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The need for "Research Quality" search engines
Opportunities for improvement -- Serving publishers
This page attempts to get at the needs of publishers and at the usefulness of search tools to them. If you are in the business of providing text content, you are invited to offer your opinions and comments at the bottom of this page.
If you publish electronically only and not on paper, skip to the headings near the bottom of the page.
Security for intellectual property
Publishers have every right to be nervous about electronic editions of their intellectual property getting into circulation. There is a widespread view that if it is easy to copy something, it must be okay to copy. The youth culture carries it further, to a kind of "moral obligation" to share with friends. This translates into lost sales for the publisher. Given the high editorial and pre-production costs associated with publishing, these lost sales can drop a product's performance from profitability to loss.
For a full discussion of privacy issues and security, visit www.Pryvit.com. (Disclosure note: Pryvit is a companion site of Marpex Inc. Patent 6,757,699 for Pryvit was developed by Marpex personnel.) The main point in this context is that, unless you are dealing with national security issues, the costs to hackers to access your material can be driven up far beyond the benefits of hacking. All indexes created by the "dream" toolkit are, of course, encrypted. The hacker who tries to extract the text from such an index has a problem; the text isn't there!
Adding value to textbooks and reference works
From time to time you may see copyright-protected indexes at this web site. A low cost CD-ROM may be enclosed with a book OR a downloadable index can be provided openly to the general public. That index enables anyone to search the entire reference work, textbook, or whatever for any combination of words and phrases. However, the copyright-protected version does not show the text. The results come in the form of locations within the paper copy -- headings plus page and paragraph start point on the page. The text itself is not shown. The text cannot be accessed.
This is of value to the user. Example: Suppose the index is for Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised 10th edition from Perseus Publishing. The table of contents may be shown in full; in this sample one sub-section is expanded. The results of a search (in this sample, on the word motion and on variations of the words debatable and adjournment) show precise locations, but none of the content. The parliamentarian or chair or any member at a meeting who is armed with a laptop can in seconds run a search, then open his or her paper copy to the first entry, and know exactly the status of a motion to adjourn.
The first benefit of the copyright-protected version is that it makes the content of the reference work or text book instantly accessible.
The second benefit is promotional. Through the expandable table of contents, the person using the copyright-protected version can see the range of content ... the same material that is routinely shown on web sites by publishers for promotional purposes, but with the added benefit of being able to expand and shrink portions instantly. But the user learns quickly that the search is most useful if he or she buys the paper copy.
Full electronic versions
Security for full electronic versions can be implemented based on elapsed time and/or the "footprint" of computers for which access has been authorized. Authorization is granted in response to a unique code distributed by the publisher at point of sale -- possibly a fully automated Internet shopping cart transaction.
The full version may include graphics (photographs, charts, figures) and anything else that is part of standard HTML web pages. The user must be able to access any portion directly from the table of contents, and read successive portions. Do not detract from an otherwise high prestige publication by using an inferior search engine. Search results should be meaningful, precise, and relevant.
Cost cutting -- reviewer copies
Textbook publishers expend large sums each year on desk copies to teachers, in the hope that the teacher will adopt a text. Textbooks are sent out on speculation, in response to requests, and on adoption of a text. The full electronic version described above could instead be distributed to teachers either on CD-ROM or by downloads from the Internet. Activation of a textbook would require a unique code given by a representative of the publisher. To prevent resale of the courtesy copy, activations could be time-limited.
Even with full graphics, several dozen books would easily fit on a single CD-ROM. Activation codes would be given to any recipient only for the books that are relevant to her.
The savings in using electronic editions for review copies is significant. It is more than simply the postage and the cost of production for the paper copy. Desk copies find their way too easily into the hands of second market scavengers who resell to students at reduced prices. The expense to the publisher is compounded by lost sales to the primary market. We know that this problem is rampant in universities. It may extend to other situations in which publishers supply courtesy copies. An electronic version with security safeguards makes sense in such situations.
Cost cutting -- plain newsprint plus pretty electronics
There were early moves by start-up publishers to put out dual copies. The paper copy was text only, single color, cheaply bound, and designed to fall apart in a few months. All the graphic content was included only in an electronic version. Since full search and integration of indexes with ancillary content may add value for customers, it may be appropriate for mainline publishers to consider similar tactics.
One bonus of the newsprint plus pretty electronics tactic is the ability to issue very frequent updates without undue annoyance to the customer base. (Slapping new edition numbers on barely-changed paper books does undercut the used book market, but it also alienates customers.
Improved pre-production clean-up
Do you think that your book / magazine /article or whatever is really ready for the market? Run it through an indexer and look over the word list. Surprises may await you. (For starters, paste the word list into a word processor and spell check it.)
Overcoming the archiving problem
Magazines, whether electronic or on paper, have back issues. Bloggers generate content that rapidly disappears from the lead page. How can readers of cumulative works find earlier content? The "dream" toolkit covers these needs quite nicely.
Your feedback
If you are in the business of providing text content, your comments on this page would be welcomed.
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