Directions: Digital Content Can Be More Intelligent

Bringing Horsepower to Publishing
Publishers and their distribution partners can tap the computing power of the connected-mobile platform in a variety of ways, depending upon the specific goals of each market segment:

Consumer/Trade: In the consumer marketplace, a key goal is to efficiently and elegantly connect the most relevant offering (book or service) to a customer. The art and science of presenting purchase suggestions is well recognized for both adding value and driving revenue. This is typically done through the real-time analysis of purchase history, browsing history, and the behavior of similar customers. This process will surely become more sophisticated as the data that drives these suggestions expands to include user analytics data (data based on reading behavior) as well as the user’s social media activity. The ability for systems to respond quickly to such vast data sets requires computing power by both the device and the web services.

Education: Learning technologists aspire to create a more efficient and more engaging learning experience through the delivery of educational content through services that can dynamically adapt delivery based on the mastery and performance data of the individual learner. Adaptive learning software applies a set of rules for the interpretation of data collected from the learner, and using metadata related to educational content, increases the likelihood that the most appropriate learning experience is presented. While much work needs to be done to make this vision reality, services such as Knewton, Aleks, and Lrnr have illustrated the promise of this approach and how the computing power of the platform can be harnessed to create value for users.

Professional Publishing: A user of professional reference content often seeks specific information to support their work. They need to identify information that is relevant, current, and referenceable as efficiently as possible. The problem is usually not too little information, but rather too much of it.