User:He!ko/Wikimania 2009 Presentation

Wikis in Print

 * Event title: Wikis in Print - Everything you wanted to know about the new "book tool"
 * Abstract: This presentation aims to give an overview of the new book tool which got deployed on all major WMF projects including Wikipedia. Short demo of the features, how to get printed books from wiki content, about PediaPress and its WMF partnership, some technical background, community adoption, open issues, development roadmap, how the commuity can help, discussion.
 * Type, theme and track: Presentation / Casual / Free Knowledge
 * Language: English
 * Special requirements: Beamer
 * Information about the speaker: Heiko Hees (heiko at pediapress dot com) is one of the developers of the tool and works for PediaPress (the company that offers printed books from wikis)

Introduction
In Q1/Q2 2009 the new book tool got deployed on all major WMF projects including Wikipedia. The tool makes it possible to obtain high quality print and word processor copies of articles from Wikipedia and other wiki educational resources. It allows to build individual collections of articles and export them as PDF, OpenDocument Text and even order them as printed books.

Demo
Short demo (for those unfamiliar with the tool) on how to create collections, structure them using chapters, adding an introduction, exporting and saving.

Printed books & PediaPress
PediaPress developed the book tool and is the official partner of the Wikimedia Foundation, providing individual printed books based on wiki content.


 * Showing some samples of printed books
 * Demo on how to order books with PediaPress
 * Details on the WMF partnership
 * Information on the PediaPress operations, how books are typeset, produced and shipped by local print on demand companies

Technical Background
Short explanation of the technology used to generate PDFs in MediaWiki. How to exclude or use custom print templates to achieve better exports.

Experiences so far
Usage statistics regarding generated PDFs and created community books. Overall feedback from the community.

Open issues
There are some open issues with the tool, especially regarding:
 * Image licenses and non GFDL text (e.g. in Wikisource)
 * Usability (the tool is not noticed for most visitors to the sites)
 * whether stored books in Wikipedia qualify as encyclopedic content

Outlook
The community provided a huge list of feature requests. Details on the (technical) development roadmap.

How the community can help

 * Join the WikiProject "Wikipedia Books"
 * Use the tool to create cheaper and better textbooks
 * Help with localizations
 * Introduce local printing companies to PediaPress

Questions, Answers and Discussions
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