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Russian
Publishers Visit DCL
Publishing Executives Learn to Speak One Language via the Internet
FRESH MEADOWS, N.Y. – May 29,
2000 – As publishers, they come from the opposite side of the
ocean. We print in English; they print in Cyrillic. But
last Friday, we all wrote and spoke a common language.
As part of a U.S. State Department
initiative, Eight Russian visitors last week came to New York
to learn the language of e-commerce and e-publishing. Six
were directors of Russian book companies, another was a wholesaler,
while another was the president of the Russian Book Trade Association.
The
Eight publishing executives are flanked here by U.S. State Department
representatives, Ms. Natasha Barbash and Ms. Sofia Koslov. Back left is DCL's Mikhail
Vaysbukh.
They
spent a total of three weeks in the US publishing capital, but
it wasn’t until they arrived at Queens-based Data Conversion
Laboratory that they were able to learn and interact without
an interpreter. And it was clearly a relief to go wireless
- headset and microphones were cast aside with evident glee.
This was possible of course,
because besides specializing in electronic conversion of manuscripts,
books and disks for some of the world’s largest publishers,
Data Conversion Laboratory also has several Russian-speaking
employees.
For the first time in several
weeks, the grateful Russian executives were able to remove their
translation earphones and listen in Russian as Project Manager
Mikhail Vaysbukh explained how DCL converts documents from traditional
publishing formats, to cutting edge, Internet-era electronic
formats.
DCL's
Mikhail Vaysbukh outlines the modern ethos of electronic publishing.
"I explained to them the
basics of how we receive documents, how we mark them up and
how we convert them to advanced formats that can be shared and
used around the world, particularly on the Internet,” Vaysbukh
explained. “Some were familiar with the more common formats
such as Quark. But others were not familiar with any of
them at all." Despite its rich literary tradition
and in spite of the fact that Russia publishes some 50,000 books
a year, it is truly playing catchup in the electronic publishing
industry," agreed Mark Gross, president of DCL. "What
is going on in the publishing world is a revolution as seminal
as the invention of movable type. Very quickly, our world
is becoming a single global publishing market and the
need has developed to move, share, and repurpose data in a single
acceptable format. XML, or Extensible Markup Language,
is becoming that format. Mikhail was able to explain to
our guests how the company does XML conversions, why that need
exists, and what the impact will be for them, their readers
and potential new audiences." The Russian guests
listened intently for almost an hour as Vaysbukh spoke, using
diagrams to demonstrate new approaches to both traditional and
electronic publishing, as well as other avenues of information
distribution.
The presentation culminated
in a lively question and answer session, before a grand tour
of DCL’s recently renovated facility prior to departure for
their Manhattan hotel. The guests then had two days remaining,
in which to enjoy New York from a purely cultural, as opposed
to a business perspective.
The eight executives included:
- Ms. Nina Belikova, General
Director, Molodaya Gvardiya (Young League) Book House,
Moscow ;
- Ms. Irina Gross, Director,
Dom Knigi (House of Books), Vologda
- Mr. Georgiy Lyamin, General
Director, Top-Kniga (Top Book) Ltd., Novosibirsk;
- Mr. Yuriy Maysuradze,
Press Secretary, Vitrina (Shop Window) magazine, Moscow;
- Ms. Nadezhda Mikhaylova,
General Director, United Center Moskovskiy Dom Knigi (Moscow
House of Books), Moscow;
- Mr. Vadim Sinyankski,
General Director, Master-Kniga (Master Book) Booksellers
Ltd., Moscow and Vice President, Book Publishers Association
of Russia;
- Mr. Yevgeniy Volkov, Director,
Urals Book Company, Yekaterinburg, President, Book Club,
the booksellers association of Yekaterinburg and President,
Book Trade Development Foundation;
- Ms. Galina Yermakova,
Director, Podpisnyye Izdaniya (Books by Subscription) Bookshop.
The Russian executives were
accompanied by Ms. Natasha Barbash and Ms. Sofia Koslov, United
States Seminar interpreters, and by Ms. Elena Bell, United States
Administrative interpreter.
Are Russian publishers a potential
new market for Data Conversion Laboratory?
“That remains to be seen,”
Mr. Gross concluded. “To date, they’ve only converted a handful
of books to electronic format, just to show they can do it.
But the Internet is leveling the playing field for all publishers,
everywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if, given their needs
and ou
ABOUT
DCL: Data Conversion Laboratory is the leader in implementing complex data conversion
solutions for Web- and electronic-based publishers and organizations, B2B
applications and evolving new technologies. The company supports XML, SGML and all major electronic
formats, and has, since 1981, extracted, reorganized and repurposed data for a
wide range of publishing
clients including: the
British Medical Association, McGraw-Hill, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins,
Grolier, Blackwell Science, Highwire Press, Ovid
Technologies, Mosby Inc., Thieme Inc., MD Consult, the
Library of Congress, New York Public Library and New York University.
The company is located at 61-18 190th St., 2nd Floor, in Fresh Meadows, N.Y.
and is privately owned. For more information about Data Conversion Laboratory and its services, please visit
the company website at www.dclab.com, or
call 1-718-357-8700.
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