The IEEE Communications Society is committed to providing an information advantage to its members through the aggressive and pro-active use of online technology. This plan details an integrated approach to insure that the Society becomes and remains a world leader in its field for value-added, cost-effective, interactive electronic publication.

The Communications Society will offer an online accompaniment to the print publications which presents the material, both editorial and advertising, in ways that suit the electronic medium, the needs of users, and the nature of the various publications. This includes:

• current/archived abstracts and announcements available to all users;
  
  
• timely posting of full content, available to subscribers, with print options and online enhancements;
  
  
• interactivity via moderated discussions, order forms, hyperlinks to related sites, reader surveys, etc.;
  
  
• reliable, seamless browsing throughout the site.

The integrated, online publishing activities of the Communications Society will serve ComSoc members, prospective members, and the entire spectrum of the communications field by offering:

• an active archive of publications that is easily searchable and retrievable;
  
  
• a vibrant "home site" linking Society resources, events, services, and data/telecommunications-related information within the ever-changing environment of the Internet.
  
  
• direct links between members and advertisers as well as other vendors within the communications industry.

In passing we observe that the only access to IEEE-wide information in electronic form is the IEEE/IEE Electronic Library (IEL), and is only available to libraries. Unlike the WWW-based approach described here, IEL is a standalone (single-user workstation) collection on CD-ROM. It contains full-page images without multimedia content) of IEEE and IEE publications produced since 1988. A networked version of IEL is expected in the first quarter of 1998.

2. INTRODUCTION

2.1.1 J-SAC SEPTEMBER (Oct '95) Trial

The J-SAC (IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications) issue devoted to the Global Internet was published in October, 1995, and was made available on the WWW as an experiment and as a guide for future electronic publication activities of the Communications Society. In addition, much of the editorial development and other activities associated with the content development and publication of this issue made extensive use of electronic media. The activities associated with this issue, and a summary of the lessons learned, are contained in a recent issue of IEEE Communications Magazine (SEPTEMBER - Secure Electronic Publishing Trial, IEEE Communications Magazine, May 1996), a copy of which was previously included as a supplement to this report.

2.1.2 IEEE Communications Surveys

IEEE Communications Surveys was launched in early 1996. Numerous papers have been added to this site, which was redesigned in February 1997 to make it more easily readable and navigable. After initially being edited by Tom Chen, Surveys is now headed by Roch Glitho.

2.1.3 IEEE Communications Interactive

IEEE Communications Interactive was launched as a pilot project with the October 1996 issue. It officially left pilot mode with the February 1997 issue. At that point production of CI was entirely handled by the New York staff, using a set of online, web-based production tools developed in conjunction with ePresence. CI currently features a limited number of enhancements, primarily web links from articles and a limited number of animated figures.

2.2.1 Editorial

Going back to an author after a paper has already been written and published and asking that author to suggest multimedia enhancements is probably not going to result in much success in achieving a compelling reason to view online content. A mechanism and mindset that will encourage authors to think in terms of a dual presentation mode (print and online) from the outset of their work on an article must be encouraged.

2.2.2 Production

Given the current level of support for technical content offered by HTML standards, posting journal-type material in HTML is not a practical option. Postscript or PDF are the best vehicles at this time.

For CI, we established a standing library of Greek and math characters, streamlined the process of incorporating equations and formulas within HTML files, and developed a series of modifications made in the figures so that the onscreen presentation of figures matches the print presentation.

• All production work for online content is now handled by the New York staff.
  
  
• A combination of commercial HTML authoring tools and a proprietary toolkit developed by ePresence, the latter identified as Phase I, are currently being used. Later in this document we report on Phase II tools, which are being developed by Electronic Edge Publishing.

Work has begun on the next phase of our online publishing initiative, with the following goals:

• Development of a general-purpose toolkit to produce online magazine content
  
  
• Launch IEEE Network Magazine and IEEE Personal Communications Magazine online
  
  
• Develop an integrated publications home page and web site that brings together all of the Society's online editorial content.

2.4.1 Editorial

The primary challenge for our online editorial content (and presentation) is to replicate the typical multidimensional learning experience, examples of which are briefly discussed in the following paragraph. Meeting this challenge will make ComSoc the IEEE online publisher of choice.

Editors will need to encourage (train) authors to begin with this "learning experience" goal in mind. Ideas and concepts will be reduced to print as before; then almost fully restored for the online publication. (One can envision requiring alternative descriptions of complex technical points that can be called-up much as they are in response to questions during a technical session or between sessions in the hallways. Optional audio clips can talk the listener through equations, etc.) ComSoc needs to think in terms of forever changing the online publication paradigm.

Authors will need to repay the good faith investment in training and technology of ComSoc by voluntarily not posting their intellectual property in other venues. (Posting abstracts of the other hand is to be encouraged to promote ComSoc membership and the interest of other potential contributors.)

ComSoc will need to augment the largely technical editorial content with additional material on relevant topics such as intellectual property rights, etc., to increase the "site" appeal to the extent possible.

2.4.2 Production

2.4.2.1 Online Publications Initative: Phase II Overview

The initial phase of our online Publishing Initiative had as its goal the development of a set of tools allowing the New York production staff to convert IEEE Communications Magazine print files and post them to the ComSoc WWW server. This limited goal has been met, and we are now in receipt of a set of documentation from ePresence.

Phase II builds upon this experience and expands the functionalities and features already in place. An RFP was prepared, which provides a detailed summation of the scope of the next phase of development and a clear roadmap to be followed by the vendor. In addition, we have been gathering information from Communications Interactive users about their Internet capabilities and their reasons for viewing the online content. The information collected through this survey assisted in deciding which features and functions should be included in Phase II development.

Overview - Phase II of ComSoc's online Publishing Initiative will have the following primary goals:

• Develop a package of online production tools to be used to post the full range of ComSoc online magazine content. It will be expected that these tools will match existing commercial desktop publishing tools in terms of stability and reliability.
  
  
• Bring the remaining ComSoc magazines online (Network, Personal Communications ) will soon go-line with an archive extending back through 1997 issues.) This archiving will include a searchable database, a feature not possible with the journals.
  
  
• Develop a comprehensive home page for all ComSoc online editorial content.
  
  

Timeline of Notable Events (Past/Present/Future)
May 16, 1997	RFP issued to vendors.
July 1, 1997	Vendor chosen: Electronic Edge Publishing (formerly Edgenet, a Web development company and Internet service provider.
September 1, 1997	Prototype testing began.
October 1, 1997	Second round of testing began.
November 1, 1997	Delivery of production-ready toolkit. Final testing and posting of the archive material for Personal Communications and Network.
December 15, 1997	Began posting January issues of Communications Magazine and Network Magazine, using the new toolkit.
January 1, 1998	Introduction of the redesigned ComSoc online publishing site (new home page and additional magazines).

Following are the main areas of development/upgrade being addressed in Phase II.

Interface/Toolkit -	The current interface, while easily navigable, is geared toward Communications Magazine exclusively, and is limited to a static list of department templates. The interface and toolkit developed in Phase II will provide the production staff with complete flexibility to produce all ComSoc magazine content online, adding new departments easily as needed, and even entire new publications. In addition, the current directory structure will need to be greatly simplified so it can be navigated more intuitively.
Home Page -	The new publications Home Page will showcase all of ComSoc's online editorial content: magazines and journals, the Global Communications Newsletter, and Surveys. The Home Page will include a space for advertising, as well as links to membership and subscription information, online publishing guidelines, and perhaps a limited set of related sites, such as the IEEE Press.
Additional Features/ Functionalities -	Simple print option: There should be available within all papers the ability to invoke a simple print command that will allow readers to print locally a copy of the paper followed by the figures and tables.
Design -	Starting with the Home Page and carrying through all sections of each online publication, all ComSoc online content should have a consistent "look and feel", while still maintaining unique design elements within each publication area.
Advertising -	There will be two locations for online advertising within the publications area: The home page will include a space for advertising, with ads appearing on a rotating basis each time the home page is accessed. The search function will have a related data base of advertiser icons, grouped by product category, that will be intuitively selected and displayed whenever a search is executed.
Authentication -	Work will proceed with the vendor to develop alternatives to the current model that requires family name and member number. Whichever method is selected must accommodate multiple publications with multiple subscriber lists.
Webcasting/Push -	We will work with the vendor to develop applications of webcasting/push technology built around the individual publications or topic areas. Any applications developed in this area should be considered a potential medium for paid advertising.
Discussion Groups -	The production staff should have the ability to easily implement a discussion group whenever editors/authors are willing to moderate this activity.
Multimedia -	The ComSoc online publishing site should be able to support a wide range of multimedia enhancements and features.

2.4.2.2 Timing Goal: Online content contemporaneous with issue date

The goal is to have the electronic version of an issue appear at the same time as the paper issue. A practical approach is to activate the electronic version of a given issue at the same time the paper version is mailed. Ideally, of course, this should be the first day of the month corresponding to the publication date.

2.4.3 Professional stature of electronic publication

A number of organizations served by the IEEE and the Communications Society have a "publish of perish" mentality. This is especially true of universities and research laboratories. When individuals working for these organizations publish technical papers, an assessment of the quality of the journal in which the paper is published is usually made by the administration of the organization. The rigor of the peer review process is usually the primary component in determining quality, but there are often secondary components. Among these secondary components are the size of distribution, the history of the journal (journals that have a long history are often perceived as being of higher quality), and whether or not the journal publisher is a for-profit organization.

Within many organizations electronic (online) publication, or "posting on the web", is viewed as a lower-quality activity, even if rigorous peer reviews take place prior to posting. This should not be a problem as long as electronic publishing is accompanied by traditional on-paper publishing. However, as we continue with the process of electronic publishing, more and more products will inevitably be offered for which paper counterparts do not exist. Already Communications Interactive and several IEEE conferences are moving away from on-paper proceedings.

To insure that we continue to receive contributed materials of the highest quality, an educational process must take place to insure the public that this material is subjected to the same peer review process as traditional on-paper publications. The community must believe that traditional publications, online publications and publications delivered using CD ROM are equivalent, in terms of quality, as long as the peer review process is the same. In addition a standard method must be developed for establishing consistent bibliographical entries for material published electronically.

2.4.4 Longevity

2.4.4.1 Journals and Transactions

It is certainly clear that one wishes research journals to remain available for as long a period of time as possible. In the first stages of online distribution, however, it appears impractical to have permanent electronic storage facilities. This is not viewed as a problem as long as the printed versions of our journals continue to be distributed but will become a problem if we move to an all-electronic distribution of our journals. Since we have elected to use the IEEE OPeRA system for electronic distribution of journals, the question of longevity is somewhat out of our hands. At the present time storage is not a problem on the OPeRA system and therefore journals will live indefinitely. In steady-state, it is anticipated that journals will be available for at least one year.

2.4.4.2 Magazines

Although Magazines are not usually thought of a archival publications, experience shows that subscribers to IEEE Communications Magazine save past issues going back several years. Similarly, it makes sense that readers of our online magazines desire electronic access to previously published manuscripts, at least as long as the information is reasonably current. Consequently, we recommend that magazine papers in IEEE Communications Interactive, IEEE Communications Surveys, and follow-on electronic magazines, be archived for at least five years.

3. ONLINE DOCUMENT PREPARATION & POSTING

The IEEE Surveys Editor assigns an article to be posted in Surveys. If the article has already been published, the files are retrieved from the archives. If the article is a new submission, the contact author sends the text file and the figures are digitized.

The text file is converted to HTML using Beyond Press. The tables are built in HTML, the figures are modified and converted to GIF format, and both tables and figures are added to the article. Figure and table captions, and any URL and email links, are added. The final HTML file is reviewed for accuracy against the original submission, and viewed in the browser, prior to posting.

The above processes, handled by Joe Milizzo and Beth Wilber, are reflected in Fig. 1.

After IEEE Communications Magazine has gone to press, the files of articles and departments are retrieved for CI.

Text files are converted to HTML using Beyond Press. Figure, table, and footnote callouts are noted, with each callout a separate entity for linking. Tables are built in HTML and figures are modified and converted to GIF format. Any equations, math symbols, etc., are included as GIF files. The article text is formatted for CI style in HTML using BBEdit and the files are checked in the browser.

The HTML files of the articles' title, bylines, abstract, text, references, and biography are cut and pasted into the toolkit and are viewable within the browser window. Adjustments are made using the HTML edit window and viewed in the browser window.

Popup windows are inserted for all figures and tables within the toolkit by entering the dimensions and captions for each and are viewable as pop-up windows. Links to footnotes are created and any URL and email links are added.

The HTML files for the departments are similarly finalized in the toolkit as part of the current issue. PDF files for each article are created and links are added to the HTML files.

When all the files are completed, they are viewable and browsable in final form in the toolkit. Active links and figure, table, and footnote pop-ups are checked. Any final adjustments are made prior to posting to the Comsoc server.

The above processes are handled by Joe Milizzo and Elizabeth Wilber. Please see Fig. 1.

The process used to produce journals on line using the IEEE OPeRA site, is a byproduct of the process used to produce the print product for ComSoc Transactions and Journals. The print process uses SGML tagging to prepare the document for inclusion in an electronic archive. Once tagging and archiving are achieved, the document is run through a program that extracts bibliographic data (i.e., title, author, abstract, and references) and converts these data to HTML. The postscript files used for the print product are distilled to pdf (portable document format) and posted on the Web in full text format. Authentication is handled by programs that give access to society members or member/subscribers as determined by the society. At the present time all Journals (Transactions on Communications, Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Communications Letters and Transactions on Networking) appear on the OPeRA site. The Transactions on Networking also appears on the ACM web site for access by ACM members.

Additional information about the OPeRA project may be obtained from Fran Zappulla, Staff Director, IEEE Periodicals and Tom Bontrager, Electronic Publishing Manager. Contact information at the ACM for receipt of pdf files is yet to be established.

In order to better serve our members, some mirror sites would perhaps be appropriate. An obvious choice for a mirror site is Singapore. To date, however, no steps have been taken to establish mirror sites.

4. TIME LINE FOR ADDING ONLINE PUBLICATIONS

As discussed in the previous section, all four of our journals (Transactions on Communications, Transactions on Networking, Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, and Communications Letters) are available online through the IEEE OPeRA system.

IEEE Network and Personal Communications will go online on in early Spring 1998. No additional NYC staff resources are needed for this activity. We recommend that when these new electronic publications become available, that subscribers receive both the print and online version for the single subscription price.

For the time being, in the interest of protecting the advertising revenue stream which IEEE Communications Magazine generates, we recommend that both IEEE Communications Magazine and IEEE Communications Interactive remain part of Society dues, and that subscribers not be offered a choice of one or the other.

5. NEW VENTURES

We should expect that going forward, the Society will consider from time to time the introduction of new magazines, either as a sole undertaking or jointly with another professional society(ies).

Each new magazines venture must be individually assessed (because of differences in topical treatment, joint undertaking with other societies, production values, etc.) Regardless, we recommend that each such initiative be worked, from the earliest stage, in accord with the guidelines presented in this study. Those guidelines include dual print-electronic publication, the recommended approach to handling intellectual property, reuse and production flows that exploit our internal Phase II capabilities, publications in relationship to marketing and advertising, electronic fulfillment, and so forth.

The past several years has seen an explosion of both research and commercial activity in the area of wireless communications. Several new journals, both for-profit and not-for-profit, are actively publishing in the wireless area. Except for wireless-related papers submitted to the Transactions on Communications and issues of J-SAC devoted to wireless topics, the Communications Society has not enjoyed significant visibility in wireless communications. As a result, significant pressure has been building for ComSoc journals to be more visible in this important and rapidly expanding area.

After consideration of several proposals for new Com-Soc initiatives in the wireless area, it was decided (BoG meeting of November, 1997) to expand J-SAC from nine issues per year to twelve issues per year with the three added issues becoming the J-SAC Wireless Communications Series. The papers in the new Wireless Communications Series will be published from a queue of accepted papers much like a mini-transactions. The remaining nine issues of J-SAC will continue to be focused on specific technical topics chosen in response to proposals submitted to the J-SAC board of Senior Editors. The J-SAC Wireless Communications Series will have its own Editorial Board and its own Editor-in-Chief.

The Editor-in-Chief for the J-SAC Wireless Communications Series is Leonard Cimini of AT&T Laboratories - Research. Publication of the expanded J-SAC (12 issues per year) will commence in January 1999. Issues of the J-SAC Wireless Communications Series will be published in March, July and November, which are the months in which J-SAC has not traditionally published. Thus the first issue of the J-SAC Wireless Communications Series will appear in March, 1998. The page budget and the subscription costs of the expanded J-SAC are approximately linear extrapolations of the current respective budgets.

The long-term plan is to carefully watch the growth of the J-SAC Wireless Communications Series and its impact on existing publications. Assuming that the new effort is successful, and that it does not negatively impact the health of our existing journals (especially the Transactions on Communications), the possibility will exist to add another issue to the J-SAC Wireless Communications Series and spin it off as a stand-alone journal publishing four issues per year.

There is increasing interest in developing an end-of-year CD ROM of Magazine and Journal articles published during the year. Discussions of these products will be given higher priority once the suite of online publications is firmly established.

6. ACCESS PERMISSION/AUTHENTICATION

7. ADVERTISING IN RELATION TO ONLINE PUBLICATIONS

At this time our understanding of Web advertising is that it cannot be directly sold; it is better used to solidify established relationships with print advertisers by offering certain levels of ads and listings in CI without direct charge, though based on their ad schedule in IEEE Communications Magazine. (This perspective is consistent with a prior ComSoc view to not sell advertisements online at this time.)

Currently a "Product Buyers' Guide" section of has been established and appears on the ComSoc home page and in IEEE Communications Interactive. This buyers' guide section lists several significant product categories. Within each category appears a list of current advertisers, a brief description of their product, and a link to their web site. This is updated monthly by Eric Levine and Joe Milizzo, based on advertisers in the corresponding issue of IEEE Communications Magazine.

For the near term, at least, it has been decided not to charge for advertising in IEEE Communications Interactive. Some of the reasons include: low hit rate (this will grow as more subscribers visit the site); lack of ability to count hits (this will be addressed in the future); advertisers' reluctance to pay for the service (this may change as the proves itself as an advertising vehicle); and out of concern that our Sales Representatives might not aggressively sell such a service, consequently likely producing little income forthemselves and the Society.

We have decided to continue offering Web listings free to our advertisers, and that icons could be established on certain "pages" of CI for our larger advertisers, again at no additional charge. This approach should not only solidify relationships with our current advertisers, but also serve as a means to attract new advertisers. Our goal is to introduce these WWW icons when Joe Milizzo and his staff redesign IEEE Communications Interactive (phase 2). Locations being considered are:

• In each current issue of CI, on the abstract page, and
• In the Product Buyers Guide Section

Icons might be periodically rotated or animated to retain and attract readers' attention.

It is proposed that at a level of six paid pages in IEEE Communications Magazine (annually), advertisers will receive a premium icon with a tag line in CI. The icon will be placed on the abstract page (as part of a series of rotating icons).

A flyer should be created to promote this new benefit for advertisers. This promotional flyer would also become part of our Media Kit, and Sales Representatives would promote the benefit when visiting current and potential advertisers.

8. MARKETING IN RELATION TO ONLINE PUBLICATIONS (CD)

Our understanding of "push" technology is that it redefines direct mail to be direct email, adding the aspect that individuals are invited to be on the mailing list (an email courtesy), rather than simply being selected from lists available to ComSoc and thereby receiving "mail" we send out, whether or not they actually want.

ComSoc has already started using "push" technology in the Conferences Department with its email subscription lists (one general for ComSoc events; more specific lists for regular events, e.g., ICC, GLOBECOM, ICUPC, and INFOCOM, with others to follow. People can be invited to subscribe to an email distribution list using a form they can immediately submit via the Wold Wide Web, through email, and in printed promotional pieces.

Consideration should be given to establishing a regular schedule for sending information (not too often, perhaps one announcement every two weeks). The publications email subscription list could be used to announce a new online issue, when a significant article will appear (ideally one matching a subscriber's profile), etc. How this information can be used by the Marketing Department, especially with respect to broadening circulation and increasing membership in the Society, requires further investigation.

As noted above, a subscriber's email database can be created by inviting readers to complete a form on the World Wide Web, through email, and via printed promotion pieces. The first approach has already been implemented and can be initiated by going to the Conferences Main Page (www.comsoc.org/confs) or the generic home pages for ICC, GLOBECOM, and ICUPC.

9. IMPLICATIONS OF E-COMMERCE

10. SUBSCRIPTION TO ONLINE PUBLICATIONS

11. SUMMARY AND ACTION ITEMS

12. ACTION ITEMS

Short term action items are those which out of necessity or because they are limited in scope can be dealt with in less than 12 months. Several of these include:

Intellectual Property - The status of intellectual property is being redefined by online publications. This area requires further study on our part, as well as input from the IEEE and our own ComSoc Volunteer Leaders and Staff, so that we can articulate a clear, succinct guidelines for our authors.

Posting to Mirror Sites - Meeting the access needs of our international community may require remote posting of our magazines on mirror sights. At this time, we require a clearer understanding of where the problems are, and the cost of posting and maintaining our material on non-NYC servers.

Longer-term action items are those which for a variety of reasons will require more than a year for resolution. These are:

Advertising - Use of advertising in conjunction with online publications is a largely unexplored territory. As we investigate this area, we propose to move cautiously, since ComSoc's advertising-based revenue stream, intimately coupled to (the print) IEEE Communications Magazine, is crucial to the financial well being of the Society.

E-commerce - Only now are de facto standards appearing for E-commerce. As this area matures, it will offer opportunities to sell membership services directly via our Web site and related publications links. This could be as basic as membership itself, subscription to publications (electronic and or print), and purchase of individual articles. The opportunities afforded by E-commerce must be explored in relation to our strategic goals and marketing opportunities.

"Push" Marketing - "Push" technology is a new vehicle to proactively market our services. A prerequisite is to build a database of our members, their technical interests, services they already receive, and opportunities to provide others. Push technology is initially being investigated and may be implemented via a parallelproposal for a ComSoc Electronic Newsletter