Data took the lead at first full day of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
While virtually everyone at the show agreed with the two world leaders who set the tone yesterday on the importance of content and culture, but today on Day 2, conversations were all about how data is the vital asset that makes that impact possible in today’s digital world.
Day 2: Data As a Vital Asset
We opened the MarkLogic Stand (what a booth is called at the Fair) in Hall 4.2 with the theme of Go Beyond Your Content: Use All Your Data. Hall 4.2 is the center for the information providers section for the publishing world and home of the technology providers that support them. These publishers are at the leading edge of change having adopted or, in some cases, invented digital delivery and now moving on to contextual information creation and interactive and targeted content consumption. Sharing the booth with us this year are three of our partners that are making this transition possible: EBCONT, Immanens and RSuite.
The theme of data was not just shared at the Marklogic booth. The packed 4.2 HotSpot session from MarkLogic partner Copyright Clearance Center Ixxus on “Knowledge Engineering: The new business-value accelerator in the digital transformation journey” highlighted the path towards agile information delivery through digital transformation and the critical role of data.
Ixxus’ Carl Robinson first likened the process to building a fence and then urged the crowd to focus primarily on the outcomes of the process, not just the technology. Carl cited a study that found 82 percent of transformation projects in publishing failed. To be part of the successful 18 percent, publishers need to focus on people, process and, lastly, technology. To drive this home Carl said, as a technology provider, he would love to see an RFP that “only specified outcomes.”
By focusing on the outcomes and aligning the people and processes, organizations can avoid the high failure rate. This includes not just thinking about agile content, but, according to Carl creating “an agile business that is ready and willing to change and always thinking of new ways to expand.”
Babis Marmanis, CTO of Copyright Clearance Center, then followed Carl and spoke about data as the hidden value for publishers. According to Babis, Data needs to first be collected and then enriched to create meaning so that it can then be integrated and deliver value. According to Babis, the ability to use data and undergo this digital transformation “will be the most important indicator for success for publishers and almost any industry.”
RSuite 5.3 Debuts at the Frankfurt Book Fair
Joining us on our Frankfurt Book Fair Stand this year are Jeff Wood, Rob Smilowitz, and Ramprasad Dommaraju from Orbis Technologies RSuite product team. This enterprise content management system, which is powered by MarkLogic, has brought new-found flexibility to the previously rigid world of content management workflows. Starting with granular access and sub-document workflow for the rich content that many of the information providers in 4.2 create and then adding flexible workflows, the RSuite team have enabled publishers to embrace a new concept of agile content workflows and create better content more efficiently.
RSuite 5.3 was announced today at the Frankfurt Book Fair. This product release is a foundational release to add semantic and data capabilities and enable publishers to leverage their valuable data as well as create great content.
The key new features of RSuite 5.3 include:
- Semantic metadata management. RSuite now lets you load your own ontology, tag content with your semantic tags and leverage the concepts and entities to drive content discoverability and re-use. The image to shows the integration of semantic metadata into metadata management for documents
- Data workflows and visualization. In addition to managing content, 5.3 lets you manage data sets (either independent data sets of data derived from your content), create visualizations and insert the insights from your data into your content workflows
- Federated search: content and data discovery now can include data managed in your other enterprise applications. This could mean tapping into your title and product management systems or even CRM and finance to support a complete picture of the data around your content.
When asked about the new release’s features, Jeff Wood, SVP Business Development at Orbis said it “will increase content discoverability and promote re-use of content.” But more importantly, he added, RSuite can now help publishers “leverage their data in workflows and connect and bring in the complete picture of the content.”
Great work RSuite team!
OECD, United Nations and International Monetary Fund Event
Another great Frankfurt Book Fair tradition is the OECD, UN, IMF event at the top of the Frankfurt Intercontinental Hotel.
This event, put on by MarkLogic customer OECD, brings together the information providers attending the show that focus on using information and data to improve lives and create a better world.
Attendees included representatives from over 80 organizations including World Trade Organization, International Labor Organization, UNESCO, the World Health Organization, The World Bank, The Royal Society and The American Medical Association and The World Bank.
Picking up the tone of event, in his opening remarks, MarkLogic’s David Northmore said that MarkLogic was honored to support many of the attendees but that, “all the technology is not as important as the great content [the attending organizations] create that changes people’s lives and makes the world a better place.”
Hear hear David and thank you OECD, UN and IMF for continuing a great tradition!
Springer Beer
The Frankfurt bookfair would not be the same without a beer on the SpringerNature Stand with Jan-Eric de Boer. As usual, it was packed, but we managed to find Jan Erik and once more enjoy the hospitality of the Springer Beer event!
Visit MarkLogic!
If you are at the fair, stop by and visit with us! We are in the action-packed Hall 4.2 C57 and will be glad to talk about Going Beyond Your Content.
And if you are online following along … stay tuned for Day 3!
Blogging from Frankfurt,
— Matt TurnerCTO Media & Publishing
Matt Turner
Matt Turner is the CTO, Media and Manufacturing at MarkLogic where he develops strategy and solutions for the media, entertainment and manufacturing markets. Matt works with customers and prospects to develop MarkLogic enterprise NoSQL operational data hubs that enable them to get the most of their data and deliver their products to the fans, audiences and customers that love them.
Before joining MarkLogic, Matt was at Sony Music and PC World developing innovative information and content delivery applications.