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HighWire new ePublishing platform, H2O, with public beta of PNAS



HighWire Press launches its new ePublishing platform, H2O

Press Release: http://highwire.stanford.edu/inthepress/stories/H2OPlatform.pdf

March 25, 2008 - Stanford, California

HighWire Press, the preeminent online technology provider for over 140 publishers, is proud to announce the release of its new electronic publishing platform, H2O. HighWire has rebuilt its platform from the bottom up, creating a standards-based hosting solution that embraces the new vision of Publishing 2.0. H2O will put HighWire's publisher partners at the forefront of online publishing. To view a video of HighWire's Director, John Sack, talk about this vision, please visit: http://highwire.stanford.edu/publishers/H2O.dtl

"H2O supports the evolution of content as portable, allowing publishers to move information to where the user is," said John Sack. "Our new platform ensures that the HighWire-hosted sites are a valuable service to users: a place for people to do research, interact with information, ideas, and each other."

The first site to launch on the new platform is the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), with their beta site now publicly available at http://beta.pnas.org.

** For the Press Release about the PNAS beta site refer to http://highwire.stanford.edu/inthepress/stories/PNASbeta.pdf **

While the new user interface seen on the PNAS beta site is the visible piece of H2O, the full rebuild will ensure that new industry standards will be infused throughout all the layers of any new H2O-based site, giving publishers maximum flexibility on how their content looks and operates.

HighWire is confident that the new H2O architecture is the most effective way to offer both publishers and their end users the ability to be innovative with the tools and information that the participatory web offers. As a fully XML-based environment, in addition to just handling XML input and output, HighWire's H2O incorporates standards like Atom Publishing Protocol (backed by Google & Microsoft), and powerful tools such as the MarkLogic Server.

"HighWire is taking full advantage of our XML content platform to deliver a truly agile publishing environment for their customers," said Andy Feit, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Mark Logic. "Through its unique modeling of the Atom Publishing Protocol interface, and the sophisticated features for user interaction with content - and for collaboration around it - the new H2O platform allows publishers to get the most from their content. What HighWire has done based on MarkLogic Server for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is quite impressive."

The H2O platform infrastructure is flexible and modular, designed to interact with many other systems, and to be extended with emerging web services and technologies. The data store is architected to seamlessly accommodate content structured in many different ways. Along with leading services for journal article-based content, H2O will also enhance the many non-journal sites, books and reference works that HighWire produces, such as the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press' Protocols database. H2O will provide the ideal platform for publishers to showcase e-books and other non-journal materials online, since it supports the broadest range of content types.

As HighWire develops H2O, it will also offer a suite of tools and services that will enable publishers to create collections of information, re-use these collections in feeds, widgets, blogs and networking sites. Publishers will be able to attach advertising and branding to content or collections, personalize offers and ads, and contextualize web pages based on the content being displayed and the user demographics. Such standards-based content can easily appear on a variety of devices: the iPhone, the iPod, Amazon's Kindle and other yet-to-be-seen new technologies.

For more background information, and to listen to a conversation with John Sack about the new platform, please visit: http://highwire.stanford.edu/publishers/H2O.dtl

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About HighWire Press

HighWire Press, a division of the Stanford University Libraries, provides online site development and hosting solutions to the scholarly publishing community. HighWire produces the definitive online versions of high-impact, peer-reviewed journals and other scholarly content in many disciplines. Since 1995, HighWire has partnered with influential societies, university presses and other publishers to create a vast database of the finest, fully searchable research, medical and social science literature available on the Internet. The HighWire community shares ideas and innovations in publishing through regular meetings, discussion forum and through the service of its unique blend of highly qualified staff. http://highwire.stanford.edu

Contact:
Bonnie Zavon
bzavon@stanford.edu
HighWire Press-Stanford University