AZARDI 2011

As a short diversion from the magnificence of XHTML for publisher content series, we are just a very short time away from releasing AZARDI 2011, our new version of the digital content reader first launched in 2009.

AZARDI 2011 is ePub, and HTML5 ready. It is ePub3+ ready with a few conditional rules (we are leaving out the stupid bits). AZARDI 1 was very ePub strict, AZARDI 2011 displays just about anything XHTML(5) because that is the requirement for any reader in 2011.  It bifircates ePub and HTML5 and is effectively two readers working from one framework.

AZARDI 2011 is ready for a changing digital content future. It does ePubs, and allows App-like publisher products using IGP:FoundationXHTML, without the overheads of custom app creation. It is really important to state right here AZARDI does display books/e-books, but it is not just about books. The target is controlled distribution of high-value digital content.

AZARDI is not trying to compete with other eBook readers. The canvas is bigger, or at least different! We actually call it a Digital Content Reader Framework. Besides displaying boring old ePubs, it is designed as the receiver for sophisticated channel content delivered from an environment controlled by publishers or their agents. In the commercial avatar it supports Offers, Rights and Agreement controls, AKA the dreaded DRM.

ePub3 is going to be interesting. This post by Strahinja Marković, the Sigil ePub authoring application developer, is an interesting analysis from a book perspective (R18 warning). I tend to agree with what he says about the specification being badly created by the ASCII brigade, but there still seems to be a narrow view on what is published digital content. The print book metaphor reigns supreme.  AZARDI is not a "good-read" reader, it is a "content-engagement" reader, and that covers an enormous volume of published content; a lot more than kids books and novels. 

I fully agree with his statements about "An EPUB publication can be thought of as a "website in a box" being a totally wrong and bad description of publisher digital content. But one thing is forgotten, ePub is a terminal format that goes into a reader or device. The idea of the standard is interoperability of content in different devices. This is just never, ever going to happen for all the reasons he states about Apple iPad and where every other device manufacturer is going. Channel specific e-book delivery is the future of ePub. For example to deliver an ePub to an e-retailer, all you need is a bit of minimal ONIX, an ePub and a Cover file. With the twenty channels we deal with, every single one of them wants things packaged in a different way. How difficult can an easy task be made!

The purpose of IGP:FoundationXHTML is to reliably define the structural nature of reusable content so it value is preserved and it can be used in any possible presentation format or device a (slightly mad) market environment creates. This rant by HTML5 author Bruce Lawson highlights and reinforces the foundation importance of HTML vs. CSS and Javascript in a most colourful manner. The XHTML/XML must always stand completely alone from then technology, devices and formats; but in 2011 must be affordably usable for anything. 

Now back to AZARDI 2011.

In this post AZARDI means AZARDI 2011. AZARDI 1 is retired.

A little history

Two and a half years is a lot of history with digital content. AZARDI 1 was conformance strict, and had built in editing and conformance tools, but lacked serious library functions. So it was good for a quick ePub validate and fix-up, but not so useful for general reading.  It was also open source built using Qt which frankly made cross platform versions tricky and irritating to create. There were also a number of Qt issues with the version of Webkit supported. In summary it was not a good development environment choice.

The market is now pretty much flooded with ePub/eBook readers for all sorts of devices and situations, and many of them are really very good. AZARDI 1 is long in the tooth and ready for relegation to the "Time's Up" bench. It has been downloaded nearly half a million times in the last two and a half years, but this has dwindled to a trickle.

Meanwhile the digital content market for publishers has moved forward relentlessly. ePub3 has been a year or so in the making and on the horizon. Although it supports aspects of HTML5, the problem is going to be what and when device support is there going to be, how good is it going to be, and how much more divergence in device and reader capability will there be. The ePub reader tower of babble effect doesn't affect novels and linear reading much, but kills all other content types dead. 2011 promises to be an ugly year for ePub, publishers and general fiction eBook consumers. Kindle is starting to look really good for this market.

A need for now

From a publisher's perspective all the major readers are tied to retail channels IE Amazon, Apple, Sony, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and the rest. These channels have their various business models (which we don't get involved in) and various devices restrictions on what can be done with content and how it can be displayed or used. This is highly restrictive in all cases.

We have heard from a number of general trade publishers that they would like the alternative of their own delivery channel, with DRM content from their own websites. The costs of this are prohibitive so it remains on the want list. Because ADE is the only general DRM solution out there, everything goes back to the ADE reader, with all its painful limitations, massive CSS bugs, ugly charcoal interface and strange XSL strategies.

There are many publishers with content that needs to be delivered in a controlled licensed mode to users. Education, training, manuals, and other similar content are obvious examples. IE. The Grade 6 Science book needs to be delivered to School A for precisely one term (semester, or whatever). The commerce is behind the scenes. It needs to be available for all desktops and mobile devices; that has to be Android rather than iPad with its punitive "agency" model. 

Then there is the "App" hype and real talk, and the sometimes crazy prices that go into even the most basic "App". A content App is a metaphor for content delivered in a format that cant/wont work in ePub and the delivery devices or applications. It's possibly a metaphor for stupid tryon ideas as well, but I wont go there today.

So 2011 is not a time to be coy with digital content strategies. Working with AZARDI:Content Fulfilment, AZARDI 2011 was designed to meet the following publisher requirements:

1. A reliable XML base -  IGP:FoundationXMTL (FX) - that delivers a coherent digital content strategy now without future cost overheads.
2. Display ePub. With or without DRM and watermarks
3. Display ePub3 core stuff.
4. Supply HTML5 App-like content (Using the AZD delivery package)
5. Wrap PDF & SWF delivered in HTML5
6. WebM Audio Video in HTML5
7. Full interactive content. The inbuilt AZARDI Interactive Engine (AIE) makes creating distributing and using uber-interactive content easy. It is like a standardized library for interactivity so you don't have to do customization over and over. It works with the structure of FX.
8. Q&A (AIE) supports all major Q&A forms using FX structure tagging patterns.
9. Forms and Q&A data submission to a URL
10. Online/Offline content delivery and updates
11. Publisher brandable

The fact is real content is infinitely complex in all dimensions. It cannot be squashed into a single restrictive technology framework, the same way it can't ever be put into a single rigid XML DTD. EPub primarily addresses the mimicking of traditional linear books. Is the actual digital content diversity we have in our hands a Pandora's Box of XML evil, or an exciting new frontier of hope and change?

AZARDI for publisher business

AZARDI is licensed at not cost, but is not open source. Most importantly publishers using IGP:Content Fulfilment Systems will be able to white-label the reader, and run SaaS models for groups of publishers with similar content, or for any other business.

For specific channel distribution uses publishers can turn various features on and off. For example, in an education/training course context the content can be restricted to the course content only.

AZARDI has some other mildly interesting business features in that it can allow collections of books to be sold as a single transaction, automatic creation of Publisher shelves, and direct connection to a publisher's CFS bookstore for new releases and promotions.

AZARDI has not been designed to address the retail mass fiction market; that is boring and served well enough by e-retailers. It has been designed to work where delivered content needs to be licensed, subscribed, updated, controlled, dynamic, social, referenced, searched and noted. AZARDI is not a "good-read" reader, it is a "content-engagement" reader. To achieve this it puts a line between ePub (good-read format) and AZD -AZARDI Document, for anything that isn't ePub. 

Technology

For those who care or are interested, AZARDI 2011 is built on XULRunner. That's Firefox 4++ in a custom wrapper. It is fully cross platform compatible (Linux, Mac, Windows). XULRunner however it doesn't currently move to Android, and it has to be assumed will probably never make it to iPad. The Android version is being programmed as a separate application.

Using Firefox 4++ gives a lot of content potential with all the latest features. Just some of the things that can be incorporated into your content: 

XHTML: Rock solid XML strategy that supports the current and future value of your content for any purpose.

HTML5: advanced forms, canvas, audio, video, local storage. Widgety add-ins to the core XHTML, not a substitute!

CSS: transforms, transitions, columns and other CSS3 stuff such as shadows and corners and other prettification.

Typography CSS: OTF font properties - Kerning, Swashes, Small Caps, case coversion and dozens of other properties if supported by the font.

Javascript: Hyphenation, pagination or scrolling, defined interactivity.

It is unlikely that all these capabilities will be available in a generic reader any time soon, and the Javascript things will remain wild uncontrolled animals. AZARDI attempts to standardize Javascript libraries for content engagement within its own user context to lower costs and provide reliability and exchange of content within the Reader environment.

So as a publisher, if you have content, that you want delivered to in a controlled manner to various channels, verticals or customers, think AZARDI. It means freedom, but that's freedom for publishers to do business with their digital content.

Posted by Richard Pipe