What is Open Publishing?

Open publishing can mean many things — from models of open-source development and deployment to the transparent authoring of content. Here at the Open Publishing Lab, we embrace a number of these meanings to create a framework for developing applications that accomplish our 3 E's:

• Extending existing publishing platforms,
• Enabling new publishing applications and business models, &
• Empowering people (and communities) to publish as never before.

Some times that means opening our minds to new ideas about what can be accomplished across different publishing media. This includes thinking about how we might flow content and data from electronic sources to paper and back (using the physicality of paper as a means of collecting additional data — for more details see our Social Networking Game).

Other times that means working with open standards like ePub and open-source software like Drupal to ensure that the widest range of groups can work with our products.

It also means that we will always work to openly release the results of our research, be it white papers or software. Being part of an institution of higher education our first goal is to serve the greater community — everyone from the person on the street to printing and publishing companies.

Justifying Open Publishing

There are countless reasons to embrace this type of mindset. We believe its one of the best ways to drive innovation. We also firmly believe that just because one engages in Open Publishing doesn't mean that you can't make a good living in the process. But you don't have to take our word for it... here is Tim O'Reilly speaking on the subject:

O'Reilly Tools of Change 2009: Tim O'Reilly makes the argument for Open Publishing from Open Publishing Lab @ RIT on Vimeo.

For us, a key reward to open publishing is ensuring that the work of our student researchers reaches the widest possible audience! And by releasing our applications open-source we also ensure that they get access to the IP that they are creating.