RE: Ed and Outreadch Opportunity

Owen, What would you suggest be done with a page like this:
http://www.epa.gov/budget/ ?

Brand


                                                                                                                                  
  From:       "Owen Ambur" <Owen.Ambur@verizon.net>                                                                               
                                                                                                                                  
  To:         "'eGovIG IG'" <public-egov-ig@w3.org>                                                                               
                                                                                                                                  
  Date:       02/01/2010 12:16 PM                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                  
  Subject:    RE: Ed and Outreadch Opportunity                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                  





Chris, w/re the points in your message below, because PDF is now an open
standard, users are not required to have Adobe products in order to
create PDFs.  Of course, Adobe will continue to strive to make its tools
and services as desirable as possible so that folks may prefer to use
them.  However, other alternatives are available.

For example, XML Simplicity’s StratML Editorial Portal already exceeds
your suggestion for “one click save as PDF.”  *No* clicks are required.
PDFs are automatically transformed from StratML (XML) files:
http://xml.gov/stratml/index.htm#XMLSimplicity  RTFs are also
automatically created, thus meeting Australia’s accessibility standard
(although the XML and HTML renditions should also meet accessibility
standards).

Adobe’s PDF Fillable form for StratML includes an icon to use
Acrobat.com to create PDFs:
http://xml.gov/stratml/forms/StrategicPlan.pdf

Joe Carmel is working on incorporating XSL-FO into his XForm for
StratML, which already includes an XML+XSL button to apply an HTML
stylesheet.  See http://xml.gov/stratml/index.htm#Carmel or, more
specifically, http://xmldatasets.net/XF2/stratmlxform3.xml  In
addition, he’s working on a “cataloging” button to produce the kind of
metadata you are suggesting.

Even Corel supports automated conversion of documents from their
proprietary formats into PDF.  PDFs can also be opened for editing in
WordPerfect (with some loss of fidelity).  Unfortunately, though, Corel
doesn’t provide much support for XML.
http://apps.corel.com/partners_developers/casb/serviceb/puttogether/pubpdf/index.htm



It will be interesting to see the impact of i4i’s patent infringement
lawsuit on the ability of MS to support the authoring and editing of
“custom” XML (like StratML documents) in the Office Suite.  Ictect has
provided a StratML Quick Start Guide for MS Word users, in DOC and PDF
format:  http://xml.gov/stratml/index.htm#Ictect


BTW, on February 18, Federal Computer Week is hosting a breakfast
session hosted by Adobe on how to craft open gov plans.  See
http://xml.gov/index.asp#February or, more specifically,
http://custom.1105govinfo.com/events/adobe-transparency/home.aspx


I am encouraging GPO and GSA to provide an “official” standard XSL-FO
transforming agency open gov plans from StratML (XML) to PDF.

Owen


From: public-egov-ig-request@w3.org [
mailto:public-egov-ig-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Chris Beer
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 7:23 AM
To: rachel.flagg@gsa.gov
Cc: Owen.Ambur@verizon.net; 'eGovIG IG'
Subject: Re: Ed and Outreadch Opportunity

[deleted]

I think there are a couple of other points to keep in mind as well while
we discuss this.
      Not every Agency will have access to the full Adobe suite of
      products for PDF production, if any. The solution must be
      explainable as platform independent and agency size (ie: personnel
      and ICT tech limitations in mind) independent - assume that
      agencies could be using everything from Adobe to Word to
      GoogleDocs to OpenOffice and everything in between. And that they
      may have a standardised architecture, or they may not. They may
      have a central publications office. They may not.
      Not every Agency, or indeed, employees tasked with production of a
      publication in an Agency, will have a) a Publishing or IT
      background and b) access to training (due to funds or otherwise)
      to learn PDF production indepth. Old habits will certainly die
      hard, and one click "save as PDF" will still be utilised by many.
      (Hint).
[deleted]

Accessibility: In Australia the standard line is that documents provided
as PDF's can be made "accessible" if you provide an RTF version
alongside it. I'm sure we're not the only ones who interpret WCAG in
that way either. Since my discovery of the concept of PDF/UA (nod to
Owen and AIIM) this suddenly not only seems redundant, but quite silly -
with PDF/UA not only superseding the need for RTF, but in many cases, we
could produce PDF files that in fact read better than any print version
- the idea of spoken word PDF documents isn't a bad one :)

[deleted]

Meta-data and machine-readability, document findability and preserving
Government publications online: Identifying and encouraging the use of
metadata schema's is obviously a must, as well as teaching others how to
go about including this in a PDF document. Obviously including these
fields (automated where possible) in a PDF "template" by default is a
bonus for any agency.

[deleted]

Received on Monday, 1 February 2010 20:47:35 UTC