>>>> ACAP:towards greater compliance on the web

June 2007

>>>>

Mark BideRightscom

ACAP Project Coordinator

June 2007

NISO/BISG ForumThe Changing Standards LandscapeWashington DC; June 22, 2007

agenda

where did ACAP come from?

who is involved in ACAP?

what is the ACAP pilot project?

where is ACAP technically?

why does ACAP matter?

where did ACAP come from?

developing the Automated Content Access

Protocol

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the basic conundrum…

it’s hard for anyone to make content available for access and use on the network without any rules regarding access and use…

but it’s hard to comply with those rules if you don’t know what they are…

it’s particularly hard to learn how to read and understand rules if you are a machine…

the solution? Make the rules accessible and easy to understand – automatically without human intervention

it began with the search engines

the value of search engines to users – and to publishers – is incontrovertible…

a multitude of positive business relationships exist between search engines and publishers

index billions of web pages point end-users to our content provide tools to sell advertising

the power of search technology and search companies has grown exponentially

they collect, cache and index our content indefinitely they decide what to display; how, when and where they don’t seek positive consent for their activities

the goal…to redress the balance

task force created January 2006

publishers want (and need) to engage with search engines and other intermediaries on the internet business-to-business relationships like any other

search engines are the pioneers of the next generation of the internet we need to go into that future in collaboration not in opposition

automated crawling and indexing requires automated information on rights and permissions all parties need fully automated transactions without the need for

human intervention

building on what has gone before

the current level of sophistication for expression of content access and use permissions is too low

robots.txt does not provide an adequate solution for publishers as it cannot express conditional policies

robots.txt is inconsistently applied by different crawlers

ACAP – benefits for everyone in the

chain

IntermediariesIntermediaries

Combined industryCombined industry

NO standards wars;NO proprietary monopoly;Open collaboration;Win:Win for all stakeholders

more quality branded content, made accessible under mutually agreed and clearly expressed terms of access and usage

PublishersPublishersnew opportunities to deliver more content to consumers online in a way that satisfies their legitimate commercial interests

ConsumersConsumersmore access, more content, in more places, with less content inaccessible behind firewalls

who is involved in ACAP?

developing the Automated Content Access

Protocol

ACAP participants

leadership/funding World Association of

Newspapers European Publishers

Council International Publishers

Association

publishers Agence France-Presse De Persgroep Holtzbrinck Macmillan Impresa Independent News & Media John Wiley & Sons Media 24 Reed Elsevier Sanoma

technical partners search engines British Library

ACAP Members

Associated Press Association of American Publishers Australian Publishers Association Copyright Agency Limited Copyright Clearance Center Dapper De Nederlandse Dagbladpers European Alliance of News Agencies European Newspaper Publishers

Association Fairfax Business Media Federation of European Publishers International Association of STM

Publishers

International Federation of the Phonographic Industry

Mediargus Motion Picture Association News International News Limited Australia Newspaper Association of America Newspaper Licensing Agency Office of Public Sector Information

(OPSI) Ovid Technologies Publishers Licensing Society Random House Group Scholastic Vlaamse Dagbladpers

what is the ACAP pilot project?

developing the Automated Content Access

Protocol

objectives of the pilot project

12 month project – through 2007

standardized framework for machine readable expression of permissions for access and use elaborated for specific Use Cases with a process for extending

proof of concept through pilot implementations

sustainable business plan for future management transition plan

communication and public affairs programme to influence opinion

resource types

two distinctly different types of resource openly published on the World Wide Web (typically, for example,

newspapers and magazines) only accessible by access to closed servers (including books,

databases, academic journals)

initially planned that the pilot would deal only with text-based resources (with embedded graphics) now considerable interest in different parts of AV sector

[newspapers, television, movie studios]

where is ACAP technically?

developing the Automated Content Access

Protocol

Use Case summary

crawler authentication / service identification expression/interpretation/action of standard “usage” verbs

crawl, index, archive (means cache), preserve (means archive), derive, display, embed, aggregate (quasi-editorial), syndicate, default,…

scope site, directory, file type, file/resource, resource class, component

qualifications, terms and conditions quantities, durations, attribution, end-user location, other terms

(e.g. payment, usage stats, registration, non-commercial,…)

action requests refresh don’t blacklist, kill/remove/blacklist, change embargo

approach we are exploring

develop agreed semantics usages and qualifications

request that search engines specify syntax for robots exclusion protocol

also develop ACAP standard XML syntax tools to convert from one to the others may be the solution to

maintaining even more challenging robots.txt files… will potentially allow ACAP XML to be included in other standard

formats [eg NewsML, SiteMaps] – meet other use cases

discussion papers on authentication and take down

some things to bear in mind

publishers can express anything they like – it’s ultimately interpretation that matters search engines can always interpret any instruction as meaning

“do not index” – to the extent that publishers want their content indexed this may be counter productive

solution to some key challenges is likely to be “exclude from this service” if you do not wish search results to be displayed in particular

contexts keep content out of service

search engines have (unsurprisingly) provided no guarantees

why does ACAP matter?

developing the Automated Content Access

Protocol

why ACAP?

• current relationships between publishers and [some] network partners are far from optimal• lawsuits all over the globe are a symptom, not the problem

• “the answer to the machine lies in the machine”• a technical solution to a technical challenge

• ACAP is a collaborative project to find such a solution• …with support from all sectors of publishing• …and our technology partners• …and increasing interest from other media• …and increasing political support

• no equivalent work is taking place elsewhere

why ACAP?

• ACAP is committed to avoid reinventing wheels• being developed in close collaboration with EDItEUR• as a minimum, guaranteed interoperability with ONIX-LT

• our objective: a practical, pragmatic open standard• with a proof of concept implementation

• a standard• not a business model• not a set of services

how you can be involved

sign up for our monthly newsletter at www.the-acap-com

become a member of ACAP early access to project documents monthly telephone conference to discuss progress €1500 one-off fee for this year – but about to be reduced (current

fee includes 2 seats at June 26 conference)

>>>> thank you

info@the-acap.org

mark.bide@rightscom.com

>>>>

www.the-acap.com

Mark BideRightscom

ACAP Project Coordinator

June 2007

Please contact me if you would like more information