Structured publishing at the Helsinki University of Technology

Project in brief

The HUTpubl project tries to establish a working SGML/XML prototype for electronic publishing, archiving, WWW-delivery, and print-on-demand procedure of HUT scientific publications. HUTpubl has received funding from the Ministry of Education in Finland, from its special Information Society funds.

Staff:

• Project Manager (1997-2000): Tuija Sonkkila, HUT Library
• Implementation (1997-1998): Jörgen Westerling, M.Sc., eCraft Management Solutions Oy
• Consulting advice (1997-1998): Timo Vendelin, Remtec Systems (part of Digital Open Network Environment Oy Done, 7.4.2000- )

Deliverables

Prototype

The HUTpubl prototype consists of:

• HUTPubl document type definition (DTD) and its documentation
• Adobe FrameMaker+SGML 5.5.1 (FMSGML) EDD (Element Definition Document) HUTpubl.edd
• FMSGML template file in A4 format, and in B5 format
• Microsoft Word 6.0/95 template file HUTpubl.dot
• FMSGML 5.5.1 conversion table for MS Word to FMSGML conversion, HUTpubl.cnv
• DSSSL specification for SGML to HTML3.2 conversion (with James Clark's Jade DSSSL engine)
• PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) authentication

The prototype was tested in October-November 1997 by a three-member group from HUT staff. The aim of the test was to find out whether the HUTpubl DTD was suitable as an authoring DTD, and whether authors would find MS Word and FMSGML acceptable as style and structured editors, respectively. The test report is currently available only in Finnish

The HUTpubl prototype builds the core of the master's thesis of Jörgen Westerling, En strukturerad, SGML-baserad publikationsprocess för Tekniska Högskolan, HUT 1998 (in Swedish)

Other deliverables

• Sonkkila Tuija and Koskiala Sinikka, Swimming in the current of academic information. 17th IATUL Conference, University of California, Irvine, 24-28.6.1996.
• Sonkkila Tuija, Issues concerning SGML-based electronic publishing in library settings. IATUL Annual Conference, 30.6-5.7.1997, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
• Sonkkila Tuija, SGML publishing as a joint effort, EUNIS 97 (European Cooperation in Higher Education Information Systems), Grenoble, France, 9-11 September 1997
• Sonkkila Tuija, HUTpubl - Structured publishing of research series, Nordic Conference on Electronic Publication at Universities and Colleges, February 17th and 18th 1998, Bergen, Norway.
• Sonkkila Tuija, From Generic To Descriptive Markup - Implications for the Academic Author. Proceedings, Socioeconomic Dimensions Of Electronic Publishing Workshop, Meeting The Needs Of The Engineering And Scientific Communities, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, 23-25 April 1998. Ed. By Christine S. Nielsen, Joseph R. Herkert. IEEE 1998, ISBN 0-7803-5101-0, pp. 89-93
• Sonkkila Tuija and Westerling Jörgen: HUTpubl - Structured publishing at the Helsinki University of Technology. SGML/XML Finland '98 Conference Proceedings. SGML Users Group Finland 1998, 8-9.10.1998, Rantasipi Laajavuori Jyväskylä, Finland, pp. 31-40.
• Sonkkila Tuija, HUTpubl. Workshop "DTDs and the usage of new XML-technologies for electronic theses and dissertations". 10-12 May 2000. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany.
• Sonkkila Tuija, Report on Berlin DTD workshop and Oulu RAJU 2000 (PDF) [in Finnish]>.
• Sonkkila Tuija, NDLTD workshop report [in Finnish]. RAJU 2000, 20 September 2000. Oulu University library, Finland.

HUTpubl DTD and the DSSSL specification has been presented by Jörgen Westerling at the Digital Media Unit of the University of Jyväskylä 30 October 1997. Furthermore, a general HUTpubl information session was arranged 30 May 1997 at the Dipoli Lifelong Learning Center in Espoo. The session gathered over 50 participants from HUT and other universities in Finland.

Present and future

As of writing this, the HUTpubl project is at the end of its third period. From March 1999 to April 2000, the project has tried to promote the use of the prototype, and to find ways of linking its findings and deliverables to other related projects both nationally and internationally.

Contact

Tuija Sonkkila, <Tuija.Sonkkila@hut.fi>
tel. +358-9-451 4147, fax +358-9-451 4132