Re: [METADATA] Governance/authority (ISSUE-2)

And that complexity is why ONIX is almost never used properly by either
senders or receivers ­ the context almost universally is mis-matched.

What we¹re seeing is the increasing datafication of a business that until
quite recently resisted attempts at quantification. And we¹re seeing it
reaching down into levels that include people who have actively resisted
quantification ­ so they are confronted with begrudgingly having to do
things for reasons they don¹t always understand. We see this with
self-published authors all the time ­ they fill out metadata forms with the
least amount of information possible because the process is unpleasant ­ not
realizing that their reluctance to provide information means their book
won¹t get discovered and nobody will buy it.

From:  Graham Bell <graham@editeur.org>



Date:  Tuesday, September 16, 2014 at 7:59 AM
To:  Liam R E Quin <liam@w3.org>
Cc:  Laura Dawson <ljndawson@gmail.com>, "Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken"
<tsiegman@wiley.com>, Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org>, W3C Digital Publishing IG
<public-digipub-ig@w3.org>, Bill Kasdorf <bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com>, Madi
Solomon <Madi.Solomon@pearson.com>
Subject:  Re: [METADATA] Governance/authority (ISSUE-2)

On 16 Sep 2014, at 00:15, Liam R E Quin wrote:

> On Mon, 15 Sep 201418:11:39 -0400
> 
>> Page count is another one of those troublesome fields. :)
> 
> I have my trusty copy of McKerrow on hand for bibliography and citing
> collations :-)
> 
> 
> -- 
> Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/

Liam

This is interesting in the context of a discussion about complexity -- and
though the following comes from the print book world, it maybe helps
illustrate...

The point about page counts (extents) that Laura hints at is that the
correct page count depends who you are. If you are in a publisher's
editorial department, then you'll remember to count the roman numbered pages
(the 'prelims'). If you are a member of the public, most likely you won't --
you'll just look at the highest numbered page. If you are in production, and
responsible for ordering the paper, then you'll count the prelims, the main
body of the book, the end matter, the blank and unnumbered pages at the end,
and you might also remember to count the unnumbered pages in a plate section
(a special insert for photographs, which is usually unnumbered because you
can't always predict at which point in the book it will be bound in). None
of these views is wrong -- the seemingly simple question 'What is the page
count?" has several correct answers, each of them contextual.

ONIX appears complex (no, I'll say it, it is complex) because it allows any
or all of these correct answers to be given. But it defines each answer
reasonably carefully -- so you can provide a page extent without the
prelims, with the prelims, counting or not counting the index, without the
blanks, with the blanks, with the plate section, and so on -- and the data
recipient can be sure which answer(s) you are giving. There is a controlled
vocabulary of 'extent types'. It even allows extents to be given in minutes
(for audiobooks) or in words (potentially useful for web publications and
reflowable e-books, though right now, lack of familiarity with word counts
means that non-specialists can't really judge whether an 60,000 word novel
is relatively short or relatively long).

Graham

Graham Bell
EDItEUR

Tel: +44 20 7503 6418

EDItEUR Limited is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England no
2994705. Registered Office: United House, North Road, London N7 9DP, UK.
Website: http://www.editeur.org





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