The Web is a complex world of
information and the growth of information has made searching quite taxing. Moreover,
most of the sites, once found, soon become unavailable because the URL may have
then become obsolete. For the Web to be the medium of accessing valuable
information, not to mention the medium of B2B transactions, it must have a way
of easy access of information. Once accessed, this information must also be
permanent, interpretable and reliable.
It
is on this premise that Handle System, which underlies Digital Object
Identifier (DOI), was designed. Thus Dr. Robert Kahn developed a system wherein
all and every information object is given a universal ID number. The number is exclusive
to the information. This is the main reason why DOI is the future of digital
archiving. DOI was first used by the scientific journal publishers. These
publishers have assigned more than 4 million DOI to their Journal articles to
cross link all citations, footnotes and another publisher.
That DOI is the future of digital
imaging can no longer be disputed nor stopped. There are several reasons or
factors for this and all of them far outweigh the advantages over the
disadvantages of DOI.
First
is its simplicity and easy access of information. With DOI people or programs
will be routed to the object itself using a global distributed directory. The
same is done on all things related to the objects, such as services, products,
etc. Another important aspect of the DOI is its link is permanent. Using URL as
an example, DOI does not break the moment the site is moved to a different server,
or if it is reorganized or if something has been changed or updated in the
site. For DOI updating is on one central record and the directory simply
re-points the links to the DOI. With DOI there is no longer the need to find
all the existing URL links and change all of them because it is based on an
outdated URL.
Second
is the flexibility or use of DOI is quite enormous. For one, the DOI can be a
physical product by pointing to the catalog of the product itself with all its
information. The DOI can be a serial number pointing to the product – from its
information to its sales, delivery and warranty.
For
manufacturers of equipment and other products that includes separate parts and
manual, the DOI can serve as manual and specifications. These can include
warranty, repairs and servicing history and others. In an otherwise different
environment it is quite impossible, or if possible, quite expensive to create
this centralized information. But with DOI, owners can simply maintain a
central DOI records which shall direct all the relevant information.
Like
the scientific journals, it can be an article or a book or a piece of music and
the library is the web. The DOI can be its card library number. The DOI can
also be used on not just the product itself, but it can even point down to its
last component. For instance, if used in a book, it can be used to the
chapters, the pages, the selection and to the illustrations. The same can be
applied to CDs and its tracks. The DOI can also link the licensing system to
the native content files for their easy retrieval and for determining if the
asset is owned by the publisher, the restrictions of the files and in searching
for its marketing database.
The
DOI can also be a medical record, ensuring not just security or confidentiality
but also attaching it to the related records of the individual, such as
insurance, hospital records, etc.
When
it comes to sales and marketing, the DOI will bring the sales of products
similar to selling on a customized level. For instance, for tour packages, the
travel agencies may be able to break down the coverage of the tours for the
client to choose the particular coverage of his choice.
DOI
can also help online schools to stand out in the very crowded search engines.
Stevens Institute of Technology’s Online Learning Dean Robert Ubell said about
its using of DOI in all its e-learning graduate courses, “Students searching
for distance learning programs on the Internet will now easily see our linked
courses. We are especially excited about being the first to implement the
technology in the online learning space (Stevens Institute, 2002)”. Stevens
offers graduate certificate and masters degrees online in technology and
management. DOI provides Stevens with persistent link wherein students can
directly choose the courses with just one click. Information will include all
the related courses, application, schedule and other services.
Since
the use of the scientific journal industry, Content Directions, Inc., the first
authorized vendor of DOI registration services, has started to work on several
publishing industry and beyond. Its future works included investment banking,
museums, manufacturers and telecommunications.
Third
is the universality of its application. What has made DOI applicable and
appealing not just to the publishing industry is its Multi Link feature
(Sidman, 2002). This Multi link is what connects the DOI to everything related
to it. Aside from this capability, this feature also makes access to
information simple. In contrasts to URL’s pointing at only one direction, the
DOI can point to several or all the resources by a single pop up menu via the
global DOI directory.
Thus
when it comes to its universal application, first there is the external link. This
feature is quite beneficial to the site’s owner, customers and partners
(Sidman, 2002). For instance, for the owner or manufacturer of a particular
product, he can then direct the customer to the nearest shop the product is
available. For the customer, he can learn about where the nearest accessory of
the product is available to him, the nearest repair shop, etc.
Now,
for internal link, the DOI can link the product to the whole system. From its
date and place of manufacture, to its location in the warehouse, to its
distribution, to its sales report, to its buyer, to its warranty and to its
repair, the product’s DOI can be linked to the company or manufacturer’s
management system. This allows the company’s business partners (e.g. retailers)
to have access to the information relevant to their business, such as shipping
status. The company can withhold confidential information at all levels and at
the same time the links will not break on updating. One central DOI will be
updated instead of the links.
Beyond
its internal asset management function, the DOI can provide a universal ID
number which can communicate to the whole system. This will be similar to the use
of the barcode today. A product will have a universal ID or product code which
shall carry all the information or the product from the time it was
manufactured, to its distribution, to receiving, to inventory, to the store’s
inventory, to its sale in the cash register, to the writing of financial
systems at the head office (Sidman, 2002). Financial tracking and financial
reporting, which includes goods shipped and sales by store and region, is then
simplified.
Fourth
are the additional opportunities for the CMS/Dam vendors. With the increasing
number of companies shifting toward the use of DOI, this will mark an
opportunity for CMS and DAM vendors. By incorporating DOI into CMS/DAM systems,
CMS/DAM vendors can make their products even more attractive to the buyers.
Moreover, the vendors can integrate their CMS or DAM directly to the
registration facility of the Registration Agency. This is as simple exporting
the metadata of the product from the CMS/DAM to the RA regularly. The vendors
can then register and maintain the DOI on the Registration Agency’s
registration/maintenance system.
The
advantages of DOI extends beyond the easy access of information, but for the
vendors, once they have started using it they would definitely want to use its
more advance features. Since DOI is capable on a granular basis, the vendors
will soon use this capability on “experimenting” with the presentation of their
products. They will mix and match different products and will increase the
features sets they offer thru the CMS/DAM. This will, in turn, greatly increase
their profit. On management level, the CMS/DAM vendors can offer higher level
of value without sacrificing the cost to deal breaking levels of their
customers. Further this will no longer strain the capabilities of CMS/DAM
products.
Fifth
is it serves as copyright protection online. Digital Object Identifier is now
the emerging standard for proper identification of materials published online.
Since the number is unique to the product or published material, copyright in
the internet is now protected. Creators and owners of sites are now protected
and can be compensated properly for their property. Thus DOI’s content
identification is gaining increased usage, particularly for the reliable sites.
In
1994 the Association of American Publishers (AAP) wanted to solve the many
problems against intellectual property in the internet. Taken collectively, unprotected
copyrighted materials can pose a threat to the publishing trade in the
Internet. The Association of American Publishers are well aware of how easy it
is to make as many reproductions of books or articles online and at the same
time they are also well aware of the power of the Internet in terms of retail,
aggregate, repackage and redistribution online (Rosenbatt, 1997).
To
turn its back on this profitable environment would be unwise for the publishers
and so the only remaining option is to tackle the problem head on. Online
purchase, whether for a book or other product, is convenient for the consumers
and yet publishers needed to establish some degree of interoperability
(Rosenblatt, 1997) among other publishers in the Internet.
The
problem is how not to compromise intellectual property since the more
interoperability exists among publishing formats and system the easier it is to
make unauthorized copies of copyrighted materials. The first solution that came
about in the “protect vs. enable trade off” is end to end content protection
technologies. Here contents are stored in an encrypted stated and buyers will
only be able to access the content in a “pay per view” model.
These
technologies originated in the CD-ROM market and many companies have used this
model. However, since materials are encrypted or enclosed in protected state,
the user has to go through a complex series of applications, such as the plug
in they will use, the forms of payment, etc. Publishers now run the risk of
alienating the customers. Aside from this dilemma, publishers have to compete
with publishers who gain profit thru advertising. This is similar to school
books given to schools by consumer product companies.
The
only seemingly solution for the AAP is to have one vendor but this is not
possible because should that be the case, it would create a monopoly which will
open anticompetitive lawsuits against the AAP. Moreover, notwithstanding the
lawsuit, the vendor would not have anymore incentive and would not find any
reason to improve its service.
An
interoperable standard was then set to serve as guideline of operation, from
publisher to vendor to buyer and keeping within the intellectual property right
protection. To do this the guidelines includes: a content identification on
each item to identify it uniquely over time; a content description for customer
searching and browsing; an access rights or access conditions (e.g. printing,
browsing, copy); a display format; a content protection scheme (e.g.
encryption); and a financial transaction information (e.g. price, accepted
payments, etc.). The problem was standardizing the guidelines. For instance, simply
standardizing the format would be limiting.
Access
right is particularly problematic. In a survey done at that time, it was found
that publishing companies felt that they have no problem with the area, while
some admitted that they are knowledgeable about the problem but found it
expensive and difficult to solve. None admitted that they need to have their
rights management houses in order. None also claimed working on a solution
(Rosenblatt, 1997).
Content
description was another big problem for the publishers. They needed to adapt a
metadata model which can describe the contents, let’s say a book, and yet will
guarantee easy accessibility for the browser. For content identification, the
problem was standardizing it over a long period of time.
To
create a flexible and standardized online publishing, publishers needed a
“universal rights model” that can adapt to different types of transaction and
application. AAP then designed an identification scheme, the Digital Object
Identifier (DOI), that is flexible and work with the other systems in
electronic publishing. It has also provision for the changes in the future. To
do that, the DOI were given the following requirements: no intrinsic meaning;
it must be exclusive to the content item; there must limitless identifiers;
must be meta-scheme for ISBN, BICI, ISSN etc. even URLs; it can be used for any
type of content for print, services, software, audio, etc.; can be applied for
objects of granularity for multi volumes, chapters, paragraphs, etc; and, it must
consistently refer to the content regardless of its ownership, location, etc
(Rosenblatt, 1997).
The
DOI for publishing was launched by the AAP at Frankfurt Book Fair in 1997 and
was re-demonstrated in the 1998 Fair. At present several publishers have made
use of efficient DOI finders, such as the Academic Press finder’s which allows
for searching by publisher and journal name, issue, date and the starting page
(Davidson & Douglas, 1998). DOI allows for publishers to have a system
which protects them from serious financial damage and yet at the same time
allows them to operate policies such as fair use or inter-library loan.
Lastly,
DOI offers improve profitability, particularly for publishers. On implementing
the DOI vendors, publishers and companies can enjoy a return on investment of
12% the cost of implementing DOI (Sidman, 2003). The benefits are due to direct
sales and marketing capability delivered primarily by their own sites. These
were measured based on three key areas: discoverability, user experience and
operational efficiency.
On
discoverability, visibility is the key to the success of any online store. This
will spell out the visits and sales generated from the sites. Everyday around
400 million queries are done on the web in search of products, services,
information, entertainment, etc. For retail e-commerce businesses, improvement
in search ranking is imperative to sales growth. This is why there are several
techniques, called Search Engine Optimizations (SEO), implemented by e-commerce
businesses. These search engine optimizations increased the rankings for sites.
One of the leading SEO providers charges as much as $480,000 annually for a
search engine marketing campaign (Sidman, 2003).
DOI’s
Multi Links, on the other hand, connects related objects which automatically
places it higher on the search engine results. Based on a “before” study it was
found that 43% of the books tested were not within the first 100 results.
Moreover, those on the higher ranking frequently have broken links or bad URL.
After DOI it was found that 22% got the number 1 ranking in non sponsored
results, 74% were found within the top 5, and 90% within the first two pages
(Sidman, 2003).
When
it comes to improving search engine discoverability, without DOI hiring for Search
Engine Optimization agency is imperative. The entry level campaign is around
$13,000 (Sidman, 2003). Now to achieve a 4 to 1 return on investment, a low
traffic site has to quintuple its number of visitors. With DOI, the ROI on
investment is comparative with SEO and the implementation is faster to market.
It also includes other benefits which generally contribute to the ROI.
The
idea of improving discoverability is to increase traffic. In the study, it was
found that for the four months after the implementation of DOI, traffic
increased to a more than three times the previous volume. Moreover, once the
user visits the site, generally he will continue to navigate to learn more
about the product.
This
is where user experience comes in. It was found that the site redesigned for
usability earned 100% increase in sales/conversion rate, 150% in traffic and
161% in user performance and productivity and 202% in use of specific features(Sidman,
2003). DOI allows for faster navigation. Its Multi Link enables faster browsing
and faster buying and less user error.
On
improving usability, without the DOI, site re-design can be costly and time
consuming. Studies by Nielsen Norman Group and IBM have estimated that the cost
of usability is around 10% of total web site development cost. Based on that
study, the average cost of launching or re-launching of a product or brand is
at least $1 million and the cost of usability of $100,000. On the other hand
implementing DOI will provide a substantial return on investment, making ROI
almost immediate.
The
study also found that DOI referred clicks are twice as likely to end in
purchase. Under the eight months of using DOI, book revenue from an online
publishing, increased from zero sales to about $3,500 in a month.
When
it comes to sales, without DOI, CRM implementations can cost around $600,000
for a typical entry level (Sidman, 2003). This is for the additional investment
on other capabilities so that the shopper will find additional relevant items
to buy. With DOI, content directions’ applications are already an integral part
of the system. This will help the buyer to simply move the mouse over the link
in order to gain contextual access to the product. The personalized product
suggestion might result in an average of 20% additional value of the sale
(Sidman, 2003).
On
operational efficiency DOI is more advantageous and simpler to manage than the
traditional web site. Web content maintenance can also be costly. This is not a
problem for DOI since one of its attributes is persistence. Publishers can
manage each link via central registration agency. This will reduce the burden
of finding and repairing a broken link. Removing obsolete and broken links also
broadens its distribution, which results in more sales and more cross selling
opportunities.
On
the cost of site maintenance, without DOI there are about an average of 5
additional web pages associated with each of the 3,000 book titles (Sidman,
2003). This needs to be managed along with the publisher’s online catalog.
There area also associated legacy sites which use different content management
tools and links to the publisher catalog which must also be managed. All these
must link to the publisher’s web site which in turn can point directly to
another third party site, such as author’s site, reviews, retailers, etc. These
other sites give additional problems since they are beyond the control of the
publisher. Thus, fixing the broken links or simply rewriting the publisher’s
site can be time consuming and required additional staff time.
Moreover,
ongoing maintenance is vital. Thus for a mid size publisher, it must hire 3 to
5 staff for quality assurance of the site. Additional cost would be the tools
needed in detecting a moved or updated link. The costs of these tools are around
$10,000 without maintenance.
With
DOI the publisher, once it has assigned and registered DOI with each book in
its catalog, the URL can now be made centrally at the registration agency. The
links to the book will be updated automatically. Moreover for added quality
assurance, the DOI registration agency can detect and point the broken links.
This is equals to reduction of 1FTE or around $100,000 annually. Additional
savings would also be from the time saved by the business or the opportunity
loss.
In
conclusion, for the economic benefits of DOI, particularly in publishing or
online book selling, DOI is a good investment.
The Digital Object Identifiers can definitely increase the revenue
through enabling greater discoverability, conversion rates and cross selling
and through the reduction of the cost of improving and managing sites (Sidman,
2003). The study calculated an estimate to an assured 12:1 ratio of return on
investment for a medium size publisher’s e-publishing operation. Aside from
this direct ROI, DOI also provides additional business benefits as discussed
above.
In
summary, the improved content discoverability is $225,000, the improved site
usability is 150,000, the more effective cross selling is 165,000, the reduced
content maintenance cost is 116,000; the total return on investment is 656,000;
the DOI implementation investment is 50,000; the net return on investment is
606,000; and the return on investment ratio is 12:1 (Sidman, 2003).
These
analyses, with some adjustments and variations, are also applicable for other
sites and retail e-commerce operation. The increase in traffic on site is
definitely applicable to other sites and not just for publishing.
Although
quite substantial when it comes to the initial investment, the practicality DOI
provides is worth the investment. When it comes to security, this could be the
answer to protecting intellectual property rights on the web. Although some
consider that everything on the Web is free for all, in the long run, like any
business, the creator of an art piece or owner of the company must be
compensated properly for the business to thrive. Otherwise, we shall see a
decline of quality and reliable materials on the web, not to mention a decrease
in the trade and commerce exercised or done in the web. Simply put, DOI
establishes a trust in conducting business in the web.
Digital
Object Identifiers, as seen in its vast range of application, such as in
manufacturing or in tagging for a single product, is also very promising for
all digital archiving. Its ability to connect and interconnect to relevant
information about the product can be seen as the way the future shall be. Its
use in health records alone is a breakthrough. This simplifies the way
hospitals and clinics operate. One of the causes of death in the hospital is
medical errors, now using DOI medical errors can be reduced, if not totally
eliminated in the future.
With
these kinds of breakthroughs and application I personally agree that DOI shall
be the future of digital archiving. Moreover I think we are just beginning to
see its potential. With the coming year, the full application of DOI can be realized
in the different aspects of human lives using technology, not just in the
internet but in day to day practical matters. Thus in conclusion, I acknowledge
the advantages of DOI and at the same time agree with its proponents. With the kind of advantages it provides, it
is quite impractical to set this aside due to some drawbacks.
Works
Cited
Davidson, Lloyd and Douglas,
Kimberly. 1998. Promise and Problems for Scholarly Publishing
The Journal of
Electronic Publishing. University
of Michigan.
Retrieved 25
September 2007 from
http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/04-02/davidson.html
Rosenblatt, Bill. 1997. Solving the
Dilemma of Copyright Protection Online
The Journal of
Electronic Publishing. University
of Michigan.
Retrieved 25
September 2007 from
http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/03-02/doi.html
Sidman, David. 2002. Digital Object
Identifiers: Not Just for Publishers.
Retrieved 25
September 2007 from
http://www.cmswatch.com/Feature/66-DOI
Sidman, David. 2003. Economic
Benefits of Digital Object Identifier Applications in Content
Marketing. Retrieved
25 September 2007 from
http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=economic+benefits+of+DOI&fr=slv8-msgr&u=www.bsg.co.uk/solutions/pdfs/applications/eps_doi_wp.pdf&w=economic+benefits+benefit+doi&d=V3q1ludmPbhC&icp=1&.intl=us
Stevens Institute of Technology’s
Online School Signs DOI Pact with Content Directories. 2002.
Stevens Institute
of Technology. Retrieved 25 September 2007 from
http://www.contentdirections.com/materials/PressReleases/PRESSRELEASE-StevensInst.htm
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