shoemaker's child to get shoes -- my comment at end

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE             FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL:
                                  Nita Dean, OCLC (614) 761-5002
                                  Janet Nunn, IDI (614) 761-7262


     OCLC AND IDI TO DEVELOP ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING SYSTEM FOR ACM


DUBLIN, Ohio, Oct. 21, 1993--OCLC and its subsidiary, Information
Dimensions, Inc. (IDI), have been selected to develop an electronic
publishing system for ACM (the Association for Computing Machinery).


The OCLC/IDI in-house electronic publishing system will integrate the
various ACM publishing functions into a unified, automated system that
will encompass the writing, editing, composition, production,
archiving, and, eventually, distribution of documents and
publications.


ACM publishes an estimated 40,000 pages per year, including books,
journals, conference proceedings, and internal publications.


"High-quality print journals, magazines, and books will continue to
play an important role in ACM's distribution of leading-edge thinking
and knowledge about information technology," said Joseph S. DeBlasi,
ACM executive director.  "But having it all in electronic form will
make everything more widely and readily available in a timely,
selective, and even interactive manner.  We believe an electronic
publishing system will be especially important to ACM membership and
to the association's future, maintaining as it will our position on
the forefront of major developments in the field of information
technology."


K. Wayne Smith, president and chief executive officer, OCLC, stated:
"This is an important project.  It combines the strength of ACM's
publishing program with OCLC/IDI's innovative approaches in electronic
publishing.  It underscores OCLC/IDI's commitment to add new,
electronic dimensions to a publisher's existing program that will make
it not only timely, but cost-effective and user-friendly."


The OCLC/IDI approach will be based on open systems architecture,
which will let ACM upgrade modules cost-effectively as technology
advances.  The approach will use Standard Generalized Markup Language
(SGML); BASISplus, IDI's document database management system; and
BASIS SGMLserver, IDI's new storage manager built to accept, query,
retrieve, and manipulate SGML document components as separate objects.


Using the new system, ACM editors will be able to receive documents
from contributors in a variety of word-processing formats and enter
them electronically into a working database where they can be edited,
transmitted for review, and processed for composition and printing.
The system will also enable the search of stored documents and the
collection of documents on selected subjects.  For example, a search
on "parallel processing" could retrieve three chapters and four
sections from seven different documents, which the system would then
combine into a new document on parallel processing.


The ACM system will be completed in 12 to 18 months.


,,,




[ at long last. Anyone want to bet that even with a 12 - 18 month schedule,
they end up late :-) .. djf]