishing and e-books.
This latter feature - the ability to link to the systems of
retailers, distributors, and other types of vendors - is
the "barcode" function of the DOI. Like barcode technology, it helps
to automate the supply chain, and update the inventory, ordering,
billing and invoicing, accounting, and re-ordering databases and
functions. Besides tracking content use and distribution, the DOI
allows to seamlessly integrate hitherto disparate e-commerce
technologies and facilitate interoperability among DRM systems.
The resolution itself can take place in the client's browser (using
a software plug-in), in a proxy server, or in a central, dynamic
server. Resolving from the client's PC, e-book reader, or PDA has
the advantage of being able to respond to the user's specific
condition (location, time of day, etc.). No plug-in is required when
a proxy server HTTP is used - but then the DOI becomes just another
URL, embedded in the page when it is created and not resolved when
the user clicks on it. The most user-friendly solution is, probably,
for a central server to look up values in response to a user's
prompt and serve her with cascading menus or links. Admittedly, in
this option, the resolution tables (what DOI links to what URL's and
to what content) is not really dynamic. It changes only with every
server update and is static between updates. But this is a minor
inconvenience. As it is, users are likely to respond with some
trepidation to the need to install plug-ins and to the avalanche of
information their single, innocuous, mouse click generates.
The DOI Foundation has compiled this impressive list of benefits -
and beneficiaries:
a.. "Publishers to enable cross referencing to related
information, control over metadata, viral distribution and sales,
easy access to content, sale of granular content;
a.. Consumers to increase value for time and money, and purchase
options;
a.. Distributors to facilitate sale and distribution of materials
as well as user needs;
a.. Retailers to build related materials on their sites, heighten
consumer usability and copyright protection;
a.. Conversion Houses/Wholesaler Repositories to increase access
to and use of metadata;
a.. DRM Vendors/Rights Clearing Houses to enable interoperability
and use of standards;
a.. Data Aggregators to enable compilation of primary and
secondary content and print on demand;
a.. Trade Associations facilitate dialog on social level and
attend to legal and technical perspectives pertaining to multiple
versions of electronic content;
a.. eBbook software Developers to enable management of personal
collections of eBooks including purchase receipt information as
reference for quick return to retailer;
a.. Content Management System Vendors to enable internal synching
with external usage;
a.. Syndicators to drive sales to retailers, add value to retail
online store/sales, and increase sales for publishers."
The DOI is assigned to publishers by Registration Agencies (of which
there are currently three - CrossRef and Content Directions in the
States and the aforementioned Enpia Systems in Asia). It is already
widely used to cross reference almost 5,000 periodicals with a
database of 3,000,000 citations. The price is steep - it costs a
publisher $200 to get a prefix and submit DOI's to the registry. But
as Registration Agencies proliferate, competition is bound to slash
these prices precipitously.
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AUTHOR BIO (must be included with the article)
Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant
Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West
Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Central Europe Review,
PopMatters, Bellaonline, and eBookWeb, a United Press International
(UPI) Senior Business Correspondent, and the editor of mental health
and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and
Suite101.
Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government
of Macedonia.
Visit Sam's Web site at http://samvak.tripod.com