New standards for publishers and search engines unveiled
By Leah McBride Mensching, Friday 30 November 2007 at 15:53 :: Online/Digital Publishing :: #933 :: rss
Publishers around the globe are being asked to implement a new online publishing standard called Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP), designed to end clashes between publishers and search engines.
Unveiled during a conference Thursday in New York, ACAP was developed at an initiative by the World Association of Newspapers, the International Publishers Association and the European Publishers Council.
These groups believe the new standard will allow publishers “to better protect their intellectual property rights,” the World Association of Newspapers announced in a statement released Friday. “ACAP is the result of a 12-month pilot project which has resulted in a unique communications tool that opens the door to more high level content, giving all content owners the confidence to make their content available on the worldwide web.”
Search engines were also collaborators on ACAP, with representatives from Yahoo Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Inc. in attendance at the conference.
“We are not members of ACAP but we are involved informally, as are our competitors,” Joe Siino, senior vice president of intellectual property for Yahoo, said at the conference, according to a WAN release. “We appreciate ACAP's effort to make more content available on the web. We appreciate the concerns of our publisher partners that they should feel confident to make content available to the world. We also appreciate ACAP's really open and collaborative approach. We look forward to working together in the future.”
The Times Online is the first to implement ACAP.
Politicians and other business leaders are also following the ACAP project closely.
“Media companies have not yet fully adapted their business models to new distribution technologies, which cut across national borders and traditionally separated sectors,” said Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for information society and media, speaking via video to the conference. “The uncertainties associated with the shift to digital technologies inhibit the development of many potential online services.”
Gavin O'Reilly, president of the World Association of Newspapers, said that obstacles Reding spoke of can be overcome by ACAP.
“ACAP will give the content industry worldwide the incentive to innovate, create and disseminate. Newspapers, magazines, books, journals, directory publishers: anyone involved in digital publishing can now adopt a standard that will protect their interests and will make them masters of their own content,” said O'Reilly, who opened the conference. “ACAP has been the huge beneficiary of input, technical know-how and quiet wisdom of all of the major search engines, albeit in an informal way. So some 5 months on, I want to recognise this publicly, with our sincere thanks. And to demonstrate how collaborative, open and inclusive ACAP is, I am delighted to be able to welcome the very large number of representatives from Yahoo, Microsoft and Google who have joined us here today.”
Publishers everywhere are encouraged to implement ACAP version 1, which allows those publishing content online to express their individual access, and also use policies in a language that search engine robots can read and understand. Instructions for implementing the new standard are available here.
Currently ACAP offers provisions for only text and still images. However, further use cases for different business models, including the audiovisual sector, will be considered in ACAP's next phase of development.
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