Wednesday 22 August 2018

Introducing 'Platform Strategies' - a new kind of industry conference

by Jake Zarnegar

image Platform Strategies logo
From the list of finalists for the Awards for Innovation in Publishing to conference sessions like "Expanding the Scholarly Record: Technology and Tools for Today's Content," it is clear that ALPSP and its members have technology on the brain.

Publishers of all sizes today deploy a variety of specialized technology platforms to create, market, and deliver scholarly content. These technology choices used to be compartmentalized, or rather, “departmentalized" - delegated to the individual departments that would most often interact with the platform. (Or, worse, delegated to the folks in internal IT procurement.) But now more organizations are practising coordination and strategic planning around their technology platforms. And though we have begun to see more seminars, articles, and tracks at conferences devoted to technology platforms, there has not yet been a meeting exclusively devoted to examining strategy and integration of these pivotal pieces of the publishing ecosystem.

This is what Silverchair aims to bring to publishers with the inaugural Platform Strategies, a free-to-attend conference to explore strategic options for the core technology platforms used by publishers. Our goal is to bring together large and small publishers, commercial and not-for-profit publishers, and leaders from relevant research and technology fields to discuss our common challenges and opportunities - offering attendees an informed picture of the (rapidly) evolving platform space from experts and peers.

The day-and-a-half program will focus both on technology itself (with sessions on search and discovery, machine learning, content enrichment, and more) as well as broader topics concerning platforms and partnerships (e.g. “Technology Leadership Roundtable” and "Scale and Survival: Is the Future of Scholarly Publishing Exclusively Commercial?"). Registrations have already exceeded expectations (and have us looking for additional space!), which confirms our belief that this event addresses a growing need in our industry.

If you have questions about the meeting, find me at ALPSP in a couple of weeks, and I’ll be glad to chat. You can also reach out to us at strategies@silverchair.com. If you can’t attend, we’ll have recordings of the meeting available online, so we look forward to continuing the conversation with you beyond September.

Platform Strategies will be held September 26 - 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. Visit the website to learn more.

photo Jake Zarnegar
Jake Zarnegar leads the development of The Silverchair Platform. After joining Silverchair as an intern in 1996 while still in college, Jake gained hands-on experience with structured content workflows, software development, and semantic enrichment technologies. He has subsequently served in a variety of senior leadership roles at Silverchair, including Chief Technology Officer and President.

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Silverchair is a proud Silver Sponsor for the ALPSP 2018 Annual Conference 12-14 September which is being held at the De Vere Beaumont Estate, Old Windsor, UK




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