By Jayson Jarmon, CEO, LuxWorldwide.com
The art and science of publishing is old-older than Gutenberg and movable type, older than the illuminated manuscripts of the so-called Dark Ages, and older than the papyri of the Egyptians. It is an essential human activity-the creation, organization, and dissemination of information.
All that has really changed is the technology and the media type, and, while it's arguable that our relationship to the information has changed over time (it is more immediate, it is more pervasive, it is communal, it is overwhelming in its vastness), the Internet and digital technology are really the modern equivalent of the printing press … and the movies … and television … and the telephone ... et al.
At Lux, we feel that content can be created efficiently and inexpensively as a single source, and then extended across various media and devices to reach an intended audience. Instead of using one author for help files, another author for user documentation, and yet another author to write web materials (each of them essentially covering the same ground with slightly different media-related emphases); why not create all of this related content once without re-writing the same material over and over again at greater expense?
Content may be King, but distribution gets the job done.
Soon we'll be living in a world where all of our information and entertainment are digitally delivered to our homes, our offices, and ourselves. The promise of easily accessible, inexpensively distributed information is upon us. Which does however suggest further problems … what do we do with all of that information? Next time …
