Launched as a digital object identifier (DOI) registration agency and support service, Content Directions is charged with promoting the DOI as a commercial tool for marketing and selling print and digital content. David Sidman, founder and CEO of Content Directions, emphasized to PW that, in addition to print and electronic books, the company is in the business of promoting the use of the DOI to market and sell any kind of digital content, including video, music, software, databases and photographs.
The DOI is a "persistent" content identification system, meaning that it is permanently attached to digital material. Clicking on the DOI link provides a pop-up menu of up-to-date information on a particular piece of content as well as listing direct online purchasing options (print and available e-book format) for that content. Sidman said, "The DOI can offer e-mail, [suggest] related books, handle permissions requests, or reside in search engines or a publisher can even offer the full text. A host Web site can turn a simple review into a dynamic link to a variety of sales functions, all maintained by different hosts."
A typical hyperlink URL is a static Web address that must be corrected individually if the information it displays changes. But while the DOI looks like a typical Web link online, Sidman explained that a DOI link is part of a dynamic parallel network on the Internet that allows the publisher to act as a "traffic cop," directing and maintaining information about individual pieces of content. The information offered on a DOI's pop-up menu is perpetually and automatically updated through the services of Content Directions.
Content Directions is a "centralized repository" of DOI information. Using its technical infrastructure, the publisher can instantly correct or update a particular DOI menu everywhere that the DOI link appears on the Web. And Sidman emphasized to PW that most of this maintenance happens automatically. "DOI links do not die. They are updated and maintained. We test the system constantly for dead URLs and notify the publisher," he said.
Previously the director of new media at John Wiley, Sidman has been instrumental in developing the DOI and left Wiley to found Content Directions in 2000. Content Directions is also overseeing the DOI-EB, a project to show the benefits of the DOI for e-books, and has worked with McGraw-Hill to release the first DOI-enabled e-book, The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook by Glenn R. Schiraldi.
Sidman said the cost of adopting the DOI is about $1 per DOI per year, with discounts for volume and early adopters. Content Directions has letters of intent from Pearson and Random House to begin using the DOI, and "30 or 40 other publishers are evaluating our registration contracts right now," said Sidman. A for-profit company, Content Directions is looking to expand the use of the DOI to all types of online content. "We are interested in using the DOI for investment bank reports, or for museums and art objects, offering menus for images and scholarly articles," he added.
Three other agencies certified by the International DOI Foundation register and provide technical support for the DOI: CrossRef, a nonprofit which services DOIs for academic publishers; Enpia Systems, which serves Asian publishers; and Learning Objects Networks, which registers DOIs for distance learning programs aimed at the Defense Department.
"We expect more agencies to be appointed by the IDOIF to compete on a broad basis," said Sidman. "There won't be any DOI monopolies."
