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Essential Online Publishing Tools for a Multi-Platform World

Essential Online Publishing Tools for a Multi-Platform World

Presentation given at AAN Web Conference, Jan 26th, 2012.

You've heard the terms -- API, open source, HTML5 -- but what do these tools do? And how are they relevant to your online publication?

Irakli Nadareishvili

February 13, 2012
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  1. Hi.  I  am  Irakli  from  NPR.  I  work  on  NPR

     website,  NPR’s  API  and  NPR’s  mobile   applica<ons.  Recently  we  have  also  entered  the  Connected  Cars  space  with  the   launch  of  Ford  Sync  support  in  NPR  mobile  apps,  announced  at  CES.     2011  has  been  an  incredible  year  for  the  web  in  general  and  for  online  publishing,  in   par<cular.  A  lot  of  new,  interes<ng  technologies  have  emerged  and/or  reached  the   state  of  maturity  at  which  they  can  be  used  on  live  websites.     Today  I  would  like  to  share  with  you  some  insights  about  the  most  interes<ng  web   technologies  and  how  they  relate  to  news  and  media  publishing,  plus  what  we  see  as   the  trends  in  2012.   1  
  2. We  are  in  content  business:  crea<ng,  aggrega<ng,  edi<ng,  publishing  and

     distribu<ng   content.       Content  is  the  king,  the  queen  and  a  herd  of  unruly  heirs  running  around,  making  a   mess.  It’s  the  alpha  and  omega  of  our  business.  When  we  discuss  technology,  we   mostly  care  about  the  part  of  the  technology  that  makes  produc<on  and  distribu<on   of  content  easier  or  more  effec<ve.       2  
  3. Let’s  start  with  the  technology  behind  content  produc<on.  Most  of

     you  probably  use   some  sort  of  content  management  system.     Unfortunately,  unless  you  are  using  a  handful  of  modern  (mostly  open-­‐source)   CMSes,  chances  are  your  CMS’s  editorial  screens  look  something  like  the  screenshot   on  the  slide:  a  nightmare  of  user-­‐experience,  flashback  from  the  horror  of  ‘90s   desktop  publishing.   3  
  4. Or  it  may  look  like  this:  the  same  frightening  interface

     decisions  now  implemented  on   the  web.   4  
  5. Meanwhile,  life  on  the  web,  outside  of  the  monstrous  “enterprise”

     CMSes  is  beau<ful   and  peaceful.       All  over  the  web,  we  are  spoiled  by  simple,  light  user  interfaces  that  are  both   powerful,  as  well  as  zen.  Interfaces  that  allow  us  to  author  and  publish  content  from   an  iPhone  or  Android  just  as  easily  as  from  a  tablet  or  a  large-­‐screen  computer.  But   all  of  that  is  outside  the  old-­‐school  CMSes  and  is  in  stark  contrast  with  what  we  have   to  deal  with  when  we  need  to  create  the  most  valuable  content:  the  one  we  are  paid   for.     When  we  need  to  do  that,  more  oaen  than  not  we  have  to  deal  with  clumsy  user   interface,  <ed  to  a  single  browser.  And  as  for  content  crea<on  from  a  mobile  phone   or  even  a  tablet  –  forget  about  it.     Not  only  it’s  important  to  make  content-­‐entry  mobile-­‐friendly,  but  even  more   importantly:  when  you  publish  content,  a  big  part  of  your  audience  will  access  that   content  on  a  mobile  devices.  We  need  to  make  sure  our  content  is  op<mized  for   being  consumed  on  a  mobile  device.   5  
  6. The  days  of  publishing  content  op<mized  for  the  1024  pixels

     of  an  average  computer   screen  width  are  GONE!  Ever  since  Steve  Jobs  got  on  that  stage  and  unveiled  iPhone   to  the  world,  mobile  web  traffic  has  been  experiencing  explosive  growth.  If  you  look   at  sta<s<cal  data  from  Cisco  and  other  companies  who  make  such  data  available,  you   will  see  that  the  trend  of  mobile  growth  will  only  con<nue.     Some  of  the  challenges  with  mobile  content  publishing  are  that     a)  mobile  devices  (smartphones  as  well  as  tablets)  have  limited  screen  size  which   your  conven<onal  website  looks  prehy  horrible  on   b)  modern  mobile  phones  employ  touch  interfaces  to  interact  with  the  user,  which   your  conven<onal  website  is  probably  not  op<mized  for.     c)  There  is  huge  market  fragmenta<on  in  the  mobile  space.  Mobile  devices  come  in   all  kinds  of  shapes,  sizes  and  capabili<es  making  it  hard  to  target  individual  ones.     We  are  not  even  talking  yet  about  various  kinds  of  connected  devices  like:  cars,  TVs,   entertainment  boxes  and  other  digital  equipment  that  will  all  become  content   delivery  vehicles  if  they  are  not  already.     Revenue  sources  for  publishers  follow  the  mobile  trend,  as  well.  Mashable  has   declared  2012  the  year  of  Mobile  Adver<sing  (hhp://mashable.com/2012/01/20/ mobile-­‐marke<ng-­‐2012/)  and  I  think  they  are  onto  something  there.   6  
  7. In  order  to  reach  the  wide  variety  of  plakorms  NPR

     has  long  employed  a  concept  we   call  COPE  –  Create  Once,  Publish  Everywhere.       It  was  coined,  number  of  years  ago,  by  Dan  Jacobson,  my  predecessor  at  NPR,  now   the  director  of  API  at  Neklix.       The  basic  idea  behind  COPE  is  that  content  should  be  authored  in  a  re-­‐usable  manner   and  then  delivered  in  a  uniform  way  to  all  target  devices/plakorms.     7  
  8. There  are  two  main  technological  tools  for  achieving  the  promise

     of  “Create  Once,   Publish  Everywhere”,  currently  popular  on  the  web:     1)  Content  APIs     2)  Responsive  Web  Design   Let’s  start  with  Responsive  Web  Design.   8  
  9. You  have  probably  already  heard  of  HTML5,  possibly  the  biggest

     technological   advancement  on  the  web,  since  web’s  crea<on.  What  you  know  as  “HTML5”  is   actually  a  collec<on  of  various  new  technologies  that  modern  browsers  implemented   per  the  W3C  specifica<ons.     One  such  important  technology  is  called  CSS3  Media  Queries.  Media  Queries  allow   websites  to  customize  the  look-­‐and-­‐feel,  using  style-­‐sheets,  depending  on  the   capabili<es  of  the  device  that  the  site  is  displayed  on.         9  
  10. Using  HTML5  a  very  smart  dude  called  Ethan  Marcohe  created

     something  called   Responsive  Web  Design.  RWD  is  a  novel  design  methodology  to  create  web  user   interfaces  that  adapt  themselves  depending  on  the  device  they  are  displayed  on  and   work  equally  well  on  all  screen  sizes  and  devices,  from  your  iPhone  to  your  iPad  to   your  laptop.   10  
  11. One  of  the  first  and  most  iconic  examples  of  Responsive

     Web  Design  is  the  new   Boston  Globe  website.  It  was  built  by  a  team  led  by  Ethan  Marcohe,  the  father  of   RWD,  and  Miranda  Mulligan,  director  of  digital  design  at  Boston  Globe.     At  the  top  you  can  see  how  the  website  looks  on  a  large  desktop  screen.  On  the   bohom  lea  is  the  same  page  on  a  tablet  screen  and  last,  but  not  least:  bohom  right  is   how  you  would  see  the  page  when  displayed  on  a  small-­‐screen  smartphone.     It’s  very  important  to  note  that  this  is  the  same  web-­‐page,  not:  an  “iPad  version”  of   the  page  or  “iPhone  version”  of  the  page  and  the  design  is  extremely  resilient  to  wide   range  of  screen  sizes  and  capabili<es  across  many  different  devices.     Without  Responsive  Web  Design  you  would  have  to  target  individual  flavors  of   devices,  would  have  to  create  iPad  version,  iPhone  version,  Galaxy  S  version,  Kindle   Fire  version  the  list  goes  on  and  is  very  long.  Targe<ng  individual  devices  is  an   extremely  expensive  and  wasteful  proposi<on.  Responsive  Web  approach  allows   targe<ng  a  wide  variety  of  devices  in  a  unified  and  a  very  cost-­‐effec<ve  manner.   11  
  12. Responsive  Web  Design  is  a  powerful  tool  that,  depending  on

     your  needs,  can  solve   from  70-­‐100%  of  your  needs  in  reaching  various  plakorms  and  devices  with  your   content.  However,  it  does  have  some  limita<ons.     Firstly,  RWD  is  a  web  methodology  that  strongly  depends  on  underlying  technologies   behind  HTML5.  While  HTML5  is  definitely  on  the  curve  of  becoming  Lingua  Franca  of   the  Internet,  there  are  s<ll  some  devices  that  require  na<ve  applica<ons  (e.g.  car   computer  systems,  entertainment  boxes,  TVs  etc.).  Furthermore,  some  of  the   advanced  features  of  even  the  devices  that  do  support  HTML5  are  not  yet  fully   available  to  web  applica<ons.  These  include:  full  support  of  device  capabili<es  like:   camera,  voice  and  so  on.       If  you  are  building  an  advanced  app  for  a  device  that  does  not  support  HTML5  or  if   you  need  to  tap  into  advanced  capabili<es  of  a  device,  you  may  need  to  build  a  na<ve   applica<on  for  that  device.  This  is  where  content  APIs  come  into  the  play.   12  
  13. API  stands  for:  Applica<on  Programming  Interface.  APIs  are  how  computers

      communicate  on  the  web.     Content  APIs  are  a  way  for  electronic  devices  to  exchange  content  in  a  standard  way.   Following  the  Create  Once,  Publish  Everywhere  principle,  you  want  to  create  content   once  in  a  re-­‐usable,  digital  format  and  disseminate  it  to  all  your  target  devices,   through  the  web.  Similarly,  when  suppor<ng  things  like  ci<zen  journalism,  you  want   to  be  able  to  collect  and  aggregate  content  in  a  unified  way  via  any  available  device.   All  of  these  is  made  possible  with  the  use  of  content  APIs.     Some<mes  people  make  a  mistake  of  thinking  of  an  API  as  a  way  to  “give  away  your   content”.  As  a  communica<on  tool  between  computer  systems,  APIs  definitely   enables  this  use-­‐case,  but  that’s  not  necessarily  the  only  purpose.  NPR’s  API  is  one  of   the  most  used  APIs  on  the  web.  While  we  make  tons  of  content  available  through  our   API,  for  free,  you  may  be  surprised  to  learns  that  the  majority  of  NPR  API  usage   comes  from  NPR  itself.  We  use  API  to  reach  the  wide  variety  of  devices  and  plakorms   where  we  publish  our  content  and  to  exchange  content  with  many  local  NPR  sta<ons.     Publishing  content  through  APIs  is  the  main  technological  tool  with  which  we  enable   the  Create  Once,  Publish  Everywhere  principle.   13  
  14. So  how  do  we  make  all  of  these  happen?  

      NPR,  much  like  probably  most  of  you  in  the  audience,  has  limited  resources  and   dispropor<onally  larger  mo<va<on  to  deliver  the  best  possible  content  experience  to   its  audiences.  At  NPR  we  call  it:  constantly  punching  above  our  weight.  Cost   reduc<ons  are  very  important  in  this  effort.  Even  more  important  is:  being  able  to   leverage  the  technological  space  that  provides  the  most  innova<on;  being  at  the   forefront  of  the  technology  curve.  In  many  cases  the  pursuit  of  innova<on  has  lead  us   to  open  source  soaware.   14  
  15. What  is    “open-­‐source”?     There’re  many  (some<mes  even

     somewhat  contradictory)  defini<ons  of  Open   Source.  At  the  basic  level  it’s  a  collabora<ve  way  to  create  soaware.     On  a  philosophical  level,  open-­‐source  follows  scien<fic  method  of  knowledge   crea<on:  through  sharing.  The  thing  is:  knowledge  is  not  like  material  goods.  If  I  have   one  apple  and  I  give  it  to  you,  I  don’t  have  an  apple,  anymore.  But  if  I  know   something  and  I  tell  all  of  you  about  it  –  now  all  of  us  know  it,  we  have  increased  the   amount  of  knowledge!  This  is  what  open-­‐source  tries  to  leverage  and  how  it   approaches  tackling  hard  programming  problems  –  through  collabora<on!     On  a  prac<cal  level,  open-­‐source  is  a  number  of  soaware  licenses  that  enable  and   encourage  collabora<on.  In  a  typical,  successful  open-­‐source  project,  a  large  amount   of  soaware  developers,  from  all  around  the  world,  join  forces  online  on  developing  a   complex  system.  The  key  to  open  collabora<on  is  a  soaware  license  that  allows  free   modifica<ons  to  the  soaware  and  free  distribu<on,  that’s  where  the  name  “open   source”  comes  from.   15  
  16. Let  me  explain  why  we  love  open-­‐source  at  NPR.  It’s

     not  just  because  it’s  “free”  as  in   “no  charge”.  Sure,  there  are  some  cost  savings.  Soaware  licenses  can  be  costly.   However,  when  thinking  of  soaware  costs,  it’s  prudent  to  consider  Total  Cost  of   Ownership,  over  the  life-­‐<me  of  the  soaware.  In  many  cases,  ini<al  investment  costs   (such  as  licensing  ones)  can  be  far  outweighed  by  the  costs  of  the  con<nued   development  and  maintenance.  So  cost  is  not  the  #1  reason.     What  about  other  benefits  of  open-­‐source?  Let’s  say:  vendor-­‐independence  and   freedom  to  modify  and  customize  ini<al  code.  These  are  truly  important  benefits.   However,  they  are  s<ll  not  the  main  factor  for  us.     The  most  important  thing  to  remember  is  that  open-­‐source  is  HUGE.  If  open-­‐source   were  a  company  it  would  have  more  developers  than  all  major  commercial  soaware   companies  combined.  That’s  par<ally  because  a  lot  of  developers  at  the  commercial   companies  contribute  heavily  to  open-­‐source.     Fact  is:  due  to  the  huge  size  of  open-­‐source,  the  amount  of  cumula<ve  innova<on  in   open-­‐source  soaware  is  unmatched  by  any  single  soaware  vendor.  Sure,  there  are   some  niche  problems  that,  currently,  only  have  commercial  solu<ons,  but  overall,  if   you  look  at  the  wide  breadth  of  the  problems,  the  power  of  crowds  that  open-­‐source   possesses  has  huge  win  over  isolated  efforts  typically  found  in  proprietary  models.   16  
  17. To  summarize,  if  there  are  only  three  things  you  will

     take  away  from  this  talk  today,  I   would  like  them  to  be  the  following:   1)  Mobile  is  huge.  Responsive  Web  Design  is  a  ubiquitous  and  cost-­‐effec<ve  way  of   delivering  your  content  to  a  wide  variety  of  devices.   2)  For  the  cases  when  you  need  to  target  non-­‐HTML5  devices;  or  if  you  need  na<ve   mobile  applica<ons  so  you  can  leverage  some  of  the  more  advanced  features  of   the  devices,  or  to  exchange  content  with  your  partners  –  Content  APIs  provide  a   standard  way  of  implemen<ng  the  Create  Once,  Publish  Everywhere  principle.   3)  Open  Source  is  huge.  Not  only  it’s  a  real  way  of  saving  cost,  but  it’s  also  where  a   lot  of  innova<on,  on  the  web,  is  born  at.  Pay  ahen<on  to  open-­‐source.   17