Publishing with CDF

Maryka Trent Baraka

Publishing Programs Manager, Wolfram Research

Publishing with CDF: Introduction

If you:

Have visited a Wolfram website recently...

Receive a Wolfram newsletter...

Registered for this conference through the website...

Attended Stephen’s keynote, Andre’s presentation, or one of a half-dozen other talks yesterday...

Then you’re probably already aware that we released a new interactive document format called CDF almost 3 months ago to the day today, on July 21, 2011. If you’re at this talk and you...

...are interested in the possibilities of publishing with CDF, then you’re in the right place.

Have visited the Wolfram website since March...
Are on any Wolfram mailing list...
Registered for this conference...
Attended Stephen's keynote or one of a half-dozen other talks yesterday...
...Then you're probably already aware that we released a new format called CDF almost 3 months ago to the day today, on July 21, 2011. 

If you attended You've likely heard a lot about CDF thus far during the conference, possibly read Publishing with CDF blog post
 1. CDF launched 3 months ago almost to the day
 2. Lots of interest thus far, etc.
 B. Opens new avenues/possibilities for e-publishing of all kinds. I will
 talk about existing possibilities and what you may have seen already, as
 well as some future directions we're working towards.

But wait...!

What do you mean by “publishing”? Is this session only relevant for would-be ebook authors or publishers?

No, with CDF we are looking to service a broad range of publishing needs:

Academic or trade e-books

Journals, magazines, and news articles

Reports and presentations

Lecture notes and courseware

Blogging and social media communications

Digital content repositories

...and more, as shown in the examples on the CDF website.

CDF opens up new avenues for e-publishing of all kinds. This talk will address some existing possibilities and examples you may have seen already, as well as some future directions we're working towards.

Publishing with CDF: Mechanics

a.k.a. “What this talk is not about”

For the purposes of this session, I am not focusing on the mechanics of publishing with CDF. Hopefully you caught Andre Kuzniarek’s talk yesterday on Getting Started with CDF, or Eric Schulz’s Wisdom Gained from Publishing a CDF ebook. If you missed either of those presentations, I would strongly encourage you to look for the slides when they are posted after the conference.

What I will briefly reiterate is that, in the context of publishing, there are currently three ways to deploy CDF, as outlined on the CDF website:

As a full-screen document within a browser

As an embedded object in a web page

As a standalone desktop application or document

On the site, we provide instructions for formatting your CDFs for web delivery, and we also provide a WordPress plugin for bloggers. That said, we're working to make the web delivery process even easier with the CDF Deployment Wizard that will be available soon in our next Mathematica update.

For more detailed instruction on how to deploy CDF, please plan to attend the hands-on CDF workshop tomorrow led by Andre and Yu-Sung Chang.

Publishing with CDF: Initial Considerations

Since we launched CDF, we have seen significant interest from many authors, publishers, and Mathematica users in general wanting to enhance and deploy their content with this technology. While the introduction of CDF represents a tremendous milestone, there are some things to keep in mind:

Two deployment elements

CDF content created in Mathematica (currently the only authoring environment for CDF)

The CDF Player, a free runtime application that must be downloaded and installed to the client machine.

If you have CDF content in your product or publication and your end user does not have the CDF Player installed on their machine, they will not be able to view and/or interact with the content. We have provided an array of Wolfram CDF icons for download from the site that can be used to direct readers to download the CDF Player or to otherwise indicate that your content is enhanced with CDF technology.

Two overarching types of usage

Noncommercial CDF (aka FreeCDF)

Commercial CDF

Licensing options are outlined under the Adopting CDF section of the CDF website.

Level of CDF enablement

Publishing-enabled

Pro-enabled

Mathematica 8 produces FreeCDF, which enables a level of functionality equivalent to anything you might see on the Wolfram Demonstrations Project. However, there are levels of CDF-enablement beyond what Mathematica 8 allows by default. Publishing-enabled content can be commercially distributed without the Wolfram branding elements and redistribution terms required for FreeCDF. If you require pro levels of enablement, you will either need to use our Player Pro product or contact Wolfram to see if custom publishing arrangements can be made.

Publishing with CDF: Using FreeCDF

If you do not require any functionality beyond that which is possible by default in Mathematica 8 with FreeCDF, and if you are not planning to restrict access to and/or redistribution of your content, FreeCDF may be a good fit for you. Our FreeCDF terms essentially follow a Creative Commons Noncommercial/Share-Alike license model for open content. Sample use cases include:

instructor delivery of free course materials to students and/or student submission of assignments

presentation and distribution of internal company/organizational reports

free and redistributable CDF ebooks or apps

CDF content included in a noncommercial, open-access blog, journal, or news article

If you want to protect your content from redistribution, or plan to monetize it, then a commercial CDF licensing arrangement with Wolfram would be needed. As these early adopters have done...

Publishing with CDF: Commercial Use Cases

CDF-only ebooks

Calculus by Briggs, Cochran, Gillett, and Schulz, published by Pearson Education in 2010

Format: Print text with CDF-only ebook authored in Mathematica

Deployment mode: Initially as a desktop application using CDF-beta technology; now primarily as full-screen CDF in a browser

Implementation: A pilot project between Wolfram and Pearson as a marketable proof of concept, distributed through MyMathLab

Project Needs:

Content enablement ("signing") for CDF-beta technology delivery

Pearson website infrastructure support for Player download and installation

Risk and Reward: The Science of Casino Blackjack by Richard Werthamer, interactive edition published in 2011

Format: CDF-only ebook authored in Mathematica

Deployment mode: Initially none (available as a print book published by Springer); now as full-screen CDF in a browser

Implementation: Werthamer regained digital publication rights and has self-published his ebook, distributing it through his own website

Project Needs:

Content enablement ("signing") for CDF delivery

Commercial runtime licensing agreement

These two projects represent nearly opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the project audiences and specifications. This underscores the range of (web) publishing applications that CDF now enables us to advance. Traditional publishing budgets and “interactive” technologies tend to only allow any real degree of interactivity to be included in big-budget projects. CDF lowers the cost of entry while enabling subject matter experts to create higher quality content.

While Werthamer chose to create his own website, it is also possible to distribute your fully-CDF ebook in the current Wolfram web store under a non-exclusive distribution agreement. This is a longstanding delivery channel we’ve had in place for third-party applications and a few Mathematica-based ebook titles. CDF enables you to leverage this same channel to reach a broader audience, as your reader does not need to also purchase Mathematica--they can use the free CDF Player instead.

Publishing with CDF: Commercial Use Cases

CDF-enhanced ebooks

Calculus and Its Applications by Bittinger et. al., published by Pearson Education in 2011

Format: Print text with CDF interactive figures authored in Mathematica

Deployment mode: Supplementary interactive figures linked from within a Flash ebook; open in separate browser window

Implementation: By commercial distribution agreement between Wolfram and Pearson, distributed through MyMathLab

Project Needs:

Content enablement ("signing") for CDF delivery

CDF runtime licensing

Pearson website infrastructure support for Player download and installation

There are several more such projects in the works, with Pearson and other publishers. This approach allows the publisher to add significant value to an existing text or new edition without having to recreate their entire workflow.

Be it for CDF-only ebooks or CDF-enhanced ebooks, the cost structure for CDF runtime licensing is sensitive to both the amount of CDF content included in a project, and the potential scope of distribution of the work. We offer a shared risk, shared reward model that can enable a publisher to better manage their upfront costs.

A unique use case:

Differential Equations by Brannan and Boyce, published by Wiley in 2011

Format: Print text with ebook version incporating Wolfram Demonstrations authored in Mathematica

Deployment mode: Wolfram Demonstrations “applets” linked from Flash ebook; open in separate browser window

Implementation: Subject to the Submission Policy and Terms of Use of the Wolfram Demonstrations Project, accessed from WileyPlus

Project Needs:

Wolfram Demonstrations curation resources

Although this was a commercial work, no runtime licensing was required here as a member of the author team created and submitted Demonstrations that are freely available for access and redistribution. For this approach, the number of Demonstrations should be modest (less than 25 in this case) and they must follow our normal submission requirements for form and uniqueness of content.

We will come back to licensing Demonstrations again shortly...

Publishing with CDF: Commercial Use Cases

Interactive courseware and learning objects

Mathematics in Context from Encyclopedia Brittanica

Format: Custom CDF-only content authored in Mathematica

Deployment mode: Full CDF dynamic learning modules for browser or desktop delivery dependent on school connectivity

Implementation: By services agreement between Wolfram and Brittanica, distributed through Brittanica

Project Needs:

Wolfram Consulting resources for content creation

Pro-level content enablement

CDF runtime licensing

Math Framework Edition from RM Education (released in 2008!)

Format: CDF-beta technology Demonstrations authored in Mathematica

Deployment mode: Demonstrations and custom Mathematica Player build integrated into RM desktop application

Implementation: By commercial agreement between Wolfram and RM, distributed through RM

Project Needs:

Wolfram Demonstrations resources for content creation and review

Custom beta-CDF Player build and integration

Publishing with CDF: Implications and Benefits

What does this mean for you?

For publishers

Ability to add live computation more affordably, with higher quality

Ability to add live computation to smaller scale projects where cost would otherwise be prohibitive

Ability to publish new offerings that did not lend themselves well to print

Increased value-add to your product offerings

More frequent revision and update cycles

For authors and Mathematica users

Ability to repurpose/republish/share existing content as CDFs through your website or ours

New CDF authoring and content creation opportunities

Ability to communicate ideas and data in a broader, more participatory way

Rethinking possibilities for written narrative, layout, illustrations

For readers

More engaging, informative consumer experience

Broader, more “democratized” access to live computation and meaningful interactivity

Ability to be more of a participant in the information-sharing pipeline and provide feedback to authors/publishers

Publishing with CDF: Future Considerations

We are aware of needs in these areas:

DRM (Digital Rights Management)

ePub/Adobe/other connectivity

CDF authoring tools/customization

Editorial support for independent publishers

Publishing with CDF: Takeaway

Wolfram is looking to build a comprehensive ecosystem around CDF for web, cloud, and app publishing. For web publishing, we currently provide:

CDF creation and deployment environments

CDF runtime licensing options

Demonstrations licensing options

Custom consulting services

CDF website integration services

Marketing and promotion support

CDF authoring and collaboration opportunities

We will be building out our CDF app store and cloud delivery channels as technology and development permit. If you have questions or comments about needs that you think are key to the success of our CDF initiatives, please let us know.

Publishing with CDF: Resources

Other Wolfram Technology Conference Talks of Interest

Theo Gray Keynote: Mathematica as a Tool in the Sexy World of ebooks, Thursday @ 10:30-11:30am

Birds of a Feather: Working with Mathematica Stylesheets: Now and Future Proposals, Thursday @ 2:30-3:30pm

John Fultz Keynote: User Interface, Friday @ 9-10am

Mobile CDF Deployment, Rob Raguet-Schofield, Friday @ 10:30-11:00am

CDF Hands-On Workshop, Yu-Sung Chang and Andre Kuzniarek, Friday @ 11am-noon

Reference Links

Wolfram CDF website: http://www.wolfram.com/CDF

Putting CDF Into Play blog post: http://blog.wolfram.com/2011/08/26/putting-cdf-into-play/

Wolfram Technology Conference: http://www.wolfram.com/events/technology-conference-2011/ (talks will be posted)

Contacts

Maryka Baraka, Publishing Programs Manager: marykab@wolfram.com
Andre Kuzniarek, Director, Document Systems: andre@wolfram.com